What Is It? – Remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Goldilocks found that it was Mama Bear’s chair that was just right. Well, I’ve come to think of the new Apple iPad Pro 9.7″ tablet as the Mama Bear of iPads. The ipad Mini is just a little too small for us. The original iPad Pro at 12.9″ is a phenomenal device, but it’s just too large to be an easy-to-grab tablet, though it certainly does compete as a laptop substitute in challenging the Microsoft Surface and a growing field of clones. If you’re comparing the 9.7″ Pro to the earlier iPad Air2, well, they are the same size. But the Pro comes with far more under the hood and on the screen.
The new 9.7″ Pro does have some improvements from the 12.9″ – let’s call them New Pro and Old Pro. The New Pro has a better camera that is able to shoot video in 4K, whereas the Old Pro was stuck at 1080p. The New Pro has something called True Tone, which adjusts the screen lighting color to better match the surrounding light levels. Not everyone likes this feature, but you can turn it off if you wish. The New Pro only has half the RAM of the Old Pro – 2GB vs 4GB, but very few people are noticing any significant speed or function difference. Both New and Old sport four speakers, which adjust for right and left depending on the way you are holding the tablet (portrait or landscape). Both use the Apple Pencil. And both have available smart keyboards.
I will admit to finding Apple’s smart keyboard a little cramped. When it comes to the Old Pro, there’s a better keyboard from Logitech, but the new pro version won’t be out for another couple of months. Logitech does have another useful accessory called the Logi Stand, made from crafted aluminum that will use the pro’s smart connector to charge the device and stand it upright.
Is it 50+ Friendly? – Even though the screen on the New Pro is smaller than the screen on the Old Pro, overall it is just a more manageable form factor, especially for the kinds of everyday functions many people use a tablet for such as videos, email, and other apps. For heavy duty productivity, you may still prefer a laptop or the Old Pro. The sound and screen are top of the line, and the four speakers really improve the audio experience.
Frustration Factor? – I like almost everything about this machine. My one gripe is that neither the New Pro nor the Old Pro provides a place to store the Apple Pencil, or stylus, or whatever you wish to call it. To me, that’s an invitation to misplace it. The pencil has a little cap on it that you remove to charge it up in the Pro’s lightning connector. I managed to misplace the little cap inside of half an hour and I’m still looking for it.
Is It Worth the Money? – You knew once you saw the terms Apple, iPad, and Pro in one title that this wasn’t going to be cheap. The New Pro, however, does start off about $200 less than the Old Pro. The smart keyboard is $20 less expensive. So a full setup of a 32GB Wi-Fi only new iPad Pro, Smart Keyboard, and Pencil is $847. And if you add memory and cellular data, it’s just going to head up from there. That being said, if you are committed to the iOS ecosystem there is no question that this is a great machine, prettier than the iPad Air 2 and more useful too, and a lot more manageable than its 12.9″ big brother.
And if you like watching movies, here’s Apple’s product pitch for the 9.7″ iPad Pro:
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