Apple iPad Pro 10.5-inch review: The best tablet money can buy
Reviving the iPad
The iPad is in a curious place. When the first iPad hit store shelves in 2010, it sold like hot cakes. 3 million in under 3 months, 15 million in over a year, are figures that any company executive will kill for. And now, almost 7 years later, Apple has sold over 350 million iPads. Surely, it won’t be wrong to say that the iPad has been one of Apple’s most successful products.
However, we consumers are a finicky bunch. In 2014, slightly less than 4 years after the iPad was introduced, sales started to dip. More worrying is that it has never recovered since. That’s not to say that sales of iPads are in the doldrums. Oh no, Apple is still selling millions of iPads. In Q4 of 2016, Apple sold over 9.2 million units. Plus, it still holds a commanding share of the market at around 24%. Second place Samsung is quite a long way back with just over 15%. So while the iPad is in decline, but it is premature to say that it is in trouble.
Still, Apple is not just going to sit around and wait for things to happen and came up with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro in late November 2015. They then followed up with the smaller 9.7-inch iPad Pro last year. And now, there's a new iPad Pro in the house and it comes with a 10.5-inch display. Why 10.5-inch? And what’s new with this iPad? Let us break it down for you.
So, what’s new?
Processor & storage
The 10.5-inch iPad Pro gets a new faster processor. It’s called the A10X Fusion chip and you can think of it as the turbocharged version of the A10 that you get on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7s Plus.
As you would expect, it is remarkably powerful. It is a hexa-core beast with 3 high-performance cores, 3 high-efficiency cores, and 12 graphics-processing cores. It is also paired with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM. Apple claims the A10X offers 30% faster CPU performance and 40% faster graphics performance than the A9X chip found in last generation 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro tablets.
As for storage, Apple has doubled all the storage options. So the most basic model will come with 64GB. For those who want more, there’s a 256GB and 512GB option.
Display
The display easily received the most updates, which makes sense since the display is possibly the single most important component of any iPad.
10.5-inch is an all-new display size for the iPad, which was previously available only in 7.9-inch (iPad Mini), 9.7-inch (iPad), and 12.9-inch (iPad Pro) sizes. Even though it has a larger display, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is scarcely bigger than the new 9.7-inch iPad that was released earlier this year. Witchcraft? Not quite, this was achieved simply by reducing the size of the bezels. As a result of this bezel reduction, Apple was able to keep the weight of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro down to 469g for the non-cellular model and 477g for the cellular model - nearly identical to the new 9.7-inch iPad (2017).
The display resolution is 2,224 x 1,668 pixels, so if you do the math, that is about 17% more pixels or display real estate than 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Pixel density has been kept the same at 264 pixels per inch, so images and text continue to look super sharp and crisp. The larger screen size is helpful because it makes multitasking more convenient - you can see more in Split View. In addition, the on-screen keys of the virtual keyboard can be made larger, almost as large as the keycap on a physical keyboard, which makes typing with the on-screen virtual keyboard a little more comfortable.
Size aside, the 10.5-inch display has also been improved in many other areas. For a start, it features ProMotion technology, which is basically Apple’s way of saying it has a high refresh rate. How high? Try 120Hz or the equivalent of many of today’s high-end gaming monitors. The results are quite stunning. Web pages are rendered with a fluidity that I have never seen before on a tablet. Compared to last year’s 9.7-inch or 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which has a 60Hz display, the improvements are easily noticeable. Scrolling through webpages is noticeably more fluid. And games look incredibly smooth, as if they were running on honey.
The high refresh rate has other implications. It also makes inputs more responsive. As a result, the Apple Pencil also feels more immediate. I doubt anyone who has used an Apple Pencil with last generation’s iPad Pro tablets wished for a more responsive pencil, but this is exactly what the latest generation iPad Pro tablets will give you. On the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil is now crazy responsive and fast. Apple claims input lag has been cut down to just 20 milliseconds, that’s 5 times faster than you can blink your eyes.
The 10.5-inch iPad Pro also has a brighter display that is rated at 600 nits, which is 20% brighter than last year’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The display also has a less reflective coating. Coupled with the brighter display, this makes the 10.5-inch iPad Pro more suitable for use outdoors. Even under glaring sun, I found this new iPad Pro to be perfectly usable.
And like the old 9.7-inch iPad Pro, this new model also has features like TrueTone display technology and support for the more vibrant DCI-P3 color space. In short, the display of this new 10.5-inch iPad Pro is nothing short of fantastic. The colors are vibrant and tantalizing and the response of the display to both touch and pen inputs is unrivaled.
Camera
The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro has an upgraded camera system. It gets the same camera system as the iPhone 7. This means a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with optical image stabilization and quad-LED True Tone flash. It can also take 4K video and shoot slow motion videos of up to 240fps.
Similarly, the front-facing camera comes from the iPhone 7. It shoots at 7-megapixels and features Retina flash with True Tone for more natural-looking photos in dimly lit environments. It’s a great camera system, as we will see later in the camera performance section where I show you sample images.
Design & Features
Apple hasn’t messed about with the design of the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, so in terms of aesthetics, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro retains all of the design elements of the last generation iPad Pro tablets such as the full aluminum body and chamfered edges. The 10.5-inch iPad Pro is remarkably thin too at just 6.1mm. The latest iPad (2017), in case you were wondering, is actually quite a bit thicker at 7.5mm.
It still only has four physical buttons - a power/wake button, two volume control buttons, and the Touch ID home button. Ports are unchanged too, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro has a single 3.5mm audio jack, a Smart Connector, and a Lightning connector - no nasty surprises here. The 10.5-inch iPad Pro also comes with four speakers, two on each side - something that the regular iPad and iPad Mini tablets do not have. Compared to other tablets, this iPad Pro sounds excellent, with passable stereo separation and a powerful authoritative sound.
There are four finishes available: silver, space gray, gold, and rose gold. It is worth noting that rose gold is only available on the iPad Pro, so if you want to stand out from the crowd of iPads, you know which finish to take.
Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil
There’s an all-new Smart Keyboard designed especially for this new 10.5-inch model. And owners of last year’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro who have ponied up S$228 for the 9.7-inch’s Smart Keyboard will likely be annoyed that there’s now a new Smart Keyboard that they’ll have to buy if they upgrade. That’s understandable, but the slightly larger keyboard does make typing a little more comfortable.
For owners who already have a Smart Keyboard, note that you can use it with this new 10.5-inch iPad Pro as the Smart Connector is unchanged. However, it will look a bit odd if you do decide to fold it up. Plus, the sleep and awake functions that the Smart Keyboard enables won't work properly as the keyboard doesn't align properly with the iPad.
Apple says its a "full-size" keyboard, and they are actually just about right. My measurements place the keys at about 14mm wide, whereas the keys on my MacBook Pro are about 15mm wide. Interestingly, the keys on my desktop keyboard (a Matias Mini Tactile Pro) is only just 12.5mm wide, but they are concave and they taper towards the top. What I’m trying to say is that the keys on the Smart Keyboard aren’t small, but they are flat and most people will need some getting used to. Personally, I found that I could switch between my desktop keyboard and the 10.5-inch Smart Keyboard quite easily without sacrificing too much in the way of accuracy and speed.
Fortunately, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro uses the same Apple Pencil as last generation’s iPad Pro tablets. So if you already have an Apple Pencil, you can use it readily with this new 10.5-inch model. As I mentioned earlier, the Apple Pencil is even more responsive on the new iPad Pro thanks to its higher refresh rate.
Performance Analysis
The new generation iPad Pro tablets are powered by Apple’s new A10X Fusion processor. It has 6 cores in total, 3 high-performance cores and 3 high-efficiency cores. It also has 4GB of RAM. Apple says the new A10X Fusion processor will significantly outperform the A9X Fusion processor found in the first generation iPad Pro tablets so it will be interesting to see just how fast this new processor is.
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Sunspider JavaScript
We begin with SunSpider JavaScript, which measures the browsing performance of a device. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience.
The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro managed a timing of just 140.9ms, which is wicked fast. Compared to the last generation iPad Pro tablets, that’s an improvement of about 22%. The new iPad Pro also compares favorably to the new iPad (2017) with an A9 processor, which recorded a timing of 233.4ms. This makes the new iPad Pro nearly 40% faster than the new iPad (2017). It is also comfortably faster than the latest flagship phones like Apple's own iPhone 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S8+.
3DMark
3DMark (2013) is a synthetic benchmark consisting of two graphics tests packed with high-quality textures and post-processing effects designed to stress the GPU performance of the device and a physics test to stress its CPU performance. With all of our devices easily maxing out the Normal and Extreme versions of this test, we'll just be looking at Ice Storm Unlimited, which is used to make chip-to-chip comparisons of different chipsets, CPUs and GPUs, without vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result.
On 3DMark, the new iPad Pro continued to lead the way with an amazing score of 53536. That’s a whopping 58% better than the last generation iPad Pro tablets. The new iPad (2017), on the other hand, could only manage a score of 29267. That’s already an impressive score, but nowhere close to what the new iPad Pro achieved.
In the real world, the iPad Pro was equally impressive. I tried playing Lineage2: Revolution on it and it ran smoothly even with all the settings at maximum. The iPad Pro chugged along effortlessly and the experience was nothing short of being buttery smooth.
Camera Performance
They say the best camera that you have is the one you have with you, so I’m not going to judge you when you use your iPad to take photos if that’s all you have to work with. Fortunately, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is a rather capable shooter because it has the same camera system as the iPhone 7. This means that it can take Live Photos and also record videos in stunning 4K resolution. It can take slow-motion videos too, at 1080p at 120fps or 720 at a staggering 240fps.
In any case, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro takes very good photos - easily one of, if not the best of any tablet. I have included a sample photo as well as two 100% crops. As you can see, the colors look natural and the image is sharp and crisp (for a tablet). It’s a little soft near the edges of the frame, but it’s definitely not something that most people would notice unless they are looking out for it.
Battery Life
Our standard battery test for tablets includes the following parameters:
Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
Constant data streaming through email and Twitter
The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro has a battery capacity of 8,134mAh, which is about 11% larger than the battery capacity of last year’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro. However, it lasted a shorter time of 315 minutes or 5 hours and 15 minutes. But it is important to remember that not only does the new iPad Pro 10.5-inch have a larger and brighter display, its display also refreshes more frequently because of ProMotion technology. This factors would have affected battery life negatively. So in light of this, its battery life isn’t so bad after all. In fact, it lasted even longer than the new iPad (2017), which clocked 284 minutes or 4 hours and 44 minutes. Nevertheless, the new iPad Pro’s battery life is definitely quite decent.
Tablet Perfection
What Apple has done with the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro is that they have taken a tablet that is already without any peers, and made it even better. The display is wonderful and its performance is brilliant. And it is quite remarkable how they have managed to fit a bigger display without increasing its size and weight.
And it’s not just hardware either. The iPad has an assailable advantage when it comes to app support as well. There’s countless apps that have been designed to run well on the iPad, something that you cannot say for Android.
Realistically, the only competition comes from within Apple and for users seeking the best iPad experience that Apple has to offer, there are two options: this 10.5-inch iPad Pro here and the larger 12.9-inch model. The 12.9-inch model is identical in all aspects, but it has a larger screen and a higher price. Personally, I find the larger display superfluous to my needs. It is absolutely fantastic for watching videos, but it is unwieldy and cumbersome to carry around. Your mileage may vary, of course.
This brings us to price. With the “Pro” suffix comes a higher price tag. The 10.5-inch model starts at S$968 for the 64GB non-cellular model and goes up to S$1,618 if you want the maximum storage capacity of 512GB and cellular connectivity.
The 12.9-inch model requires greater wallet fortitude with prices beginning S$1,188 for the most basic model with 64GB and zero cellular connectivity and going up to an eye-watering S$1,838 if you want 512GB of storage and cellular connectivity.
And don’t forget, the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil are optional accessories. The Apple Pencil is an additional S$148, while the Smart Keyboard is S$248 for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and S$268 for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. If you opt for a higher-spec model and include the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, you could easily get a MacBook Air or MacBook or a non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro.
Also, consider the price of the new iPad (2017), which starts from S$498 for the 32GB non-cellular model and goes up to S$848 for the 128GB model with cellular connectivity. If you don't need the extreme performance of the new iPad Pro and don't intend to use accessories like the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, the new iPad (2017) is the more practical choice.
There’s no getting around the fact that the new iPad Pro tablets are pricey. Whether the premium that they command is justified depends very much on your usage patterns. If you can see yourself using the iPad Pro as your primary computing device, then yes, go for it. However, for many people the answer will likely be no, because as magnificent as the display is and as powerful as it is, I personally don't find the iPad Pro to be convincing as a primary device. I find myself going back to my MacBook Pro and I suspect many other long-time Apple users will too.
However, that may all change when iOS 11 is released later this year. iOS 11 will bring many major updates to iPads and will fundamentally change the way people use iPads for productivity tasks. For example, there will be a customizable dock that can be invoked anywhere, allowing users to quickly launch and switch apps. There will also be Multi-touch Drag and Drop, which allows users to drag text, photos, and files from one app to another, very much like what you can do on a Mac. There will also be a Files app, which is like Finder for iOS, which makes it easier to manage and organize your files and data. I have seen demos of it and I can tell you it’s a big deal. I think that it will improve the iPad user experience and make it an even more capable productivity tool and a better primary device. But I'll reserve my final judgment until iOS 11 drops.
For now, know that the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is a pricey but gorgeous and immensely powerful tablet. You know what else is powerful and expensive? A Ferrari.
