Ok so I have had a chance to play with the iPad Pro for most of the day. I have used it in a stand in conjunction with an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard (from an iMac), on my lap and in various different scenarios.
Speakers
I was expecting to be absolutely blown away after all the hype from Apple (no pun intended) and although the speakers are loud for a tablet and by all means louder than any tablet before it, they just don't carry a wow factor, sound very tinny and not very pleasant on the ears! I have listened to many different genres and none of them really sound as they should. So if you're expecting iMac or even Macbook Pro sound, you will be let down! As a result I would still resort to headphones or a bluetooth speaker for a pleasurable audio experience and feel the space in the pro dedicated to audio is counter productive and would have been better spent elsewhere, such as battery and or a quad core processor.
Screen Size
With all the real estate on the iPad pro it's easy to forget you're using a tablet. That is until you realise you can't do three quarters of what you can on a Macbook! Which falls in line with what most mainstream reviewers are singing, the screen size is beautiful but iOS holds the device back from being a true pro contender. It really is just a blown up iPhone, which is good on a regular sized iPad or even a Mini as they are portable enough to sit with comfortably on your lap while you lounge around on the sofa or in bed, while offering a more enjoyable experience than a smaller iPhone screen in said scenarios. The iPad will always have a place in my home and in my heart as I feel the web and email browsing experience are unrivalled, even by a full on iMac, but the iPad pro is trying to be something it's not, and it doesn't work.
Operating System
The main reason it doesn't work is iOS, on a screen this size it just feels outright wasteful. The size of the home screen icons look ridiculous, the application switcher is just blown up rather than reworked to take advantage of the extra real estate and the split screen multitasking interface just looks silly. On a screen this size one would expect an app switcher more closely related to Mission Control on the Mac and even a splitscreen interface that resembles that of it's older brother on OS X. Moving on to functionality, the obvious lack of a user accessible file system via a Finder for iOS app and no external media accessibility make even the simplest of tasks impossible.
Conclusion
The iPad Pro is awkward to sit comfortably with leaving your only option to work docked or laid flat on a desk or table at which point you wonder why you're not just using a Laptop or even an iMac. From a graphic design and artistic standpoint this may be the complete opposite, but I can't speak on that level as I'm not an artist or a designer! I have been waiting for an iPad Pro for years and was one of the few that thought it a brilliant and revolutionary progression in the iPad line, but after using it I'm left wanting more and just feeling underwhelmed. I can forgive the wasted space on over hyped speakers, I can forgive the lack of force touch, I can forgive the dual core processor but I just can't forgive iOS being used in it's standard form on this device.
I'm sure lots of people will disagree and that's fine as everyone is entitled to an opinion, I just thought I would share mine...
Speakers
I was expecting to be absolutely blown away after all the hype from Apple (no pun intended) and although the speakers are loud for a tablet and by all means louder than any tablet before it, they just don't carry a wow factor, sound very tinny and not very pleasant on the ears! I have listened to many different genres and none of them really sound as they should. So if you're expecting iMac or even Macbook Pro sound, you will be let down! As a result I would still resort to headphones or a bluetooth speaker for a pleasurable audio experience and feel the space in the pro dedicated to audio is counter productive and would have been better spent elsewhere, such as battery and or a quad core processor.
Screen Size
With all the real estate on the iPad pro it's easy to forget you're using a tablet. That is until you realise you can't do three quarters of what you can on a Macbook! Which falls in line with what most mainstream reviewers are singing, the screen size is beautiful but iOS holds the device back from being a true pro contender. It really is just a blown up iPhone, which is good on a regular sized iPad or even a Mini as they are portable enough to sit with comfortably on your lap while you lounge around on the sofa or in bed, while offering a more enjoyable experience than a smaller iPhone screen in said scenarios. The iPad will always have a place in my home and in my heart as I feel the web and email browsing experience are unrivalled, even by a full on iMac, but the iPad pro is trying to be something it's not, and it doesn't work.
Operating System
The main reason it doesn't work is iOS, on a screen this size it just feels outright wasteful. The size of the home screen icons look ridiculous, the application switcher is just blown up rather than reworked to take advantage of the extra real estate and the split screen multitasking interface just looks silly. On a screen this size one would expect an app switcher more closely related to Mission Control on the Mac and even a splitscreen interface that resembles that of it's older brother on OS X. Moving on to functionality, the obvious lack of a user accessible file system via a Finder for iOS app and no external media accessibility make even the simplest of tasks impossible.
Conclusion
The iPad Pro is awkward to sit comfortably with leaving your only option to work docked or laid flat on a desk or table at which point you wonder why you're not just using a Laptop or even an iMac. From a graphic design and artistic standpoint this may be the complete opposite, but I can't speak on that level as I'm not an artist or a designer! I have been waiting for an iPad Pro for years and was one of the few that thought it a brilliant and revolutionary progression in the iPad line, but after using it I'm left wanting more and just feeling underwhelmed. I can forgive the wasted space on over hyped speakers, I can forgive the lack of force touch, I can forgive the dual core processor but I just can't forgive iOS being used in it's standard form on this device.
I'm sure lots of people will disagree and that's fine as everyone is entitled to an opinion, I just thought I would share mine...
