iPad Pro Review Roundup: Powerful Creative Canvas, but Not Quite a PC Replacement

[nick42983]

It's a niche product, it's practically an experiment on Apples end to see how much demand there is for a product like this.

This will do well in enterprise for sure, because for the longest time those mid-aged people keep saying they want "bigger" iPads. But I really doubt real professionals can implement this device into their work flow, it just seems like an inconvenience. It gets really suspicious when its main selling factor is it's stereo speakers, really...?

And don't get me started on that (ugly) 99$ stylus which doesn't seem to be well thought out, Jesus Christ.

Let's be honest, the only pro thing about this device is its price.
I even dare say that the Surface line by Microsoft surpasses this product

Not sure what you're beef is but like many, recent Apple products the Pro appears to be an incremental improvement on its wildly successful predecessors. The stereo speakers are only briefly mentioned in all the reviews I've seen, far from a "main selling factor". The stylus looks fine, but looks aside, its regarded as the best stylus for the iPad period, blasphemy doesn't make your point any stronger. Then LOL, we get to your point, you're a homer for Microsoft. That's fine, but make an honest case if you want to be taken seriously.

 

[Max(IT)]

One conclusion I gather from the article picture, is how poorly Apple is utilizing the space of the home screen, it's arguably stale springboard metaphor looks disappointing on this system.

I am still excited to get one of these for my run and gun photo work, but hope that Apple rethinks some of the key points of iOS, to better fit this device.

That's right.
iOS needs to be more optimized for such a big display.

Oh you didn't buy an Watch? Oh, this isn't your post I quoted from the Watch 42mm Space Grey order thread? Hmm...

good catch.

Indeed.

Can you imagine Walt saying something like that when Steve Jobs was alive? Goodness, no.

Times change.

did you actually read the review ? Overall is quite positive on the iPad Pro ...
Actually all the reviews I read, linked in the news, are more than positive about the iPad Pro.

Hey - that's cheap.

Prices in Denmark:

32GB WiFi = 6999 DKK ≈ $1000 USD
128GB WiFi = 8399 DKK ≈ $1200 USD
128GB WiFi+Cellular = 9499 DKK ≈ $1360 USD

Same here in Italy, and all over the europe....
Apple's prices are going crazy outside US.

You're right - the anti iPad Pro crowd would like to see it fail - but not so they can say they were right - but so Apple will wake up and stop shoving crap on us. It's a giant iPad running virtually the same OS as an iPhone 5S - you don't see a problem with that? Apple is lazy and greedy.

with this post you just demonstrated to know very little (if any) about iOS 9 optimizations for tablets ...

I see your post as nothing but an agenda and impossible to take seriously. There are a couple of products that Apple makes that I have ZERO interest in because they don't satisfy MY needs. That doesn't mean I feel that Apple shoved CRAP in my face. If it's not for me then it's not for "ME". So I don't bother posting trolling comments on forums about Apple products that I feel are nothing more than "Crap" shoved in my face. What a ridiculous statement.

There's no such thing as a company "Shoving Crap In the consumers Face". A company can put out anything they want. It's up to the customer to see value and purchase it. Nobody is forced to buy anything so nothing is "SHOVED" in somebody's face. These are elective products, not requirements by law.

correct, but it takes very little effort to watch some user's activity on the forum about bashing Apple.

 

[nsayer]

For those worried about the CNET reviewer's stated desire for the iPad to replace the mac, fear not. There's at least one very good reason the Mac can't be end-of-lifed at the moment - there's no Xcode for iOS. That is, you have to have a mac to write apps. There's no reason to fear for the future of the mac until and unless Xcode is ported to iOS.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Let's imagine this scenario:

You work for a company designing web pages and use Photoshop extensively. You own a Macbook Pro, a regular iPad, and an iPhone 6. To do any kind of real work, you need to use a mouse for precision. Touch screens are great, but your Macbook Pro is the only device capable of getting your work done. Apps designed for the Mac allow for more complex designs, since the input method is able to be more precise.

In today's world, you still need to take your Macbook Pro, because Apple restricts any type of external peripheral to connect with 3rd party apps. What if that changed? What if Apple gave developers the tools to allow precision devices like a mouse into an app like Photoshop?

The Macbook Pro would stay at home. Tim's vision would come true.

This is the real problem with Tim Cook's "vision" of a desktop replacement. In order to replace the desktop, you have to mimic things that can ONLY be done on the desktop. If you give users a way to do tasks the same way they would be done on a desktop, the need for a desktop would grow significantly smaller. Increasing the screen size is great, and adding a Pencil opens up a whole new world for content creators, but neither address the problem why people bring their laptops in the first place: precision

Allowing mouse control in apps like Photoshop would allow developers to design full desktop class apps, instead of creating an app designed to work with touch.

 

[AppleScruff1]

iPad Pro will replace a PC for the most basic tasks - browsing, email, listening to music, light word processing, spreadsheets. Anything more complex and you'd be struggling with an iPad Pro.

iPad Pro could be looked upon as a first gen PC replacement - but not there yet. Maybe in the 3rd Gen iPad Pro when Apple have improved iOS more.. then more people would be able to switch.

Its still a long time until you can replace that PC for doing things such as professional movie editing, software development, or replace that PC in the office for 'clerk' type work.

And the iPad Air does the basic tasks too.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Seems like the A9X chip and Pencil are very impressive pieces of tech but iOS still needs some improvement. My guess is Apple will continue to add iPad specific features to iOS.


Right because tech reviewers = "the people".



Just curious why you refer to it as "iWatch"?

When are you getting the Pro?

 

[tampageek]

Let's imagine this scenario:

You work for a company designing web pages and use Photoshop extensively. You own a Macbook Pro, a regular iPad, and an iPhone 6. To do any kind of real work, you need to use a mouse for precision. Touch screens are great, but your Macbook Pro is the only device capable of getting your work done. Apps designed for the Mac allow for more complex designs, since the input method is able to be more precise.

In today's world, you still need to take your Macbook Pro, because Apple restricts any type of external peripheral to connect with 3rd party apps. What if that changed? What if Apple gave developers the tools to allow precision devices like a mouse into an app like Photoshop?

The Macbook Pro would stay at home. Tim's vision would come true.

This is the real problem with Tim Cook's "vision" of a desktop replacement. In order to replace the desktop, you have to mimic things that can ONLY be done on the desktop. If you give users a way to do tasks the same way they would be done on a desktop, the need for a desktop would grow significantly smaller. Increasing the screen size is great, and adding a Pencil opens up a whole new world for content creators, but neither address the problem why people bring their laptops in the first place: precise control.

Allowing mouse control in apps like Photoshop would allow developers to design full desktop class apps, instead of creating an app designed well to work with touch.

Someone (besides Tim Cook) still needs to tell me WHY I need to replace my laptop/desktop?

 

[mkimid]

It is just a bigger version of iPad, and working under iOS.
Productivity ? Just some special area only, not for general.
Replacing of Laptop ? I do not think so, it is just a tablet

 

[Max(IT)]

Because Mossberg, if you've read him in the past is basically a glorified Apple salesman. Even for devices before that he doesn't himself use, he's said "but you should buy it"... this is probably the only Apple device that I can recall from recent memory where he said.. don't

thats why it's shocking. I'm not saying anything about agreeing / disagreeing with him. Just that it's an unusual tone for him

Mossberg just confirmed what we all should have known since the beginning : the iPad Pro is a niche product, not a mainstream...

So the next time people accuse Apple of paying off reviewers, we can point to this as a counter example?

This will be easily forgotten .... as usual.

I don't think Apple pays off reviewers.. where did that come up?

Not you personally, maybe, but Mossberg was often depicted as an iSheep ....

1k dollars just to browse websites, emails...and draw pictures....and studying.....yeah...okay.

if you buy it for browsing and emails you are the one to blame ...

 

[Tech198]

Well.. i guess i need a good reason to buy an iPad Pro, so i replace my MBP Reatina with an Macbook AIr

That should convince me...

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...ec15668e668161425026d5f03d5ec7973191a92a9ac55

 

[pat500000]

Mossberg just confirmed what we all should have known since the beginning : the iPad Pro is a niche product, not a mainstream...



This will be easily forgotten .... as usual.

Not you personally, maybe, but Mossberg was often depicted as an iSheep ....

if you buy it for browsing and emails you are the one to blame ...

That's my point.

 

[Designx]

I'm an oil painter by profession and would love to have one of these since I do a lot of digital imaging and image manipulation for my work. I can't afford it right now but will pick one up with the pencil eventually.

 

[rlhamil]

Apple has proved that ARM can be as fast and powerful as X86. If they want to cut most Intel chips out they can at the sacrifice of OS X and Bootcamp support.

No Ports, mouse or trackpad support. It's not a desktop killer and probably not a laptop killer.

Jailbreak environment has long had extensions for Bluetooth mouse support - so it's quite doable, if Apple were willing to do it.

I was first going to say that with a touchscreen and optional stylus, who needs it? But some work is best done using a physical keyboard; and if so, the touchscreen is a slower (and fingerprint-laden) alternative.

 

[Gigaman]

Some of these comments and reviews... Ew.

I think Apple is stumbling a bit or being misleading in terms of what iPad Pro is and what it's supposed to do.

 

[Gigaman]

And don't get me started on that (ugly) 99$ stylus which doesn't seem to be well thought out, Jesus Christ.

You know, a real professional wouldn't have a problem with one of, if not THE, most impressive stylus for iPad.

 

[topdrawer]

Let's imagine this scenario:

You work for a company designing web pages and use Photoshop extensively. You own a Macbook Pro, a regular iPad, and an iPhone 6. To do any kind of real work, you need to use a mouse for precision. Touch screens are great, but your Macbook Pro is the only device capable of getting your work done. Apps designed for the Mac allow for more complex designs, since the input method is able to be more precise.

In today's world, you still need to take your Macbook Pro, because Apple restricts any type of external peripheral to connect with 3rd party apps. What if that changed? What if Apple gave developers the tools to allow precision devices like a mouse into an app like Photoshop?

styluses are better for photoshop than a mouse and i'm talking a wacom stylus which have super wobbly tips. not disagreeing that mouse is very useful for a lot of things, but your example is not good. and many of us professionals already don't use mice. i have a wacom intuos touch, so i mostly use my fingers or a stylus for everything i do. i haven't missed the mouse ever.

 

[sonicrobby]

Good to know I'm not crazy! I got the stink eye every time I say that iOS is holding back iPads potential. Glad to know I'm not the only one

 

[elthesensai]

It's crazy that no ones is bringing up the biggest reason the iPad pro won't replace the laptop. It's a closed OS. You know those guys that run emulators to play old Nintendo games? Won't replace it for them. Like to play old dos or modern Windows games? Those guys won't want this. Hey, how about downloading those files straight from the web? Nope, can't do that. I love my iOS because it's a devices that knows what it's meant to do. Easy to use and easy to get apps for. Anything else and chances are you're going to want a laptop.

 

[SHNXX]

Here's another solid review I just read focused on note taking:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9780/taking-notes-with-ipad-pro

thanks!!

 

[Robstevo]

As a PhD student I'm pretty excited about this product.

Perfect for annotating slides/notes (which all of my professors provide before class and I currently annotate using my iPad and a crappy stylus). It's also perfect for reading research papers and reviewing and editing papers (both things I do with my iPad now - but a bigger screen and non-crappy stylus will help).

I currently carry both an iPad and a 15" MacBook Pro. That won't be changing as my major is Computational Engjneering so I need to write code all day long. Different devices for different purposes.

Students are going to LOVE this new machine... And there are a LOT of students out there...

Students aren't going to love this because

1: The keyboard isn't as good.
2: So much software is missing, engineering students won't be able to use microsoft, revit, Autocad etc, Programmers won't be able to program, you won't be able to do use the power of photoshop etc basically right now the Applications don't even nearly come close to the desktop counterparts. Watered down sh**.
3: The price is far too much for what you actually get, then you have to add on the keyboard , pencil etc and in most parts of the world it starts to get into macbook pro pricing.
4. Ios is completely the same, Anything you can do on this Ipad pro, you can currently do on the Ipad air. Therefore all this power is completely redundant.

Maybe in a few years time if developers use all this power. But developers have been lagging now for a number of years, they have simply not used the hard ware potential. All the games are complete crap compared to consoles (Story lines are crap etc.)

Apple also needs to start using more of the screen size, the distance between apps is just comical now.

 

[435713]

Surprising that I still hardly see a mention of lack of ports. A couple USB-c ports would have been nice. MicroSD as well if possible.

The sheer amount of anger was awesome from everyone around the net though. It is entertaining in a weird way. I myself thought the reviews seemed a bit inflated, but I just ignore it, I believe these haters probably create quite a bit of $$$ for Apple. Talk creates cash, always has.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

Ipad Air2 with code keyboard is the perfect happy medium for me. I think this would be too big, and iOS is leagues behind OS X for my everyday needs. For a start, the recent io9 update seems to have broken google books review, something i use quite a fair bit.

 

[theskog]

It's a niche product, it's practically an experiment on Apples end to see how much demand there is for a product like this.

This will do well in enterprise for sure, because for the longest time those mid-aged people keep saying they want "bigger" iPads. But I really doubt real professionals can implement this device into their work flow, it just seems like an inconvenience. It gets really suspicious when its main selling factor is it's stereo speakers, really...?

And don't get me started on that (ugly) 99$ stylus which doesn't seem to be well thought out, Jesus Christ.

Let's be honest, the only pro thing about this device is its price.
I even dare say that the Surface line by Microsoft surpasses this product

Don't forget, the enterprise doesn't care about looks. The enterprise sees IT as an expense, not how pretty it is.

 

[RedOctober]

If you're not happy with the current iPad Pro, look on the bright side - you can spend more money next year buying a new and improved one.

 

[coolspot18]

The problem with all MS products is that they run Windows, it really is that simple.

Enterprise runs mostly on Windows, so that's not a big issue but in fact an asset. Not to mention, Windows 7 is quite decent and Windows 10 is nice to use. Windows in many respects is far more advanced than OS X ... it's unfortunate because OS X is fun to use but is starting to show its age.