Apple has finally taken the wraps off of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro — hailed by the company as the most powerful iPad ever.
The new tablet is the largest the company has made to date, and is largely targeted toward media professionals and those in the enterprise.
Touted by Apple as the "biggest news in iPad since the iPad," the iPad Pro offers a display with a whopping 5.3 million pixels — more than the display on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. This display allows for a full-screen typing experience, and for users to do things like play musical instruments on their device. For those who don't want a software keyboard, Apple has also unveiled a new physical keyboard called the Smart Keyboard.
To connect with the keyboard, the device makes use of the new Smart Connector, which is magnetic and capable of carrying both power and data.
The new device also makes use of Apple's new A9X chip, the processor designed specifically for Apple's tablets. The chip, according to Apple, is a pretty substantial 1.8x faster than the previous generation A8X chip — putting it in the same class as many desktop computer processors.
The iPad Pro also features a four-speaker system, which balances frequencies based on the orientation of the device. It will certainly be interesting to see how this works in real life.
Multitasking is a prominent selling point for the new iPad, and with iOS 9, users can have multiple apps on the display at once — taking advantage of the large screen for productivity. Apple even called on Microsoft's Kirk Koenigsbauer to talk about Microsoft Office on the iPad Pro.
As far as dimensions for the new device, the iPad Pro is 6.9 mm thin, only slightly thicker than the iPad Air 2, and weighs 1.57 pounds, which is only slightly heavier than the original iPad. This is pretty substantial, considering how large the iPad Pro is.
Apart from Apple bringing a Microsoft executive on stage, perhaps the biggest announcement at the Apple Special Event was the Apple Pencil: a high-tech stylus for the device, able to detect things like the angle at which the user is drawing.
Other features include a FaceTime camera, Wi-Fi compatibility, and so on. The iPad Pro comes in three finishes, and starts at $799. It will be available starting in November.
Check here for more news from Apple's September announcements.
