iPad Pro Review: The First iPad That Wants to Replace Your Computer Outright

As a work tool it still falls short of a Mac, but writing a few thousand words or drawing an illustration on it is no longer a chore.

When I first saw the iPad Pro in person, my first thought was not "this thing is huge." It was that something felt off.

The giant screen glowing on the desk looked both familiar and unfamiliar. Every detail, from Apple's signature rounded corners to the shiny chamfered edges that catch the surrounding light to the Home button smaller than a fingernail, is identical to the other iPads Apple has released over the past three years.

You recognize it as an iPad at a glance. Yet it is unlike any other iPad. It is so big it looks wrong, like the Thomas the Tank Engine toy blown up to the size of a room in the movie Ant-Man.

The iPad Pro is big. Because its screen is closer to square, the 12.9-inch display is larger than that of a typical 13-inch laptop.

iPad Pro next to a 13-inch MacBook Pro

Since the original iPad in 2010, every iPad has been a supplement to the laptop and the phone. It was always cheaper and more portable than a laptop, but also less necessary.

The iPad Pro is the exception. Its sheer size and its price, 5,888 yuan (32GB) or 6,888 yuan (128GB), make it look more like a member of the Mac family.

I have used iPads since the first generation and have owned four more since. But like many people, once I switched to the iPhone 6, I barely touched the iPad Air at home.

For a product whose sales have fallen year on year for six straight quarters, unsettling longtime users is a good thing.

"Big" Needs Something to Compare With

In the summer of 2010, when the first iPad went on sale, its biggest selling point was size: the iPhone's finger-touch experience, enlarged.

iPhone 4 and the original iPad

At the time, the iPhone 4's 3.5-inch screen was the standard smartphone size. The iPad changed little in interface or features, yet simply enlarging the space your fingers could control directly by a factor of eight was enough to win over tens of millions of users.

But as phones kept getting bigger, the iPad's 9.7-inch display was no longer big enough to keep people spending money.

iPhone 4, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Air 2

At 12.9 inches, the iPad Pro has nearly twice the display area of the iPad Air and eight times that of the iPhone 6s Plus:

iPad Pro next to the iPhone 6s Plus

In terms of on-screen space, phones and tablets are once again far enough apart.

What Does the Size Cost You?

Apple has kept the weight in check: the iPad Pro weighs just 713 grams, the same as the first iPad. But it is much thinner, so it feels lighter in the hand than the original.

Thickness of the iPad Pro compared with the original iPad

Though not heavy, the iPad Pro is still less convenient because of its size. On the subway it is hard to keep a grip on this huge screen, and if you hold it in both hands, typing with your thumbs is quite difficult.

And many backpacks have tablet pockets that cannot fit the iPad Pro.

One more hardware detail: the iPad Pro's fingerprint reader is not as fast as the iPhone 6s's, reportedly because it uses the first-generation Touch ID.

A Bigger iPad Is a Better iPad

Thanks to the bigger screen and better hardware, the iPad Pro is markedly better at the three things people most often do on an iPad: watching movies, browsing the web and reading.

Video

Movies are obviously more fun on a big screen. Apple has also packed four speakers into the iPad Pro's oversized body, and it shifts which speakers play which frequencies depending on how the screen is turned, so the sound faces you however you hold it.

Picture-in-picture video, new in iOS 9, will probably tempt plenty of procrastinators. A video can shrink into a small window and sit in any corner of the screen.

Floating video windows have existed on Android for a long time. But as with countless other products, Apple arrived late and still came up with the most elegant design: the video window is never wider than half the screen, and it always sits the same distance from the bezel.

Web browsing

Ever since Steve Jobs sat on a sofa to demo the first iPad, browsing the web has been the iPad's main use. But the iPad has never been good at it. Most websites are designed first for computers, and however sharp the Retina display, 9.7 inches is still too small, especially in portrait.

The iPad's memory also stayed at 1GB or less for years. Whenever you opened a few more pages, or switched to an app or two and came back, the page had to reload, leaving you staring at a blank screen.

iPad Pro vs. MacBook Pro 15

The iPad Pro's display is not much smaller than a 15-inch MacBook Pro's, so it can show websites exactly as they look on a computer. With 4GB of memory, I rarely hit reloads anymore.

The only problem I have run into so far is that many websites still use interactions designed for a mouse, which touch cannot handle properly.

Today, for example, I was checking flights on Trip.com and tried to copy a flight number; when I long-pressed the screen, the page scrolled down several screens in a row. That is the website's fault, but until there are too many iPad users to ignore, it is unlikely to be fixed.

Reading

A Kindle and a paper copy of Payment Wars turned to the same page

For the past six years, my Kindle has gone everywhere with me. But when I need to skim a book quickly, I still buy the paper copy, simply because the 6-inch Kindle shows too little text at once. You can only take in information quickly when you can see enough of the surrounding text.

The iPad Pro is big enough to show two pages almost in full, like an open book:

Apple uses a new technology to help the big screen save power while you read. The iPad Pro's screen normally refreshes 60 times per second, like an ordinary LCD. But when the image is still, the refresh rate drops to 30 times per second to save power.

With a larger screen and more power, the iPad Pro is first of all a better iPad, more appealing for the media consumption iPads have always been good at.

But Do You Expect the iPad Pro to Work, Too?

At 5,888 yuan, it is no longer something you buy on a whim and toss on the living-room sofa, as you might have with earlier iPads.

From the launch event to the website to its later briefings, Apple has pitched the iPad Pro not merely as a better iPad but as a challenger to the laptop, one that becomes a main work tool once you add an external keyboard and the Pencil.

Different jobs call for very different setups and tools. QDaily will run a series of reports on how the iPad Pro's software might be used across various industries. For now, let us look at how the two official accessories that arrive with the iPad Pro affect productivity.

The Smart Keyboard cover is actually pretty good

The iPad Pro with the Smart Keyboard

There are already plenty of Bluetooth keyboards for the iPad. But because the iPad itself is small, any keyboard that doubles as a protective cover cannot offer full-size keys.

Few people are willing to put up with such a keyboard, even if every so often there is a story about someone who wrote a book on an iPad, or someone who replaced a laptop with one. We all know that if working on an iPad were truly common, it would not make the news as a novelty.

For the keyboard, the iPad Pro has a magnetic connector on the left side of the body, so Bluetooth pairing is no longer needed.

Apple's keyboard cover, the Smart Keyboard, sold alongside the iPad Pro, costs 1,288 yuan and for now comes only in black. Its keys are about the size of an ordinary MacBook Air's, and they are covered in fabric that keeps out water and dust.

The keys on the Smart Keyboard seem to travel slightly farther than those on the 12-inch MacBook, and with the wider spacing between them, I could touch-type almost without errors after two hours, a fraction of the time it took me to adjust to the MacBook.

I wrote this article on the Smart Keyboard, though it took longer than it would have on a MacBook. I once bought a keyboard cover Logitech made for the iPad Air, but never finished a single article with it.

The lack of a trackpad slows the keyboard down. iOS does not support indirect input such as a mouse or trackpad, and Apple does not appear to plan to. Apple's answer is keyboard shortcuts:

Shortcut hints in the Outlook app

Hold down the Command key on the Smart Keyboard and the app pops up a list of the shortcuts it supports. Most of Apple's own apps do this; the ones that don't are things like video apps that you would never use with the keyboard propped up. Some apps already optimized for the iPad Pro, including Slack and Outlook, can show shortcut hints too.

If you type a lot, you need to learn the shortcuts: Shift plus the arrow keys to select text; Tab to jump to an input field (especially important, otherwise every time you swipe open Spotlight search or open a WeChat chat, you have to tap the input box with a finger); the various text commands built around the Command key; and so on. These are all standard shortcuts on Macs and PCs.

Finally, one complaint about using the Smart Keyboard every day: it is fiddly to fold and takes some getting used to. The whole thing looks like an extra section bolted onto the Smart Cover. It took me four or five tries to get the hang of it, and none of my colleagues managed to unfold it smoothly on the first try either.

You do get used to it after a few tries, but Apple should be able to do better.

The trouble with typing lies in the software

Typing on the iPad Pro with an external keyboard is not perfect, especially in Chinese pinyin. When you type Chinese continuously, the iPad's input method pops up suggested words, and if you then press the up or down arrow to edit text elsewhere, you end up selecting from the candidate list instead.

iOS does not support a mouse, so to move the cursor you either take your hand off the keyboard to tap the screen or use the arrow keys. The clash between the arrow keys and Chinese candidate selection gets in the way of my typing.

Switching input languages can also only be done with the "globe" key at the lower left or Ctrl+Space, which differ from the default shortcuts on Mac or Windows computers and take some getting used to.

These all sound like small problems, but good typing is made up of exactly such details. Third-party input methods still do not support Chinese input from a physical keyboard, so these details can only wait for Apple to fix them.

The Apple Pencil looks like the best stylus on any tablet

The other main accessory sold with the iPad Pro is the Pencil stylus. Like the Smart Keyboard, it will not be in stock until December at the earliest.

The Apple Pencil looks and weighs much like a real pencil. It charges and pairs through the Lightning connector at its end: the first time you use it, plugging it into the iPad Pro's Lightning port pairs it. Reportedly, 15 seconds of charging gives 30 minutes of use.

Apps including Paper, SketchBook, UMake and iOS's built-in Notes already support writing and drawing with the Pencil. I don't draw much, but out of boredom I have bought all sorts of styluses. The Apple Pencil has lower latency than both the Surface Pro 3's pen and the handsome 53 Pencil, and the difference is visible to the naked eye.

You can see it in this video:

Because of the screen technology it depends on, the Apple Pencil works only on the iPad Pro; plug it into an iPhone or another iPad and nothing happens.

Working Efficiently Still Depends on Third-Party Developers

With a bigger canvas, the iPad Pro puts more emphasis on using several apps at once for complex tasks, such as typing while keeping an eye on the latest messages in Slack, as I do.

3:1 multitasking mode

The iPad Pro offers two ways to run apps side by side: a 1:1 split with two apps of equal width, or a 3:1 split. In effect, the first is like running two tablet apps at once, and the second like running one iPad app and one iPhone app.

On the left is the writing app Ulysses; on the right is Apple's built-in Notes. Ulysses, not yet optimized for the iPad Pro, still uses a keyboard layout meant for the smaller iPad screen

But this needs third-party developers on board. Many apps do not yet handle multitasking well, and even fewer have been optimized for the iPad Pro. Apps that have not been optimized look rather crude and show the smaller iPad's keyboard layout, much as apps did when the iPhone 6 first came out.

For now, it looks as though the popular productivity apps that already have iOS versions will support Apple's big iPad. We contacted the developers of more than 20 top-ranked productivity apps, and most, including the makers of Splashtop, the OmniFocus family and Ulysses, said they would support the iPad Pro.

Productivity software giants such as Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and IBM had already announced plans to support the iPad Pro.

Once basic support is in place, what the iPad Pro can offer beyond sheer size will depend on several questions: how many new features Apple opens up, whether it gives developers more flexible ways to charge, how many apps make real use of the large screen, and how many can work better with the other apps sharing it.

But whether they are the giants Apple has courted directly or the small and mid-sized developers who build apps for Mac and iOS, how far they back the iPad will depend on how well it sells.

The iPad Pro Is Not Apple's Attempt to Save the Personal Computer

From the start, the iPad Pro has been compared with the Surface Pro. At the recent Surface Pro 4 launch event, a Microsoft executive even mocked the iPad Pro as a copycat.

But use them for just an hour, and I believe you will find nothing alike about the two products.

iPad Pro vs. Surface Pro 3

The Surface Pro is a computer that can be used as a tablet. The built-in kickstand, the Windows logo printed horizontally on the back, the touchpad built into the keyboard: everything reminds you that it is a PC and that being a tablet is a side job.

The iPad Pro is the exact opposite. Apple sticks with finger touch. Neither the keyboard nor the pen is required, and all interaction still revolves around fingers tapping the screen. The keyboard exists only for typing; unlike on a Mac, it is not woven into how you control the whole system.

In its hardware design, the Apple logo on the back of the iPad Pro still runs vertically, and the volume buttons are still on a long edge. All of this tells you that holding it upright is the most natural way to use it. Even the four speakers are there so that you hear proper stereo sound whichever way you hold it.

Apple wants the iPad Pro to replace your laptop, but it is not a hybrid of laptop and tablet. It is first of all an iPad, a way to carry the touch interaction the iPhone introduced onto a larger canvas.

The iPad Pro is not an attempt to rescue the tablet, stuck between the phone and the laptop as your so-called third computing device. It is the first iPad that tries outright to replace the laptop. The time for a complete replacement may not have come yet, but that is where Apple is heading.

Judging third-party software reliably will take more time and use in more situations. QDaily will publish a series of follow-up reports, so stay tuned.

Photos in this article by Zhou Shaohong