“I got an attack of the giggles the moment I picked up the enormous new iPad Pro,” Jonathan Margolis writes for The Financial Times. “It felt like a normal iPad, but that I’d shrunk.”
“After four weeks with the Pro and its 12.9in screen, it still seems a large, ponderous beast. But although physically it takes some getting used to, it’s actually lighter than the original iPad,” Margolis writes. “It’s simply amazing too, as powerful as a sophisticated laptop.”
“As a way of displaying photographs, it is second to nothing I’ve seen. The image quality is quite breathtaking,” Margolis writes. “It’s also superlative for watching films. I have started re-downloading my favourites in HD just for the joy of seeing them on the Pro.”
“The sound from the device’s four speakers is also good enough to listen to without headphone,” Margolis writes. “And for reading tablet-version newspapers and magazines, it is peerless.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jonathan sounds very much like he is limiting himself to using Apple’s most productive iPad as a mere consumption device, but, oh, what a consumption device it is!
The good news is that if you want to get some real work done, you can do that with iPad Pro, too!
SEE ALSO:
I was completely wrong about the iPad Pro, it’s simply the best iPad I’ve ever used – February 17, 2016
Apple’s iPad Pro handily outsells Microsoft’s Surface in launch quarter – February 1, 2016
AnandTech reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: ‘Size is something that feels like it should have been done from the start’ – January 22, 2016
ZDNet reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: A genuine alternative to a laptop for business users – November 20, 2015
Apple’s super-sized ‘iPad Pro’ shines for work, play and creativity – November 19, 2015
TIME Magazine reviews iPad Pro: ‘The best computer Apple has ever made’ – November 16, 2015
iPad Pro: Day 2 and already making my work better, easier, and faster – November 13, 2015
Why Apple’s new iPad Pro makes Mac users feel weird – November 12, 2015
Apple’s new iPad Pro is faster and more affordable than beleaguered Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 – November 12, 2015
Analyst: Apple’s iPad Pro and its powerful A9X CPU pose threat to Intel – November 12, 2015
Apple’s A9X-powered iPad Pro offers Mac-like speed – November 11, 2015
Wired reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: ‘The best tablet, and the best case for tablets, anyone’s ever made’ – November 11, 2015
Horace Dediu reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: Unlike anything we’ve ever seen before – November 11, 2015
Ben Bajarin reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: ‘The start of something new’ – November 11, 2015
Gruber reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: A MacBook replacement for many – November 11, 2015
“Consumption” is a disease, potentially fatal. Just sayin’.
I prefer ‘Consummation’ devices. Bring them on your honeymoon.
You know what else qualifies as a disease? cdn.adfront.org! That is a disease on this web site, MDN. Kill it, please!!
Are they the ones who come up with “20 women who definitely married for money” and the like? Actually, some of the galleries are intriguing. Their internet mole rats certainly burn the midnight oil coming up with irresistable clickbait! Wait—aren’t you tempted to take a shot at their firearms quiz?
A couple of students that I tutor are drawing chemical structures with ‘Pencil’ in ‘Notes’ on the big mother, and sharing with Self so they get dated and saved on the email. Looks like a winner to me.
Sorry… The iPad Pro is not “as powerful as a sophisticated laptop.” I have a hard time confining myself to the limitations of iOS.
I need a file system I can control, modify, and organize to fit my life. I need apps that allow me to write and update webpages, tools for sophisticated image editing, 3D modeling and animation, and the ability to create and present complex presentations that imbed video with multiple layers of animated transitions and builds.
For the present, I prefer a desktop. Sure, I use a laptop for convenience, and I love my iPad, but my tablet use is for simple email, reading webpages, watching movies, and other very basic tasks.
Then, by that logic, you’re not the target customer for the iPad Pro. Your opinions don’t reflect the needs of other customers.
Margolis made an over-arching statement, “as powerful as a sophisticated laptop.” It is not.
If he had said, “for me and others with similar needs…”, then the statement could be logical and true. As a blanket statement, it is not.
It depends on your definition of “powerful.” In some ways the iPad Pro is MORE powerful than a full featured laptop. The annoying thing is the ways the iPad Pro is less powerful could be remedied with a few tweaks to the operating system. But those tweaks (mainly in regards to file management) would make change the iPad more than Apple would like.
Another example: If you’d like to iMessage a PDF or audio file. It’s a rather convoluted process on the iPad. Extremely simple on a Mac. Even sending a song you create on GarageBand (or even Music Memos) can’t seem to be sent through iMessage on the iPad.
I like owning a Mac as well as the iPad pro. But it feels silly to have to switch to a Mac for such mundane tasks.
That’s right. And the target market is quite small, and sales are quite small also.
iOS is OS/X without all the work stuff.
I’m with you marko. Now, Granny: She prefers her iPad. Apparently, we have a lot of grannies here today who *ding*ed you down. That’s fair! The idea is to use the devices the accomplish your needs, wants and desires. Many of us simply want a lot more than any iOS device can offer, at least more often than not. We still love you Granny. 👵 💕
Not grannies. Just one-sides loyalists that shoot down free thought.
It’s an absurdity to take sides, iOS vs Mac OS X, in any case. Use the device that accomplishes what you need, want, desire. Why people get ABSOLUTIST about anything is beyond my comprehension. As I always say:
We never know everything about anything.
All we have are points of view, experience, insights, opinions, repeatable experiments…
Nice philosophy but there’s no productive work done on iOS that can’t be done more efficiently on OS X. What’s more, iOS practically demands you use the crappy iCloud. Staying within OS X makes all file management and cross-platform sharing easy.
iPad and iPhone are great for consumption and lightweight communication, but for anything else, the Mac is dramatically better. Anyone who suggests otherwise is deluding themselves or has a very specialized case that simply doesn’t work for the mainstream.
I appreciate your willingness to be honest even when it means you’ll be shot down on a site like this.
And you’re 100% right on. This from an iPhone and (once) iPad user, before I switched to a real detachable.
Kudos.
Bought an iPad Pro, with Smart Keyboard, and Apple Pencil for Mrs. Ziffel, and she loves them all. The Pencil is especially astounding.
A most philanthropic porcine.
Little things like pulling the sound file off of a iPhone video to edit it in something like GarageBand or other program, is very easy on a Mac and seemingly impossible on iOS.
Or even creating a contact group, which you still need a Mac or a browser to do.
The iPad Pro is amazing. But the limitations of the operating system are frustrating. Hope it improves soon, because the device itself is awesome.
I wonder how many surface pro tablets Microsoft has thrown in the dumpster and buried this past quarter.
Keep feeding the MDN thirst for MS blood.
As an iPad Pro owner, I would not compare it with a laptop, it’s simply another kind of device altogether. I didn’t buy it to replace my MacBook Pro, and never thought of doing so. It would be like buying a hedge trimmer to replace your lawn mower.
Also, I never thought of my iPad Pro as “a large, ponderous beast”, what a silly description. Although the iPad Pro has a significantly larger display, it is only a half a pound heavier than the iPad Air. To me it comes across as an amazingly sleek and refined computing device. You have to remember that this is a powerful 12″ computer that only weighs 1.5 pounds. That would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.
While I agree it’s very light for its size, I’m looking forward to the rumored 9.7″ version. Without ever seen one in person, I think the 12.9″ version would be too big for me.