The biggest iPad Apple has ever created, the iPad Pro, launches this week.
Online orders begin Wednesday, and you can buy it from a physical Apple Store starting Friday.
But before you make a purchase decision, what do critics think? While we at Tech Insider work on our own review, here’s what some critics already have to say about Apple’s giant tablet.
Despite calling the iPad Pro “the Mercedes Benz G550 of tablets,” Bloomberg’s Sam Grobart said “a bigger screen, attachable keyboard, and stylus do not add things I want or need to a tablet, nor do they evolve the iPad into credible competition for my still-perfect MacBook Air.”
One of Grobart’s biggest issues? Apple’s $170 Smart Keyboard, which is sold separately from the iPad Pro.
“The Smart Keyboard is clever, but a little clumsy. You can’t really use it on your lap, much less perched on your legs while sitting in bed.”
Lauren Goode from The Verge calls the iPad Pro’s display “stunning,” but finds it strange that Apple “doesn’t include the new 3D Touch technology Apple introduced with the iPhone 6S, something that arguably could have been more useful on a tablet meant for multitasking than it is on a smaller-screened phone.”
Still, Goode praises the tablet for its efficiency in handling high-performance apps like Adobe Comp, Photoshop Fix and Lightroom. It also handled editing a 4K movie clip in a “fluid” manner.
Goode also loves the new $100 Apple Pencil, also sold separately, reporting “almost no latency between the Pencil and the screen; it really felt like I was using a pencil or pen.”
Goode’s old Re/code colleague Walt Mossberg also penned an iPad Pro review — and while he called the large display “gorgeous” and praised the new split-screen feature, he pointed out three major problems with the tablet. He called it “too big and bulky to hold and use comfortably for long periods.” He said he was “disappointed” with Apple’s optional keyboard case. And he said he found comparably few apps that could really take advantage of the added screen real estate on the iPad Pro.
Ars Technica’s Andrew Cunningham summed up the iPad Pro by calling it an “iPad shaped peg for a Mac-shaped hole.” Despite its ability to handle demanding tasks, and despite all the new accessories, Cunningham said “the iPad still feels like a ‘sometimes computer.’”
Cunningham said the differences between and iPad Pro and a full, traditional computer running OS X are apparent when you wish you had a trackpad and must settle for the touch-display screen, for instance, or when iOS strips out all the formatting and hyperlinks when you copy and paste something. He also notes “there’s no true multi-display support to speak of,” and a lot of iOS apps feel “awkward” on the giant display.
calls the iPad Pro “an amazing accessory” that can handle the “shape-shifting multimodality” of everyday life — like when you want to use the iPad as a laptop, and then switch it into tablet mode for more passive viewing. But Pierce still doesn’t buy the idea it’s going to actually replace a MacBook anytime soon.
“For those of us who still cling to laptops and desktops, the iPad Pro just doesn’t feel like a serious machine for serious work,” Pierce said. “We need our keyboard shortcuts and our mice, our apps that work just how we like them. We need our accessories. A touch-first interface just doesn’t feel right, and the iPad Pro can’t overthrow our existing workflows and tools. Maybe we’ll catch up to Tim Cook’s vision of work someday. Maybe. But for right now, we have work to do, and no time to reinvent how we do it.”
The Telegraph’s Rhiannon Williams was much more positive with her review of the iPad Pro, calling it “the best in its class” that nails what other tablet/laptop hybrids have trouble with, namely “in terms of display sensitivity, image clarity and clunky keyboards you have to remind yourself to charge.” She did, however, take issue in the tablet’s high price point and limited multitasking capabilities, as well as its lack of USB ports.
So generally, it sounds like critics don’t hate the “iPad Pro” by any means, but they’re largely skeptical it can actually replace your laptop or desktop computer. There are a lot of complaints about the optional keyboard, but it is, in fact, optional. (We might more readily recommend Logitech’s keyboard for the iPad Pro anyway.) So if you’re looking for a great tablet experience, you probably won’t find a better one than in the iPad Pro. But if you want to replace a traditional laptop, be prepared for all the caveats these reviewers mention.
Tech Insider will also be posting its own review of the iPad Pro in the coming days.
