10 Things You Need to Know: The Apple iPad Pro 9.7-Inch

For once, the rumors were uncannily accurate: As we wrote this on March 21, Apple released smaller crab-apple versions of two of its signature mobile products, the iPhone and the iPad Pro. (For our introduction to the Apple iPhone SE, check out our accompanying 10 Things You Need to Know: Apple iPhone SE.) The rumored iPad Air 3 didn't actually emerge, but for the new small stuff, it was still a big news day. 

The developments surrounding the iPad tablets were technically three-fold: (1) a new, smaller-screened version of the jumbo, pen-enabled Apple iPad Pro tablet; (2) a new, lower entry price—$399—on the mainstay model of the iPad line, the Apple iPad Air 2; and (3) a new top-end capacity for the already released full-size (12.9-inch-screened) iPad Pro. 

Let's break down the Apple iPad Pro announcement here. 

1. The name's the same; the screen is smaller. 

The new-for-2016 iPad Pro has a 9.7-inch screen, down from the 12.9-inch whopper in the original iPad Pro. In a move to establish a new, discrete multi-member family within the iPad hierarchy, the name is not changing, though. It's still just "iPad Pro," differentiated only by the screen size. (No "iPad Pro Mini" here.) 

The Apple iPad Pro 9.7-inch atop the 12.9-inch version.

If you've held an iPad Air or Air 2, you've pretty much held the new iPad Pro. The overall dimensions of the iPad Pro are 0.24 inch thick, with a 9.4x6.6-inch footprint. It weighs exactly the same amount as the Apple iPad Air 2 (0.96 pound, or about 15.3 ounces), with a few feathers of variance depending on whether you're looking at the Wi-Fi-only or the Wi-Fi-plus-cellular version of each.

2. The capacity standards have shifted.

As we mentioned above, with the release of the 9.7-inch Apple iPad Pro, Apple also upped the maximum capacity on the original 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It's now 256GB. (Previously, the big 'Pad Pro topped out at 128GB.) With Apple's iPads lacking the ability to accept an expansion card, the storage capacity at which you buy these tablets matters more than with most tablets. What you buy is what you're stuck with, unless you upload your media or other files to the cloud.

Keeping things parallel between the Pros, the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro is debuting at the same capacity increments that the bigger Pro now sells at: 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB. The traditional 16GB and 64GB options have been resigned to history, at least for now.

The 256GB capacities of both of these tablets are both on the high-priced side (which we'll get to in a moment), but the move to these capacities makes sense. With the addition of the ability to shoot and edit video in 4K resolution directly on the new iPad Pros, those smaller capacities of yesteryear are liable to fill up fast with giant movie files.

3. Pricing moves, up and down the line.

The introduction of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro coincided with a price drop on Apple's mainstay 9.7-inch iPad, the iPad Air 2. That tablet now starts at $399 in its 32GB version, the same price that—until the March 21 announcement—the original iPad Air was still selling for from Apple. Presumably, the iPad Air (the non-"2" version) will be going away; it had been removed from the Apple Store's iPad pages at the time of the 9.7-inch Pro launch.

The 32GB iPad Pro 9.7-inch starts at $599, the 128GB model at $749, and the new 256GB capacity at $899. (Adding cellular support, as we'll get to later, adds to the price of each.) That pricing creates a lot of dollar daylight between the 9.7-inch Apple iPad Pro and the 9.7-inch Apple iPad Air 2—a big $200 difference in starting prices—especially considering that one of the iPad Pro's main attractions, the Apple Pencil stylus, is still not included in the box with the Pro models, but remains a $99 add-on.

The Apple iPad Pro 9.7-inch with Apple Pencil.

4. We see tweaks to the screen...

The screen on the new, smaller iPad Pro may be the same size as that in the iPad Air 2, with the same native "Retina" resolution of 2,048x1,536 pixels. But Apple is putting a bunch of claims out there comparing the two, all in favor of the Pro's screen. (Gotta justify that price premium somehow, right?)

The company claims that the new 9.7-inch screen features the "lowest reflectivity of any tablet," with a 25 percent maximum brightness improvement over the iPad Air 2 screen, as well as a 40 percent reduction in reflectivity. Another claimed improvement is in the color gamut and saturation. The percentage claim in the latter case is a 25 percent improvement in saturation levels, as well as a new bank of light sensors that read incoming light levels and adjust the color levels to look their best under the current ambient lighting where the tablet is. We could see this being a feature to disable for applications in which precision color-matching is critical, but it's an interesting development for casual use, image viewing, and the like. We'll report when we get our hands on the tablet, hopefully in the coming weeks.

5. ...including something called "Night Shift."

It's increasingly common these days for makers of computer and mobile display devices to pay some marketing attention to the ostensible problem of blue-light emissions. Some users report difficulty in sleeping when exposed excessively to the glow of backlit device screens in the hours before bed, due to the disruption of the body's circadian rhythms, and research has shown a variety of deleterious medical effects; Harvard Health has a good rundown of the blue-light basics here.

The ability to filter out some portion of the blue wavelengths has emerged as a feature in certain laptop screens and tablets, and Apple is working that into the iOS 9.3 software update that will accompany these new devices. Night Shift is the result. It uses geolocation to determine the local time for the tablet where it is and auto-adjusts the screen's light profile to reduce the blues when the time is right. This will work with other devices that get the iOS 9.3 upgrade as well.

6. Smaller size, but still quad-audio.

We liked the immersive character of the sound input of the iPad Pro 12.9-incher—insofar as open-to-air audio can be "immersive," in a tablet. We're surprised, though, that Apple retained the four-speaker array of the 12.9-inch tablet in the 9.7-inch version, especially considering that the 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 is limited to a twin set.

The speakers are positioned one at each corner, and while we suspect you'll still get the best results in open-air sound when the tablet is parked up against a hard surface or lying flat, in both cases to reflect the sound back at you (the speakers don't fire forward, alas), the ones in the 12.9-inch tablet were still a marked improvement over those in the iPad Air 2.

Also, in an interesting (literal) twist, the iPad Pro auto-adjusts the speaker output according to the tablet's orientation. High frequencies get emphasized in the uppermost two speakers, regardless of whether the tablet is rotated horizontally or vertically. This matters because, in most cases, you'd watch video in landscape mode on this tablet, but many gaming apps are designed for portrait-orientation play. The audio circuitry can compensate for both.

7. The built-in cams get a boost.

It's tough to do much more with the cameras in a skinny tablet without making some kind of fundamental hardware change to accommodate the lens. The 8-megapixel shooter in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro got a boost and a bump (literally!) in the 9.7-incher, though.

Now, it's a 12-megapixel cam (the rear one that Apple typically calls "iSight") sticking out the back of the chassis. We do indeed mean sticking out. It's not very big, but a ring around the lens protrudes from the upper corner of the iPad Pro 9.7-inch, where previous iPad cams were typically flush. Still, there is some payoff beyond the simpel megapixel boost. The cam and its extra prominence now support up to 63-megapixel panorama shots and the whole panoply of Apple photography jiggery-pokery: Live Photos (which are still pics that move briefly when touched, a bit like a short Vine video), 4K audio capture, and 240fps slow-motion video recording.

We also appreciated a clever development with the front FaceTime HD camera, in the form of the Retina Flash feature. This makes use of the screen itself as a source of extra "flash-bulb"-style light when you're taking selfies. It flashes to fill in the shot when you're shooting your own mug in a dim environment.

8. Color schemes: Rose joins the pack. 

The rear-panel colors on the iPad Pro 9.7-inch comprise the usual suspects: silver, gold, and Apple's Space Grey. A new addition here, though, is a rose-gold hue from the iPhone side of the aisle. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the only one of the iPads to feature the rose-gold option. All of the other current-gen iPads come in just silver, Space Grey, and gold, with the exception of the iPad Mini 2, which is limited to just the silver and grey.

The four colors of the new, smaller iPad Pro.

9. The connectivity gets kicked up.

At least, that's the case with the cellular versions of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Apple dubs these the "Wi-Fi + Cellular" models, and they cost the usual $130 kick-up at any given storage capacity, in parallel with Apple's other iPads. The cellular-capable iPad Pro, like the cell versions of the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4, includes the Apple SIM, which is a flexible-plan SIM card that works with multiple carriers (at this writing, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint). Humble Wi-Fi is still leading-edge stuff here, in the form of 802.11ac.

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro also adds support for LTE Advanced, an enhanced-speed service available under certain plans with specific wireless carriers. LTE support for these devices is region-dependent, as well; see this Apple LTE support guide for details on LTE bands, and regional carriers, specific to the iPads.

10. Same accessories, but different sizes. 

The big add-on for the Apple iPad Pro of either size is the Apple Pencil, which remains a $99 option but is the main reason that many users would opt for the iPad Pro over the iPad Air 2 in the first place. You'll want to factor it into your shopping considerations with any iPad Pro. The Pencil was fairly big relative to the size of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, so it's positively huge compared to the 9.7-inch version. 

The other major Apple accessory for the new Pro is scaled to size, though. That's the add-on Smart Keyboard, which now comes in versions right-sized for the 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch tablet models. The reduction in size means just a modest drop in price, though. The 12.9-inch-compatible Smart Keyboard was and remains $169 (a bit high, we thought, at its debut), while the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro's version of the Smart Keyboard is $149.

Apple's Smart Keyboard accessory attached to the iPad Pro 9.7-inch.

Apple has also augmented its Silicone Case and Smart Cover lines to fit the new 9.7-inch Pro. Each is $10 less than its 12.9-inch iPad Pro counterpart: $69 and $49 respectively. Each will come in a choice of a dozen colors. 

Smart Cover for the Apple iPad Pro 9.7-inch.

The iPad Pro 9.7-inch begins pre-orders on March 24 and is expected to ship, according to Apple, starting on March 31. Stay tuned for a full review of this new iPad Pro when we get our mitts on one.

Source: 10 Things You Need to Know: The Apple iPad Pro 9.7-Inch