Apple goes big with the iPad Pro

You know the Steve Jobs era of Apple is finally over when Apple introduces a stylus for its new iPad. (And yes, we can imagine him turning over in his grave.) Apple finally took the wraps off its new giant iPad Pro and introduces the new Pencil accessory with it.

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The tablet features a gigantic 12.9-inch display with over five million pixels of resolution (which is more than a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display). It runs on an Apple A9X desktop-class 64-bit processor, which is said to be 1.8 times faster than its predecessor. As its name suggests, the tablet is geared toward the enterprise market (it even has specialized support for Microsoft products) and it’s looking to appeal to the creative industry as well with the introduction of the Pencil and support for Adobe products.

Android users have long been using styli with their tablets but now Apple’s followers will also get a taste with the new Pencil stylus. Apple boasts that this accessory isn’t an ordinary stylus as it works with many iOS apps to make drawing on the tablet better. It can even be used to draw graphs and annotate documents on Microsoft Office files. The sensors within the Pencil allow users to pinpoint tiny spaces in sketches with its single pixel sensitivity.

The downside to it is you have to charge the Pencil via the built-in lightning plug at the Pencil’s cap. You can charge it with the iPad but we really wish we didn’t have to do this extra step. Plus, it’s sold separately from the iPad for US$99.

Aside from having Pencil support, the iPad Pro supports a Smart Keyboard accessory that reminds us of Microsoft’s Surface tablet keyboards. It’s coated in a water- and stain-resistant finish so stains and spills won’t be too much of an issue. Apple made the keyboard with three layers. It has a durable polyurethane on top and soft microfiber lining at the bottom. Sandwiched between that is a paper-thin sheet of nylon and metal to make a unique conductive material two-way flow of power and data, which means you don’t need to charge the Smart Keyboard. You just need to attach the iPad Pro to it and type away. Yes, this is sold separately as well for $169.

It can support a full-sized software keyboard as well with its larger dimensions. It even has more speakers in it (two on top and two on the bottom) and a bigger battery with projected 10 hours of juice.

iOS 9 turns this tablet into a productivity machine with its many tablet-friendly features like split-screen and overlaying video on top of whatever’s on the screen.

Interested in getting one of these? The US prices for the different versions are: $799 for the 32GB Wi-Fi model; $949 for the 128GB Wi-Fi model; and $1,049 for the 128GB Wi-Fi and cellular model. The new iPads will be coming out in the US in November so we’ll probably have to wait a bit more for it to make its way here.