Apple held the keynote for WWDC 2017 today, where alongside announcements for new iterations of iOS, macOS, watchOS, its entire lineup of iMacs and MacBooks, and a new iMac Pro, the company announced the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Indeed, the device is finally official after months of rumors.
The firm says that the 9.7-inch iPad is its best-selling size of the device, but it was able to enlarge the screen by 20%, by reducing the size of the bezels by 40%. It still weighs in at about one pound, but Apple says that the larger screen will be able to fit a full-size on-screen keyboard.
The True Tone display is also a big improvement. The 600-nit screen has HDR video support, a wide color gamut, and low reflectivity, but it also uses ProMotion, which doubles the refresh rate to 120Hz. It will also adjust the refresh rate depending on what you're doing to save power.
Apple also described the new device as a powerhouse. Indeed, the A10X CPU has six cores, using big.LITTLE technology for three powerful and three efficient cores. There's also a 12-core GPU, promising 40% better graphics performance. The company says that it's 500 times more powerful than the original iPad.
The new iPad will include USB 3.0 and fast charging, features that were long overdue in Apple products. Naturally, it still uses a Lightning cable to charge though.
But along with the powerful hardware are new software improvements that are coming in iOS 11. These include a new Files app, features like drag and drop, and deeper Pencil integration into the device.
And speaking of the Apple Pencil, the firm says that it will have just 20ms latency, beating out Microsoft's new Surface Pen as the "fastest digital pen on the planet".
The device won't actually ship with iOS 11 though, since you can order it now and it will arrive next week. While Apple didn't mention it much, the 12.9-inch iPad also received a refresh today with the new processor and display.
You can order the 10.5- and 12.9-inch models starting at $649 and $799, respectively. Storage has been doubled, so they come in 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB variants. The price goes up by $100 for each storage tier and $130 for cellular connectivity.
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