I sold my iPad mini 4, just to get one of these, as I'd previously owned the Air 2 and I simply couldn't justify the extra cost. Sure, of course, it is a nice device, but all I did was launch SimCity Builit (Which didn't seem to load faster) and mess around. For all serious tasks I have the Surface Pro 3.
It's a lot... for not a lot really. Plus, seeing as the Surface line was initially blasted for not including a stylus/keyboard, it's annoying that Apple sell them for MORE (I think) than the MS versions.
The charts do not include the Surface pro 4 for screen quality. Selective information?
All in all, although nice, it simply wasn't worth the cash (to me).
The Surface Pro 4 technically doesn't use the same display tests in all cases, such as GMB, as we use a reduced pattern set for mobile. I can add the results that are comparable to the charts. I think as far as size and price go the Surface 3 is the more relevant comparison though, and that was there.
Gimme a break chester, this is apple's latest and greatest tablet and should be compared head to head with microsoft's latest, on all fronts. That's what apple was shooting for with this product.
In fact,
In apples very own keynote they raved about the amount of PC user's that were ditching desktops for an iPad, which is ridiculous because anyone owning a 7 year old PC is not going to be looking to spend 360 bucks just for a keyboard and stylus... LOL!
I'm not sure exactly what your complaint is here. The Surface 3 is a much closer touch point in almost every aspect except for performance. But regardless, we have our online Bench where you can always compare any device and I've even done it for you:
The larger iPad Pro was compared to the Surface Pro 4, as it should be. We keep an online database though so if you want to do any extra comparisons its very simple. Bench is a link at the top of the page.
It is being marketed as a "Pro" line product... thus it should be compared to other Pro tablets.
I haven't read article yet... but I'm presuming tablet runs on platform comparable to larger iPad Pro. I don't think that screen size alone should be the differentiating factor. HP Elitebooks come with screens from 12 to 15.6", for example... can't recall anyone saying that 12" Elitebook is not a business-class laptop just because it is smaller?
The complaint is that there is inherent apple bias in the that article has extended to the benchmarks.
The surface pro 4 may very well be inferior. But this "review" is deceptive. Why not just follow Apple marketing guidelines and compare the ipad pro to "5 year old pc's everyone is leaving for iPad".
Why not just put a single benchmark of a 486 laptop and call it the best?
I can understand not being happy with facets of the review. Chalking up your concerns to "you're a horrible person" isn't the most constructive line of dialogue.
It looks like your response was nicely responded to. I'd encourage more discussion instead of tin foil hat guttural response. I think we get it from your responses that your using global stereotypes to paint a picture that everything is inferior to what you have.
All of that said, I haven't been a fan of the Microsoft Surface line till this generation. There's a certain rhythm of finally "getting it" in terms of fit and finish that I don't think Microsoft has had in hardware till this year. The Surface Pro and SurfaceBook are both impressive devices. If what I wanted as an individual could be served by the Windows ecosystem (phone through tablet) I would be giving it a much more serious look.
Apples attitude towards user experience and hardware has been, and still is to a certain degree incredibly different then Microsoft and most other OEMs. You can call it "bad" as much as you want, and that's your right to do so. I have a few iPads in my house, and got one for my little brother to use in college. They are arguably the best overall tablet on the market from hardware onto ecosystem.
Thanks for peeing in the punch bowl because someone doesn't agree with you hence becoming a "horrible person".
I think the surface pro line depending on how one uses it makes it a competitive choice as opposed to a new Apple tablet. Many people go for the higher-end storage of the surface tablet and that regard it's price is ridiculous when you start talking $1500 for a tablet to me at the feats the purpose for $1500 you can get yourself an amazing laptop. Still would have more memory at least by double maybe even triple and the specs will be as well if you opt for mid tier say 128 GB storage solution if you have an external hard drive plugged in because it has USB three you can save yourself a lot of money. In that regard it's a small use of what the surface provides as an option and also it's an idea of saving money that makes it viable choice. Obviously the recovery partition and the operating system take up a lot of space in comparison to something like iOS or even the android platform built in storage does take a bit of a beating because of it but if you can use everything on a portable hard drive that's plugged in the USB three and run the surface and such in the way it will make the base cost far less and much more approachable. I just think in general tablets beyond I would say $800 becomes problematic specifically because you get into an upper mid tier of what a laptop can offer you for $800 and beyond and you get a lot still you can still have a decently portable laptop with a decent amount of power. Laptops though in this price range and below take a hit in quality and the most important aspect and that is the screen usually this price point or below have very crappy screens the color and their sharpness and infidelity are really not phenomenally up there. When you get in the laptops beyond $1000 point you start getting sharper queen or technology implemented into them. I feel it is important when it comes to a comparison of options out to complete a task. It comes down to really what is cost-effective for your workflow how much you need portability and how much of a solution a tablet aspiring to be a laptop killer a replacement can become Closest tablet to achieve such your feat is the Microsoft surface.
Though I am a Mac user I must admit that in regards to any kind of a portable keyboard Apple they dropped the ball when I came to the iPad keyboard. It is a step behind Microsoft smart cover keyboard one because it's not backlit but also because of the way out the bun travel is smaller and the buttons are smaller not necessarily a favorite for everybody. The biggest design thing that I think Apple completely messed and I have to give kudos to Microsoft is the built in stand. I'm not a super fan of windows though I know how to use Windows and use a Windows it is nowhere near my primary platform which is the Mac. But I have to give credit to Microsoft where credit is due the surface pro line is and where the tablet but even I have to met there are many different kiosks I have been to where the tablet has malfunctioned during time of demoing it is much more rare to see an iPad completely not work for kiosk purposes that it is for surface tablet I've seen their tablets not even turn on even with the power cord extend it to them plugged in fully lights show it is fully charged but outside of doing a direct comparison to the different pros and cons of each wall smart enough to know what fits our needs the best for me and iPad is a good tablet and it doesn't basically what I needed to and for others the Microsoft surface pro line suits their needs as well. Trust me we want to open a can of apples and Microsoft comparisons here. Just say they're equally respectable types of tablets based on their own individual merits the only reason I bring up the prior points in general are because a tablet should have a stand and not needing a case to provide such or solution is a very added and welcome bonus the people on a surface tablet. Myself I don't want to surface tablet but I will give them credit for that addition
I'd like to see the Pro 4 in the charts where possible, please. They are aiming at similar users. I'd love to see the Dell 7275 tested though, as it looks (and feels, after using one for an hour) in many ways better than the MS Pro.
In the UK the ipad pro 9.7" with 128GB is priced only £100 less (or a few £, if you opt for cellular version) than the Surface Pro 4 entry level with m3, 4GB and 128GB.
I think comparison is very valid, also for a "Pro" device, to be considered as a "Pro" device we need more than web benchmarks, and battery life..... until it runs photoshop, lightroom, muse, sony vegas to name a few, it aint replacing a PC for real Pro's
I've been curious - it has less memory bandwidth than the 12.9", but not halved, despite half the pinout width and half the DRAM capacity. Does the chip reintroduce the L3 cache? That could explain it.
Except in contrast and black level. Pixel C obliterates the iPad Pro there. And the max brightness is near equal. The iPad Pro has better sRGB calibration, but it's not like the Pixel C is poorly calibrated. It's still good.
I highly doubt you have actually seen the screen of Pixel C. iPad Pro has advantages for professional photography, but for everything else the Pixel C either matches or beats it in quality. It has an excellent screen.
very interesting! in other words: it's almost half the speed of intel's top end i7 6700K in kraken 1.1... ...but in WebXPRT it's 200 vs. 3000 points...
That score of 3000 is..I don't know, but a 2015 xps 15 scores around 440. So, about twice as fast as the Apple soc, but with better process, higher power budget and much larger tdp (given that it's in a full size laptop). Stoked Apple's doing an amazing job with their cpus. If they actually spent the die budget to enable smt they'd be right up there with core m.
Carrizo is essentially Atom class and it's predecessor, Kavari, is found inside the PS4 and XB1, albeit with a more powerful GPU and an additional 4 cores. So if you can imagine a 4W processor competing with a 65W CPU: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10000/who-controls-u...
That leaves about 50W for Apple to integrate, say, a Pascal GPU if they really wanted to create something incredibly powerful.
Right. So take a 4W SoC that currently has two cores and bump it up to 8. An A9X at 2GHz and 8 cores might take 15W. Throw in a Pascal GPU and now you're 35W, or 65W, depending on compute cores.
On single thread performance we see the A9 is between Atom and Core at the same clock. That means it is also at the same performance level as Kaveri and Kabini.
today's world is one of really shitty choices : - ipad pro : the pen feeling/responsiveness i want - macbook : the os i want - surface book : the hardware i want (tablet/laptop combo/size/weight)
but hey, after a decade of being let down by tablet pc's all pieces are finally available... in another decade i may actually get what i wanted back then... just not sure if i will still want it by the time it arrives...
I'm still sort of surprised it was Microsoft that gave us the first really successful full PC in a tablet...although in another way I'm not, given Microsoft's actually been trying to do that for like a decade prior to the Surface line.
I'm so annoyed by Apple/Apple fan's claims that Windows 10 "isn't good at either!" Nonsense. I've been using Windows 8/10 on a desktop for years, and I still prefer it to OS X, and I've been using it with touch for years, and it works well there too.
My iPads are fancy eReaders...not to knock fancy eReaders! But I wouldn't buy one for "productivity", like ever.
Until there is a much better selection of touch first software for Windows, the Surface is not a "tablet". It's more like an ultrabook with a detachable keyboard that you can't really detach because you constantly need the touchpad to drive the legacy software you are forced to use.
Just out of interest, what are the type of "touch first software" do you need to use on your tablet that are missing on the Surface ? I often see this claim but seems more like a legend perpetuated than real assessment of the current situation in 2016.
It's not the OS as much as it is the apps. Too many Windows developers are too lazy to actually write touch/tablet-optimized apps. iOS forces developers to do so. Microsoft is actually one of the better developers of iOS apps. I like using Word and PowerPoint on my iPad Pro.
I really hope other vendors pick up on True Tone. That sort of tech should be trivial to implement now, and it looks like one of those genuinely useful features that rolls around every once in a while.
It's funny how the iPad Pro 9.7 is compared with the Galaxy S6, the middle range Nexus 5X or the 6 months old Huawei Mate 8 instead of the Galaxy S7, Huawei P9, Xiaomi Mi5 or other 2016 flagships when it comes to performance, display accuracy, recharging time, storage speed, etc.
Even with a multicore CPU performance that is not as good as the best CPUs on smartphones right now (the Galaxy S7, for instance), a mediocre contrast (what is the point of having accurate colors if blacks cannot even be rendered properly ?), a price that is way too high, and a battery life that is far from impressive, the iPad Pro is praised in your review...
When it comes to the conclusion, it looks like Apple has invented the "True Tone Display", although it is only a copy of the 2-year-old and not-much-marketed Adapt Display from Samsung – which works great and adapts the white point according to the surrounding environment. You have fallen in Apple's trap of making people believe they invented everything that is known and unknown to Man thanks to aggressive marketing, which is disappointing, to say the least...
You must have missed the LG G5 in the charts, which is a Snapdragon 820 device. I can't compare to devices that haven't been fully reviewed.
Also, you may want to re-read the article to find out why True Tone is not the same as Adapt Display, and to clarify some other things that it seems you missed.
Quite condescending statement when what you wrote was : "As you move to different environments the color temperature of the display shifts to match how your eye adjusts its perception of white depending on the temperature and brightness of the light around you."
Which is exactly what Sachouba describe about Samsung Adapt Display...
Since departure of Anand, Apple product reviews look like PR marketing speech, although the tests and content itself of the review do not match the speech : - "It’s not hard to conclude that the display on the 9.7” iPad Pro is the best display on any tablet" : except that the Surface (Pro 4) has be shown as having a better display (proven also by Displamate) and the Surface 3 is also shown to have a better display or at least as good with the huge avantage for someone really after color accuracy that they can be calibrated. - "However, the significant hardware upgrades that Apple has made with this new iPad Pro are enough to make up the difference. the 9.7” iPad Pro is only $50 more than the 128GB iPad Air 2 used to cost" : an argument that makes no sense. EVERYTIME the year passes and a new phone or tablet is released, we used to have more power or a better camera or better performance ... for the SAME price. Otherwise, what is the point of the new model ? Except that here, it is more expensive than the previous model. And it is between 100 to 200$ more expensive than the iPad Air 2. And if you want really to take advantage of the real benefit of the Pro (the keyboard and / or the pencil), you need to spend 100 to 270$ !?! Just insane. - "As far as performance goes, A9X is still the fastest chip that you’ll find in an ARM tablet" : why restricting tablet to ARM processor ? What does it change for the end user if a tablet is running an ARM chip or a x86 chip ? Especially when even a fanless core M smokes the A9X ? And this is good to make the apology of the power of the "small" iPad Pro but what application is taking advantage of this power versus the iPad Air 2 ? Especially with the 2Go of RAM only ? - "In the end, the 9.7” iPad Pro is clearly the best standard-sized tablet on the market." : and here it is. How can it be objectively labelled like this ? It seems an excellent tablet but making this universal statement when it is the most expensive, it has not the best display (when it really counts for some), it does not have the best keyboard implementation, it is limited by its RAM, and the biggest asset is also its biggest issue of course as it suffers from limited external peripheric support and of some powerful application / program that people who want a powerful tablet with a good display usually are after (photo / video editing, graphist...). So the hardware strengths are constrained by the software capabilities. Strange wordings and conclusions regarding a overall very nice tablet but with its share of drawback for its intended audience.
I would not recommend an Onda tablet - I bought one myself and it was a bit of a nightmare. There is very little support. A windows update reversed my touchscreen and was a pain to fix. The glass on the screen cracked with very minimal pressure, and finally one-third of the touchscreen simply stopped responding to touch. This was all within 4 months. I finally just sold mine on ebay, with a cracked screen, and telling the buyer that it could only be used with a mouse and keyboard. At least mine was a lot cheaper than the one you linked to, but cannot recommend an Onda tablet...
What do you know? even core I7 has been made fanless in a 12 inch tablet with a new cooling solution, so I don't see why core M could not work well in 10 inches. Battery life will depend on the battery size, in the onda it's smaller than in ipad air 2 for instance, and it lasts around 4 hours, with a bigger one it could last more, but is definitely much more than the 1 hour you speculate about...
But then that's the point, isn't it? Throwing a honestly poorly designed 10" tablet as proof that you can get a good tavlet with Core M is not helping your argument. How good is the display? How are the touch apps? How well does the pen work? How heavy is it? How hot does it run? How long does it run on a charge? What about everything else that is tested? Honestly, there has to be a reason why the big players hasn't integrated a more powerful CPU into a small tablet.
As a staunchly anti Apple person, I gave to co cede that Apple really does have the best tablet this generation. While the Pixel C comes close, the Pen is very well implemented. Surfaces are fine, but I find that when I want to do real work, I turn to my much more powerful laptop to do that.
Neither Surface Pro display can match the display for this product. First of all those products were reviewed before this one came out, and secondly, they are both sRGB displays, with their resultant smaller color gamut.
Also, the iPad Pro, either model beats the least expensive Surface Pro in performance, and that model costs as much, or more than the competing iPad.
I understand that your Microsoft products are second best in a number of ways. Get used to it.
Having a wider color gamut than sRGB is not universally an advantage. Without going into this discussion on how many (little) images are benefiting from that, even in a proper color managed workflow (and iOS seems to be quite good here), sharing and distributing images with wider color space than sRGB is often (most of the time) counterproductive if others 1/ do not have wide gamut screen (the majority), 2/ do not have applications / browser reading the embedded color space (the majority). As such, the interest is honestly quite limited. It does not hurt at all the iPad, on the contrary, but in real life this is not what will make such display stands above other sRGB gamut wide screens. And regarding the Surfaces and DisplayMate, read in details and you will see they are also praised equally : "The Surface Pro 4 also has the most accurate on-screen colors of any Tablet display that we have ever measured" "However, Microsoft has also taken an important initial step, with the Surface 3 providing its best Color Accuracy in typical indoor 300 lux ambient"
My point is that many tablets have just excellent screens and that the iPad Pro does not seem to stand in a class of its own at all. But what makes Surfaces screens a real treat for people that value color accuracy is being able to calibrate the screen. That is making all the difference. Because LCD screen colors evolve unfortunately with time. It would be interesting that Brandon would test and iPad Air 2, today, used since the beginning and how it differs of the original out of the box measurement. As such, if we are taking only this criteria, for designer or photo / video editor that value utmostly color accuracy, the non calibrating iPad display is a drawback. I mentioned this because making some photo editing on the wedding I shoot, I can clearly see that the iPad Air 2 I have is no match with the Surface Pro 3 I also have, once calibrated.
You can compare the displays at the link below. Basically, the calibrations are on par out of the box, with the iPad having a slightly better calibrated white point. The iPad has MUCH higher max brightness and a higher color gamut. The Surface Pro 4 has slightly better contrast and like you said, the ability to do your own calibration. Out of the box I would say the iPad Pro has the slight edge with the higher brightness, higher color gamut, and true tone feature. But the Surface Pro 4 display might be better for professionals down the road with the ability to recalibrate it.
Performance... in what scenarios? Only if there are pro apps to take advantage of that power, does performance have any meaning. Right now, iPad Pro's "power" is only good for rubbing it into others' faces over a cup of coffee. Once these babies are put to use, iPP turns out just faster iPad, but far cry from Pro device. In real life, it is just an iPad that will turn iBook pages faster, do smoother fly-overs in Apple Maps. Have Apple decided to call it iPad Air 3, no-one would know the difference.
I'm finding it ironical that, for ecosystem (and fans) insisting on quality and quantity of casual apps in library, suddenly lack of apps in Pro segment is being ignored or played down. One can't do much on it, but look, oooh, it is so fast.
iPad Pro can be twice as fast as i7 Surface... but without tools from Adobe, Corel, Audodesk... even full-blown Office suite... how is it better Pro tablet than any x86 device?
Re pricing. I cannot compare 32GB iPP with 128GB SP. Much as prices go here in NZ - might differ where you are - 128GB 9.7" iPP is NZ$1,329.00, plus NZ$189 for pen. That makes NZ$1,518, compared to $1,439 for 128GB mCore SP4, which comes with pen. Even if we ignore that these are prices from Apple's and MS's web stores and that SP can be found even cheaper in shops, while iPP basically can't... even if we stick to these prices... you are saying that more expensive device with smaller screen, crippled multitasking, no real library of pro software, no easy (or any, in some cases) way to dock it, connect it to multiple desktop screens, wired network, USB devices... is somehow better device just because it cranked out better score in some synthetic benchmarks..?
Yes, the Surface can run Adobe, Corel, Autodesk... etc...
Do you think anyone will buy a Surface when it need to work on Adobe tools ? It will never happen.
Who work on a 12" screen ? My 15" Laptop is already to small... So yes, a Surface can run lot of stuff... but compare to what we have on PC side, it's just a outdated config overhype.
"Do you think anyone will buy a Surface when it need to work on Adobe tools ? It will never happen."
I do. This is why I replaced my iPad (my wife is still using her iPad Air 2 for casual stuff) with a SP3 and gave my desktop to my kids. I am using the SP3 as a tablet in the bed, train, airplane for media consumption and tablet things, I am attaching the keyboard when I want to type things, but I can also develop my RAW files in the train with Capture One Pro (alternative from Adobe Lightroom) or in the bed in tablet mode. And 12" is plenty enough to work on pictures as the screen is high resolution and you can easily pinch to zoom. Or I can simply dock it and use it with a calibrated 27" monitor / keyboard and mouse. That is THE point of using a Surface. Doing more than an iPad.
"but compare to what we have on PC side"
It IS a PC. Also. It replaces basically the need for a PC for 98% of the people.
For the love of god: Stop it. Stop putting spaces between the end of your sentence or clause and your punctuation. I realize the French in particular insist on doing this because, well, they're French, but that doesn't change the fact that for written English it is completely and entirely wrong. If you want to be taken seriously, be serious. Write like you care, not like a third grader. English not your first language? Fair enough, but then consider this your first step toward being taken more seriously in your communication.
Keep in mind that each of these publications only have a sample size of one, and that there are variances between the same products. Because of that, Displaymate might have received an iPad with a slightly worse calibration/panel than Anandtech and vice versa for the Surface.
Displaymate on the iPad Pro's screen - "It is by far the best performing mobile LCD display that we have ever tested, and it breaks many display performance records." http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_Pro9_ShootOut_1.ht...
"Since departure of Anand, Apple product reviews look like PR marketing speech, although the tests and content itself of the review do not match the speech"
Amusing since so many reviews by Anand on Apple products had the exact same refrain in the comments.
Huh? Apple's CPUs have been years ahead of the ARM stuff available for Android for...years. Swift was a nice A9+ just like Krait, but since the year after (2012) their CPUs have just been massively far ahead...and yet I STILL hear comments like this that seem completely unaware of that.
Amoled doesn't mean infinite contrast in practice, only in pitch black test environment. In real life blackest signal is (reflectance) x (ambient light), not zero. Due to this, in high ambient light new iPad has better blacks than any amoled display on the market.
And actually, if we go to signal processing maths and measurements, we could start drawing comparisons from them. No one in their right mind would try to argue that 16-bit CD quality audio has infinite dynamic range, even though it is very easy to sample total silence in form of zero signal value to a musical track.
Also music volume is not considered to be infinite, but the value is compared to arbitrarily defined human hearing threshold and converted to logarithmic decibels with 0 meaning non-zero value at the lowest level human ear can measure.
One pretty reasonable comparison point for amoled contrast might be using the quantization error at lower end of the brightness. Ie: something along the lines of set brightness of display to max, display uniform pictures of gray at RGB(1,1,1), measure this brightness in lumens, divide by two (this is quantization error for lowest measurable signal) and then use this as a divisor for the highest recorded value for RGB(255,255,255). Depending on gamma, dividing by two gives wrong results, but for linear display this would be ok.
Infinitely linear displays are available ACME shop just next to frictionless bearings and other such very handy things...
I suspect iPad Pro is compared with the flagship android smartphones because Android tablet hardware sucks. Just have a look at the Galaxy Tab S2 or the Pixel C.
Any chance of including iPad Air benchmark numbers as many of we iPad Air owners want to understand the performance gains we can expect.
I assumed I could just look at your iPad Air 2/iPad Air reviews to get those numbers there, but apparently your benchmarks are different as the iPad Air 2 Kraken 1.1 numbers were different in the two reviews.
I still believe the original iPad if you want it is still good enough and it's not necessary to upgrade to even a pro. I would say for a couple reasons one it's in the middle of that list for upgradability so it's still future proof for a few more years, also it has a similar body and weight compared to the others. if it is absolutely necessary you need the best camera well then obviously there will be aspects of the newer tablets upgrade. Drawing also would be the next reason to as well if it's something that you desire or your workflow needs without the use of a laptop or other. All in all though I still consider the first generation iPad Air a recommended keep still. Sure you will get a faster boot up by about 28 seconds give or take and your apps will launch a little quicker but in no way is the original iPad Air or even air 2 sluggish and my opinion. I'm surprise many reviews don't even consider this to their readers
Another significant difference not mentioned between the 9.7 and 12.9 is that the larger unit supports USB3 speeds over lightning. The 9.7 is restricted to USB2. This difference is quite noticeable when importing pictures via the new SD card reader or USB adapter.
Huh, I didn't know that. That's cool...finally using something akin to an SSD in these things, so the faster speed is actually meaningful (and presumably would be on the three current iPhones and 9.7" iPad too).
I own an air, a mini 2 and a pro 12.9. My air hardly gets any use anymore.. I bought the pro 12.9 as I wanted something larger and lighter than my Surface pro 3 for displaying documents and annotating. And I use it quite often for that, while my SP3 is used mainly a as small portable PC. The main advantage of the big pro for me is precisely its large and beautiful screen. And the 4GB RAM make me feel better when I think I spent close to $1000 for it, as it should last quite a few years. Also something that hardly any review mentions is that the sound of the 12.9 pro is definitely better and louder compared to the smaller pro.
"something larger and lighter" : you spend 1000$ on another tablet to gain ... 66g ? Especially considering that one has a kickstand and the other not ?
the exact difference is 85g (just checked both). My main use for reading and annotating is in vertical position. There is no vertical stand on Surface unfortunately. And when you hold it in your hand for some time you can definitely feel the 85g difference. But that's not the only reason. The combination of a inch larger plus a better aspect ratio for vertical position make a difference, making for a true A4 page display. Check here http://i.imgur.com/mmifVfU.jpg (SP3 on the left) And there there are other reasons for the purchase of an ipad pro, but reading and annotating was the main one for me.
I switched from a SP3 to an iPad Pro 12.9" and MacBook Air. I decided that although one device to rule them all sounded awesome, it sucked in practice. It wasn't one of my deciding factors but it's crazy how much more fits on the iPad Pro's screen than the SP3. I figured they both have screens in the 12" range it should be similar but it's not.
A SP3 has a smaller screen than the SP4 and they have a 3:2 ratio which is PERFECTLY the A4 ratio so the it is better in this aspect compared to the iPad Pro but I see that you are showing music partition and there is nothing like iReal Pro or other specialized music softwares on the Surface matching the great selection on the iPad though.
If $1000 for a tablet is something you could afford that's fine but keep in mind $1000 can get you a good laptop as well I don't not your choice and this is not a criticism to what you chose for your workflow so I don't want you to take it as such it's just a general opinion.
I wonder if that's with encryption on or off? I sure hope that's with it on :-O
I love that iOS just comes with it on now, and users don't need to know anything, manage it, etc., NOR worry about performance.
I know my Android tablet was seriously dirt slow...well, dirt slow in general, and in storage performance specifically. (What blew me away was my equivalently speced Surface running close-to-full-Windows ran circles around it...which is like WHAAAAAT, the limited mobile OS is supposed to at least be faster LOL)
New Android devices all come with encryption on as well. And while Apple does hold a huge lead in NAND performance, I haven't noticed the storage performance of Android devices negatively impacting day to day use since the Nexus 6.
I think it's the cost of having a filesystem a more Advanced interaction with it all and having the full on options of tweaking and placement and so on that also can bog down an operating system. A lot of how we perceive a ui or user interface or operating system is in which the speed and workflow comes across such as finding what you're trying to work on how fast it comes on screen how much time you save. With iOS, either not have a file system as you just have apps apps that do specific things. Depending on what type of workflow you have this can be easier or harder you do not have to look through a lot of submenus to find a file or something you're working on. Is your work something that you can transferred to the cloud and just so you have access to other devices after it's done or do you work on a tablet at home and have a come up on your computer at work? When you start getting into the sub areas of an operating system terminal command lines and all types of other advanced features and code and stuff that is one in a way I believe the operating system gets perceived as cluttered. Even something as simple as removing programs and just drag them to the garbage can for being deleted is something common sense and I was amazed that is not implemented across all operating systems. The complexity of having to go to your ad and remove programs list on windows to delete something still is amazing to me that people would have to do such a thing for such a basic function Especially during the year 2016. The thing that makes iOS really good is also the same thing that makes it really bad for some and that is its basic simplicity iOS is at its greatest for young children for people that have a writing type of workflow for consumption, but especially for the elderly that do not have as much technical know-how as others have in life I know I have relatives that if it wasn't for the iPad they would still be thinking of 56K not know how to check their emails and truly enjoy the web. They are not great typists not nearly there not know what the Home row is. In this regard voice dictation gives them another way to interact with their tablets which are computers and allows them to use them much better than without.
It shows in daily usage, too. My Pixel C went out the door to get my Pro 9.7, and after a few hours, I know I made the right choice. The Pixel was irritating, with hiccups and stutters when there is no reason for it. My Air 2 was a better tablet.
Would be nice if you actually FINISHED your S7 review to see those pic samples against this tablet. I own the 9.7 pro and the S7 and the S7 just blows the pro away. Hmmm, thats probably why you guys never finished the S7 review. It would crush your apple love.
I stated in the article that the sensor used in the 6s/SE/9.7" is not the best sensor in a smartphone. I would argue that the Galaxy S6 is superior, let alone 2016's Android devices. Your perception of bias is unfounded.
Glad for the explanation of True Tone...quite simple/obvious when it's spelled out like that, and sounds like something we'll eventually take for granted everywhere.
That said, don't be scared off of the 12.9" model! I personally don't understand an iPad at all for "productivity"-to me they're fancy eReaders. I bought the 12.9" model because 9.7" has always seemed too small to me for graphic novels and magazines. Like it's usable, but it's compromised.
The 12.9" model, while it's limited compared to like a Surface, is still pretty awesome at being an eReader. The screen's fantastic, and Apple really nailed the weight and size and whatnot. IMO that's not as important in a 10" tablet, but at nearly 13" it could get out of control if it weren't well done-but they've come close to the weight and size and "in hand feel" of my iPad 2 with a screen that can finally display a full sized page without compromise. I was tortured over the decision for ages, but finally decided to go for it, and am glad I did...everything just looks so much better and I don't feel like I'm squinting or compromising anymore.
Apple's scaling hardware or software or whatever seems to do a nice job too. I'm pretty sure that Marvel Unlimited supports the 9.7" screen's resolution, but NOT the 12.9" one yet, but it looks fantastic on the larger screen. Okay, I still prefer physical paper, and I'd prefer an eInk equivalent to this, but it's really good..
That's a really good point. The 12.9 Pro, with its 3:2 screen, basically replaces paper. That said, I find the compromise that the 9.7 screen (in an Air for me) makes in terms of size v weight advantageous.
"The 9.7" iPad Pro does well in 3DMark's graphics test, but like Ice Storm it doesn't do well in the physics test. It seems that this test is programmed in a similar way to Ice Storm, and in that sense I'm not sure how representative the physics test is of real-world performance "
The physics test conveys utterly no information. If you look at the code, it's obvious that the physics score basically scales as frequency*numberOfCores. So those octacore CPUs get their one (and only...) chance to shine.
But all you're learning is something you already knew --- that the SoC has lotsa cores running at a high frequency. You're learning nothing predictive about how those cores behave on real code. An analogy is to judging an SSD by its interface speed --- "ooh, it supports PCIe3x4 --- obviously it must run at 4GB/s under any and all circumstances", or to assuming that the only number you need to know about a memory system is that it connects to DDR4@2400.
Sure the Samsung numbers are perhaps 3x higher (given different testing methodologies, etc) but I suspect the Samsung volume and power are SUBSTANTIALLY higher. So Apple is doing remarkably well. It would be interesting to know if they are using tricks like TurboWrite (ie use part of the flash as pseudo-SLC) or if that's still on the table, available for next year's performance boost.
Very useful review. Because my own habits may differ from other users, I'm still unsure as to whether I should spring for this new one of try to find an Air 2 (hopefully one with 64 gigs rather than the 16 Apple is offering direct). It seems a bunch of the benefit from the Pro is the camera, which is something I just don't care about.
If they had given this the 4 gigs of RAM in the larger Pro, it would be a no brainer for me. I feel like Apple always holds back on the RAM (and tells us we don't need it), which obsoletes their devices quicker than I would like.
In general apple holds back so they get you to upgrade it's a business model it's the way it has to work or you'll be keeping your iPad forever. IN my opinion, I think even if you had a first generation Erewhon is aware the tablet to hold onto. You really have to ask yourself this is it worth spending $600 more not counting the pencil for an additional hundred or the keyboard for an additional 150 that's if you're talking about their base model if you're going be on that then you have to ask yourself if it's worth spending closer to seven to $800. What do you use your tablet for now? Do you find it slow? Have you went to the store and did a side-by-side such a Staples Best Buy or Apple? I would recommend doing that use them a little bit or even go as far as biting the bullet and buy an iPad Pro from Bestbuy demo them side-by-side on the weekend and decide then whether you going to keep it or return it. Depending on where you're from your givien A window of I believe 14 days to return at least a Best Buy it might be an option for you to try them of them both, but your conclusion and stick with it
DisplayMate measures "lowest reflectance" but this is the best only for glare displays. Tablets with semi-matte, capacitative touch display must have a much lower reflectance but, unfortunately, so far come with 16:9 or 16:10 display ratios.
I wish a Windows tablet with matte, semi-matte or current iPad-like low reflectance display; iPad-like display ratio, casing, weight, battery duration; battery replaceability or service; great WLAN range; BGA SSD; USB and thunderbolt 3. Still the manufacturers of Windows tablets fails to offer displays suitable outdoors with an acceptably low display ratio and a casing suitable for hours of hand holding.
Many iOS apps do not help if the needed functionality is not available; I find it only for Windows or maybe Linux. This and the missing general file management under iOS mean that 2/3 of my tasks incl. productivity (other than simple proofreading) is impossible on iPads. Therefore the iPad Pro 9.7 is too expensive. Its good hardware can never compensate the failure of iOS and apps. This may be different for some needing only mainstream apps and file formats.
Have you actually used them as tablets? The SP4 is a terrible tablet. It's heavier, it's stuck in landscape, it lacks a lot of touch-optimized apps, it has an inferior screen, and it has inferior battery life.
Oh, but Windows, you say. That's great. To get a decent Windows experience laptop out of it, you're spending $1200 for everything, and a $999 Razer Blade Stealth smokes the half-assed laptop that is the SP4, leaving you with $200 to buy an Nvidia Shield Tablet K1, which is still a better tablet experience than the SP4.
I'm using SP3 as my main tablet and laptop. It is stuck in landscape only if you want to use kickstand. If you want to hold it in your hands, it works in portrait just fine. Since I love kickstand, only scenario I use it in portrait is for comics, which I read in app called Cover. Everything else I do in landscape, and even with heavier hardware, being able to use tablet with one hand (while it sits on my lap or on bed, table... at angle I like) while having the other hand free to hold a cup, glass, sandwich... is more than worth extra weight.
I have all the apps I need for tablet mode. Granted I'm not too demanding with apps, but usual stuff - browser, mail client, FB, maps, weather, FB messenger and Skype, YouTube player, News client, comics and ebook readers, music and media players... are all there and perform well under touch.
I can get 8 hours of light usage out of fully charged Surface Pro 3. Most common scenario, browsing, will fluctuate wildly, but hit usually comes with Flash-heavy sites. Not sure if I can open them on iPad at all. And then, there's very nice type cover sitting in vicinity - if at any moment I decide that whatever casual I do will require some serious typing, transformation is 1 second away.
As a laptop - surprisingly enough, SP4 released keyboard (which works with SP3, too) is one of finest laptop keyboards I have ever used, and even touchpad is quite good - maybe not on MB level, but as good as any Windows laptops does... and I still get to use touch screen, which I do. I wouldn't like touch screen on my desktop's screen, but on small screen that usually sits closer to me than desktop, it makes a lot of sense.
My SP3 also has full Office, Photoshop, Lightroom... among few other desktop programs. I'm using desktop for really heavy lifting at home - and gaming - and SP3 replaces laptop and tablet very nicely for me, at home and on travels. iPads are nice - I'm buying them for my mother every 2 years or so - but they just can't replace both laptop and tablet for me, and since I live in NZ - almost every trip is intercontinental, and having one device less to drag is easily noticeable.
You have stated this several times in the comments. What is your definition of tablet? Is it size? The Surface Pro 4 is smaller than the iPad Pro 12.9 in two dimensions, though it is thicker. Is it weight? It's about 10% heavier than the iPad Pro 12.9. If you add in the keyboards and pens for each the weight difference drops to under 3% (1074g vs 1098g). So what makes these a lousy tablet?
It is called iPad Pro. Pro, by default, advertises usage within professionals' needs, a.k.a. work related scenarios. I think the whole naming is wrong. These devices should have been named just "iPad", as opposite to iPad Air. I think "Pro" was added only to try steal show from likes of Surface Pro and other x86 tablets. Pure marketing, very little footing in reality. Classic Phil Schiller.
The footing in reality was probably the massively faster A9X, smart connector, and the Pencil support, which pros can and do use for their jobs.
It's a silly argument anyway, I can do "pro" tasks on an iPad 1 if I want, as my job requires plenty of ssh and command line administration. But leave it to the Apple whiners to complain about Apple's name for a product they wouldn't buy no matter the name.
Still completely puzzled how nobody calls out Apple on the price gauging. This is essentially what the iPad Air 3 should have been, when you look at past evolutions, so they essentially just pushed the price up. This coupled with the fact, that they eliminated the probably most bought storage size (64 GB), means that anybody who wanted to get an 64 GB Air 3 now has to pay 300€ more.
Luckily they decreased the price of the iPad Air 2, so that is now a very strong contender for a good tablet, that is merely meant as a consumption device.
I understand that there are people out there who need a pencil or perhaps even a good camera (although I would think that most people owning an iPad Pro would also have a iPhone), but the amount seems to be so small, that it feels like Apple just needed to add a few things to differentiate this "half" Pro (as in: not even the big chip) from the iPad Air 2.
I think Apple has realized that people only upgrade their iPad's every 5 years or so. A bunch of people still rock the original iPad and I think the most common iPad is still the iPad 2. So they raised the price $100 but the way I look at it that includes at least 5 years of software updates.
Have use this for a couple of weeks, if u wan an 'IPAD', yes this is the best u can get. But if u r thinking to do something more like the 'pro' name suggests, don't buy this. It can't even group some photos and PDFs together without 3rd party app and with lots of restrictions. U have to work around this or that on simple functions, namely no folder system is the biggest let down. Excels, word, autocad, PDFs, bmp, they think separate all files are the best way to manage ur iPad.
For the screen, the left top corner is dimmer than the rest. Since my first purchase have faulty charger and error on charge, they changed a new one by waiting for a week. Then the second unit camera has a fur inside the lens, so they made me wait for a week and give me a new one. All three unit has this dimmer corner, so I don't think this is the best screen around. Open a blank white app and u can notice this clearly.
Thank you very much for this review. iPad is a work tool for me, use is in my semi-truck. Replaced my iPad 3 (the first iPad with retina display) with this new 9.7 Pro and gut disappointed again. Paid $1030 for top version to find out that it lacks RAM and won't be a great long term investment like I desired from a product with Pro tag. Thinking to update to iOS 11 later this year and then refuse to update to iOS 12 in 2017 and after...
Yeah, you won't want to pour a ton of money into the iPad Pro unless you know it'll be your only mobile computer and you specifically need as much storage or connectivity as possible.
Also, I think you mean iOS 10, given that we're still on iOS 9... unless you've found a way to travel a year into the future.
Love the display uniformity tests! Thank you! It always makes me mad that Samsung's AMOLED displays get great marks for calibration, but no one mentions or tests their uniformity. Spoiler! They have terrible uniformity! Most S6 and S7 samples I have come across have white uniformity so bad that the unevenness can be seen with the naked eye in the form of pink or green tints across portions of the displays. It would be cool if you could retroactively test the uniformity of a couple recent Samsung phones.
I forgot to mention this but it's impossible to do on a phone beyond something like a four corner test. The meter is too big relative to the display. When the next Samsung tablets roll around I will definitely be using this test, so keep your eyes open.
It would be deffinitelly good to make some broader tests. I actually heard that oleds have near perfect uniformity considering they lack the backlight that is bassically causing that problem. Might be kind of poor argument as I don't think that laying down oled sandwiches is perfect either... And differently aging colors can take a big tool in this metric over time for sure.
WARNING: I picked up one of these 3 weeks back, I happen to use it in bed, at night, quietly. It's how I like to go to sleep. In a silent room, you can CLEARLY hear the buzz of the LCD driving chip, just put your eat right where the volume rocker is in a very quiet environment, then scroll the screen with your hand. It's quite annoying.
I tried the 12" iPad Pro with the Logitech Keyboard. Other than adding some weight to it they complement each other like family.
I really like the paring, the functionality was remarkably like a laptop.
Having had the new Macbook for a while, I almost could not tell the difference except for the OS differences.
That aside, I am enjoying the 9.7' very much. It makes the iPad Air seem kind of kulnky in it's performance.
The screen size is identical to the iPad Air, as the Matt screen protector fit fine when switching them.
I really wish Logitech would reproduce the Logi Create for the little guy.
The sound on the 9.7" is at least 3 times as loud as the iPad Air, and very welcome. The sound was deeper and better defined on the 12" Pro for the obvious size reasons.
I use the little iPad Pro daily and am trying to figure out who would best like to have my old iPad Air.
I am trying to like the Apple Pencil but there are some "Loss of Connection" issues and the Battery life lasts only around 2 days. There is no way to tell how low the battery on the Apple Pencil is getting until it quits on you. Come on Apple, you can show it with your Magic TrackPad. It would be nice to have an on and off switch on the Pencil as well.
I find myself using an old fashioned capacitive rubber stylus as it is always ready to use.
I have enough Win 10 devices to compare it to but Windows 10 is too buggy and nosey to use.
For my money I'm sticking with Apple for work and play.
I got the 12.9" iPad Pro at work, and I absolutely HATE IT! It has ZERO use case for anyone who doesn't wanna draw on the iPad, and the size alone makes it completely poitnless. IF I wanted to carry a larger device with keyboard, WHY would I pick this iPad pro vs. a MacBook? or a Surface? There's zero added business value. iPad's selling point was its portability, ease of use, getting to your data quickly and not needing a keyboard... ALL of that is negated in the 12.9" ridiculous size.
Now, I might get this iPad Pro, IF it was cheaper, as the price is absolutely outragous! Specially when someone add the Pencil and keyboard cost to it. It should have replaced Air 2, and should have been $100 cheaper and then it'd be the iPad of choice. It still doesn't offer any compelling reason for me to get rid of my iPad Air.
I agree there are definitely a lack of reasons for even me to consider an upgrade. If you have a generation one or two of the iPad Air you really don't need this device and less if you're opting for the better camera the under the hood performance increases and/or the true town display technology If you can live without this features this is definitely not for you. The assessories are or something that I do not consider too much. I consider it it's still a tablet and anything else is additional bogging down the base price
I have sampled this tablet and I think it is really good I put it through its paces and it does keep up in general quite well. That being said though I still think you are an owner of the iPad Air generation one or beyond this is not necessarily an absolute need to upgrade. Unless if your iPad is your primary portable device which in some cases there are people that have them in this manner and have no laptop then you'll want the absolute best power and either you or go for this model or the higher 12.9 inch model. In this generation it's a conflict thing thing as this is why their first generations that introduce and actually larger iPad than the 9.7 in this generation it's a conflict thing thing as this is why their first generations that introduce and actually larger iPad than the 9.7 tier. If you are an iPad owner that has an iPad generation four or below and this may something to consider or even a second-generation iPad Air 2 myself I still think if you can get the iPad Air generation one for a good price it's more than I wore the tablet and you can save money beyond all the other models if you can pick it up for good price. You take a look at the upgrade path and it's Swithin mid tier of what apple has in their upgrade line iOS 10. Still have some time in it and it's still a very where the tablet. I don't think you could go wrong either way with that one or beyond
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
144 Comments
Back to Article
ImSpartacus - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Whew, finally! Looks like is was worth the wait though. :Pdamianrobertjones - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I sold my iPad mini 4, just to get one of these, as I'd previously owned the Air 2 and I simply couldn't justify the extra cost. Sure, of course, it is a nice device, but all I did was launch SimCity Builit (Which didn't seem to load faster) and mess around. For all serious tasks I have the Surface Pro 3.It's a lot... for not a lot really. Plus, seeing as the Surface line was initially blasted for not including a stylus/keyboard, it's annoying that Apple sell them for MORE (I think) than the MS versions.
The charts do not include the Surface pro 4 for screen quality. Selective information?
All in all, although nice, it simply wasn't worth the cash (to me).
Brandon Chester - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
The Surface Pro 4 technically doesn't use the same display tests in all cases, such as GMB, as we use a reduced pattern set for mobile. I can add the results that are comparable to the charts. I think as far as size and price go the Surface 3 is the more relevant comparison though, and that was there.dsumanik - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Gimme a break chester, this is apple's latest and greatest tablet and should be compared head to head with microsoft's latest, on all fronts. That's what apple was shooting for with this product.In fact,
In apples very own keynote they raved about the amount of PC user's that were ditching desktops for an iPad, which is ridiculous because anyone owning a 7 year old PC is not going to be looking to spend 360 bucks just for a keyboard and stylus... LOL!
Brett Howse - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I'm not sure exactly what your complaint is here. The Surface 3 is a much closer touch point in almost every aspect except for performance. But regardless, we have our online Bench where you can always compare any device and I've even done it for you:http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1697?vs=157...
The larger iPad Pro was compared to the Surface Pro 4, as it should be. We keep an online database though so if you want to do any extra comparisons its very simple. Bench is a link at the top of the page.
nikon133 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
It is being marketed as a "Pro" line product... thus it should be compared to other Pro tablets.I haven't read article yet... but I'm presuming tablet runs on platform comparable to larger iPad Pro. I don't think that screen size alone should be the differentiating factor. HP Elitebooks come with screens from 12 to 15.6", for example... can't recall anyone saying that 12" Elitebook is not a business-class laptop just because it is smaller?
dsumanik - Sunday, June 5, 2016 - link
The complaint is that there is inherent apple bias in the that article has extended to the benchmarks.The surface pro 4 may very well be inferior. But this "review" is deceptive. Why not just follow Apple marketing guidelines and compare the ipad pro to "5 year old pc's everyone is leaving for iPad".
Why not just put a single benchmark of a 486 laptop and call it the best?
Vigilant007 - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link
I can understand not being happy with facets of the review. Chalking up your concerns to "you're a horrible person" isn't the most constructive line of dialogue.It looks like your response was nicely responded to. I'd encourage more discussion instead of tin foil hat guttural response. I think we get it from your responses that your using global stereotypes to paint a picture that everything is inferior to what you have.
All of that said, I haven't been a fan of the Microsoft Surface line till this generation. There's a certain rhythm of finally "getting it" in terms of fit and finish that I don't think Microsoft has had in hardware till this year. The Surface Pro and SurfaceBook are both impressive devices. If what I wanted as an individual could be served by the Windows ecosystem (phone through tablet) I would be giving it a much more serious look.
Apples attitude towards user experience and hardware has been, and still is to a certain degree incredibly different then Microsoft and most other OEMs. You can call it "bad" as much as you want, and that's your right to do so. I have a few iPads in my house, and got one for my little brother to use in college. They are arguably the best overall tablet on the market from hardware onto ecosystem.
Thanks for peeing in the punch bowl because someone doesn't agree with you hence becoming a "horrible person".
KPOM - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
It's $260 for the keyboard and pencil.dsumanik - Sunday, June 5, 2016 - link
not in canada, they gouge us. $360.UtilityMax - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
The thick and bulky Surface Pro 4 is hardly a tablet..damianrobertjones - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
I have no issues using it as a tablet and I also own an ipad mini 4.ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
I think the surface pro line depending on how one uses it makes it a competitive choice as opposed to a new Apple tablet. Many people go for the higher-end storage of the surface tablet and that regard it's price is ridiculous when you start talking $1500 for a tablet to me at the feats the purpose for $1500 you can get yourself an amazing laptop. Still would have more memory at least by double maybe even triple and the specs will be as well if you opt for mid tier say 128 GB storage solution if you have an external hard drive plugged in because it has USB three you can save yourself a lot of money. In that regard it's a small use of what the surface provides as an option and also it's an idea of saving money that makes it viable choice. Obviously the recovery partition and the operating system take up a lot of space in comparison to something like iOS or even the android platform built in storage does take a bit of a beating because of it but if you can use everything on a portable hard drive that's plugged in the USB three and run the surface and such in the way it will make the base cost far less and much more approachable. I just think in general tablets beyond I would say $800 becomes problematic specifically because you get into an upper mid tier of what a laptop can offer you for $800 and beyond and you get a lot still you can still have a decently portable laptop with a decent amount of power. Laptops though in this price range and below take a hit in quality and the most important aspect and that is the screen usually this price point or below have very crappy screens the color and their sharpness and infidelity are really not phenomenally up there. When you get in the laptops beyond $1000 point you start getting sharper queen or technology implemented into them. I feel it is important when it comes to a comparison of options out to complete a task. It comes down to really what is cost-effective for your workflow how much you need portability and how much of a solution a tablet aspiring to be a laptop killer a replacement can become Closest tablet to achieve such your feat is the Microsoft surface.ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
Though I am a Mac user I must admit that in regards to any kind of a portable keyboard Apple they dropped the ball when I came to the iPad keyboard. It is a step behind Microsoft smart cover keyboard one because it's not backlit but also because of the way out the bun travel is smaller and the buttons are smaller not necessarily a favorite for everybody. The biggest design thing that I think Apple completely messed and I have to give kudos to Microsoft is the built in stand. I'm not a super fan of windows though I know how to use Windows and use a Windows it is nowhere near my primary platform which is the Mac. But I have to give credit to Microsoft where credit is due the surface pro line is and where the tablet but even I have to met there are many different kiosks I have been to where the tablet has malfunctioned during time of demoing it is much more rare to see an iPad completely not work for kiosk purposes that it is for surface tablet I've seen their tablets not even turn on even with the power cord extend it to them plugged in fully lights show it is fully charged but outside of doing a direct comparison to the different pros and cons of each wall smart enough to know what fits our needs the best for me and iPad is a good tablet and it doesn't basically what I needed to and for others the Microsoft surface pro line suits their needs as well. Trust me we want to open a can of apples and Microsoft comparisons here. Just say they're equally respectable types of tablets based on their own individual merits the only reason I bring up the prior points in general are because a tablet should have a stand and not needing a case to provide such or solution is a very added and welcome bonus the people on a surface tablet. Myself I don't want to surface tablet but I will give them credit for that additionMeteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
I'd like to see the Pro 4 in the charts where possible, please. They are aiming at similar users. I'd love to see the Dell 7275 tested though, as it looks (and feels, after using one for an hour) in many ways better than the MS Pro.blackcrayon - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
Why would you think a 9.7" iPad Pro is aiming at similar users as a Surface Pro 4?damianrobertjones - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
The word 'pro' is being used. Blame Apple.Tikcus9666 - Saturday, June 4, 2016 - link
In the UK the ipad pro 9.7" with 128GB is priced only £100 less (or a few £, if you opt for cellular version) than the Surface Pro 4 entry level with m3, 4GB and 128GB.I think comparison is very valid, also for a "Pro" device, to be considered as a "Pro" device we need more than web benchmarks, and battery life..... until it runs photoshop, lightroom, muse, sony vegas to name a few, it aint replacing a PC for real Pro's
tipoo - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I've been curious - it has less memory bandwidth than the 12.9", but not halved, despite half the pinout width and half the DRAM capacity. Does the chip reintroduce the L3 cache? That could explain it.Ryan Smith - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
No. It has half the memory bandwidth. CPU benchmarks just don't show the full effect.tipoo - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
The memory scores from Ars's review seemed to more than split the difference from halfhttp://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016...
tipoo - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Or this review itself, definitely not halfhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/10286/the-97-ipad-pr...
Gich - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Where is the Surface?Gich - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
*ProUtilityMax - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Because Surface is hardly a tablet. It's a laptop or a netbook, with a removable keyboard.CoreyWat - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Man if I didn't need that Apple Pencil support...I would have totally gone for the Pixel C, very very close race.KPOM - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Unless you care about display quality. The iPad Pro blows the Pixel C out of the water.grayson_carr - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Except in contrast and black level. Pixel C obliterates the iPad Pro there. And the max brightness is near equal. The iPad Pro has better sRGB calibration, but it's not like the Pixel C is poorly calibrated. It's still good.Vigilant007 - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link
The Pixel C just looks fantastic. I LOVE their method for attaching the keyboard. That thing looks like Google at it's bestarsjum - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
I highly doubt you have actually seen the screen of Pixel C. iPad Pro has advantages for professional photography, but for everything else the Pixel C either matches or beats it in quality. It has an excellent screen.Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
So this thing really does outscore AMD's top end FX-9590 in kraken 1.1?bernstein - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
very interesting! in other words: it's almost half the speed of intel's top end i7 6700K in kraken 1.1......but in WebXPRT it's 200 vs. 3000 points...
So what's the more realistic results?
bernstein - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
i7 6700K: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9483/intel-skylake-r...tuxRoller - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
That score of 3000 is..I don't know, but a 2015 xps 15 scores around 440.So, about twice as fast as the Apple soc, but with better process, higher power budget and much larger tdp (given that it's in a full size laptop).
Stoked
Apple's doing an amazing job with their cpus. If they actually spent the die budget to enable smt they'd be right up there with core m.
tuxRoller - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
http://principledtechnologies.com/benchmarkxprt/we...michael2k - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
More interesting to compare it to ahttp://www.anandtech.com/show/10000/who-controls-u...
Carrizo is essentially Atom class and it's predecessor, Kavari, is found inside the PS4 and XB1, albeit with a more powerful GPU and an additional 4 cores. So if you can imagine a 4W processor competing with a 65W CPU:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10000/who-controls-u...
That leaves about 50W for Apple to integrate, say, a Pascal GPU if they really wanted to create something incredibly powerful.
mdriftmeyer - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
You are high if you compare a 4 core Excavator to an Atom.255BB - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
PS4 and Xbox one use Kabini not Kaveri. A 4 cores Kabini has a 15W TDP.Carrizo is not an Atom class .Its TDP is 15-35W (Carrizo-L is Atom class)
Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Perhaps the same *performance* class. Not power class.michael2k - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Right. So take a 4W SoC that currently has two cores and bump it up to 8. An A9X at 2GHz and 8 cores might take 15W. Throw in a Pascal GPU and now you're 35W, or 65W, depending on compute cores.On single thread performance we see the A9 is between Atom and Core at the same clock. That means it is also at the same performance level as Kaveri and Kabini.
bernstein - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
today's world is one of really shitty choices :- ipad pro : the pen feeling/responsiveness i want
- macbook : the os i want
- surface book : the hardware i want (tablet/laptop combo/size/weight)
but hey, after a decade of being let down by tablet pc's all pieces are finally available...
in another decade i may actually get what i wanted back then...
just not sure if i will still want it by the time it arrives...
Manch - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Surface Pro Hacintosh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64UQ7el-FrMsamer1970 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
MacOS does not support touch and pen , so a hackintosh is garbage tabletBlark64 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Mac OS does support touch and pen, as demonstrated by the video link in the comment you responded to... Might want to follow the link next time...Wolfpup - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I'm still sort of surprised it was Microsoft that gave us the first really successful full PC in a tablet...although in another way I'm not, given Microsoft's actually been trying to do that for like a decade prior to the Surface line.I'm so annoyed by Apple/Apple fan's claims that Windows 10 "isn't good at either!" Nonsense. I've been using Windows 8/10 on a desktop for years, and I still prefer it to OS X, and I've been using it with touch for years, and it works well there too.
My iPads are fancy eReaders...not to knock fancy eReaders! But I wouldn't buy one for "productivity", like ever.
BillBear - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Until there is a much better selection of touch first software for Windows, the Surface is not a "tablet". It's more like an ultrabook with a detachable keyboard that you can't really detach because you constantly need the touchpad to drive the legacy software you are forced to use.jlabelle2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Just out of interest, what are the type of "touch first software" do you need to use on your tablet that are missing on the Surface ? I often see this claim but seems more like a legend perpetuated than real assessment of the current situation in 2016.KPOM - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
It's not the OS as much as it is the apps. Too many Windows developers are too lazy to actually write touch/tablet-optimized apps. iOS forces developers to do so. Microsoft is actually one of the better developers of iOS apps. I like using Word and PowerPoint on my iPad Pro.Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Windows 10 and pretty much any app you care to use is fine on a 10-12" touch screen.Spunjji - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I really hope other vendors pick up on True Tone. That sort of tech should be trivial to implement now, and it looks like one of those genuinely useful features that rolls around every once in a while.zeeBomb - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
About time! As a Canadian: to buy or not to buy... That is the question.sachouba - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
It's funny how the iPad Pro 9.7 is compared with the Galaxy S6, the middle range Nexus 5X or the 6 months old Huawei Mate 8 instead of the Galaxy S7, Huawei P9, Xiaomi Mi5 or other 2016 flagships when it comes to performance, display accuracy, recharging time, storage speed, etc.Even with a multicore CPU performance that is not as good as the best CPUs on smartphones right now (the Galaxy S7, for instance), a mediocre contrast (what is the point of having accurate colors if blacks cannot even be rendered properly ?), a price that is way too high, and a battery life that is far from impressive, the iPad Pro is praised in your review...
When it comes to the conclusion, it looks like Apple has invented the "True Tone Display", although it is only a copy of the 2-year-old and not-much-marketed Adapt Display from Samsung – which works great and adapts the white point according to the surrounding environment. You have fallen in Apple's trap of making people believe they invented everything that is known and unknown to Man thanks to aggressive marketing, which is disappointing, to say the least...
Brandon Chester - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
You must have missed the LG G5 in the charts, which is a Snapdragon 820 device. I can't compare to devices that haven't been fully reviewed.Also, you may want to re-read the article to find out why True Tone is not the same as Adapt Display, and to clarify some other things that it seems you missed.
jlabelle2 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Quite condescending statement when what you wrote was : "As you move to different environments the color temperature of the display shifts to match how your eye adjusts its perception of white depending on the temperature and brightness of the light around you."Which is exactly what Sachouba describe about Samsung Adapt Display...
jlabelle2 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Since departure of Anand, Apple product reviews look like PR marketing speech, although the tests and content itself of the review do not match the speech :- "It’s not hard to conclude that the display on the 9.7” iPad Pro is the best display on any tablet" : except that the Surface (Pro 4) has be shown as having a better display (proven also by Displamate) and the Surface 3 is also shown to have a better display or at least as good with the huge avantage for someone really after color accuracy that they can be calibrated.
- "However, the significant hardware upgrades that Apple has made with this new iPad Pro are enough to make up the difference. the 9.7” iPad Pro is only $50 more than the 128GB iPad Air 2 used to cost" : an argument that makes no sense. EVERYTIME the year passes and a new phone or tablet is released, we used to have more power or a better camera or better performance ... for the SAME price. Otherwise, what is the point of the new model ? Except that here, it is more expensive than the previous model. And it is between 100 to 200$ more expensive than the iPad Air 2. And if you want really to take advantage of the real benefit of the Pro (the keyboard and / or the pencil), you need to spend 100 to 270$ !?! Just insane.
- "As far as performance goes, A9X is still the fastest chip that you’ll find in an ARM tablet" : why restricting tablet to ARM processor ? What does it change for the end user if a tablet is running an ARM chip or a x86 chip ? Especially when even a fanless core M smokes the A9X ? And this is good to make the apology of the power of the "small" iPad Pro but what application is taking advantage of this power versus the iPad Air 2 ? Especially with the 2Go of RAM only ?
- "In the end, the 9.7” iPad Pro is clearly the best standard-sized tablet on the market." : and here it is. How can it be objectively labelled like this ? It seems an excellent tablet but making this universal statement when it is the most expensive, it has not the best display (when it really counts for some), it does not have the best keyboard implementation, it is limited by its RAM, and the biggest asset is also its biggest issue of course as it suffers from limited external peripheric support and of some powerful application / program that people who want a powerful tablet with a good display usually are after (photo / video editing, graphist...). So the hardware strengths are constrained by the software capabilities.
Strange wordings and conclusions regarding a overall very nice tablet but with its share of drawback for its intended audience.
Lochheart - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Do you know any 10" Tablet with Core M ?digiguy - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Have a look: http://www.onda-tablet.com/onda-v919-3g-core-m-tab...kmmatney - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
I would not recommend an Onda tablet - I bought one myself and it was a bit of a nightmare. There is very little support. A windows update reversed my touchscreen and was a pain to fix. The glass on the screen cracked with very minimal pressure, and finally one-third of the touchscreen simply stopped responding to touch. This was all within 4 months. I finally just sold mine on ebay, with a cracked screen, and telling the buyer that it could only be used with a mouse and keyboard. At least mine was a lot cheaper than the one you linked to, but cannot recommend an Onda tablet...digiguy - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
I am not recommending either, just showing that it's feasibleLochheart - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Feasible... but does it works ? Throttling, Heat, 1h battery life...And... Windows !
digiguy - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
What do you know? even core I7 has been made fanless in a 12 inch tablet with a new cooling solution, so I don't see why core M could not work well in 10 inches. Battery life will depend on the battery size, in the onda it's smaller than in ipad air 2 for instance, and it lasts around 4 hours, with a bigger one it could last more, but is definitely much more than the 1 hour you speculate about...erple2 - Sunday, June 5, 2016 - link
But then that's the point, isn't it? Throwing a honestly poorly designed 10" tablet as proof that you can get a good tavlet with Core M is not helping your argument. How good is the display? How are the touch apps? How well does the pen work? How heavy is it? How hot does it run? How long does it run on a charge? What about everything else that is tested? Honestly, there has to be a reason why the big players hasn't integrated a more powerful CPU into a small tablet.As a staunchly anti Apple person, I gave to co cede that Apple really does have the best tablet this generation. While the Pixel C comes close, the Pen is very well implemented. Surfaces are fine, but I find that when I want to do real work, I turn to my much more powerful laptop to do that.
melgross - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Neither Surface Pro display can match the display for this product. First of all those products were reviewed before this one came out, and secondly, they are both sRGB displays, with their resultant smaller color gamut.Also, the iPad Pro, either model beats the least expensive Surface Pro in performance, and that model costs as much, or more than the competing iPad.
I understand that your Microsoft products are second best in a number of ways. Get used to it.
jlabelle2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Having a wider color gamut than sRGB is not universally an advantage. Without going into this discussion on how many (little) images are benefiting from that, even in a proper color managed workflow (and iOS seems to be quite good here), sharing and distributing images with wider color space than sRGB is often (most of the time) counterproductive if others 1/ do not have wide gamut screen (the majority), 2/ do not have applications / browser reading the embedded color space (the majority). As such, the interest is honestly quite limited. It does not hurt at all the iPad, on the contrary, but in real life this is not what will make such display stands above other sRGB gamut wide screens.And regarding the Surfaces and DisplayMate, read in details and you will see they are also praised equally :
"The Surface Pro 4 also has the most accurate on-screen colors of any Tablet display that we have ever measured"
"However, Microsoft has also taken an important initial step, with the Surface 3 providing its best Color Accuracy in typical indoor 300 lux ambient"
My point is that many tablets have just excellent screens and that the iPad Pro does not seem to stand in a class of its own at all. But what makes Surfaces screens a real treat for people that value color accuracy is being able to calibrate the screen. That is making all the difference.
Because LCD screen colors evolve unfortunately with time. It would be interesting that Brandon would test and iPad Air 2, today, used since the beginning and how it differs of the original out of the box measurement.
As such, if we are taking only this criteria, for designer or photo / video editor that value utmostly color accuracy, the non calibrating iPad display is a drawback. I mentioned this because making some photo editing on the wedding I shoot, I can clearly see that the iPad Air 2 I have is no match with the Surface Pro 3 I also have, once calibrated.
Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Cor, you're angry.grayson_carr - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
You can compare the displays at the link below. Basically, the calibrations are on par out of the box, with the iPad having a slightly better calibrated white point. The iPad has MUCH higher max brightness and a higher color gamut. The Surface Pro 4 has slightly better contrast and like you said, the ability to do your own calibration. Out of the box I would say the iPad Pro has the slight edge with the higher brightness, higher color gamut, and true tone feature. But the Surface Pro 4 display might be better for professionals down the road with the ability to recalibrate it.http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1697?vs=157...
nikon133 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Performance... in what scenarios? Only if there are pro apps to take advantage of that power, does performance have any meaning. Right now, iPad Pro's "power" is only good for rubbing it into others' faces over a cup of coffee. Once these babies are put to use, iPP turns out just faster iPad, but far cry from Pro device. In real life, it is just an iPad that will turn iBook pages faster, do smoother fly-overs in Apple Maps. Have Apple decided to call it iPad Air 3, no-one would know the difference.I'm finding it ironical that, for ecosystem (and fans) insisting on quality and quantity of casual apps in library, suddenly lack of apps in Pro segment is being ignored or played down. One can't do much on it, but look, oooh, it is so fast.
iPad Pro can be twice as fast as i7 Surface... but without tools from Adobe, Corel, Audodesk... even full-blown Office suite... how is it better Pro tablet than any x86 device?
Re pricing. I cannot compare 32GB iPP with 128GB SP. Much as prices go here in NZ - might differ where you are - 128GB 9.7" iPP is NZ$1,329.00, plus NZ$189 for pen. That makes NZ$1,518, compared to $1,439 for 128GB mCore SP4, which comes with pen. Even if we ignore that these are prices from Apple's and MS's web stores and that SP can be found even cheaper in shops, while iPP basically can't... even if we stick to these prices... you are saying that more expensive device with smaller screen, crippled multitasking, no real library of pro software, no easy (or any, in some cases) way to dock it, connect it to multiple desktop screens, wired network, USB devices... is somehow better device just because it cranked out better score in some synthetic benchmarks..?
OK...
Lochheart - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Yes, the Surface can run Adobe, Corel, Autodesk... etc...Do you think anyone will buy a Surface when it need to work on Adobe tools ? It will never happen.
Who work on a 12" screen ? My 15" Laptop is already to small... So yes, a Surface can run lot of stuff... but compare to what we have on PC side, it's just a outdated config overhype.
jlabelle2 - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
"Do you think anyone will buy a Surface when it need to work on Adobe tools ? It will never happen."I do. This is why I replaced my iPad (my wife is still using her iPad Air 2 for casual stuff) with a SP3 and gave my desktop to my kids. I am using the SP3 as a tablet in the bed, train, airplane for media consumption and tablet things, I am attaching the keyboard when I want to type things, but I can also develop my RAW files in the train with Capture One Pro (alternative from Adobe Lightroom) or in the bed in tablet mode. And 12" is plenty enough to work on pictures as the screen is high resolution and you can easily pinch to zoom.
Or I can simply dock it and use it with a calibrated 27" monitor / keyboard and mouse. That is THE point of using a Surface. Doing more than an iPad.
"but compare to what we have on PC side"
It IS a PC. Also. It replaces basically the need for a PC for 98% of the people.
mrochester - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I see you post in a similar vain here as you do on the Verge forums!The Garden Variety - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
For the love of god: Stop it. Stop putting spaces between the end of your sentence or clause and your punctuation. I realize the French in particular insist on doing this because, well, they're French, but that doesn't change the fact that for written English it is completely and entirely wrong. If you want to be taken seriously, be serious. Write like you care, not like a third grader. English not your first language? Fair enough, but then consider this your first step toward being taken more seriously in your communication.Brandon Chester - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
The question mark with spaces on both sides reminds me of the conditional operator in C :)kurahk7 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Keep in mind that each of these publications only have a sample size of one, and that there are variances between the same products. Because of that, Displaymate might have received an iPad with a slightly worse calibration/panel than Anandtech and vice versa for the Surface.BadSimian - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Displaymate on the iPad Pro's screen - "It is by far the best performing mobile LCD display that we have ever tested, and it breaks many display performance records." http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_Pro9_ShootOut_1.ht...Deelron - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
"Since departure of Anand, Apple product reviews look like PR marketing speech, although the tests and content itself of the review do not match the speech"Amusing since so many reviews by Anand on Apple products had the exact same refrain in the comments.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Huh? Apple's CPUs have been years ahead of the ARM stuff available for Android for...years. Swift was a nice A9+ just like Krait, but since the year after (2012) their CPUs have just been massively far ahead...and yet I STILL hear comments like this that seem completely unaware of that.zepi - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Amoled doesn't mean infinite contrast in practice, only in pitch black test environment. In real life blackest signal is (reflectance) x (ambient light), not zero. Due to this, in high ambient light new iPad has better blacks than any amoled display on the market.And actually, if we go to signal processing maths and measurements, we could start drawing comparisons from them. No one in their right mind would try to argue that 16-bit CD quality audio has infinite dynamic range, even though it is very easy to sample total silence in form of zero signal value to a musical track.
Also music volume is not considered to be infinite, but the value is compared to arbitrarily defined human hearing threshold and converted to logarithmic decibels with 0 meaning non-zero value at the lowest level human ear can measure.
One pretty reasonable comparison point for amoled contrast might be using the quantization error at lower end of the brightness. Ie: something along the lines of set brightness of display to max, display uniform pictures of gray at RGB(1,1,1), measure this brightness in lumens, divide by two (this is quantization error for lowest measurable signal) and then use this as a divisor for the highest recorded value for RGB(255,255,255). Depending on gamma, dividing by two gives wrong results, but for linear display this would be ok.
Infinitely linear displays are available ACME shop just next to frictionless bearings and other such very handy things...
UtilityMax - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
I suspect iPad Pro is compared with the flagship android smartphones because Android tablet hardware sucks. Just have a look at the Galaxy Tab S2 or the Pixel C.tecsi - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Any chance of including iPad Air benchmark numbers as many of we iPad Air owners want to understand the performance gains we can expect.I assumed I could just look at your iPad Air 2/iPad Air reviews to get those numbers there, but apparently your benchmarks are different as the iPad Air 2 Kraken 1.1 numbers were different in the two reviews.
Please let us know if you can do this.
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Unfortunately we do not have the original Air, so we are unable to generate any new numbers for it.Klug4Pres - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Didn't stop you in the LG G5 review.Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
It would be great if you could source one, I think a lot of people are in this situation. Well, I am :)ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
I still believe the original iPad if you want it is still good enough and it's not necessary to upgrade to even a pro. I would say for a couple reasons one it's in the middle of that list for upgradability so it's still future proof for a few more years, also it has a similar body and weight compared to the others. if it is absolutely necessary you need the best camera well then obviously there will be aspects of the newer tablets upgrade. Drawing also would be the next reason to as well if it's something that you desire or your workflow needs without the use of a laptop or other. All in all though I still consider the first generation iPad Air a recommended keep still. Sure you will get a faster boot up by about 28 seconds give or take and your apps will launch a little quicker but in no way is the original iPad Air or even air 2 sluggish and my opinion. I'm surprise many reviews don't even consider this to their readersKilgharrah - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Another significant difference not mentioned between the 9.7 and 12.9 is that the larger unit supports USB3 speeds over lightning. The 9.7 is restricted to USB2. This difference is quite noticeable when importing pictures via the new SD card reader or USB adapter.Wolfpup - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Huh, I didn't know that. That's cool...finally using something akin to an SSD in these things, so the faster speed is actually meaningful (and presumably would be on the three current iPhones and 9.7" iPad too).digiguy - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I own an air, a mini 2 and a pro 12.9. My air hardly gets any use anymore.. I bought the pro 12.9 as I wanted something larger and lighter than my Surface pro 3 for displaying documents and annotating. And I use it quite often for that, while my SP3 is used mainly a as small portable PC. The main advantage of the big pro for me is precisely its large and beautiful screen. And the 4GB RAM make me feel better when I think I spent close to $1000 for it, as it should last quite a few years. Also something that hardly any review mentions is that the sound of the 12.9 pro is definitely better and louder compared to the smaller pro.jlabelle2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
"something larger and lighter" : you spend 1000$ on another tablet to gain ... 66g ?Especially considering that one has a kickstand and the other not ?
digiguy - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
the exact difference is 85g (just checked both). My main use for reading and annotating is in vertical position. There is no vertical stand on Surface unfortunately. And when you hold it in your hand for some time you can definitely feel the 85g difference. But that's not the only reason. The combination of a inch larger plus a better aspect ratio for vertical position make a difference, making for a true A4 page display. Check here http://i.imgur.com/mmifVfU.jpg (SP3 on the left)And there there are other reasons for the purchase of an ipad pro, but reading and annotating was the main one for me.
trewtrew - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
I switched from a SP3 to an iPad Pro 12.9" and MacBook Air. I decided that although one device to rule them all sounded awesome, it sucked in practice. It wasn't one of my deciding factors but it's crazy how much more fits on the iPad Pro's screen than the SP3. I figured they both have screens in the 12" range it should be similar but it's not.jlabelle2 - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
A SP3 has a smaller screen than the SP4 and they have a 3:2 ratio which is PERFECTLY the A4 ratio so the it is better in this aspect compared to the iPad Pro but I see that you are showing music partition and there is nothing like iReal Pro or other specialized music softwares on the Surface matching the great selection on the iPad though.ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
If $1000 for a tablet is something you could afford that's fine but keep in mind $1000 can get you a good laptop as well I don't not your choice and this is not a criticism to what you chose for your workflow so I don't want you to take it as such it's just a general opinion.syxbit - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Google should be ashamed of themselves with those internal NAND (sequential write) results. The iPad is 10x the performance of the Pixel C...Wolfpup - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I wonder if that's with encryption on or off? I sure hope that's with it on :-OI love that iOS just comes with it on now, and users don't need to know anything, manage it, etc., NOR worry about performance.
I know my Android tablet was seriously dirt slow...well, dirt slow in general, and in storage performance specifically. (What blew me away was my equivalently speced Surface running close-to-full-Windows ran circles around it...which is like WHAAAAAT, the limited mobile OS is supposed to at least be faster LOL)
grayson_carr - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
New Android devices all come with encryption on as well. And while Apple does hold a huge lead in NAND performance, I haven't noticed the storage performance of Android devices negatively impacting day to day use since the Nexus 6.ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
I think it's the cost of having a filesystem a more Advanced interaction with it all and having the full on options of tweaking and placement and so on that also can bog down an operating system. A lot of how we perceive a ui or user interface or operating system is in which the speed and workflow comes across such as finding what you're trying to work on how fast it comes on screen how much time you save. With iOS, either not have a file system as you just have apps apps that do specific things. Depending on what type of workflow you have this can be easier or harder you do not have to look through a lot of submenus to find a file or something you're working on. Is your work something that you can transferred to the cloud and just so you have access to other devices after it's done or do you work on a tablet at home and have a come up on your computer at work?When you start getting into the sub areas of an operating system terminal command lines and all types of other advanced features and code and stuff that is one in a way I believe the operating system gets perceived as cluttered. Even something as simple as removing programs and just drag them to the garbage can for being deleted is something common sense and I was amazed that is not implemented across all operating systems. The complexity of having to go to your ad and remove programs list on windows to delete something still is amazing to me that people would have to do such a thing for such a basic function Especially during the year 2016. The thing that makes iOS really good is also the same thing that makes it really bad for some and that is its basic simplicity iOS is at its greatest for young children for people that have a writing type of workflow for consumption, but especially for the elderly that do not have as much technical know-how as others have in life I know I have relatives that if it wasn't for the iPad they would still be thinking of 56K not know how to check their emails and truly enjoy the web. They are not great typists not nearly there not know what the Home row is. In this regard voice dictation gives them another way to interact with their tablets which are computers and allows them to use them much better than without.
Hemlocke - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
It shows in daily usage, too. My Pixel C went out the door to get my Pro 9.7, and after a few hours, I know I made the right choice. The Pixel was irritating, with hiccups and stutters when there is no reason for it. My Air 2 was a better tablet.lucam - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Hi Brandon,There is the new GFX Bench 3.1 available for IOS too; especially the new one 1440 resolution.
It's worth trying it.
Oyeve - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Would be nice if you actually FINISHED your S7 review to see those pic samples against this tablet. I own the 9.7 pro and the S7 and the S7 just blows the pro away. Hmmm, thats probably why you guys never finished the S7 review. It would crush your apple love.Brandon Chester - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I stated in the article that the sensor used in the 6s/SE/9.7" is not the best sensor in a smartphone. I would argue that the Galaxy S6 is superior, let alone 2016's Android devices. Your perception of bias is unfounded.KPOM - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Apple haters gonna hate. For whatever reason they can't accept a decent review of an Apple product, even one that points out its flaws.I like AT and am glad the new ownership doesn't seem to have affected its editorial independence. Kudos to Ryan and the whole team.
Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Unlike the commenter above, I did notice you say that. Would've been good to name a smartphones which are better though.hlovatt - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
@Brenden,Which note taken app do you use? Is it OCR?
Thanks.
Brandon Chester - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I used to use Notability but now I use Goodnotes. It has OCR for searching but I don't think it can do translation to a text doc format.KPOM - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I love Goodnotes.hlovatt - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Thanks for the Goodnotes suggestion, I will give it a try.Loved the review particular the display analysis.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Glad for the explanation of True Tone...quite simple/obvious when it's spelled out like that, and sounds like something we'll eventually take for granted everywhere.That said, don't be scared off of the 12.9" model! I personally don't understand an iPad at all for "productivity"-to me they're fancy eReaders. I bought the 12.9" model because 9.7" has always seemed too small to me for graphic novels and magazines. Like it's usable, but it's compromised.
The 12.9" model, while it's limited compared to like a Surface, is still pretty awesome at being an eReader. The screen's fantastic, and Apple really nailed the weight and size and whatnot. IMO that's not as important in a 10" tablet, but at nearly 13" it could get out of control if it weren't well done-but they've come close to the weight and size and "in hand feel" of my iPad 2 with a screen that can finally display a full sized page without compromise. I was tortured over the decision for ages, but finally decided to go for it, and am glad I did...everything just looks so much better and I don't feel like I'm squinting or compromising anymore.
Apple's scaling hardware or software or whatever seems to do a nice job too. I'm pretty sure that Marvel Unlimited supports the 9.7" screen's resolution, but NOT the 12.9" one yet, but it looks fantastic on the larger screen. Okay, I still prefer physical paper, and I'd prefer an eInk equivalent to this, but it's really good..
Meteor2 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
That's a really good point. The 12.9 Pro, with its 3:2 screen, basically replaces paper. That said, I find the compromise that the 9.7 screen (in an Air for me) makes in terms of size v weight advantageous.arsjum - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
12.9 iPad Pro has 4:3 screen resolution, Surface tablets have the 3:2 one.andrejg - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
That is one expensive reader :-)trewtrew - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
Agreed, iPad Pro 12.9" has been perfect for textbooks reading as well as note taking.name99 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
"The 9.7" iPad Pro does well in 3DMark's graphics test, but like Ice Storm it doesn't do well in the physics test. It seems that this test is programmed in a similar way to Ice Storm, and in that sense I'm not sure how representative the physics test is of real-world performance "The physics test conveys utterly no information. If you look at the code, it's obvious that the physics score basically scales as frequency*numberOfCores. So those octacore CPUs get their one (and only...) chance to shine.
But all you're learning is something you already knew --- that the SoC has lotsa cores running at a high frequency. You're learning nothing predictive about how those cores behave on real code.
An analogy is to judging an SSD by its interface speed --- "ooh, it supports PCIe3x4 --- obviously it must run at 4GB/s under any and all circumstances", or to assuming that the only number you need to know about a memory system is that it connects to DDR4@2400.
name99 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I find the NAND performance numbers very interesting when compared to that tiny new Samsung BGA SSD:http://www.anandtech.com/show/10385/samsung-begins...
Sure the Samsung numbers are perhaps 3x higher (given different testing methodologies, etc) but I suspect the Samsung volume and power are SUBSTANTIALLY higher. So Apple is doing remarkably well. It would be interesting to know if they are using tricks like TurboWrite (ie use part of the flash as pseudo-SLC) or if that's still on the table, available for next year's performance boost.
sfwineguy - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Very useful review. Because my own habits may differ from other users, I'm still unsure as to whether I should spring for this new one of try to find an Air 2 (hopefully one with 64 gigs rather than the 16 Apple is offering direct). It seems a bunch of the benefit from the Pro is the camera, which is something I just don't care about.If they had given this the 4 gigs of RAM in the larger Pro, it would be a no brainer for me. I feel like Apple always holds back on the RAM (and tells us we don't need it), which obsoletes their devices quicker than I would like.
ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
In general apple holds back so they get you to upgrade it's a business model it's the way it has to work or you'll be keeping your iPad forever. IN my opinion, I think even if you had a first generation Erewhon is aware the tablet to hold onto. You really have to ask yourself this is it worth spending $600 more not counting the pencil for an additional hundred or the keyboard for an additional 150 that's if you're talking about their base model if you're going be on that then you have to ask yourself if it's worth spending closer to seven to $800. What do you use your tablet for now? Do you find it slow? Have you went to the store and did a side-by-side such a Staples Best Buy or Apple? I would recommend doing that use them a little bit or even go as far as biting the bullet and buy an iPad Pro from Bestbuy demo them side-by-side on the weekend and decide then whether you going to keep it or return it. Depending on where you're from your givien A window of I believe 14 days to return at least a Best Buy it might be an option for you to try them of them both, but your conclusion and stick with itRobertJasiek - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
DisplayMate measures "lowest reflectance" but this is the best only for glare displays. Tablets with semi-matte, capacitative touch display must have a much lower reflectance but, unfortunately, so far come with 16:9 or 16:10 display ratios.I wish a Windows tablet with matte, semi-matte or current iPad-like low reflectance display; iPad-like display ratio, casing, weight, battery duration; battery replaceability or service; great WLAN range; BGA SSD; USB and thunderbolt 3. Still the manufacturers of Windows tablets fails to offer displays suitable outdoors with an acceptably low display ratio and a casing suitable for hours of hand holding.
Many iOS apps do not help if the needed functionality is not available; I find it only for Windows or maybe Linux. This and the missing general file management under iOS mean that 2/3 of my tasks incl. productivity (other than simple proofreading) is impossible on iPads. Therefore the iPad Pro 9.7 is too expensive. Its good hardware can never compensate the failure of iOS and apps. This may be different for some needing only mainstream apps and file formats.
adamod - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
i would buy it but its waaaay to thick for me...totally unacceptablearsjum - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Is this sarcasm?samer1970 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
the best tablet ? I dont think so , Core M3/5/7 Tablets are better and with full windows 10Hemlocke - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Have you actually used them as tablets? The SP4 is a terrible tablet. It's heavier, it's stuck in landscape, it lacks a lot of touch-optimized apps, it has an inferior screen, and it has inferior battery life.Oh, but Windows, you say. That's great. To get a decent Windows experience laptop out of it, you're spending $1200 for everything, and a $999 Razer Blade Stealth smokes the half-assed laptop that is the SP4, leaving you with $200 to buy an Nvidia Shield Tablet K1, which is still a better tablet experience than the SP4.
nikon133 - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Have you used Surface as a tablet, though?I'm using SP3 as my main tablet and laptop. It is stuck in landscape only if you want to use kickstand. If you want to hold it in your hands, it works in portrait just fine. Since I love kickstand, only scenario I use it in portrait is for comics, which I read in app called Cover. Everything else I do in landscape, and even with heavier hardware, being able to use tablet with one hand (while it sits on my lap or on bed, table... at angle I like) while having the other hand free to hold a cup, glass, sandwich... is more than worth extra weight.
I have all the apps I need for tablet mode. Granted I'm not too demanding with apps, but usual stuff - browser, mail client, FB, maps, weather, FB messenger and Skype, YouTube player, News client, comics and ebook readers, music and media players... are all there and perform well under touch.
I can get 8 hours of light usage out of fully charged Surface Pro 3. Most common scenario, browsing, will fluctuate wildly, but hit usually comes with Flash-heavy sites. Not sure if I can open them on iPad at all. And then, there's very nice type cover sitting in vicinity - if at any moment I decide that whatever casual I do will require some serious typing, transformation is 1 second away.
As a laptop - surprisingly enough, SP4 released keyboard (which works with SP3, too) is one of finest laptop keyboards I have ever used, and even touchpad is quite good - maybe not on MB level, but as good as any Windows laptops does... and I still get to use touch screen, which I do. I wouldn't like touch screen on my desktop's screen, but on small screen that usually sits closer to me than desktop, it makes a lot of sense.
My SP3 also has full Office, Photoshop, Lightroom... among few other desktop programs. I'm using desktop for really heavy lifting at home - and gaming - and SP3 replaces laptop and tablet very nicely for me, at home and on travels. iPads are nice - I'm buying them for my mother every 2 years or so - but they just can't replace both laptop and tablet for me, and since I live in NZ - almost every trip is intercontinental, and having one device less to drag is easily noticeable.
UtilityMax - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Wrong. Those are not tablets. Those are ultrabooks, but with a removable keyboard, and very lousy as "tablet".NonSequitor - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
You have stated this several times in the comments. What is your definition of tablet? Is it size? The Surface Pro 4 is smaller than the iPad Pro 12.9 in two dimensions, though it is thicker. Is it weight? It's about 10% heavier than the iPad Pro 12.9. If you add in the keyboards and pens for each the weight difference drops to under 3% (1074g vs 1098g). So what makes these a lousy tablet?UtilityMax - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Tablet, something I can comfortably hold and use without a keyboard. The iPad Pro 12 is also a pretty lousy as a tablet.Amandtec - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Without ability to plug in a mouse I can't use it for office work. Therefore I need a laptop as well. Therefore I am not buying an iPad Pro.phexac - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
"Without ability to plug in a mouse I can't use it for office work. Therefore I need a laptop as well. Therefore I am not buying an iPad Pro."Well, this is called a "tablet." Welcome to 2016.
nikon133 - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
It is called iPad Pro. Pro, by default, advertises usage within professionals' needs, a.k.a. work related scenarios. I think the whole naming is wrong. These devices should have been named just "iPad", as opposite to iPad Air. I think "Pro" was added only to try steal show from likes of Surface Pro and other x86 tablets. Pure marketing, very little footing in reality. Classic Phil Schiller.blackcrayon - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
The footing in reality was probably the massively faster A9X, smart connector, and the Pencil support, which pros can and do use for their jobs.It's a silly argument anyway, I can do "pro" tasks on an iPad 1 if I want, as my job requires plenty of ssh and command line administration. But leave it to the Apple whiners to complain about Apple's name for a product they wouldn't buy no matter the name.
Galatian - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Still completely puzzled how nobody calls out Apple on the price gauging. This is essentially what the iPad Air 3 should have been, when you look at past evolutions, so they essentially just pushed the price up. This coupled with the fact, that they eliminated the probably most bought storage size (64 GB), means that anybody who wanted to get an 64 GB Air 3 now has to pay 300€ more.Luckily they decreased the price of the iPad Air 2, so that is now a very strong contender for a good tablet, that is merely meant as a consumption device.
I understand that there are people out there who need a pencil or perhaps even a good camera (although I would think that most people owning an iPad Pro would also have a iPhone), but the amount seems to be so small, that it feels like Apple just needed to add a few things to differentiate this "half" Pro (as in: not even the big chip) from the iPad Air 2.
trewtrew - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
I think Apple has realized that people only upgrade their iPad's every 5 years or so. A bunch of people still rock the original iPad and I think the most common iPad is still the iPad 2. So they raised the price $100 but the way I look at it that includes at least 5 years of software updates.Genxxx - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Have use this for a couple of weeks, if u wan an 'IPAD', yes this is the best u can get.But if u r thinking to do something more like the 'pro' name suggests, don't buy this. It can't even group some photos and PDFs together without 3rd party app and with lots of restrictions.
U have to work around this or that on simple functions, namely no folder system is the biggest let down.
Excels, word, autocad, PDFs, bmp, they think separate all files are the best way to manage ur iPad.
For the screen, the left top corner is dimmer than the rest. Since my first purchase have faulty charger and error on charge, they changed a new one by waiting for a week. Then the second unit camera has a fur inside the lens, so they made me wait for a week and give me a new one. All three unit has this dimmer corner, so I don't think this is the best screen around. Open a blank white app and u can notice this clearly.
dannyzhukovets - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Thank you very much for this review. iPad is a work tool for me, use is in my semi-truck.Replaced my iPad 3 (the first iPad with retina display) with this new 9.7 Pro and gut disappointed again. Paid $1030 for top version to find out that it lacks RAM and won't be a great long term investment like I desired from a product with Pro tag.
Thinking to update to iOS 11 later this year and then refuse to update to iOS 12 in 2017 and after...
Commodus - Sunday, June 5, 2016 - link
Yeah, you won't want to pour a ton of money into the iPad Pro unless you know it'll be your only mobile computer and you specifically need as much storage or connectivity as possible.Also, I think you mean iOS 10, given that we're still on iOS 9... unless you've found a way to travel a year into the future.
grayson_carr - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Love the display uniformity tests! Thank you! It always makes me mad that Samsung's AMOLED displays get great marks for calibration, but no one mentions or tests their uniformity. Spoiler! They have terrible uniformity! Most S6 and S7 samples I have come across have white uniformity so bad that the unevenness can be seen with the naked eye in the form of pink or green tints across portions of the displays. It would be cool if you could retroactively test the uniformity of a couple recent Samsung phones.Brandon Chester - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
I forgot to mention this but it's impossible to do on a phone beyond something like a four corner test. The meter is too big relative to the display. When the next Samsung tablets roll around I will definitely be using this test, so keep your eyes open.grayson_carr - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Aw, dang. Makes sense. I still think a simple 4 corner test would be useful though.GC2:CS - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
It would be deffinitelly good to make some broader tests.I actually heard that oleds have near perfect uniformity considering they lack the backlight that is bassically causing that problem. Might be kind of poor argument as I don't think that laying down oled sandwiches is perfect either... And differently aging colors can take a big tool in this metric over time for sure.
AbRASiON - Saturday, June 4, 2016 - link
WARNING:I picked up one of these 3 weeks back, I happen to use it in bed, at night, quietly. It's how I like to go to sleep.
In a silent room, you can CLEARLY hear the buzz of the LCD driving chip, just put your eat right where the volume rocker is in a very quiet environment, then scroll the screen with your hand. It's quite annoying.
My Air 2, didn't do this.
Brandon Chester - Saturday, June 4, 2016 - link
I have it on the table next to me and there's no noise. You might want to get it replaced.R. Hunt - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
Say what you will, I'm never going back to LCD on a tablet, no matter how good. They're still crap.grayson_carr - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
Why? Because they don't make photos look like they were taken in a neon cartoon world like AMOLED screens do?Hal422 - Friday, June 10, 2016 - link
I tried the 12" iPad Pro with the Logitech Keyboard. Other than adding some weight to it they complement each other like family.I really like the paring, the functionality was remarkably like a laptop.
Having had the new Macbook for a while, I almost could not tell the difference except for the OS differences.
That aside, I am enjoying the 9.7' very much. It makes the iPad Air seem kind of kulnky in it's performance.
The screen size is identical to the iPad Air, as the Matt screen protector fit fine when switching them.
I really wish Logitech would reproduce the Logi Create for the little guy.
The sound on the 9.7" is at least 3 times as loud as the iPad Air, and very welcome.
The sound was deeper and better defined on the 12" Pro for the obvious size reasons.
I use the little iPad Pro daily and am trying to figure out who would best like to have my old iPad Air.
I am trying to like the Apple Pencil but there are some "Loss of Connection" issues and the Battery life lasts only around 2 days. There is no way to tell how low the battery on the Apple Pencil is getting until it quits on you. Come on Apple, you can show it with your Magic TrackPad. It would be nice to have an on and off switch on the Pencil as well.
I find myself using an old fashioned capacitive rubber stylus as it is always ready to use.
I have enough Win 10 devices to compare it to but Windows 10 is too buggy and nosey to use.
For my money I'm sticking with Apple for work and play.
alexb1 - Friday, June 24, 2016 - link
I got the 12.9" iPad Pro at work, and I absolutely HATE IT! It has ZERO use case for anyone who doesn't wanna draw on the iPad, and the size alone makes it completely poitnless. IF I wanted to carry a larger device with keyboard, WHY would I pick this iPad pro vs. a MacBook? or a Surface? There's zero added business value. iPad's selling point was its portability, ease of use, getting to your data quickly and not needing a keyboard... ALL of that is negated in the 12.9" ridiculous size.Now, I might get this iPad Pro, IF it was cheaper, as the price is absolutely outragous! Specially when someone add the Pencil and keyboard cost to it. It should have replaced Air 2, and should have been $100 cheaper and then it'd be the iPad of choice. It still doesn't offer any compelling reason for me to get rid of my iPad Air.
ragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
I agree there are definitely a lack of reasons for even me to consider an upgrade. If you have a generation one or two of the iPad Air you really don't need this device and less if you're opting for the better camera the under the hood performance increases and/or the true town display technology If you can live without this features this is definitely not for you. The assessories are or something that I do not consider too much. I consider it it's still a tablet and anything else is additional bogging down the base priceragingfighter - Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - link
I have sampled this tablet and I think it is really good I put it through its paces and it does keep up in general quite well. That being said though I still think you are an owner of the iPad Air generation one or beyond this is not necessarily an absolute need to upgrade. Unless if your iPad is your primary portable device which in some cases there are people that have them in this manner and have no laptop then you'll want the absolute best power and either you or go for this model or the higher 12.9 inch model. In this generation it's a conflict thing thing as this is why their first generations that introduce and actually larger iPad than the 9.7 in this generation it's a conflict thing thing as this is why their first generations that introduce and actually larger iPad than the 9.7 tier. If you are an iPad owner that has an iPad generation four or below and this may something to consider or even a second-generation iPad Air 2 myself I still think if you can get the iPad Air generation one for a good price it's more than I wore the tablet and you can save money beyond all the other models if you can pick it up for good price. You take a look at the upgrade path and it's Swithin mid tier of what apple has in their upgrade line iOS 10. Still have some time in it and it's still a very where the tablet. I don't think you could go wrong either way with that one or beyond