Apple's iPad Pro

Don’t think of the iPad Pro as a tablet, that would be my advice. Of course, it is a tablet, but by calling it that you allow yourself to dismiss it as a tool that’s useful for work. I’m writing this on the iPad Pro with Apple's Smart Keyboard cover, and it’s actually a far better experience than I’ve ever had before with a tablet.

I’ve tried using my iPad Mini for work, with quite limited success. The truth is, it’s just not the right size and while the keyboard I have for it is good, it’s still too small for lots of writing. Plus, there’s the lap issue. How do you balance something like that on your knees while commuting in the morning. The Pro solves this, and I tested it on my lap, and it worked just fine. It’s a little more wobbly than a laptop would be, but it’s still usable.

If you’re considering a Pro, then I think you really need to get the keyboard with it. It’s actually surprising how nice it is to type on, and throughout the day I’ve come back to it numerous times to do proper work, and it’s been absolutely perfect. There is a slight learning curve, but my speed isn’t down on what I’d get with any laptop. I’m still faster on my wonderful Corsair gaming keyboard though.

I guess a lot of people will wonder if they need the Apple Pencil. It’s a costly enough extra to give you pause for thought. Not everyone will find a use for it, and you certainly won’t suffer for not having one, but artists will adore it, and I’ve even enjoyed handwriting with it.

Of course, I’m less than 24 hours in to having an iPad Pro, so its little problems have yet to show themselves. One immediate issue is the lack of apps that have built-in support for Apple’s multitasking. I’m looking at you Google. Skype, Slack and of course Apple’s apps do though, and using the Pro with multitasking makes you wonder about the future of laptops. Sure, we’re not quite there yet, but video editing, photo manipulation and general office tasks are all possible on the iPad. Even if there is a need for performance hardware, I still have a feeling the iPad Pro could take yet another chunk out of an already wounded and bleeding PC laptop market.

And I do wonder about Apple’s Macbook too. The retina-display, low energy laptop that launched this year is amazing in its own right, but the iPad Pro offers a lot of the same, but in a much more flexible form factor. Time will tell, but 2016 is going to be a big year for the PC market.

I’ll have a proper review of the iPad Pro once I’ve spent a bit more time with it. Like many reviewers I’m actually going to use it in place of a laptop for a while and see how I get on. It should make for an interesting experience.