The 2018 Apple iPad Pro (11-Inch) Review: Doubling Down On Performance
by Brett Howse & Andrei Frumusanu on December 4, 2018 10:00 AM ESTWireless
Apple has stuck with the same wireless solution as they offer in the iPhone, which is the Murata/Apple 339S00551 Wi-Fi controller. This is an 802.11ac 2x2:2 solution with 80 MHz channel support, and it integrated Bluetooth 5.0. The actual controller is likely a Broadcom unit, which is what Apple tends to use in its iOS devices.
Unfortunately, iOS doesn’t let us perform our standard copy script to provide peak throughput testing, so we can’t comment on that, however the iPad did lose connection the access point several times and would require a device restart to connect again. Switching to a different access point corrected this issue, but was a less than ideal solution.
On the cellular side, Apple has outfitted the LTE versions with Intel’s XMM 7560 modem, which offers Category 16 downloads.
Audio
As mentioned in the design section, the iPad Pro features four sets of speakers, with both a tweeter and woofer for each corner. There are drilled holes in the aluminum chassis to let the sound out, and the iPad offers dynamic audio based on its rotation so that the left and right channels of audio are directed to the correct side. If you turn the iPad 180°, the left and right channels will switch to keep the stereo correct. It is a great system that works flawlessly.
The actual speakers on the iPad sound very good, and on playback of a test track, were able to achieve around 85 dB(A) measured one inch over the device. There is no distortion, and the speaker range was quite good for a small device.
The bad news is if you want to connect your favorite headphones to the iPad, there is no longer a 3.5 mm jack. The reasoning behind the removal on the iPhone was due to space concerns, but on a larger device like the iPad, that seems like a weak argument. In addition, there’s no 3.5 mm USB-C adapter in the box either, so if you do want to use wired headphones, you’ll need to purchase an adapter. This is obviously less than ideal.
Cameras
Apple offers a 7 MP front facing camera with f/2.2, Smart HDR, wide color support, and "Retina Flash", which means it will use the display as a flash for the front facing camera. The front facing camera works well for Face Time, which is what it is really designed for, although the location of the camera in the top bezel in portrait means that it won’t work well in landscape, since everything is off-center. Ideally, Apple could offer two sets of cameras, which would also help out with Face ID.
iPad Pro Front Camera
The rear camera is a 12 MP f/1,8 with PDAF, Smart HDR, wide color support, and True Tone Quad-LED flash.
iPad Pro Rear Camera Samples
The rear camera is quite good, likely on-par with the iPhone XR.
Google Pixel XL camera samples
Due to the weather (it’s winter in Canada) the only samples here are from indoor shots compared against the Google Pixel XL.
Software
As I mentioned towards the start of this review, as Apple is pitching the iPad Pro as a professional productivity machine, I opted to go into this review focusing on just that. Meaning the competition for the iPad Pro isn't so much other ARM-based tablets, but rather similarly-capable business machines like the Surface Pro series or Lenovo's various Yoga devices. At this point I don't think the iPad Pro's pedigree in terms of hardware is in question. But rather it's a question of whether the software can do everything that a professional machine should be able to. The iPad is inseparable from iOS, for all the benefits and drawbacks that can bring.
Apple wants the iPad Pro to be a professional, or at least prosumer, level of device. And in order to achieve that they need not only the operating system, but also the applications available for people to get work done. The iPad’s success over the years was always offering easy access to content, but only in the last couple of generations has Apple put serious effort into letting people get work done on it via the iPad Pro family.
The Files app doesn't provide access to any files on the device
iOS has come a long way in terns of its ability to multitask, but with the gesture based navigation it can be a bit cumbersome to switch applications on the fly. Over time, you do get better at it, but it still doesn’t compare to the PC. The four-finger swipe to switch between open applications is quick, but if you have several open it can be slow to get where you need to go. iOS 12 of course still supports the Split View and Slide Over modes as well. There’s also no file system access, other than the rudimentary Files application, and Apple has decided not to allow regular USB drives to be connected and used to transfer media. You can hook up a camera card and import the photos, and there are various iOS-specific drives out there that work on an application-by-application basis, but the only way to move the files off of the iPad is generally through the cloud.
Since iOS requires the app developers to explicitly support their multitasking modes, if you want Word open with Spotify at the same time, this is your only option
What it boils down to is that the iPad Pro offers a tremendous amount of performance, but at this point it feels held back by iOS. If you have a workflow that you know works well in iOS, it will almost certainly work better on the iPad Pro. But if you have a workflow from the PC, that will need to be adjusted to make it fit the iPad.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are clearly people who can not only make the iPad work, but find it to be a better tool than what they had in the past, but that is not always the case. With more professional applications coming to iOS, this could improve over time as well, and Adobe in particular has been a strong supporter of iOS with their Creative Cloud applications.
Other features are also left wanting, such as the ability to hook the iPad Pro up to a 5K display over USB-C. At the OS level the only option here is to mirror the iPad display, but since the display you are connecting to likely doesn’t offer touch, and there’s no pointer support in iOS, it literally is just a cropped version of the iPad display on another screen. Apps can take advantage of the second display, such as a presentation which would offer a different experience on both displays, but it doesn’t offer the flexibility of the PC or Mac with regards to connecting extra monitors.
There are hundreds of small issues like this that you’ll run into when using iOS for professional-level productivity. Some of them will be real issues, and some of them will just be re-learning tasks. There’s no doubt you can get work done on the iPad Pro, but the question is if you can do it as efficiently as you are used to. If you can, great. This iPad is for you.
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WasHopingForAnHonestReview - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
The foundation of your entire at point is questionable at BEST. A tablet is bought for a few major reasons, without which, there would be no tablet.1) a portable device that requires no extra components to do its primary function which is..
2) browse net, absorb entertainment and read on while being ultra portable and low effort to accomplish.
3) Ease of use. Simplicity above all else. "So easy a child can use it".
The iPad can do all of these, but where it begins to fail is in the uses youve laid out. If you render a video for your youtube channel you better have your charger nearby. (Hurts #1 above).
If you plan on doing ANY EDITING, you better have a mouse and keyboard nearby. (Hurts all 3 above.)
If you plan on playing graphic intensive games on it, you better have a controller laying around or in your bag.( kill all 3)
The point is what Apple is trying to do with this device defeats the PRIMARY PURPOSES of a tablet. Therefor I would suggest you simply go buy a laptop to accomplish all the feats you just mentioned.
I find the roundation of our point to be ludicrious. So ludicrious I cannot believe youre that silly to get a tablet to show your buddies how fast Apples new cpu is (which it is) then post here how you love it. Your comment reads like a paid shill post which I see here all the time. Or you have Apple stock.
Either way, this tablet from apple has an impressive cpu/gpu that is completely squandered for 99% of the people who would buy it. Its a development misstep by Apple. Writing this I wonder if they will do some data recon to see whos actually using their cpu/gpu to decide on the future path of the line.
My bets for the future would be low power cpu/gpu thag give you days of 1,2,3 before having to charge again. Thats the proper path.
thunng8 - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
Your reasons are for refuting are dubious.1. Do not need to bring charger as iPad hardly uses any power when rendering videos.
2. Can edit fine with the Apple pencil for precise adjustments
3. Not all games need a controller. Some like civ vi, are even better with touch.
thunng8 - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
Although I do not edit a lot of videos, I do edit lots of photos using Lightroom CC. Compared to a traditional laptop.1. Battery life is tremendous. Can get around 8 hours of usage compared to 4 in the 2017 13” MacBook Pro. Also in complete silence compared to fans blaring half the time on the Mac.
2. Using the pencil has been great when needing to be more precise. In some cases even better tan mouse when selecting areas of an image.
Socius - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
1) You should try working with 4K video in LumaFusion before you talk. It doesn’t skip a beat. And the device doesn’t get hot. Nor does it drain a lot of battery.2) That’s your usage for the tablet. Not mine. If that’s all I wanted to do, my iPad Air 2 is more than sufficient for the task.
Also why do you need a keyboard for editing video or photos? Have you seen how amazing it is using your hand and the pencil together? It works like a Wacom device. Touch input is used for image size/position manipulation, as well as tool selection/adjustment. It doesn’t interfere with the work the pencil does. And yes. I do have 2 Wacom devices as well.
Regarding gaming, it depends what you’re playing. I love playing racing games like Grid Autosport, rpg games like final fantasy, or simulation games like civilization. If I want to play hardcore games, I do it at 4K 144Hz with HDR on my desktop.
You talk about needing a mouse and keyboard to be productive. But here’s the thing. I have an i7 surface pro with keyboard and pen. And I honestly find it harder to use. While there is more flexibility in apps and what you can do, it can’t do it as easily as iOS can. The surface pro is a portable desktop. iPad Pro is a different type of device. If you can find the right apps to cover your usage needs, it’ll be far easier to use than the surface pro. I even do my server management on the iPad Pro.
But I appreciate your personal attacks and insults towards me. They say far more about you as a person than they do about me. Also, it’s ludicrous. Not ludicrious, as you misspelled twice. Maybe if you had an iPad Pro, you could take advantage of auto-correct.
Calista - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
In many ways an amazing product, packing so many outstanding features in such a small package. At the same time I can't shake the feeling it's a product looking for a real use-case for all its power. What can be properly done on the Pro which can't be done with far less power? Read pdf files? Play the light games the app store offer, watch some media etc. I could easily be doing all of it with a 100 dollar tablet with a Snapdragon 400. And when talking "real work" Windows or OS X is far more versatile compared to iOS.Sailor23M - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
Agree with Calista and others earlier. I have an ipad 4, a ipad mini, an ipad Air2 and the new education ipad+pencil in my family. I frequently use the iPad Air 2 to take notes and send emails but do not use it for core productivity like ppt/excel - primary reason is lack of a defined local file storage structure and inability to connect to a usb drive - cloud storage is clunky at best for people on the move in trains/public transport.Socius - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
Why don’t you use a locally synced cloud service like iCloud, google drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, etc? The “files” application on the iPad Pro is really lacking on some very fundamental features such as file compression and decompression. But...it does give full access to browse all apps folders. Even across apps. So you can use apps like iZip or Documents by readlle, to extract, compress, move around, manipulate, edit text, look at pictures/videos etc. etc. you can access all those files in your other apps. It’s definitely flawed and limited, but usable. You also can use usb drives. But not directly in the files app. Has to be imported from a 3rd party app.heywally12 - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
Back in the day, used to be a tech guy (well, sysmanager/dba anyway) and a lot of the stuff on this site is over my head now. But at the risk of wasting space, let me thank you for a thorough and excellent review that is understandable to me.DaQi - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
Been a user of the original iPad Pro since it came out. I use it for taking notes and have completely eliminated paper note taking in my life. Was very interested in this new version but two things make it a non-starter and they are very subtle. The physical width of it is slightly wider and thus I can't comfortably hold it in my hand while writing on it. The second thing is that the keyboard when folded has the keys sticking out instead of tucked in like the original. Don't get me wrong the original has a lot of problems. It is a bit of a love hate relationship I have with it but I do use it all the time every day with the pencil and I was looking forward to a new version but this very small and simple change makes it totally a no go - so sad!peevee - Monday, December 10, 2018 - link
"Due to the fact that the bezels required for a tablet"Required by whom?