iPad Pro 9.7
Yes, the iPad Pro 9.7, is here. It's smaller, lighter, more portable, and clearly a response to the criticism of the original iPad Pro's shall we say "advanced" size. The smalle screen will have some size-shock to those early adopters of the iPad Pro. Will the extra portability be worth forfeiting the a4 sized screen real-estate of the original?
Fortunately, this new smaller productivity tablet has the same four-speaker array, producing audio which is crisp and equally clear regardless of which way you hold it, and since it's only 6.1mm thin, it fits easily into the hand, and feels just as much like the future as Apple devices are famed for. Oh yes, and it works with the same Apple Pencil as the original, though it goes without saying that you'll need to downsize to a smaller smart keyboard cover to match the new dimensions.
Following Apple's colour options, you have the choice of rose gold, gold and space grey, and the price of the different models match the feature set included. Options include storage up to 256GB, with and without gps and 4G.
Across the board, you get the Apple A9x CPU, and a somewhat disappointing 2gigs of RAM, only half of what's in the original Pro. Sharing the same chasis as the Air 2, some may question the design advancements of the pro 9.7.
Fortunately, the experience is every bit as smooth as we've come to expect from Apple, and since the productivity apps remain lightweight, we did not see any struggling on a regular day's work. The drawing experience was just as good, and left us wondering why this wasn't the initial release of the Pro, portability taken into account.
Regardless of whether you opt for the larger screen of the original or the scaled down and more conveniently carried 9.7, it's certainly worth protecting your daily driver in style with a premium leather Alston Craig case. With a vintage style and timeless appeal, your premium productivity device from Apple is going to look smashing... without the risk of smashing, of course. An Apple Pencil holder is standard for these cases, so it's always at hand when you need it.
