Apple's highly anticipated iPad Pro has finally hit stores. The 13-inch tablet is the company's first shot at creating an iPad geared towards productivity and creation.
It features support for Apple's new Smart Keyboard and Pencil, the two peripherals that the company hopes will make the device a viable alternative to a full laptop computer.
The multi-touch display that debuted with the iPhone 6S is also present here. When combined with the Pencil, it gives users an impressive array of control over their digital work. Have all these features combined to make the Pro the be all, end all tablet? Or does Apple need more time to figure it out? Let's see what the critics are saying.
Given the iPad Pro's obvious laptop aspirations, let's look at how it stacks up against these devices first. Daring Fireball's Jon Gruber says the iPad Pro is "without question faster than the new one-port MacBook or the latest MacBook Airs."
In single-core benchmarks, the tablet is "only a hair slower" than last year's 13-inch MacBook Pro. It also has the Intel Core i5 variant of Microsoft's new Surface Book laptop beat according to his tests.
So hardware wise, it looks like the iPad Pro has more than enough power to compete with fully featured laptops. Does this mean you can get rid of your MacBook and use the Pro full-time? Not yet, says the Verge's Walt Mossberg.
His review singled out the Smart Keyboard cover as one of the things holding the Pro back from true laptop-killer status.
"It's essentially a shallow Mac keyboard, with keys like Command that mean something only in Mac OS X, but not a single shortcut key to an iPad function, like Home or Search. It's also not backlit, and it has only one angle in which it holds the screen." He writes.
Mossberg also found that the absence of a traditional trackpad had him reaching over to the screen a few times too many to make it a truly productivity centered device.
