Will iPad Pro Replace A Notebook?

Apple's newest iPad is a 12.9-inch digital canvas. A keyboard and stylus open up creative possibilities. But does it replace a notebook? 

- Mala Bhargava

 

I've lived with the iPad Pro for about a month now. Every time I pick it up, I wonder at its size, its brilliant screen and the ludicrous difference between it and my 'regular' iPad. An enormous tablet isn't altogether a rarity: Samsung and Lenovo have both made these. But coming from Apple, it's a different package. What I could tell right away though is that it isn't for everyone. Whether the expensive iPad Pro is worth the money, depends entirely on what you do.

Why so Large?

From 7 inches of iPad Mini, Apple decides to hand us a mammoth 12.9inch tablet. Why? Well, for one, tablet sales have really been slowing through 2015. For Apple, it's been for the past seven quarters. Tablets have competition from large phones at one end and from hybrid laptops on the other. And the iPad has never fully made it to being considered a work device.

With the iPad Pro, Apple has come up with a device which isn't a lean back carry-around tablet, but a create machine. You can't lean back and use it to read a book — not comfortably anyway — and you can't just drop it into a bag and be off. The iPad Pro is still portable, but in a different way, more like a light laptop. You can hold it up to surf, read, play, but not for long.

The Cover-Keyboard