Apple has officially unveiled its new iPad Pro range of tablets at an event today in Brooklyn, New York, with the much-hyped products finally getting a full, official reveal after months of leaks and rumours.
What follows is everything you need to know about the new iPad Pro tablets, ranging from price and availability, through design and hardware specs, and onto our early impressions of the new devices.
And, if you're currently looking to pick up a new iPad Pro, be sure to take a look at the best iPad Pro deals currently available.
New iPad Pro: official video trailer
New iPad Pro range: price and availability
The new iPad Pro 11-inch starts at £799 ($799), and climbs up to £1,519 for the 1TB model.
The new iPad Pro 12.9-inch starts at £999 ($999), and reaches up to £1,719 for the top-spec non-LTE model.
LTE configuration prices are as follows:
iPad Pro 11-inch starts at £919, rising to £1,669.
iPad Pro 12.9-inch starts at £1,119, rising to £1,869.
Storage-wise, both versions can be equipped with a 64GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage drives.
The new iPad Pro range is available to order today, and hits store shelves on November 7.
New iPad Pro range: design and hardware
The new iPad Pro comes in two screen sizes, a 11-inch model and a 12.9-inch model, the latter boasting 25 per cent less volume than the past edition.
Face ID is also now delivered by the new iPad Pro range, and that works in both portrait and landscape modes, which is a first.
As T3 called before the event, the big design change this year for the iPad Pro is its adoption of the same rounded corners used on the iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, with the new 11-inch LCD Liquid Retina and 12.9-inch LCD Liquid Retina screens closely following the contours of the physical device.
Apple has also made the big decision to remove the Home Button from the 2018 iPad Pro and, despite the device featuring closer to edge-to-edge display with much smaller bezels that the last model, it also doesn't have a notch to house its Face ID facial recognition system, which are embedded in the narrow bezel.
This leads to the new iPad Pro having significantly more screen on offer despite still featuring a marked border around the display, which seems to have been included due to the two-handed usage nature of the Pro, allowing for a secure hold without accidental screen presses.
The inclusion of its Face ID means that the gestures introduced with the iPhone X now come into play.
Hardware-wide the new iPad Pro comes with Apple's new A12X Bionic, which has more than 10 billion transistors. The A12X Bionic includes an 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU, and Neural Engine processor. Performance highlights? Single-core performance is up 35-percent, while multi-core is up 90-percent compared to the last iPad Pro.
That GPU delivers 2x the performance, too, while the graphics are - amazingly - 1000x faster. Apple states the new iPad Pro packs Xbox One S-class graphical power.
In terms of storage, up to 1TB of storage is configurable in the new iPad Pros.
Battery-life? Apple rate it as "all day".
In terms of ports and buttons, the big news is that Apple has ditched the Lightning Connector in favour of a USB Type-C port on the 2018 iPad Pro models.
This allows you to connect to phones, displays and much more.
The sleep/wake button, though, remains in the same top-mounted position as the previous range, and does not make the same jump to the side as on the latest iPhones.
The Apple Pencil has been redesigned, and connects magnetically, automatically pairs, and charges wirelessly. Tap the screen with the second generation Apple Pencil and it automatically turns the device on and launches the sketching app.
The new iPad Pro's Smart Keyboard Folio magnetically attaches, too, and has two orientation positions for lap and desk use.
New iPad Pro range: T3's early impressions
Boy that Bionic A12X seems powerful, with it seemingly packing laptop-crushing power and capability thanks to its combination of 8-core CPU and 7-core GPU.
We're not sure quite how the comparison to Microsoft's Xbox One S games console was made, but if that graphical performance is true, then it is a remarkable piece of engineering by Apple.
The Photoshop capabilities shown off were also very, very impressive, and we can imagine that is "shut up and take my money" awesome for creative professionals and enthusiasts.
The storage options, with up to 1TB of internal storage on offer, also seems on the money for 2018, although that top model is undoubtedly expensive.
The Liquid Retina screen looks absolutely lush, and we for one are not fussed one jot with the removal of the Home Button thanks to how well executed and secure Face ID is.
The price seems manageable at the entry-level, but there's no doubting the premium attached to the £1,719 1TB model, which is very much in laptop replacement territory.
Overall, though, the new iPad Pro (2018) seems like a very confident refresh to the tablet line-up that, at first glance, once more seems to put Apple at the top of the pile in terms of premium, performance tablets, with its appearing to outpunch the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 across the board.
Check back in to T3.com soon for our official new iPad Pro review.
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