Good news, Apple fans. If you think the iPad Pro introduced last September is a little too clunky for your liking, here’s a smaller model, dubbed 9.7-inch iPad Pro, for your consideration. Seriously, what was Apple thinking when it launched the laptop size tablet? Average consumers don’t need such an ‘unportable’ size and so, my bet is, the 9.7-inch variety will be more well received. You can expect features a spanking new pro Retina display which Apple claimed to have “greater brightness, wider color gamut and lower reflectivity.”
The Retina display is said to be 25 percent brighter and 40 percent less reflective than iPad Air 2, while delivering 25 percent greater saturation. The display also touts Night Shift mode that automatically adjust the colors of the display to the warmer end of the spectrum based on the clock and geolocation and with the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro, it also introduces a new True Tone display technology to dynamically adjust white balance. The best part is, it is packs the same 264 ppi, albeit at a much lower resolution of 2,048 x 1,536, and shares the same 64-bit A9X chip and M9 coprocessor as the behemoth sibling.
Imaging department also get a boost from a 12MP iSight camera, Live Photos, Autofocus with Focus Pixels, True Tone flash, Panorama up to 63MP, auto HDR for photos, sapphire crystal lens cover, improved noise reduction, cinematic video stabilization, 3x video zoom, 4K videoing at 30fps, and 1080p slo-mo at 120fps, in addition to 720p at 240fps. The front-facing camera, aka FaceTime camera, is of a higher megapixels at 5.0 and with Retina Flash, exposure control, timer mode and face detection.
The rest of the rig is pretty much the same as the 12.9-inch model with exception of battery, which is a 27.5 Wh lithium polymer offering up to 10 hours (or 9, when on Cell network) of Internet use over WiFi, watching video, or listening to music. Size-wise, the slate measures 9.4 x 6.6 x 0.24 inches (240 x 169.5 x 6.1 mm) and weighs in at 0.96 lbs and 0.98 lbs (437g and 444g) for the WiFi and WiFi + Cellular model, respectively.
Pre-order for the new Apple 9.7-inch iPad Pro begins on March 24 with official availability starting March 31 in a handful of countries, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the UK, US Virgin Islands and of course, the United States. Available in three capacities 32GB, 128GB and 256GB in a choice of WiFi and WiFi + Cellular models and in four now standard colors: silver, space gray, gold and rose gold. Prices start $599 for the 32GB WiFi model and $729 WiFi + Cellular model.
