iPad Pro 10.5-inch Unboxing & First Impressions

Contents

The new iPad Pro 10.5-inch model bridges the gap between the huge 12.9-inch model and the 9.7-inch model. I picked this up to replace my iPad Air 2 which has served me for a couple of years now. Although the iPad Air 2 is still pretty much usable, I needed something a lot more powerful and had to go for this 10.5-inch iPad Pro.

I’m not a graphic artist and I consider the 12.9-inch model to be an overkill. Besides, I normally hold my iPad in landscape mode to write at times and I felt I might develop arthritis trying to do that on the huge 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The 9.7-inch model, on the other hand, comes with just 2GB RAM (the same amount of RAM I have on my iPad Air 2) and I couldn’t go for it for that reason. The 10.5-inch and the 12.5-inch models both share 4GB RAM and other key technical specifications.

Items in the box

Apart from the 10.5-inch iPad Pro:

Lightning cable (1)
Adapter (1)
Documentation

Even though you need an Apple Pencil and a Smart Keyboard to get the full iPad Pro experience, you have to buy these separately.

First Impressions

For about 4 years now, the design of Apple iPad models has been rather consistent. Taking the iPad Pro out of the package, it only looks like a slightly bigger version of my old iPad. It’s about the same thickness (6.1mm), but slightly heavier at 477g. Of course, the much-reduced bezels is very noticeable. At the top of the screen is a 7MP camera.

Below the screen is the home button with Touch ID. No, this isn’t the type of home button found on the iPhone 7 & 8, it has moving parts. The screen on this device is probably one of the biggest selling points. The P3 Wide Color Gamut on the retina display gives a very impressive image quality. We’ll get to talk more on this in the full review.

At the top of the device are two speakers, and a 3.5mm audio port. At the bottom, there are two other speakers. These output quality stereo sound. In between these speakers is the Lightning port where is has always been. The 12MP back camera is exactly the one you have on the iPhone 7 and it does come with dual-tone quad-LED flash. For a tablet, it looks like an overkill, but some might find it useful though.

On the right side are the volume buttons and the left side holds the Smart Connector. This magnetically connects with accessories like the Smart Keyboard. There’s nothing revolutionary about the form factor, it’s still the same slim, but beautiful design carried over since the iPad Air.

iPad Pro 10.5-inch is a power house, and Apple dreams the iPad Pro would replace laptops. Is the iPad Pro really a worthy PC replacement? We’ll see in that in the full review.