Apple didn’t talk too much about the new iPad mini 4 that was introduced at the event but I see one in my future. It is thinner and lighter and has the 7.9-inch Retina display, A8 processor, Touch ID and an 8MP iSight camera. Adding 802.11ac wireless gives you wicked fast wireless access on your wi-fi network.
But the big news was the iPad Pro. It features a beautiful 12.9 inch Retina display with 2732 by 2048 resolution with 5.6 million pixels for rich details in photos and incredibly sharp text, too. It features a new A9x chip with 1.8 times the CPU and 2 times the graphics performance of the iPad Air 2 while maintaining a 10-hour battery life. It has 4-speaker audio which is sensitive to whether you are holding the iPad Pro in landscape or portrait mode to play the lower frequencies on the all four speakers while the mid and high frequencies are played on the two top speakers.
It is just 6.9mm thick and weighs in at 1.57 pounds.
Apple showed the Apple Pencil (stylus) which is a very sensitive, pressure and tilt sensitive precise drawing instrument. They also show the Smart Keyboard which is a cover that is also a keyboard. Where have we seen that before? There is a new connector on the iPad Pro called the Smart Connector to exchange data and power so the keyboard does not need its own batteries or Bluetooth.
The iPad Pro will be available in November in 32GB or 128GB at $799 or $949. A cellular version with 128GB storage is available for $1079. They come in Silver, Gold or Space Gray.