iPad Pro review

Here we are. Apple, the same company that once swore off styluses, and dismissed hybrid PCs as experiments gone wrong, is now selling a laptop/tablet mashup of its own. One that accepts pen input, at that. The new 12.9-inch iPad Pro went on sale last week, and though it is, in a sense, just an oversized iPad, it's also the closest thing we've seen yet to a hybrid device from Apple. With the screen real estate of a laptop, and the speed of a laptop, and various keyboard accessories allowing you to type on it like a laptop, the Pro seems like it might indeed be able to replace your notebook. In fact, Tim Cook himself has suggested as much in interviews. But with a starting price of $799, it isn't for everybody. And even then, it won't replace your laptop so much as complement it.

SUMMARY
The Create is the first third-party keyboard for the iPad Pro. Though it suffers from some of the same drawbacks as Apple's offering, it's still the clear winner, with handy shortcut keys, backlighting and a more comfortable typing experience. If you're looking to buy an iPad Pro keyboard, this is the one you want.

t's a big iPad. There you have it, folks, that's my review. Dana out!

I kid, of course, but I also don't know where else to begin. Because the Apple Pencil and any keyboard you choose to use will be sold separately, all you'll find inside the box will be a Lightning cable, a power brick and this oversized tablet. The build quality and design are the same as any other recent iPad, with a unibody aluminum enclosure available in the usual colors: Silver, Gold and Space Gray. Assuming you were holding the device in landscape mode, you'll find the headphone jack and power button on the left, the volume rocker and LTE SIM slot (if there is one) on the top. So far, so familiar.

It's on the bottom that things start to get interesting. There you'll find Apple's three-pronged Smart Connector, which you'll use to connect the iPad to whatever keyboard you end up choosing. (Apple has licensed the design to third-party accessory makers, starting with Logitech.) Unlike some other 2-in-1s I've seen, the connector here is virtually flush with the tablet's edge, so it's unlikely to snag on anything else you have in your bag. It makes a satisfying click when you drop it into your keyboard and because the magnetic connection is so strong, you won't have to work hard to line up the male and female connectors. The connection is so strong, in fact, that the iPad Pro passes the requisite (and ridiculous) "dangle the tablet by its keyboard cover and see if it falls" test. In case you were wondering.