Apple is giving its iPad the most extensive upgrade since 2015, and similar to the iPhone, the home button and headphone jack are gone. On October 30th, Apple Executives unveiled the new iPad Pro models in two screen sizes, 11-inch and 12.9-inch, offering key features from the latest iPhones.
The updated tablets include slimmer sides that make the displays look nearly edge-to-edge, faster processors, an upgraded back camera, and Face ID for unlocking the device, making payments, and sending customized emojis. The A12X Bionic chip in the latest model brings speeds, artificial intelligence processing, and graphics up to par with the latest iPhones. This update to the iPad Pro is the first since June 2017.
Apple started to turn its back on the universal 3.5mm audio port with the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September 2016. The company argued that space was at a premium inside its sleek smartphone range and maintaining a single-purpose analog connector no longer made sense. Following the iPhone 7, Apple once again abandoned the headphone jack in favor of Bluetooth headphones like AirPods in its latest iPad Pro models, furthermore, the Lightning connector has been abandoned in favor of a USB-C port. This is the first time a USB-C has been used on an iOS device.
Moreover, Face ID, Apple’s 3-D facial recognition system has now replaced the iPad fingerprint scanner. On the software side, the iPads now have a gesture-controlled interface like the latest iPhones, so users can swipe up from the bottom of the screen to close apps, or swipe side-to-side to move between apps.
The iPads are also more expensive now. The 11-inch model starts at $799, up $150 from the $649 10.5-inch version from last year. A top of the line iPad Pro with cellular connectivity, 1 terabyte of storage, and the larger screen costs $1,899, which makes it far more expensive than most full-featured laptops.
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