New 9.7” iPad Pro adds Pencil support

Pro

Apple's iPad Pro 9.7" version. (Image: Apple)

22 March 2016

Apple has unveiled a new tablet in its line-up: the 246 mm (9.7”) iPad Pro. The new 9.7” iPad Pro is a follow-up to the 328 mm (12.9”) iPad Pro that was released last year.

The 9.7” iPad Pro is essentially a smaller version of the 12.9” iPad Pro. Like the 12.9” iPad Pro, the 9.7” iPad Pro has a 64-bit A9X processor with an embedded M9 motion coprocessor, 4GB of memory, and four speakers (dual stereo speakers).

New screen
The 9.7” iPad Pro’s Retina (2048×1536) screen is an improvement over the iPad Air 2’s screen. According to Apple, the 9.7” iPad Pro screen is 40% less reflective than the iPad Air 2’s screen. It is also 25% brighter (500 nits of light) and has 25% greater colour saturation, with support for the DCI(P3) colour gamut.

The screen on a 9.7” iPad Pro has a new feature called True Tone, which adjusts the display’s colour temperature on the fly. True Tone measures the light of the room you are in, and then tweaks the display to make sure colours are consistent.

Pencil and Smart Connector
The 9.7” iPad Pro has support for the Apple Pencil, and as with the iPad Pro, you can plug the Pencil into the iPad’s Lightning port for charging. And again, just like the 12.9” iPad Pro, the 9.7” iPad Pro doesn’t have 3D Touch support.

It would not be an iPad Pro without a Smart Connector, and the 9.7” iPad Pro has one, too. The three-pronged connector is located on the side of the smaller iPad Pro, and it allows you to connect the new Smart Keyboard designed specifically for the smaller iPad Pro.

New camera
The one feature where the new iPad Pro outdoes the larger iPad Pro is the iSight camera. The 9.7” iPad Pro has a 12-megapixel camera that’s capable of capturing 4K video, while the 12.9” iPad Pro has an 8-megapixel iSight camera and has a top video resolution of 1080p. The FaceTime camera is 5 megapixels on each model.

Costs
The 9.7” iPad Pro is available for pre-order starting March 24, and to ship 31 March. Euro pricing is not yet available, but the US prices are:

Wi-Fi only versions: