iPad Pro 2018 Review Roundup: Is it Worth the Money?

The iPad Pro 2018 is here, and the reviews are rolling in. The question on everyone’s mind is whether the new iPad is actually worth the price tag. Well, we’ve got the roundup you’ve been looking for! From new features to returning peripherals, here’s what to expect from the iPad Pro 2018!

iPad Pro 2018 Review

Digital Trends

The Specs

First things first: the iPad Pro 2018 is an absolute beast from a technical standpoint. Much like the iPhone X set a new bar for smartphones in 2017, the iPad Pro is really the bar for tablets. The A12 Bionic chip that powers the tablet is a marvel, multitasking and running at blistering speeds. The massive, gorgeous AMOLED screen really has to be seen to be believed. If you haven’t seen the newest generation of Apple screens you won’t understand just how gorgeous this display is.

The 2018 iPad Pro also sports the front-facing, depth-sensing equipment to power Face ID. There’s no home button and no fingerprint scanner, so your only option for biometric scanning is Apple’s excellent Face ID. It works great in landscape or portrait mode, in high or low light and in whatever surroundings. If you’ve used the iPhone X, you know what to expect here. Really, this iteration of the iPad could have been named the iPad X.

The presence of that depth-sensing front-facing camera array also means that Memoji and Animoji both work on this iPad. Really, if you just think of this as a giant iPhone X, you won’t be far from the truth.

Design

And, much like the iPhone X, this iPad has hardly any bezels. The screen is huge compared to the body, leaving a scant amount of excess around the edges of the screen. In fact, the 12-inch model is noticeably smaller in profile than the 2017 version with the same screen size. This design is clean and attractive and really fits the iPad’s existing design ethos. While the sleek, rounded lines of the iPhone line might look odd at this scale at first, they really grow on you.

Aside from these minor touches, however, the iPad Pro hasn’t changed too much. The lack of a home button does make the device much cleaner in appearance. It’s easy to tell that this is a new era of Apple product design at a glance. Again, the comparisons to the iPhone X come easily. That goes for the lack of a headphone jack, too, sadly.

That’s right: there’s no proper headphone jack. The only port on this year’s iPad is a USB-C port. We were surprised to see that there was no Lightning port this time, but that’s a good thing. It makes finding conversion dongles much easier. It also means you’ll need to invest in Bluetooth or USB-C headphones for use with this device. Which is sort of a bummer.

Peripherals

The star of the show here, much like with the Microsoft Surface line, is the Pencil. The Apple Pencil was an excellent addition to the iPad ecosystem and remains a must-have. For whatever baffling reason, though, the Pencil from previous hardware generations doesn’t work on the 2018 iPad. What’s harder to believe, though, is that the new Pencil doesn’t even work on older iPads. This wouldn’t be as big a deal if the Pencil came with the iPad, but it doesn’t. In fact, it’s priced at a rather steep $129.

That said, this new Pencil is awesome. It has more drag on the screen, which makes it feel like a real pencil. It magnetically snaps on the side of the iPad, which is also how it charges. It reminds us a lot of the Surface line of tablets and how its pen snaps on. It works wonders for artists.

The folio keyboard is back, and, like the Pencil, costs a lot. It also doesn’t come with the iPad, and it starts at $179 for the 11-inch iPad. The 12-inch model costs a staggering $199. That means you’ll be spending a lot on an iPad, given that the 11-inch model starts at $799 and the 12-inch starts at $999.

Bottom Line

This year’s iPad line is absolutely astonishing from a tech perspective. The question remains, however, if this awesome tech is fully worth the high price tag. The iOS ecosystem is a bit stifling and doesn’t lend itself well to replacing full-scale laptops. The lack of a mouse makes editing text a bit of a pain, and that goes double considering the keyboard “trackpad” experience is so hit-and-miss.

Maybe Apple will deliver with more robust apps to help make the iPad a bit more attractive as a Mac alternative. As it stands, however, the iPad is only really a good investment for creatives who really want to draw on an Apple-branded tablet. Until then, it’s a bit too expensive for the casual user.