The iPad Pro 9.7. I had to laugh a little when I saw it on the Apple event stream. Pen, keyboard, ultramobile and ‘the future of PCs.’ Maybe. Maybe not. Over the years of writing at UMPCPortal there’s one thing that’s for certain – 10-inch screen sizes don’t work well for keyboards and therefore don’t fulfill the full set of user requirements for a PC.Despite that, the iPad Pro 9.7 is one pretty impressive UMPC. At 437 grams it’s potentially one of the most powerful ‘PCs’ per kilo you can buy.

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It’s just minutes after Apple have announced the iPad Pro and I have a feeling that most of you will have heard the news already, but here’s a lot more detail. A 12.9-inch 2732 x 2048 screen with an A9X CPU inside. The iPad Pro has ‘desktop class’ performance. Clearly the Surface Pro 4 has competition.

We have the iPad Pro specifications in our database.

Available in November from $799. Image set below and more information being updated after the gallery. (That’s a 38.5 Wh battery configuration in the image above.)

We have the iPad Pro specifications, including detailed images and videos, in our database.

The 12.9-inch screen has a 4:3 ratio and variable refresh rate to save battery life. 2732 x 2048 5.6 million pixels

The new A9X CPU (ARM architecture) has “desktop class” performance although Apple also say that it’s faster than 80% of small laptops. (Quote: Faster than 80% of portable PCs.)

Battery life: 10 hours (Apple: Web, video and music usage.)

4 speakers give 3x the audio volume as the iPad air 2.

The iPad Pro is 6.9mm thick and weighs just 1.57 pounds which is an impressive 712 grams.

iPad Pro Keyboard accessory:

iPad Pro Smart Keyboard mechanics.

Apple also announced the Apple Pencil which is a digitizer pen with angle and pressure sensitivity. Charging is via the lightning port on the iPad Pro.

Update: Apple have more information on the Apple Pencil here.

Annotation during the live event via Windows Edge on Surface Pro 3.

iPad Pro Pricing and availability.

The starting price is $799 for a 32 GB WiFi version. A 128 GB version will be available for $949 and there’s an LTE 128 GB version for $130 more. [That sounds a lot to pay for LTE – Ed.] There’s no 64GB version.

The iPad Pencil costs a shocking $99 and the keyboard, a critical part of the iPad Pro that needs lots of testing before it’s recommended, costs $169.

At the high-end the iPad Pro with keyboard and pen costs $1347.

The iPad Pro will be available in November. (USA and other regions.)

More iPad Pro specs. (Full specs here.)

• Battery capacity: 38.5 Wh
• Ports: Lightning connector.
• Dimensions: 305.7 mm x 220.6 mm x 6.9 mm (12 inches x 8.68 inches x 0.27 inches.)
• WiFi / BT / Wireless display: a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz) dual antennas. Bluetooth 4.2.
• Sensors: Touch ID, Three-axis gyro, Accelerometer, Barometer, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass, GPS (A-GPS and Glonass support.)
• Rear camera: 8MP iSight camera with F2.4, 5-element lens. 1080p video recording.

We’re now updating on our new iPad Pro specs page here. (Images, links, videos.)

Yesterday at Apple’s annual developer conference, WWDC, the company revealed a refreshed version of the MacBook Air, the company’s thin-and-light Ultrabook competitor. Both 11-inch and 13-inch versions are getting Intel’s latest Haswell chips. Apple claims 9 hours of battery life for the 11-inch Air and 12 hours for the 13-inch. While critics have called Ultrabooks ‘MacBook Air Clones’, Apple may be falling behind.

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Apple has announced new lower pricing and improved Intel CPU’s across its 13 & 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina display range and also lowered the price for its 13″ MacBook Air.

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Although Juniper research have predicted that 178 million Ultrabooks will ship in 2016, they’ve also predicted that 20 million will sell in 2012. ABI Research have just issued a similar number but include Apple products in that figure.

Meryl Lynch predicted 15 Million Ultrabooks. Data from ISI indicates 10 million. Isuppli had predicted over 20 million in 2012 but revised that to 10 million recently in an attention-seeking report.

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Apple now has another product that compares well with the Ultrabook sector, and it’s very impressive. Weighing in at 1.63KG / 3.57lbs the Macbook Pro 13” offers more processing headroom, a lot of pixel density, two Thunderbolt ports, backlit keyboard, SSD and a huge, really huge, 74Wh battery. That alone is an engineering feat that others need to be aware of.

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UX21A Zenbook Prime next to original Zenbook 21E - Courtesy AnandTech

An analysis of the new MacBook Pro with retina dispay by AnandTech reveals that, despite being lower resolution, the Zenbook Prime UX21A’s 1080p IPS display still holds its own in the contrast ration department.

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While Monday’s big news was definitely Apple’s new MacBook Pro with retina display, a thin and powerful new Ultrabook alternative, Apple also refreshed the even lighter and thinner MacBook Air with Ivy Bridge and a few other goodies.

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