Whilst I was busy in Paris at a press event on 27th March, 2018, Apple quietly updated its most popular iPad with support for Apple Pencil plus even greater performance, starting at $329/£319. The new 9.7-inch iPad and Apple Pencil give photographers and artists the ability to be even more creative and productive, from post editing photographs, creating images, sketching ideas and jotting down handwritten notes to marking up screenshots. The new iPad is more versatile and capable than ever, features a large Retina display, the A10 Fusion chip and advanced sensors that help deliver immersive augmented reality, and provides unmatched portability, ease of use and all-day battery life.*
“iPad is our vision for the future of computing and hundreds of millions of people around the world use it every day at work, in school and for play. This new 9.7-inch iPad takes everything people love about our most popular iPad and makes it even better for inspiring creativity and learning,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing. “Our most popular and affordable iPad now includes support for Apple Pencil, bringing the advanced capabilities of one of our most creative tools to even more users. This iPad also has the power of the A10 Fusion chip, combined with the big, beautiful Retina display, advanced cameras and sensors that enable incredible AR experiences simply not possible on other devices.”
iPad’s beautiful 9.7-inch Retina display delivers gorgeous detail and vivid colours, and features a higher-resolution touch sensor that enables Apple Pencil support. First introduced for iPad Pro, Apple Pencil has become a popular and versatile tool among students, professionals and creatives and is now available to even more customers.
Apple Pencil delivers a remarkably fluid and natural drawing experience. Advanced sensors measure both pressure and tilt, and provide pixel-perfect accuracy and low latency for activities from note taking to illustration in apps like Notability, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Microsoft Office. iPad’s palm rejection technology even makes it possible to rest your hand on the screen while you use Apple Pencil.
The new iPad features the Apple-designed A10 Fusion chip with 64‑bit desktop-class architecture, delivering 40 percent faster CPU and 50 percent faster graphics performance for seamless multitasking and graphics-intensive apps.** The front- and rear-facing cameras offer exceptional low-light performance and HD video recording for document scanning, moviemaking and FaceTime calls.
The new iPad is a stunning, large viewfinder for immersive AR experiences. Its Retina display, powerful chip, enhanced cameras and advanced sensors, including a gyroscope and accelerometer for accurate motion tracking, are designed to support the next generation of AR apps.
Built for durability and mobility, the new 9.7-inch iPad features an aluminium unibody construction and ultrafast wireless that can deliver two times faster cellular data connections, so it is even easier to stay connected anywhere.*** With Apple SIM, customers can connect to wireless data plans right from their device when traveling in more than 180 countries and regions.****
iOS 11 introduces powerful new features for iPad. The Dock provides quick access to frequently used apps and documents from any screen, and makes it easier to multitask with Split View and Slide Over. Drag and Drop makes moving images, text and files between apps easier than ever. Apple Pencil is more deeply integrated into iPad with support for inline drawing. The Files app provides a central place to access and organise files no matter where they are located — on iPad or in the cloud with built-in support for iCloud Drive and providers like Box, Dropbox and others.
