Apple just took the wraps off its new iPad Pro devices. The company has been rumoured to be planning a major upgrade for the iPad Pro for later this year, and the new devices are being revealed today at the company’s hardware event in New York City.

The company is updating both the 10.5-inch model — now 11-inch — and the 12.9-inch model — now much smaller than the original 12.9-inch iPad Pro. It’s 15% thinner than before, coming in at 25% less volume than the previous generation.

The new devices come with a brand new design for the iPad, introducing the iPhone X’s much-loved edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display like the iPhone Xr. This means the new iPads do not include a home button, removing Touch ID and replacing it with Face ID, which works in any direction you are using the device in — also introduced first on the iPhone X. The revamped design of the device means the screen-to-body ratio is much bigger than before, and all the technicalities aside, these things look gorgeous.

And here’s the biggest surprise: it includes a USB Type-C port. You can connect to external 5K displays through the port, and you can even charge your iPhone with your iPad Pro when you are on the go. It doesn’t have a headphone jack, though.

Apple is also introducing other major upgrades with the new iPad Pro devices. The first of those upgrades is the new 7nm A12X Bionic processor powering the device, which brings major improvements in performance. It comes with a 35% faster single core CPU, 90% multicore CPU, and 2x faster graphics performance than before. It apparently offers an Xbox One S-class graphics performance — yep, Apple compared it with the Xbox One S right on the stage.

The device offers up to all-day battery life, at least according to Apple.

And then there is the new Apple Pencil — the company has completely rebuild the new Apple Pencil for the new iPad Pros. It now connects magnetically to the iPad Pro, much like the Surface Pen It looks fairly clumsy if I am being honest. It also seems to have flat sides, and charges wirelessly. You can even do some cool things with gestures, like switching between notes by double tapping the pencil itself. The Smart Keyboard Folio is being redesigned too, with two kickstand positions.

The new 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799, while the 12.9-inch starts at $999. Pre-orders start today, ships November 7.

Tagged with Apple iPad, iPad, iPad Pro