2018 iPad Pro and Apple Pencil - An Artist's Review By Brad Colbow

And, the Apple Pencil has been completely redesigned, probably wondering how I got myself into this mess. It started when I got shipped to this guy hi I'm Brad I'm, an illustrator and I review things from the point of view of an artist, and today we're taking a look at the new iPad Pro. Oh lord, is he full of himself? He even got a sponsor for this video. Today's video is sponsored by paper like paper. Like is a screen protector for your iPad. That gives it a paper like feel a more natural drawing, feel I've read the whole script.

You don't even tell them how powerful I am once no I got this whole section right here about specs the iPad Pro comes in two sizes: there's the 11 inches in the 12 point, 9 inches I'm reviewing the 12 point 9 inch today, setting it next to my older 12 point: 9 iPad Pro it's smaller at least the overall footprint is smaller. The screen size is about the same, but without the home button and smaller bezels. The overall design is more compact. What about my processor for words a 12? Ah, you know those aren't really words: the processor in the specs, they sound impressive, and this iPad is definitely powerful, and this is all to say that it runs everything that you can run on an iPad, and it's going to run it really well for a long time, they've. Also given the iPad, a facelift I like the new design, it's slick, I'm, a big fan of the flat edges and I liked the design of the iPhone 4 and 5 they looked similar to this.

It looks even better on something this big, the one thing that I was a little worried about going into this was the camera bump on the back. It now sticks out a little because when you're drawing you want it to lay flat. You don't want to be hippy on the edges. The good news here is I didn't really run into that problem, probably because it's so large I also picked up the basic case. It doesn't open for the camera bump that lets the whole thing lie flush on your desk.

It also connects via magnets. Furthermore, it's a really slick case, it's hard to breathe in this. The other major upgrade here is the Apple Pencil. It feels and performs, as it always has Apple doesn't release specs on these things, like pressure sensitivity which I'm okay with those metrics, don't really tell the full story of how good or bad a stylus is. The good news here is that drawing with the Apple Pencil is great, it feels smooth and responsive.

The pressure curve feels good. There's, no weird quirks I draw a lot of inclines, so I'm looking for smoother lines, no jitter a good beginning and end point to fast hatch lines being able to hold the pressure curve consistently around curves corner circles, and the good news here is the Apple Pencil passes those tests with flying colors. That's so good to hear like the iPad Pro. The price of the pencil also went up this year, another 30 bucks, which is kind of unfortunate. There is one thing that nobody liked about the old Apple Pencil, and it has been fixed here, I'm talking about charging the pencil used to charge like a really wobbly, selfie stick, but now charging is Wireless by magnetically.

Attaching the pencil directly to the side of the iPad I feel so powerful. If there was one reason to consider upgrading to the new iPad Pro and pencil this is it I've lost track of how many times I have sat down to draw and gotten the pencil is dead message I only charge when I had to, because I was always worried about setting it somewhere, weird and having it accidentally break just by someone bumping the table or setting something on top of it. Now it just naturally charges when you're not using it and the magnets are strong, it stays put. It is so, so nice. The pencil now also has a matte finish, and they're hiding another little piece of functionality in there.

If you double tap anywhere between here and here, it acts like a button press, for example, in procreate, it switches between the brush and the eraser tool. I like that it has this big hit area, and it will work on any side of the pencil. Also, it's a double tap, so I haven't gotten any false positives. Apple has again taken a feature: that's on most styluses and made it better. The downside here is that this new pencil will only work on the new iPad pros and your old Apple Pencil isn't gonna work on these new devices.

The first part I understand the second part, I think is a real bummer. It doesn't really make sense. Obviously you would need some kind of Dunked if you were gonna charge, the Apple Pencil on the new iPad, but this is another area where it really feels like Apple is price gouging just because they can oh yeah, and you don't even have a headphone jack anymore, iPad, not helping. That was the question parent. Today's question there are a ton of iPads.

Stylus is out there that cost a lot less, which one is as good is the Apple Pencil none of them they are all trash, but this one has all the features. Oh, that is a lie. I'm sorry, but you're, just gonna, have to trust me on this one I'm, sorry that I have to be the bearer of bad news, but my days of reviewing iPad stylus is with palm rejection that only works half the time or a questionable accuracy or pressure sensitivity that kicks in two seconds after you apply. It is over I made this circle. I am done reviewing those Apple doesn't let other stylus manufacturers use the tech in the iPad to its fullest, so unfortunately they have to use Bluetooth to hack some of these features and, unfortunately, that it just doesn't work I'm.

So sorry, man, I, really am I really like this bird right now, I am drawing without a screen protector on my iPad, but if you've watched many of my other reviews, you know that I really prefer to draw on a more textured surface and that's where today's sponsor paper light comes in told you II had a sponsor. It's true: I, don't like drawing on slick glass screens, I, don't feel like I have full control, there's a stylus because there's not enough drawing resistance there, and this is what paper like is designed for. It's designed to feel like you're, drawing on paper, give you more control and accuracy when you're drawing I have one on my first generation iPad Pro right now, I've been using these for over a year now I'm, actually on my second one plus it has this really satisfying paper sound when you draw right now, they're taking pre-orders on their website, they're not available quite yet, but they will be soon. I'm going to put a link down in the description right at the top of the description there, so you can check that out and pre-order yours I'm pretty excited to get mine in a couple of weeks and apply it to this thing, and thank you, paperlike for being a sponsor. Now it's time to talk about pros and cons, I think most of what I've covered here are pros: they're, good things, I love drawing on this iPad, and there are so many little features here that I didn't even cover I love, how it just wakes up when you tap it.

The audio is great. Now they have speakers on the top and the bottom outside the home pod. These might be the best Apple speakers, I have ever heard. It has faced ID, it works great, even in the dark and the screen has a really high refresh rate. So animations in drawing engine is really smooth.

You hear that I'm perfect same, but are there any negatives? What are the cons? Crap? Not many, really from time to time. I do miss the physical buttons. You do have to remember more hand, gestures this way and I think that's something. That's just going to become more natural to me over time. I should also point out that most of the apps that I've used so far are not optimized for this screen and there are black lines along the sides and the top and the bottom making the tiny bezels look bigger, and this is something that will probably be sorted out over the next couple of weeks as apps update con number two is I, don't see a huge performance bump over the iPad Pro from three years ago that I've been using or even a huge performance bump over the new iPad that came out earlier this year.

I have all these amazing specs, but there's not anything. Furthermore, I can really do with them. It's like going out and buying a Tesla, but not having any roads to actually drive it on I think it can make it between those two trees. I, don't know about this hop had Cantu's is not a PC replacement I'm more than a little tired of this argument, but I feel like I need to address it. The iPad Pro is a companion device, especially for creators.

It's your mobile sketch pad that lets. You do work on the go. Will it ever replace your desktop, maybe not, and every single illustrator and create a professional I know understands this concept. It's really only tech reviewers, who can't seem to wrap their head around it. I will say this.

The iPad Pro has really grown up in the last three years, mostly because of the app ecosystem. Procreate has emerged as one of the most fun drawing and painting apps to use on any platform and with every update it keeps getting better. They just added clipping, masks and quick shapes. Last week, affinity photo an affinity designer our moi. Just so good.

You have the power of desktop apps, with an interface designed specifically for the iPad and next year we're getting Photoshop like real Photoshop I. Don't expect it to be anywhere near feature to complete when it releases, but it sounds like Adobe plans on cranking out updates for it to get it there over time and I haven't even met, Eclipse studio and Castro pad. Then the list of apps goes on and on and on when I first reviewed the iPad Pro three years ago, going in between the desktop and the iPad was fairly painful. But a lot of apps have figured the with things like iCloud, Dropbox, Google, Drive integration. It's really become seamless when I save a file, an affinity designer it saves the iCloud I look over at my desktop a couple seconds later and boom it's right there.

So no it is not a laptop replacement. It's not going to replace your Mac! It's not going to replace your PC, but what it will do is it will be an amazing companion device for creatives and illustrators and people who want to draw and sketch on the go. Plus. You have an iPad that could do all of these other things and do them amazingly well, and for that I really love this new iPad. You going to eat that iPad know that gum has been down there for a long time.

Furthermore, you can tell it's hard, but I'm kind of hungry don't eat that I just want to see if it has a little flavor left in it. If you touched that I will never let you target.

Source : Brad Colbow