2020 iPad Pro Review - An Artist Review By Brad Colbow

This is the new 2020 iPad Pro pretty awesome, but is it a worthwhile upgrade, let's find out hello? My name is Brad I review tech for creative professionals, illustrators designers. Anybody who's ever lied to their client about making the logo bigger. Oh yeah, it's totally bigger than it was before I'd like to thank the sponsor for today's video, which is me I'm the sponsor, if you want some best rated courses on Udemy for learning, some of the best iPad software out there check out my page down below linked in the description and the comments, procreate, affinity, designer all sorts of stuff check it out. The iPad Pro update is underneath that camera on this one, that's a big myth from me: okay, okay, I'll, give you that this is not the most exciting hardware update we have ever seen. I mean the coolest part of the new iPad Pro, isn't the iPad itself, but the fancy keyboard cover and that's not even gonna- show up until May there's so many questions about it doesn't really float well, the hinge actually hold it up. Can I pull the iPad off without it moving we'll all those magnets accidentally erased my memory cards? Let's take a look at this iPad, let's roll through the improvements.

First, we have a new processor they're, calling it the a12 ZEE Bionic chip. Now this is replacing the last chip, which is the of 12 X Bionic chip. Second, we have an upgraded camera along the back. It has a wide-angle lens and an ultra wide-angle lens and a LIDAR sensor. Lidar lid, DAR I'm, not sure how it's pronounced.

It's a laser. On the back of your iPad. We also have a nice storage bump. Now the entry-level iPad is starting at 128 gigs, better Wi-Fi, the ability to shoot 4k, video and studio quality microphones, and this is what the mic sounds like pretty good, nothing wrong with any of these features. But the real question is: why would anyone upgrade well if you have a 2018 iPad Pro you shouldn't, the iPad Pro has been on a pretty consistent 18-month refresh cycle since it first came out, and it was due for an update.

This is really for anyone who's new to the world of iPads or maybe has an older iPad that wants to upgrade to the pro. This is the one to get or if you just love this form factor, you could probably now go out and find a discounted or refurbished older model that still works amazingly well for a lower price time. For this bend test, three two one I'm just kidding I can't afford to trash a new iPad. Other people can, though- and it doesn't look like there's- been any structural changes to the iPad this year- I'm I'm, really not that worried about it. I've had my 2018 iPad for a year and a half I haul, it everywhere.

It's gone on trains, planes and automobiles will not train, but I do always keep it in Apple's portfolio case, which I have to think helps. Let's talk about this processor a little. There is no doubt here that the a12 Z Bionic chip is impressive. It has eight cores it's the best ARM chip you can get on an iPad. It rocks the benchmarks and Apple comes right out and says that this thing is more powerful than most laptops.

I'm just going to take Apple with their word here. I pad apps, at least the ones I use are optimized to run on far, far less. For example, procreate runs amazingly well on the low-end 329 dollar iPad. There are some trade-offs in terms of how many layers you can use that that has more to do with the amount of RAM that's available on that iPad. Then it does the processes speaking of RAM.

The most important upgrade for me is that jump from four gigabytes to six gigabytes. It's definitely going to help out your drawing applications. Procreate, for example, should at least in theory be getting more layers because of that on Twitter. They said they're looking into it right now. Procreate is locked at 91 layers when you try to use the default screen size on this iPad, just like the 2018 iPad is because they are looking into it.

I expect that to change in a future update, also procreate, which is usually rock-solid for me- has been pretty crash well I've been using it. In fact, you may notice that several times in the speed draw running in the background of the video seems to happen most when I'm using the color fill tool, but hopefully that's something. That's also cleaned up in a future update, I'm sure there are a lot of applications out there that do need this kind of processing power, but for drawing in art apps it's its really overkill. At least you can take heart, knowing that this thing is still going to run fine years from now. What about that camera? You have a wide-angle and an ultra wide-angle camera on the back of this thing that third camera is actually not a camera.

It's Thee LIDAR sensor for AR. There were a lot of reports that Apple wanted to do a live event, but due to health concerns, they decided wisely, of course, that that just wasn't an option for this year. It feels to me, like the camera, and the LIDAR sensor, got the short end of that stick. Apple. Rarely put something into the hardware just to have it there when they have something like this sensor, they usually bacon some functionality to show off what can be done with it, give real-world examples of its use.

This is an area where that LIDAR scanner really could use a good demonstration, especially since a lot of the AR examples that I've personally seen in the past have been kind of underwhelming I'm, just really curious. What does Apple have planned for this expensive little sensor that they've stuck in the back of their new iPad I, wouldn't be surprised if we saw some cool applications for it at the online-only WWDC this year, so am I really that unimpressed? At this point it really does sound like I, don't like this thing, but that could it be farther from the truth. It's just that the things I really, really like about this iPad we're all present in the last generation model and I absolutely love my 2018 iPad Pro first I've always been a big fan of apples, more squared off designs, they're, easier to hold and grip than the softer, rounded edges of the old iPads, or even the newer iPhones. Now this new squared off design, it does have a very practical reason for existing. It was rolled out to accommodate the new style of pencil charging where the flat edge of the pencil magnetically sticks to the edge of the iPad and automatically charges it the pencil, not the iPad, and that was by far my favorite feature in the 20:18 iPad Pro before my pencil was always running out of juice.

My productivity would grind to a halt. Because I would need to charge my pencil every 20 minutes half hour, even though it charges pretty fast. It was still pretty jarring when you were in the zone and being fairly productive. Now that pencil lives on my iPad, it rarely drops below 50%. In fact, I can only think of one or two times in the last year and a half that it actually got down to zero and died, and that was more my fault for not putting it along the side of the iPad and having it sit on my desk for days on end, there's other stuff I liked.

Here too, the screen is beautiful, the colors are vibrant, there's a hundred and twenty Hertz refresh rate. All of these things are fantastic. These things, don't necessarily change your drawing experience that much but taken together. They do make a nice little upgrade over the less expensive iPads Apple sells, plus they've got the USB type-c port, the ability to attach things like external storage or peripherals. Those things come in handy too, but for any artist or illustrator.

Really, the meat of this is how it works with the Apple Pencil and the Apple Pencil still is always having been fantastic. It's just great to draw with its accurate, it's crisp. The pressure feels amazing. It's just a real top of the line tool and always has been like I mentioned before. Magnetically connects to the top of the iPad for charging stays on their pretty well -.

It's important to note that the pencil does not come with the iPad Pro. It is another $130 and if you've been wondering if it might be worth getting the cheaper, first-generation Apple Pencil, it won't work with these newer iPad pros. That's not Apple, being a jerk, that's just because they change the way that the pencil pairs and charges with the newer iPads. What about those cheaper styluses that promise a lot for a fraction of the price? Again, don't bother. Those are laggy, and they're frustrating, and if you're going to spend the money on an iPad Pro go the extra mile and get the Apple Pencil, it is the only iPad stylus that is worth using period.

What about sidecar is just okay. I mean it is a great second screen. So if you want to use your iPad with your Mac as a second screen, absolutely go for it, it's fantastic for that. My problem has always been the Apple Pencil integration. It just feels a little slow.

It feels a little laggy if you use it for more than 30 seconds. You'll totally see what I mean it just feels a fraction of a bit off. This is basically to say everything. I talked about my sidecar review last fall still stands in terms of drawing experience today. Are there any downsides to drawing on the iPad Pro? And yes, there is one big downside, at least for me, and that is the iPad Pro.

Is this shiny, beautiful glass screen the Apple Pencil? Is this plastic tipped pencil when you put plastic on glass? It's really slick, you don't have a lot of drawing control. It feels very different from drawing on a piece of paper where there is a little of texture, and there is a little of drawing resistance. There's also the downside of getting finger oil on your screen, which means the drag, becomes even more inconsistent when you're drawing on it. I always put some kind of matte screen protector on my iPads just because it feels so much better to draw with. There is a trade-off to those screen protectors, though it does refract some of the color it does dull.

Some color gives it a slightly grainy, almost rainbow feel if you're moving it around and look at the screen from certain angles. I personally am more than happy to make that trade-off to get that better drawing experience. But if color accuracy is your thing that might drive you nuts, I OS keeps improving. It did take me a while to get used to the hand, gestures and lack of a face button on the iPad, but now all of those things are second nature. The one problem with the iPads UI is that a lot of these things aren't really discoverable.

If you know what I mean you have to know that swiping from the bottom left corner of your screen makes a screenshot or that you could put multiple apps and the slide over and toggle between them. If your brand new to the iPad or you just haven't, really explored this stuff, it's definitely worth taking a look at some tutorials on YouTube about how to use all the touch gestures, because there's so many little things hidden in the interface of the iPad Pro a new iPadOS 13.4 dropped the day this iPad came out. The main reason is that they updated trackpad support for the upcoming iPad keyboard. That's coming in May, since it is out early, you can try it out. I connected my Magic Trackpad to this thing to take a four roll, and it's pretty good.

It feels best when it's paired with a keyboard. Art apps really don't take advantage of this, because the update, literally just came out, but I can see affinity designer really being big upgrade since vector apps are much more useful oftentimes when you're using a keyboard or Mouse, it's just more accurate. That's definitely something I'll be keeping my eye on over the next several months and seeing if those updates are forthcoming. I, like that, the mouse here isn't just a pointer like it is on Samsung decks. When you plug an Android phone into a monitor, you can tell Apple, took what they learned from the last version of iPad, OS and thought through this hybrid mouse.

Touchscreen thing before pushing this release out buttons become highlights app icons, get kind of touchy Wiggly when you mouse over up and right now, I'm, not finding this touchpad super useful, but I'm glad it's here. It has a ton of upside and his developers start designing around it. The usability is only going to get better and better, which iPad is right. For you. This is the eternal question.

I will say this if you're going to be drawing large-scale files, like full-size comic book pages, and you want lots of layers and lots of stuff. The iPad Pro is definitely the way to go, and the reason why is it just having more RAM than some lower end models of iPads, which allows you more layers when you're drawing in apps like procreate, if you're drawing another apps were that isn't necessarily a problem, the apps will just crash less often looking at you Adobe fresco, but beyond that I still think the three hundred and twenty-nine dollar standard-issue iPad with an Apple Pencil is a phenomenal deal, a lot of the features that are only available on the iPad Pro like the charging and the nicer screen. Things like that yeah they're great to have, but do you need them? No, you really don't have another common question. I get is: is this a PC replacement? Can this replace my computer? It's MMM this. This one is a hard question for some people.

It's going to be yes for most people, I still think it's going to be no I personally am on Team. No. For me, the iPad is a companion device, I use it in conjunction with my computer. It's my mobile sketch pad it's my main art creation tool. I do a lot of writing on it with the keyboard cover, but for work.

I'm still on my laptop now granted. A lot of my work nowadays is video. Editing, which is just gonna, is a lot faster, smooth or easier on a laptop. A huge part of it, for me is file management and multitasking. You can multitask on an iPad.

I know, but that's really light multitasking, it's hard to have multiple Photoshop documents open at once and working in between them. In fact, it's just flat out and possible, or just moving many files at once, though it's better than it used to it's still a little. Clunky I, like a good Finder window. I will say this: it is light years better than it was just two years ago and since it is better, and it does keep improving for some folks, that's going to be good enough. This is one of those areas where I feel like I might have to break this out into a separate video at some point, just to do a deeper dive into how I actually use this for my date workflow.

Just because the answer to this question, can it replace your PC is a lot more complex than you should try this app or did you know this feature exists? It really goes down to the core of how the iPad is designed. The other question I get a lot is which size iPad should I get. This obviously comes in two sizes: there's the 11 inch and there's the 12.9 again I personally, really like the 12.9 I, like the bigger area that I can draw on the nice thing about most iPad. Apps, though, is that there isn't a lot of cruft. There isn't a lot of extra like panels and graphics and stuff in the drawing in InDesign apps.

Most of them are kind of hidden away, so no matter which size iPad even down to the mini, there's still a lot of drawing space available for you there so which one is better. There's no real answer to that. That's something you're going to have to answer yourself so that my friends is the iPad Pro. If you have any comments or questions or want to check out my online courses, there are links to all that down below. Thank you for watching, and I'll talk to you.

In a couple of days. You.

Source : Brad Colbow