Apple knocked its big iPad and Mac event out of the park

• Apple held a big event in Brooklyn on Tuesday to debut new iPads and Mac computers.
• Overall, the presentation was much better than the company's last event in September, where it launched new iPhones and Apple Watches.
• The latest Apple products look fun and exciting, but Apple also deserves credit for making its event shorter than last time, choosing new presenters who were clearly excited to be on stage, and even getting the audience into it.

Last month, Apple held its big annual iPhone event - and it was pretty disappointing. There were none of the surprises Apple is known for, and the company even discontinued a handful of beloved products, which many people didn't see coming.

Compared to that event, Apple knocked its big iPad and Mac showcase on Tuesday out of the park.

The products are new and exciting

At its second big event of the fall, Apple debuted three redesigned products: a new MacBook Air, a new Mac Mini, and two completely new iPad Pro models.

The MacBook Air and Mac Mini were two updates that were a long time coming. The last meaningful Mac Mini update, for instance, was over 1,400 days ago.

So Apple delivered in this very basic respect, by updating these beloved computers - but the new products actually look excellent. The new MacBook Air has a Retina display, Touch ID, and USB-C for both power and data transfer - and no Touch Bar, thank goodness.

The new Mac Mini can be configured with six cores and up to 64 GB of RAM, and you can daisy-chain countless Mac Minis together for all of your computing needs.

With both devices, Apple addressed those customers looking for powerful mobile and desktop computers.

Read more: Here's everything Apple announced at its big iPad and Mac event

And, of course, we have to talk about the new iPad Pro, which really does look like the biggest improvement to the iPad since the very first iPad Air. It's similar to the jump that the iPhone made last year when Apple introduced the iPhone X.

The new iPad Pro is a complete redesign - it comes in 11-inch or 12.9-inch sizes, replaces the traditional home button with Touch ID, and features a nearly edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display, the same you'd find on the new iPhone XR.

Apple also built all-new accessories to go with the new iPad Pro, including a redesigned Smart Keyboard and a redesigned Apple Pencil. Both accessories now "click" onto the tablet using special magnets and connectors, and get all their power directly from the tablet. It's the kind of incredible innovation we've come to expect from Apple.

Presentation matters

What's nice about these new products is that the people on stage to present them seemed genuinely excited to talk about them.

All of the presenters were excellent, but Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tom Boger, the head of Mac product marketing, were particular standouts. Both felt energetic and excited to share Apple's news.

It was also really nice to see a healthy representation of men and women on stage this time around. Whereas Apple has been criticized in the past (and rightly so) for having too many white male presenters, the company seems to have listened to those complaints. Angela Ahrendts, Laura Legros, Shaan Pruden, and even Jamie Myrold from Adobe helped balance out the show and kept it from feeling like Apple events are by men, for men. And yes, representation actually does matter when you're broadcasting your company event to millions of people around the world.

Finally, the audience seemed really into the show. It's a small detail, but hearing the whoops and hollers, even when Tim Cook walked out on stage, made the event feel more, well, eventful. Apparently the people in the front rows were mostly if not all Apple employees, but if that's what it takes to make the show more exciting, they should keep planting more of those audience members in the future.

A fitting end to a year of Apple shows

Tuesday's event was likely the last time we'll see Apple showing off new products in 2018. But if that's the last Apple show of the year, the company went out with a bang.

The new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini were three incredibly important updates. Of course, the iPhone is the singular most important product that Apple makes, but the company had needed to address its most "affordable" computers for a long time, and those customers - mostly students, young professionals, and artists - are sure to be happy with these updates, even though all three new products are priced higher than their predecessors (the new Mac Mini costs $300 more to start than before, which stings).

Still, Tuesday's event had everything you'd want from an Apple event: real innovation, a handful of surprises, some gorgeous new product videos, and a feeling like you need that new gadget. It wasn't perfect - 90 minutes could have been trimmed down, even if it wasn't as long as the two-hour September event - but my excitement for Apple's new products continued long after the show ended, and I could not say the same for last month's event.