Maxing out Apple's powerful new iPad Pro with its Magic Keyboard will cost $2,000
- Apple's new iPad Pro with its maxed-out specs and paired with the company's new Magic Keyboard will cost $2,000.
- That configuration would include the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with 1 TB of storage, cellular connectivity, and the $350 Magic Keyboard to go with it.
- It's a high price for a tablet, but falls in line with what a premium laptop would likely cost.
- The way Apple is positioning its new iPad Pro, including the price, suggest that it's getting one step closer to serving as a viable laptop replacement.
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Apple's new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro should bring a lot of welcome improvements for those using their iPad as a work device - namely thanks to its new trackpad and adjustable viewing angles.
But if you're planning to splurge on the top-of-the-line model of Apple's new iPad Pro with the maximum amount of storage, you'll end up spending $2,000 if you opt for the new Magic Keyboard to go with it.
The new iPad Pro, which Apple announced on Wednesday, comes with new Lidar sensors for offering improved augmented reality experiences, a much faster A12Z Bionic processor, and a double camera setup that includes both wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses, among other improvements.
The base model of the 11-inch version starts at $800, while the 12.9-inch model begins at $1,000. The new iPad is available to order today and officially launches next week.
If you max out the new iPad Pro, which means opting for the 12.9-inch screen size with 1 TB of storage space and adding cellular connectivity, you'll be paying $1,650. If you add $350 on top of that for the version of the Magic Keyboard that fits the larger-sized iPad, the total will come to roughly $2,000.
That may sound like a lot for an iPad - and it surely is. But the iPad Pro, as its name implies, is being targeted toward professionals that are looking for a mobile device that can handle work-oriented tasks and potentially replace a laptop.
Although Apple has always kept its mobile and desktop ecosystems separate, it's not shying away from the idea that the iPad Pro is intended to replace a PC. In the first line of its press release announcing the product, for example, Apple draws a direct comparison by claiming that the new iPad Pro is "faster and more powerful than most Windows PC laptops."
The iPad Pro isn't really geared toward those who are looking for a tablet just for managing email, watching Netflix, and even light note-taking. You can probably get by just fine with the much cheaper $500 iPad Air for that.
Those willing to splurge on the iPad Pro are probably looking for more computing power than the average tablet or midrange laptop may offer. It may also appeal to architects and internal designers that are more likely to benefit from the iPad Pro's new Lidar-powered sensors, which can scan real world environments and overlay digital objects accordingly in real time.
As such, the iPad Pro is priced similarly to a general purpose laptop, like a pricier configuration of the Dell XPS 13 that offers 512GB of storage, a touch screen, and 10th generation Intel processors for $1,900. And the highest configuration of Microsoft's Surface Pro 7 Windows tablet, which includes an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, and 1 TB of storage, costs $2,300 before you even add on the $160 keyboard accessory.
Still, time will tell whether the iPad Pro's high-end specifications, Magic Keyboard, and new trackpad support will make it a viable laptop alternative for those who need it.
