Today is Apple’s special event in San Francisco. Many of us were expecting the new iPhones, in the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. But Apple also brought along the iPad Pro (might remind you of the Galaxy Tab Pro that Samsung announced last year) as well as the Apple Pencil (S Pen anyone?). Let’s quickly recap everything that Apple announced today.
Apple has just announced the iPad Pro, the 12.9-inch iPad. Apple is touting that they made the width of the iPad Air 2 the same as the height of the iPad Pro. This way you can run your iPar Air 2 apps on the iPad Pro and still have space for another app. Using the new multi-tasking features shown in iOS 9 earlier this year at WWDC. It’s a 4:3 ratio, with a 2732×2048 resolution display. Giving you 5.6 million pixels. That’s more pixels than the 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro. It’s powered by the A9X processor, a third generation of the A9X here. Apple is also touting all day battery life here, around 10 hours. That’s not all day is it? It weighs in at about 1.57 pounds, and is 6.9mm thin. That’s pretty darn thin, but not quite as thin as the iPad Air 2. Apple has also announced the Apple Pencil. Basically a stylus for drawing on the new iPad Pro. The iPad Pro will be available in space gray, gold and silver. It will start at $799. The Apple Pencil will be $99. Available in November.
The iPad Mini 4 also got announced as part of Apple’s new iPad lineup, which starts at $269 for the iPad Mini 2. With the iPad Mini 4 coming at $399, the iPad Air at $399 and iPad Air 2 at $499. Of course, the iPad Pro finishes out the lineup at $799 as their flagship.
Apple has also announced the long-awaited and rumored Apple TV. It’s powered by Siri, as you’d expect. Apple believes that the future of TV is apps, and we’d have to agree actually. Even looking at Android TV, the future is definitely apps. The new Apple TV is still a set-top box, and not built into TV’s like Android TV is. The new remote has a glass touch surface across the top, acting as a sort of touchpad here. You can search for things like “show me movies with Vin Diesel”, and Siri would show you most of the Fast and Furious franchise and a few other movies. Apple is also announcing a new OS called TVOS for the Apple TV. Which gives the new set-top box an app store to find apps to use on your TV at home. The 32GB model will be on sale for $149, with the 64GB coming in at $199.
Finally, Apple announced the next generation iPhone today. The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Apple says “we’ve changed everything about these new iPhones”. We’ve heard this before, right? Apple has added a rose gold color. And using a new aluminum frame this year. Probably because of the bending last year. It’ll also be available in silver, space gray and gold. We’re still looking at 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models. With the new iPhone’s Apple have rebranded Force Touch – which debuted with the Macbook earlier this year – and is now known as “3D Touch”. Basically you apply a little bit of pressure and, for example, in the mail app you can read the message without opening the message in the app. Kinda like the long-press on Android. Not that revolutionary.
The iPhones are built with the third-generation A9X processor. The same chip as the iPad Pro. Apple has a new Touch ID sensor, the say it’s “lightning fast” this year. The camera has been upgraded to a 12MP camera, from the 8MP camera on previous versions of the iPhone. It also shoots in 4K, for the first time ever. Front-facing camera is now a 5MP sensor. The iPhone 6S will start at $199 with 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models. The iPhone 6S Plus will start at $299 on contract. Again, 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models. Installment plans are $27/month for the iPhone 6S and $31 for the iPhone 6S Plus. Apple is also announcing the iPhone Upgrade Plan which will cost $32/month and you can upgrade each year. That also includes AppleCare. The new iPhones go up for pre-order on September 11th, and available on September 25th.
Lots of new hardware here from Apple, but we’re not all that jealous of what Apple has announced today compared to Android. Who want’s that beautiful Xperia Z5 Premium with that 4K display?