When it comes to buying an iPad for music making, the best advice has always been to get the most powerful, largest screened model you can afford. Up until today, that's meant the latest version of Apple's regular (as opposed to mini) tablet, but things have changed with the announcement of the iPad Pro.
With its 12.9-inch Retina display (2732x2048 resolution at 264 pixels per inch) necessitating an increase in size, it's obvious that the iPad Pro won't be for everyone, but if you're a serious user of music making apps and can sacrifice a bit of portability, that extra screen real estate will come in very handy. This is particularly true given the new Split View in iOS 9 (available from 16 September), which will enable you to use two apps at a time, side by side.
And then there's the power: Apple claims that the iPad Pro's 64-bit A9X chip gives it as much grunt as most portable PCs. Battery life on the Wi-Fi model is said to run to ten hours.
Make no mistake, then: the iPad Pro is a serious piece of computing hardware. Naturally, that means it comes at a cost - $799 for the 32GB Wi-FI model and $949 for the 128GB machine - which almost takes it into MacBook territory in terms of price. Of course, a laptop running OS X is still a far more flexible option than an iOS device when it comes to music making, but if you're looking for a tablet as well, the iPad Pro sure looks tempting. It'll be released in November.
Find out more on the Apple website. Accessories for the iPad Pro include the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard.
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