**Apple iPad Pro Review: Is it Worth the Extra Cost?**

In this review, we put the 2017 Apple iPad Pro up against its budget-friendly sibling, the 2018 Apple iPad. To determine which device is worth the extra cost, we ran a series of benchmarks and tested various features that set these iPads apart.

**Benchmark Results**

When it comes to benchmarking, the iPad Pro scores higher in most tests. In Antutu's benchmark, the iPad Pro scored 19% higher than the budget iPad, which honestly isn't much of a difference. We saw similar results in 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme benchmark, with the iPad Pro scoring 20 percent higher than the iPad. However, when it comes to browser performance, especially with multiple tabs and switching between them, the extra cores on the iPad Pro make a significant difference.

In Antutu's HTML5 Browser Benchmark, the pro only scored about 10% higher in Antutu S benchmark. There was an even smaller difference with 6 percent better scores on the pro, which isn't too surprising considering the 2018 iPad scored so well in Geekbench for single core tests and that's what's being used for the browser benchmarks.

However, when you start to add more and more tabs and switch between them, the iPad Pro's extra cores will really make a difference. The Pro also has twice as much RAM as the budget iPad, which means your apps will stay open for longer.

**Graphics Performance**

We decided to play the newly released Fortnite on each device to see how it performs in graphics-intensive games. We noticed that the graphics quality on the Pro was higher and the game loaded quicker than on the 2018 iPad. Gameplay was very smooth and we didn't notice any frame drops. The colors popped more on the Pro, and the larger screen size made gameplay more immersive.

On the other hand, it was much more comfortable to play on the 2018 iPad since it isn't as wide. We did notice that the screen was more reflective on the budget iPad, which was distracting at times after an hour of Fortnite gameplay.

**Battery Life**

After an hour of Fortnite gameplay, the iPad Pro's battery dropped to 80%, while the 2018 iPad only dropped to 87%. This means that the extra horsepower does drain more battery life, especially when performing processor-intensive tasks. However, both iPads weigh around a pound, so it's not like the difference is drastic.

**Design and Build Quality**

Both iPads are thin and light, making them easy to carry around. The 2018 iPad is actually thicker than the 10.5-inch Pro due to having a screen that's almost one inch larger but thanks to slimmed bezels. The Pro's camera sticks out a little bit, which may be annoying to some. There's also no rear-facing flash on the budget iPad.

On the other hand, the iPad Pro has four speakers instead of two on the 2018 iPad and they sound much better. With the iPad Pro and landscape mode, you get true stereo sound, while the 2018 iPad only gets stereo speakers but they're on the bottom edge of the device so if you're in landscape mode it won't even matter.

**Camera**

The Pro also gets Apple Smart Connector which transfers both power and data to a variety of Apple and Logitech accessories. We tested Touch ID speed, and the Pro unlocked much quicker and more reliably than the budget iPad, which would often fail to unlock unless you kept your finger on the sensor.

When it comes to camera quality, there's huge differences between the two devices. The Pro gets a 12-megapixel sensor capable of shooting 4K video, while the 2018 iPad only gets 8 megapixels and can only shoot up to 1080p photos. Look more detailed and the colors look better on the Pro also.

The video on the iPad Pro looks much more detailed than on the budget iPad. An even larger difference is seen in the FaceTime camera, with 7 megapixels on the Pro capable of 1080p video in a quite poor 1.2 megapixels on the budget iPad with up to 720p recording.

**Should You Buy the 2018 iPad?**

In conclusion, while the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is better in pretty much every way, the 2018 budget iPad is good enough to satisfy the needs of most consumers. Unless you compare both iPads at the same time, you'll never know how much better the iPad Pro is.

If you do decide to buy the iPad Pro for its extra features, it's foolish not to buy a protective case to add some value to your purchase. However, if you're on a budget, the 2018 iPad can get the Apple Pencil in a case for less than the iPad Pro itself.

**Final Thoughts**

This has been Vadim with Apple Insider making sure to subscribe and enabling notifications so you don't miss videos like this one.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enapple just released their 2018 budget iPad retaining last year's $329 price tag the new iPad is a first non ipad pro model to support Apple pencil this is a huge deal for those who want to use the Apple pencil but don't want to pay upwards of $600 to do so the 2017 10.5 inch iPad pro is priced at 649 dollars to be exact there are a few differences in display technology that can actually make a difference while using the Apple pencil the 2017 iPad pro has promotion which basically means that the screen refreshes at 120 Hertz a second compared to the normal 60 Hertz on all other ipad devices including the new 2018 iPad in this slow-motion footage you can see that the iPad pros display is so much more fluid and all interactions are smooth testing Apple pencil response time you can see just how much longer it takes for marks to show up on the screen while using the budget iPad it's practically instant on the iPad pro further blurring the line between real and digital drawing another big difference is that the iPad pros display is fully laminated given the illusion that the display is actually part of the cover glass it also helps boost contrast and color reproduction the budget iPad has a non laminated display which looks kind of grey compared to the deep black on the pro you can also easily notice a gap in between the display and the glass on the 2018 ipad when using the Apple pencil the gap becomes much more noticeable because you're concentrating on the stylus tip this can cause issues with accuracy especially when drawing detailed graphics when you're not looking straight down at the iPad however on the iPad pro the gap is almost non-existent so it pretty much feels like you're actually drawing on a piece of paper so the Apple pencil experience is definitely better on the 10.5 inch iPad pro but is it worth twice the price the 2017 ipad pro's display has p-3 wide color gamut support so colors really pop compared to the budget ipad the screen on the pro is also noticeably brighter which is especially helpful when using the device outside on top of that the iPad pro has an anti-reflective coating and as you can see it seriously helps with glare another awesome display feature that comes on the pro is true tone which automatically Tunes the displays white balance to match ambient light so your screen won't look all blue while in a tungsten lit room the new 2018 iPad comes with Apple's a10 fusion processor a four core processor pulled directly from the iPhone 7 and 7 plus whereas the 2017 iPad pro is loaded with the a 10x chip Apple's first six core mobile processor let's run some benchmarks to see how they compare in Geekbench for the iPad pro got a 13% higher score in the single core test which honestly isn't much however there's a huge difference in the multi-core test with a 57% better score for the pro the biggest shocker was the graphics test the iPad pro more than double the score put in by the 2018 iPad this is going to translate into massive improvements in rendering and multi-core processes in antutu s benchmark the pro scored 19% higher than the budget iPad which honestly isn't much of a difference we saw similar results in 3dmark sling shot extreme benchmark with the iPad pro scoring 20 percent higher than the iPad we also tested browser performance and we didn't see much of a difference in octane 2.0 the pro only scored about 10% higher in antutu s html5 browser benchmark there was an even smaller difference with 6 percent better scores on the pro this isn't too surprising because the 2018 iPad scored so well in Geekbench for single core tests and that's what's being used for the browser benchmarks just one core however when you start to add more and more tabs and switch between them the ipad pro's extra cores will really make a difference the pro also has twice as much RAM as the budget iPad so your apps will stay open for longer since the iPad pro did so well in the graphics test we decided to play the newly released fortnight on each device we noticed that the graphics quality on the pro was higher and the game loaded quicker than on the 2018 iPad gameplay was very smooth and we didn't notice any frame drops the colors popped more on the pro and the larger screen size made gameplay more immersive on the other hand it was much more comfortable to play on the 2018 iPad since it isn't as wide we did notice that the screen was more reflective on the budget iPad which was distracting at times after an hour fortnight gameplay the ipad pro's battery dropped to 80% on the 2018 ipad it only dropped 87% so we can see that the extra horsepower does drain more battery life while performing processor intensive tasks both iPads way around a pound but the 2018 iPad is actually thicker than the tempo 5-inch Pro for having a screen that's almost one inch larger it's not much bigger thanks to slimmed bezels all around the Prost camera sticks out a little bit which may be annoying to some there's also no rear-facing flash on the budget iPad the iPad pro has four speakers instead of two on the 2018 iPad and they sound much better just hear it for yourself the 2018 iPad does have stereo speakers but they're on the bottom edge of the device so if you're in landscape mode it won't even matter with the iPad pro and landscape mode you get true stereo sound the pro also gets Apple smart connector which transfers both power and data to a variety of Apple and Logitech accessories we tested touch ID speed and the pro unlocked much quicker and much more reliably than the budget iPad which would often fail to unlock unless you kept your finger on the sensor there's some huge differences in the camera as well the pro gets a 12 megapixel sensor capable of shooting 4k video the 2018 ipad only gets 8 megapixels and can only shoot up to 1080p photos look more detailed and the colors look better on the pro also the video on the iPad pro looks much more detailed than on the budget iPad an even larger difference is seen in the FaceTime camera with 7 megapixels on the pro capable of 1080p video in a quite poor 1.2 megapixels on the budget iPad with up to 720p recording hey guys this is a selfie video in microphone comparison on the 2018 iPad now we're on the 2017 10.5 inch iPad pro so finally let's answer the question that's been on everybody's mind should you deck out the extra cash for the 2017 iPad pro or settle with the 2018 budget iPad honestly just go with the budget iPad the 10.5 inch iPad pro is better in pretty much every way but they're mostly luxury differences the 2018 iPad is good enough to satisfy the needs of most consumers not to mention you're probably going to get an Apple pencil with either device so that'll be 750 dollars if you go with the iPad pro for that big of an investment it'll be foolish not to buy a protective case so you can add that in as well if you go with the 2018 budget iPad you can get the Apple pencil in a case for less than the iPad pro itself and unless you compare both iPads at the same time you'll never know how much better the iPad pro is so don't this has been vadim with Apple Insider make sure to subscribe and enable notifications so you don't miss videos like this one thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the steals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next videoapple just released their 2018 budget iPad retaining last year's $329 price tag the new iPad is a first non ipad pro model to support Apple pencil this is a huge deal for those who want to use the Apple pencil but don't want to pay upwards of $600 to do so the 2017 10.5 inch iPad pro is priced at 649 dollars to be exact there are a few differences in display technology that can actually make a difference while using the Apple pencil the 2017 iPad pro has promotion which basically means that the screen refreshes at 120 Hertz a second compared to the normal 60 Hertz on all other ipad devices including the new 2018 iPad in this slow-motion footage you can see that the iPad pros display is so much more fluid and all interactions are smooth testing Apple pencil response time you can see just how much longer it takes for marks to show up on the screen while using the budget iPad it's practically instant on the iPad pro further blurring the line between real and digital drawing another big difference is that the iPad pros display is fully laminated given the illusion that the display is actually part of the cover glass it also helps boost contrast and color reproduction the budget iPad has a non laminated display which looks kind of grey compared to the deep black on the pro you can also easily notice a gap in between the display and the glass on the 2018 ipad when using the Apple pencil the gap becomes much more noticeable because you're concentrating on the stylus tip this can cause issues with accuracy especially when drawing detailed graphics when you're not looking straight down at the iPad however on the iPad pro the gap is almost non-existent so it pretty much feels like you're actually drawing on a piece of paper so the Apple pencil experience is definitely better on the 10.5 inch iPad pro but is it worth twice the price the 2017 ipad pro's display has p-3 wide color gamut support so colors really pop compared to the budget ipad the screen on the pro is also noticeably brighter which is especially helpful when using the device outside on top of that the iPad pro has an anti-reflective coating and as you can see it seriously helps with glare another awesome display feature that comes on the pro is true tone which automatically Tunes the displays white balance to match ambient light so your screen won't look all blue while in a tungsten lit room the new 2018 iPad comes with Apple's a10 fusion processor a four core processor pulled directly from the iPhone 7 and 7 plus whereas the 2017 iPad pro is loaded with the a 10x chip Apple's first six core mobile processor let's run some benchmarks to see how they compare in Geekbench for the iPad pro got a 13% higher score in the single core test which honestly isn't much however there's a huge difference in the multi-core test with a 57% better score for the pro the biggest shocker was the graphics test the iPad pro more than double the score put in by the 2018 iPad this is going to translate into massive improvements in rendering and multi-core processes in antutu s benchmark the pro scored 19% higher than the budget iPad which honestly isn't much of a difference we saw similar results in 3dmark sling shot extreme benchmark with the iPad pro scoring 20 percent higher than the iPad we also tested browser performance and we didn't see much of a difference in octane 2.0 the pro only scored about 10% higher in antutu s html5 browser benchmark there was an even smaller difference with 6 percent better scores on the pro this isn't too surprising because the 2018 iPad scored so well in Geekbench for single core tests and that's what's being used for the browser benchmarks just one core however when you start to add more and more tabs and switch between them the ipad pro's extra cores will really make a difference the pro also has twice as much RAM as the budget iPad so your apps will stay open for longer since the iPad pro did so well in the graphics test we decided to play the newly released fortnight on each device we noticed that the graphics quality on the pro was higher and the game loaded quicker than on the 2018 iPad gameplay was very smooth and we didn't notice any frame drops the colors popped more on the pro and the larger screen size made gameplay more immersive on the other hand it was much more comfortable to play on the 2018 iPad since it isn't as wide we did notice that the screen was more reflective on the budget iPad which was distracting at times after an hour fortnight gameplay the ipad pro's battery dropped to 80% on the 2018 ipad it only dropped 87% so we can see that the extra horsepower does drain more battery life while performing processor intensive tasks both iPads way around a pound but the 2018 iPad is actually thicker than the tempo 5-inch Pro for having a screen that's almost one inch larger it's not much bigger thanks to slimmed bezels all around the Prost camera sticks out a little bit which may be annoying to some there's also no rear-facing flash on the budget iPad the iPad pro has four speakers instead of two on the 2018 iPad and they sound much better just hear it for yourself the 2018 iPad does have stereo speakers but they're on the bottom edge of the device so if you're in landscape mode it won't even matter with the iPad pro and landscape mode you get true stereo sound the pro also gets Apple smart connector which transfers both power and data to a variety of Apple and Logitech accessories we tested touch ID speed and the pro unlocked much quicker and much more reliably than the budget iPad which would often fail to unlock unless you kept your finger on the sensor there's some huge differences in the camera as well the pro gets a 12 megapixel sensor capable of shooting 4k video the 2018 ipad only gets 8 megapixels and can only shoot up to 1080p photos look more detailed and the colors look better on the pro also the video on the iPad pro looks much more detailed than on the budget iPad an even larger difference is seen in the FaceTime camera with 7 megapixels on the pro capable of 1080p video in a quite poor 1.2 megapixels on the budget iPad with up to 720p recording hey guys this is a selfie video in microphone comparison on the 2018 iPad now we're on the 2017 10.5 inch iPad pro so finally let's answer the question that's been on everybody's mind should you deck out the extra cash for the 2017 iPad pro or settle with the 2018 budget iPad honestly just go with the budget iPad the 10.5 inch iPad pro is better in pretty much every way but they're mostly luxury differences the 2018 iPad is good enough to satisfy the needs of most consumers not to mention you're probably going to get an Apple pencil with either device so that'll be 750 dollars if you go with the iPad pro for that big of an investment it'll be foolish not to buy a protective case so you can add that in as well if you go with the 2018 budget iPad you can get the Apple pencil in a case for less than the iPad pro itself and unless you compare both iPads at the same time you'll never know how much better the iPad pro is so don't this has been vadim with Apple Insider make sure to subscribe and enable notifications so you don't miss videos like this one thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the steals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video\n"