Apple has introduced the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, at less than 500 grams it features a new pro Retina display with greater brightness, wider colour gamut, lower reflectivity, Night Shift mode and introduces new True Tone display technology to dynamically adjust white balance.

The new iPad Pro delivers incredible performance with the 64-bit A9X chip that rivals most portable PCs, along with a four-speaker audio system that is twice as powerful, new 12-megapixel iSight camera for shooting Live Photos and 4K video, 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, and faster wireless technologies.

The iPad Pro includes support for the breakthrough Apple Pencil and a new Smart Keyboard cover designed to fit the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

“iPad Pro is a new generation of iPad that is indispensable and immersive, enabling people to be more productive and more creative. It’s incredibly fast, extremely portable, and completely natural to use with your fingers, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard and now it comes in two sizes,” said Apple’s senior vice president of marketing Philip Schiller.

Designers, illustrators and businesses have quickly adopted iPad Pro and it’s changing the way they work:

“People don’t realise how much hand drawing is needed to produce computer animation,” said Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer John Lasseter.

“iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are the closest we’ve ever been able to get in the digital world to actually drawing on paper.”

“I’ve done everything including designing the latest cycling collection on iPad Pro,” said Ralpha head of design Alex Valdman.

“It goes with me everywhere, and has not only replaced my laptop, but my paper notebook as well. For the Rapha design team, iPad Pro will become standard issue.”

“At Citi, iPad Pro is truly transforming how we work,” said Citi Global Consumer Banking US head of design Stephen Gates.

“iPad Pro and Apple Pencil have played a huge part in the new Citi Design team’s work to create new innovative customer experiences. We use iPad Pro for sketching out new design concepts, presenting our work, answering our emails, working with our design files on Adobe Creative Cloud and participating in FaceTime meetings with our other design teams all over the world.”

Pro display
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro features advanced display technologies, including a True Tone display, which uses new four-channel sensors to dynamically adjust the white balance of the display to match the light around you for a more natural and accurate, paper-white viewing experience. The advanced Retina display is 25 % brighter and 40 % less reflective than iPad Air 2, making content even easier to see indoors and out. It uses the same wider colour gamut as the iMac with Retina 5K display, delivering 25 % greater colour saturation for more vivid colours. A custom timing controller, photo alignment and oxide TFT deliver incredible colour, contrast and clarity. Night Shift in iOS 9.3 uses iPad Pro’s clock and geolocation to automatically adjust the colours in the display to the warmer end of the spectrum after dark and may even help you get a better night’s sleep.

Pro performance
The new iPad Pro is just 6.1-mm thin and weighs less than 500 grams, yet delivers ground breaking performance, connectivity and versatility so you can tackle the most demanding tasks wherever you go. The powerful A9X chip with third-generation 64-bit architecture provides performance that rivals many laptops and console-class graphics, while also delivering all-day battery life. Ultrafast wireless connectivity keeps you connected wherever you go with 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO technology, support for even faster 4G LTE Advanced with up to 50 % faster cellular connectivity and the most LTE bands supported by any tablet. Now with Apple SIM embedded directly in the new iPad Pro, it’s even easier to connect to wireless data plans right from your device when travelling in more than 100 countries and territories.

iPad Pro has an advanced 12-megapixel iSight camera sensor featuring Focus Pixels for fast focusing, an Apple-designed image signal processor, advanced noise reduction, third-generation local tone mapping and better face detection, all resulting in sharp, detailed images, 63-megapixel panoramas and Live Photos. A True Tone flash improves low light shots and document scanning. The new iSight camera shoots 4K video, making the new iPad Pro the perfect device to shoot, edit and share pro-quality video. The improved 5-megapixel, front-facing FaceTime HD camera makes the new iPad Pro perfect for video conferencing or connecting with loved ones.

Pro audio
The four-speaker audio system provides powerful, clear and rich stereo sound for more than twice the audio output. Built-in sensors automatically adjust and optimise the audio no matter which way you’re using it. iOS 9.3 also adds support for playing video encoded with Dolby Digital Plus audio streams with support for multichannel output using the Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter.

Pro accessories
Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, available for purchase separately, bring breakthrough levels of precision and utility to iPad Pro. Advanced sensors in Apple Pencil measure both pressure and tilt for a natural drawing, annotating and note-taking experience. A new Smart Keyboard is custom-designed for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, offering a thin yet durable keyboard that never needs to be charged or paired over Bluetooth and is easily foldable into a protective Smart Cover. The new Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader and Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter make it easy to download photos and videos from a digital camera to iPad Pro, while a new Lightning to USB-C Cable and Apple’s 29W USB-C Power Adapter enable faster charging.

Pricing & Availability
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro comes in silver, space grey, gold and a new rose gold metallic finish, and starts at a recommended retail price of A$899 for the 32GB with WiFi model and starts at a recommended retail price of A$1,099 for the 32GB WiFi Cellular model. Both iPad Pro sizes are available in offerings of 32GB, 128GB and a new 256GB capacity, the highest of any iOS device.

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro will be available to order beginning Thursday, 24 March PDT, from apple.com/au, and in Apple’s retail stores, through select carriers and Apple Authorised Resellers on Thursday, 31 March, in Australia.

Apple Pencil is available for a recommended retail price of A$165 and Smart Keyboard in charcoal grey for A$229.