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Gear Review | WIRED's Creative Team Tests Apple's iPad Pro and Pencil

Apple's new iPad Pro is designed for professional creative work, so we put it to the test. A WIRED photographer, designer and video producer tried using the tablet and Apple's new Pencil stylus to retouch images, draw and edit video.

Released on 11/11/2015

Transcript

(soothing music)

Apple's new iPad Pro goes on sale today.

It's a big tablet made to do lots of things,

but one of the things Apple talks a lot about

is how it can be useful for creative professionals.

I am not one of those,

but we have lots of them here at Wired.

So we gave the new iPad Pro to a bunch of different people

and then we asked them what they think.

It's extremely responsive,

it really feels like I'm drawing with a pencil

and the way it shades,

and the way I can adjust the tools,

it's the best digital version of a pencil I've used.

I wouldn't necessarily say

that I would take it to the professional level

as an artist, because that's really a tactile thing,

I need to have pen, paper, canvas,

paints, spray paint, walls, whatever it is I use

to create my artwork.

To create foundational drawings and things of that nature,

I would definitely get one of these,

'cause I can draw anywhere, any time,

I don't have to worry about crinkled paper,

carrying a plethora of pencils and pens and ink.

I can sit on an airplane and draw a bunch of sketches

and know that when I land, I have a library of things

that I can use for reference.

The pen was super easy to use and worked really well.

There is a lack of control because when you're working on

a file professionally, you need to be able to

manipulate it in a lot of different ways.

Personally, I would probably use Photoshop Fix

for pictures I take day-to-day of my family,

pictures I take for myself

that I don't intend to use professionally.

Not being able to see the adjustments that I'm doing

and not being able to delete them as I want to

makes it a little bit problematic.

(lighthearted music)

iMovie inside of the iPad Pro has all of the basic tools

you need for making a video.

You can import your clips,

you can line them up on a timeline,

you can put in music tracks or other audio tracks.

It's pretty obvious what all the tools are

based on the icons. It's really simple to use,

very user-friendly. What I like about the iPad Pro

is that you're able to touch things.

I really like having the tactile sense

and being able to move my clips around physically.

As a filmmaker, and someone who's worked in celluloid,

I really like the physical work of putting a film together

and this kinda takes me back to that.

I wouldn't use the iPad Pro professionally as it is now

just because it doesn't have a lot of the tools

that I use on a day-to-day basis,

such as color editing, audio editing, layering of tracks,

things like that, but that said,

it's a lot of fun to play with

for any filmmaker I think,

and you can do really simple things

and still make a beautiful video.

(soothing music)