Despite a declining tablet market, Apple Inc. Monday announced a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro at its Worldwide Developer’s Conference.

Only slightly bigger than the 9.7-inch model, the reduced bezels allow users to enjoy additional screen real estate.

The Apple iPad is still the most popular tablet on the market, shipping 8.9 million devices worldwide in the first quarter of 2017, according to research from the International Data Corp. Despite Apple having a leading market share of 24.6 percent, the company’s shipments declined by 13 percent year over year. This is Apple’s 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment declines.

With the introduction of iOS 11, Apple has also announced various new productivity and multitasking features specifically for iPad users.

New 10.5-inch iPad Pro

Apple has reduced the bezels on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro by 40 percent, allowing users to enjoy a larger display in a device only slightly bigger than the 9.7-inch model launched in March.

The redesigned Retina display features ProMotion technology that delivers refresh rates of up to 120 Hertz allowing for greater responsiveness. ProMotion also allows the Apple Pencil to be more responsive with a 20-millisecond latency. It also reduces power consumption by automatically adjusting the display refresh rate to match the content’s movement.

The iPad Pro’s Retina display features an anti-reflective coating and True Tone, which automatically adjusts the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light.

The new iPad Pro packs in a new 64-bit A10X Fusion chip. A six-core processor, delivers up to 30 percent faster performance and the 12-core graphics processing unit delivers up to 40 percent faster graphics performance compared to the A9X chip, according to Apple. The company also claims all-day battery life.

The device features the same front- and rear-facing cameras as the iPhone 7, including a 12-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and a 7MP FaceTime HD camera.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro has also been updated with all the above new specifications.

Both new iPad Pros are available for pre-order from the Apple site and will ship next week.

The 10.5-inch iPad starts at $649 for the 64-gigabyte with Wi-Fi model and $779 for the 64GB Wi-Fi and Cellular model. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 64GB Wi-Fi model and $929 for the 64GB Wi-Fi and Cellular model.

Apple has also launched a new full-sized Smart Keyboard for both the 10.5- and 12.9-inch iPad. The keyboard will retail for $159 and $169 respectively.  

New iOS 11 features for iPad

Customizable Dock

IOS 11 on iPads now includes a customizable Dock at the bottom of the display and provides users quick access to their most frequently used apps and documents. The Dock appears automatically on the home screen, but you will need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access it when using an app.

The Dock can hold as many apps as you like and will retain their previous windowing state when they’re opened up again. You can drag and drop an app from the Dock to the side of the screen to put it into multitasking mode. Some apps like iMessage will exist as a floating sidebar.

Mission Control-like interface

With iOS 11, Apple brings a feature similar to the Mac’s Mission Control interface to the iPad. If you swipe up on the Dock, or a single long swipe when the Dock is hidden, all the apps that are currently open or running will appear in a grid view.

New File app

The new Files app is a central hub for moving files around. Files can be stored locally, in iCloud Drive or in other third-party apps like Box and Dropbox.

Multi-touch drag and drop

The new drag and drop feature allows you to open two apps side by side and drag and drop content directly from one app into the other. You can also use the drag and drop feature to add apps to the Dock.  

With the new Files app, you can use multi-touch to grab multiple files from one folder and drag them to another. Press down on one file, then use your remaining fingers to grab the other files. All the files will be added to the selection and can be dragged to another folder.

Document scanner in Notes

The new document scanner in the Notes app allows users to scan single or multiple page documents and can then write on the scanned documents using Apple Pencil.

Deeper Apple Pencil integration

The iPad now has deeper integration with the Apple Pencil, including inline drawing that allows for note-taking along text in Notes and Mail; Instant Markup allows users to sign documents; and the ability to draw on screenshots and PDFs.  

Tapping on the lock screen with the Pencil will open the new Instant Notes feature where users can quickly write in the Notes app.

All the text written with the Pencil is now searchable through machine learning and is indexed in Spotlight search results.

Images: Apple