Engadget Logo The Japanese version of Engadget iPad Pro 2021 is one that felt the importance of 5G more than smartphones (Junya Ishino)

The iPad Pro, which uses the same M1 chip as the MacBook Air and is compatible with 5G, is about to be released. Prior to the release, the author was also able to try the actual machine. I will leave the high performance and the beauty of the display to another article, but here I would like to review about the first 5G support in the series. This is the feature that I was most interested in this time.

That said, users don't have to do anything special. You can purchase the cellular version and insert the SIM card of a carrier that supports 5G. For the three major carriers of DoCoMo, au, and Softbank, there are so-called share plans such as "Data Plus" that can be combined with the main line of the smartphone, so it will be quick to use it in terms of price. .. The second SIM card shares the capacity with the first one, but if the main line is unlimited, there is a limit of around 30GB.

The setting items are almost the same as the iPhone 12 series. You can change the behavior of your 5G connection in "Data" and "Data mode" by selecting "Communication options" in "Mobile data communication" in "Settings". For the former data, you can select "5G on", which always enables 5G when you insert a 5G compatible SIM card, or "5G auto", which may automatically turn off 5G. If you want to turn it off for some reason, select "4G" and it's OK.

"Data mode" is an item to automatically improve the image quality of content when connecting to 5G. By default, it was set to "Standard" to save data capacity, but if you turn on "Allow more data in 5G", FaceTime and video will be displayed when connecting with 5G. Image quality is improved. Perhaps this default setting will change depending on the carrier and the plan you have subscribed to, and if it is the same as the iPhone, it will be "acceptable" by default if you subscribe to KDDI's unlimited plan.

When the setting is turned on, the content that improves the image quality is more than before. I get the impression that there are many KDDI-related services that push this function, but DAZN, which is familiar with sports content, also supports automatic video quality upgrades. As a test, I chatted with the editor-in-chief using FaceTime in a Wi-Fi environment, but the video was so clear that I could understand the texture of the skin, and I felt that it was more realistic than normal FaceTime. The trial iPad Pro has a large screen size of 12.9 inches, so it is more powerful than the iPhone. I felt the importance of communicating in the 5G area more than smartphones.

To experience the benefits, the 5G area needs to be large. Unfortunately, at the moment, it is not all over the country like 4G, but KDDI and Softbank are different from before. This is because we have started to divert frequencies from 4G to 5G. I mainly inserted Softbank SIM cards into the iPad Pro, but in Shibuya, where my office is located, 5G can be connected in various places. Not only on the streets, but also the cafes and office smoking areas (outdoors) that I often go to were 5G areas.

Due to diversion, the communication speed was not so different from 4G, and there were many places with tens of Mbps, but it can be said that turning on the image quality improvement function as described above is one of the merits. On the other hand, DoCoMo, which has not introduced frequency diversion at this time, has a remarkable speed when connected to 5G, as shown below. On the other hand, the original 5G frequency is very high in the 4.5GHz band and 3.7GHz band, and it is difficult to penetrate indoors. I have the impression that it is hard to come across the situation of using 5G in a cafe like KDDI or Softbank for the time being.

Considering the usage scene of iPad Pro and the function to improve the image quality of contents with 5G as mentioned above, it would be nice if the area is wide even if it is diverted. No matter how fast it is, unlike smartphones, the iPad Pro is rarely used on the street. Recently, I sometimes see people walking on tablets (!) At train stations, but this is a rare case. The scene where you go into a cafe, watch the web, watch videos, or have a video conference is more realistic as a situation.

In the first place, there is a debate about how to divide the quality of content only by 4G or 5G classification instead of communication speed, but similar functions are beginning to be adopted not only for iOS but also for Android. , Is becoming an industry standard. Especially with the iPad Pro, which you sit down and use carefully, the benefits are great, so I hope that DoCoMo will do its best to take indoor measures. However, since iPad Pro can be used for uploading created videos, I would like the other two companies to strengthen the area development of Sub-6 without relying solely on diversion.

So far, I haven't dared to name it, but I also tried Rakuten Mobile, which started handling iPhones in April. I'm very sorry to use it like a punch line, but unfortunately the iPad Pro does not seem to support the company's 5G. When I installed Rakuten Mobile's eSIM profile, 5G characters did not appear in the settings menu, just like when I was not dealing with the iPhone 12 series.

Only 4G can be selected, and the notation of the antenna pictogram is "LTE". Also, APN was able to communicate without input, but if left blank, the Internet sharing (tethering) settings will not be displayed. This is probably because Rakuten Mobile does not handle iPad Pro or iPad. Since the carrier setting has not come down, it seems that the company's 5G will be left as a deposit until it starts handling. The tiered rate plan seems to be compatible with tablets as sub-devices, so I would like to expect future development.

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