What would it take for you to buy a new iPad?

That's Apple's challenge, and I don't know if the new iPad Pro answers it. I like this tablet. I like this tablet a lot. But $599-$899 is still a lot for one that people don't necessarily connect with broad, PC-level functionality.

This is a hands on, though, so my first impression was that I was holding an iPad Air 2 in terms of size, weight, and thickness. Checking the specs later, I found my assessment held out; the dimensions are exactly the same as the Air 2.

But there are differences, of course. The one that really jumped out at me was the quad speakers. I fired up a scene from The Martian, and it really blared, even in a crowded room. Apple told me the Pro was twice as loud as the Air 2, and I believe it. Holding my finger next to one of the speakers, I could really feel it pushing air.

The Apple Pencilsupport also worked as expected. I plugged a Pencil into the bottom of the tablet, it paired quickly, and then it worked in Procreate with all of the pressure and tilt sensitivity I remember from the iPad Pro.

The 9.7-inch iPad connects to a keyboard case designed for it, which is smaller than the 12.2-inch iPad's case. This affects the size of the keys; they felt smaller than I remembered from the Pro, although they had the same texture and clickiness. If a roomy physical keyboard in laptop mode is your priority, you'll want the bigger tablet.

I carried an iPad Pro around at Mobile World Congress for livestreaming, though, and, well, it's really big. You basically want to have it on a table, no matter what. For creative professionals who use the Pencil a lot, a 9.7-inch tablet fits much more easily into a hand or the crook of an arm. It's more portable.

I didn't get a grip on the wide color gamut, "true tone" display at all. It supposedly changes its color to respond to ambient lighting conditions, but in the hands-on room, at least, it looked just like a 12.2-inch iPad Pro display. I'll have to take a closer look at it when I get a review unit.

I also didn't test the new cameras, but the main cameras were boosted to 12 megapixels, and the front camera is now 5 megapixels with 4K recording. Basically, they're the iPhone 6s cameras instead of the iPhone 6 cameras.

So it's a quality tablet with a bunch of upgraded features. But what's the killer app that will cause people to upgrade their earlier iPads? Unless you're into the creative pro apps that work with the Pencil, I'm still struggling to answer that question. Against the Microsoft Surface, meanwhile, yes, it has a great browser and runs Office, but so does the less expensive iPad Air 2.

The new iPad Pro will cost from $599 to $1,029 depending on storage and cellular capability; it comes in 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB models, with or without LTE. It goes on sale on March 24 for March 31 delivery.