In case you’ve been being attentive to the rumors main as much as Apple’s Let Free iPad occasion, you knew what to anticipate: iPad Air and iPad Professional in 11- and 13-inch sizes with new processors, a brand new Apple Pencil, and an up to date Magic Keyboard.
Nonetheless, there have been just a few particulars through the announcement that hadn’t been predicted, and which caught us somewhat bit unexpectedly. None of those are earth-shaking revelations, however they are often sufficient to barely shade our views of a few of these merchandise. Listed here are a few of the issues we hadn’t anticipated going into the occasion.
Costs that didn’t go up
The iPad Pro is $200 costlier regardless of which measurement you choose–a value you would possibly justify with that fancy new OLED show and twice the storage, maybe. However the 11-inch iPad Air didn’t get costlier, which is a aid. That is the primary 12 months a 13-inch iPad Air is out there, so we have now nothing to match it towards, however $799 feels proper.
Additionally no more costly? The brand new Apple Pencil Pro, which is available in on the similar $129 value because the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil, regardless of having a number of new capabilities.
And the brand new Magic Keyboard, which has an aluminum deck, bigger trackpad with haptic suggestions, is slimmer, and has a operate row, prices the identical because the older Magic Keyboard ($299 for 11-inch iPads; $349 for 13-inch iPads). It’s nonetheless too costly, however it’s good to see characteristic inflation with out value inflation.
The largest shock of all? The Tenth-gen iPad truly acquired a $100 value lower, all the way down to $349, which makes it simply $20 greater than the Ninth-gen iPad that’s now not accessible. We all the time thought this could have been Apple’s transfer from the beginning: don’t preserve the Ninth-gen mannequin round, simply exchange it with the Tenth-gen mannequin with a really modest value enhance (if any).
Petter Ahrnstedt
Again to a single digital camera
The place did the 10MP extremely broad digital camera on the iPad Professional disappear to? It’s simply gone! We don’t know the way usually it was used, however for the primary time since 2020, all that’s left is a 12MP Extensive digital camera. Apple may have no less than upgraded it to the 48MP broad digital camera on the brand new iPhones, to provide us that 2x optical “crop zoom” choice. Additionally lacking is mmWave 5G within the mobile fashions—however most individuals most likely gained’t even realize it’s gone.
M4 lacking a core
In case you purchase an iPad Professional with lower than 1TB of storage, you get 8GB of RAM. In case you purchase the 1TB or 2TB choice, you get 16GB of RAM. That’s the identical because it was with the M2 iPad Professional from 2022.
However what isn’t the identical is that you just get a lesser M4 processor too. That’s proper, whereas each fashions have six effectivity cores, the < 1TB fashions have solely three efficiency cores. If you’d like the total M4 processor, it’s important to spend a minimal of $1,599 for the 11-inch 1TB mannequin or $1,899 for the 13-inch 1TB mannequin. Yikes.
Extra storage for a similar value
Given the value enhance and 18-month timeframe for the reason that M2 iPad Professional was introduced, it’s an excellent factor the 128GB mannequin is solely gone from the lineup and the iPad Professional now begins with 256GB of storage. It takes somewhat little bit of the sting out of the $200 value hike, however not a lot. No pill at this value ought to dream of providing you with solely 128GB of storage.
The iPad Air loses its 128GB mannequin as effectively and features a brand new 2TB choice on the excessive finish, leaving the Tenth-gen iPad as the one mannequin with 64GB of storage. If you’d like extra storage, relaxation assured that Apple nonetheless fees a ridiculous value for extra storage. Some issues by no means change.
The brand new iPad Air is skinny and light-weight—however not as skinny and light-weight because the iPad Professional.
Petter Ahrnstedt
Lighter than Air
The 11-inch iPad Professional was barely heavier than the ten.9-inch iPad Air—simply 5 grams however sufficient to justify the Air moniker. The brand new 11-inch iPad Professional is now 18 grams lighter.
The distinction is even larger with the 13-inch fashions. The 13-inch iPad Air is about 10 p.c lighter than the previous 12.9-inch iPad Professional, however the brand new 13-inch iPad Professional is just a few p.c lighter nonetheless. At 579 grams, it’s a whopping 103 grams lighter than the M2 mannequin and 38 grams lighter than the 13-inch iPad Air.
The iPad Professional can be a couple of millimeter thinner than the Air. Possibly Apple must rename the iPad Air?