[SC-CSTD] Apple Unveils New iPad Pro and iPad Air, Alongside Apple Pencil Pro and New Magic Keyboard

Wed May 8 09:28:58 UTC 2024

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AppleVis: Recent Blog Posts - Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 12:37 PM

Apple Unveils New iPad Pro and iPad Air, Alongside Apple Pencil Pro and New Magic Keyboard

Apple today unveiled its next-generation iPad Pro lineup <https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/apple-unveils-stunning-new-ipad-pro-with-m4-chip-and-apple-pencil-pro/>  featuring the powerful new M4 chip, advanced Ultra Retina XDR display technology, and redesigned accessories including the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard. The company also announced <https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/apple-unveils-the-redesigned-11-inch-and-all-new-13-inch-ipad-air-with-m2/>  redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air models featuring Apple's M2 processor.

The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models are Apple's thinnest products ever at just 5.3mm and 5.1mm respectively. The 11-inch model weighs less than a pound, and the 13-inch model is nearly a quarter pound lighter than its predecessor..

The marquee feature of the new iPad Pro is the new Ultra Retina XDR display, which Apple is calling the world's most advanced tablet display. It utilizes tandem OLED technology stacking two OLED panels together to enable a bright viewing experience up to 1600 nits peak brightness for HDR content. This allows for higher dynamic range with more vibrant specular highlights and enhanced detail in shadows. Apple says no other device can match the XDR display's extreme contrast ratios and color precision. A new nano-texture glass option further enhances visibility by reducing glare.

Powering the Ultra Retina XDR display and major performance gains is the M4 chip, Apple's next iteration of its in-house silicon. The M4 utilizes a 3nm process technology for improved power efficiency over the previous M2 while offering higher CPU and GPU performance. Compared to M2, the M4 delivers up to 1.5x faster CPU speeds and up to 4x faster pro app performance like video rendering. The M4 is capable of 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine in the A11 Bionic chip. Combined with next-generation ML accelerators in the CPU, a high-performance GPU, more memory bandwidth, and intelligent features and powerful developer frameworks in iPadOS, Apple says that the Neural Engine makes the new iPad Pro an “outrageously powerful device for AI” and more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today.

The front TrueDepth camera has been relocated to the landscape edge to optimize video calling when using accessories like the Magic Keyboard. The new iPad Pro gains some enhanced camera capabilities as well. The rear camera system now offers improved Smart HDR, better textures and low light performance, and a new adaptive True Tone flash for document scanning. Using AI, the new iPad Pro automatically identifies documents right in the Camera app, and if a shadow is in the way, it instantly takes multiple photos with the new adaptive flash, stitching the scan together for a better scan.

Connectivity specs include Wi-Fi 6E, 5G cellular with eSIM support, and Thunderbolt 4/USB4 allowing 40Gbps wired data transfers.

Apple has redesigned the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories for the new iPad Pro models. The Apple Pencil Pro adds touch gestures like squeeze controls, haptic feedback, gyroscopic orientation sensing and a magnetic charging/storage solution. The new Magic Keyboard attaches magnetically, is 30% thinner, and features an aluminum palm rest with haptic trackpad and function key row.

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 for Wi-Fi or $1199 for cellular with 256GB storage, while the 13-inch model starts at $1299 for Wi-Fi or $1499 cellular also with 256GB base storage. Both are available in either silver or space black. The Apple Pencil Pro is $129 and the Magic Keyboard ranges $299-$349 depending on size. Apple will begin taking orders today, with availability starting May 15. . Education pricing is also available.

Apple also announced the release of redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air models, featuring the company's M2 chip. This marks the first time the iPad Air lineup has offered two different display size options.

The new iPad Air models aim to deliver a significant performance boost compared to previous generations. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch versions are powered by Apple's M2 chip, which the company says provides up to 50% faster CPU performance than the previous iPad Air with the M1 chip. Compared to models with the older A14 Bionic chip, the M2 enables up to 3 times faster performance.

Like the new iPad Pro, a key design change is the repositioning of the front-facing 12MP Ultra Wide camera to the landscape edge. This new camera orientation, combined with Center Stage support to automatically keep subjects in view, is optimized for video calls when using the iPad Air attached to a keyboard like the Magic Keyboard. The rear camera remains a 12MP Wide lens capable of 4K video recording.

Another notable enhancement is 5G cellular connectivity on the Wi-Fi + Cellular models, allowing faster mobile data speeds on the go. The Wi-Fi 6E support also promises up to 2 times faster local wireless performance.

For artificial intelligence capabilities, Apple touts the M2's 16-core Neural Engine as delivering up to 40% faster machine learning performance versus the M1. This enables improved on-device AI processing for features like Live Text recognition.

The new iPad Air retains the Liquid Retina display with P3 wide color gamut, True Tone, and an anti-reflective coating.

As for accessories, the new iPad Pro can be used with the Apple Pencil Pro also announced today. The device attaches magnetically to charge and pairs automatically. However, it does not support the new Magic Keyboard. Instead, the existing Magic Keyboard and Smart Folio cases will be available for both iPad Air sizes.

The 11-inch model has the same starting price as the previous generation of $599, while the 13-inch version starts at $799. Base storage has been increased to 128GB. Apple will begin taking orders today, with availability starting May 15. …There are four color options - blue, purple, starlight, and space gray - and up to 1TB storage configurations.

Additionally, the starting price of the iPad 10th generation has been reduced by $100 to $349. Meanwhile, the iPad 9th generation is discontinued, ending the era of Home button iPads.

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