Early this morning (like very early) Apple hosted its ‘Let Loose’ event where it unveiled its new slate of iPads, the iPad Pro, the iPad Air and a host of accessories.
Apple CEO called this event the “biggest day for iPad since its introduction”. Cook began the event by reminding everyone about the Apple Vision Pro and the “amazing things” people are doing with it. And that’s it, no global launch announcement. Sad!
But today isn’t about the Apple Vision Pro, it’s about the iPad, so here is everything that was announced at this morning’s Let Loose event.
Table of contents
Apple iPad Pro
Let’s begin with the most talked about and rumoured product, the iPad Pro, while it wasn’t the first product spoken about, it was the most anticipated. The iPad Pro was revealed with an M4 chip and an OLED screen. Apple has called this the “impossibly thin” iPad Pro and said it is thinner than an iPod Nano.
The OLED display uses two OLED panels and called it “Tandem OLED”. Apple said this new display will give customers a more “remarkable visual experience”. The OLED screen has 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness, 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness, a 2 million to 1 contrast ratio, True Tone, ProMotion adaptive 10-120Hz refresh rate and P3 wide colour.
This iPad Pro is all about performance with its new M4 chip, with a neural engine in the chip, Apple has designed and created the iPad Pro with AI in mind. According to Apple, it is 4x faster performance than M2 and 10x faster than the original iPad Pro. It also comes with 5G support.
The iPad Pro also comes with Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro updates. It also has a 12MP camera with the ability for 4K capture, and a LiDAR Scanner – faster AI experiences. The front-facing camera is on the horizontal edge now too. An interesting feature is the Adaptive True Tone flash where it makes scanning documents easier. The AI can detect documents and remove shadow for document scanning.
It comes in 256 GB, 512 GB, 1TB and 2TB.
The 11-inch model starts at $1,699 and the 13-inch model at $2,199.
Apple iPad Air
Apple launched the event with the announcement of the new iPad Air calling it “more powerful and versatile than ever”. For the first time ever, it will come in two sizes, 11-inches and 13-inches and has the M2 chip.
It has a liquid retina display, with Apple saying it is “inspired” by the iPad Air. They have put the front-facing camera on the horizontal edge, like the iPad Pro.
The iPad Air has a faster CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine in M2, Apple said it is an “incredibly powerful device for artificial intelligence”.
It has landscape stereo with Spatial Audio with double the bass. The new iPad Air comes in four finishes, space grey, starlight, purple and blue.
It works with Magic Keyboard and supports Apple Pencil Pro. It comes in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.
The 11-inch starts from $999 and the 13-inch from $1,299.
Apple Pencil Pro
Now what is an iPad without its accessories?! Apple launched the new Magic Keyboard to go with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil Pro.
Apple Pencil Pro has a new sensor in the barrel that can sense a user’s squeeze, bringing up a tool palette to quickly switch tools, line weights, and colours. It has a custom haptic engine that provides feedback to users.
It has a built-in gyroscope where rotating the barrel changes the orientation of the shaped pen and brush tools, just like pen and paper. Apple Pencil hover helps users visualise the orientation of a tool before making a mark.
The Apple Pencil Pro is $219.
Magic Keyboard
The Magic Keyboard is thinner and lighter than before and has two colours that match the iPad Pro models. It comes with a new function row to mirror a MacBook Air or Pro. It comes with an aluminium palm rest and responsive trackpad. Apple said it was like “using a MacBook”.
The Magic Keyboard Pro is $579.00.
That is it for now folks, no AVP Australia news but if you’re an iPad nut then today is your day!
This page will be updated as the story develops.
Image: Apple/Gizmodo Australia