As I mentioned earlier about the Apple’s Let Loose event on May 07, 2024 was actually about iPads. Some of the predictions were true with new gen iPads, as shown at the event. New Silicon from Apple, slimming the iPad Pro, and two different screen size for iPad Air, everything was worth a watch. Although Apple didn’t callout a few things that they changed and hardly anyone noticed.
Let’s hit the rewind button and re-analyze the what Tim Cook’s team actually cooked at the Let Loose event.
iPad Air
iPad Air was the first highlight of the event. With new 13-inch model now the iPad’s hold on tab market seems promising. It now has improved graphics and M2 SoC which embarks another level of performance. Now her is the catch with iPad Air, the front facing camera now moved to the other side and converted into a landscape mode camera by default. Whereas, there was no discussion for Face-ID which I hope should be there. Although, their slide doesn’t show the same, seems like it has Touch-ID again. Did you notice?
So, do we know why TouchID is there, or is it making a comeback with on-screen touch identification? Did Apple said anything about it? I can’t recall, well who-am-i to judge.
The bottomline is now the “almost” affordable range of iPad Air has:
- two different screen sizes, 11 and 13 inches
- M2 SoC for better performance
- bigger storage options
With TouchID back in the game, could be the game changer.
iPad Pro
Second one was the iPad Pro, and almost the biggest highlight of the event. With this advanced iPad Pro I am amazed the kind of slimness it has. This is the most slimmest Apple product ever, even slimmer the iPod Nano. Which I think is an achievement in terms of design. Kudos for that, Apple, I wanna cheer some beers with your design team for that. And, the new Apple Silicon M4 actually launched with it. So Apple launched M4 SoC on an iPad first, rather than on a Mac. M4 ensures 4x faster performance than M2. This makes one of the point quite clear, that in future Apple might think to eradicate one of the Macbook or Mac machine lineup and give better iPad Pro instead of that. I am totally in favor of that move, if that is happening anytime soon.
Graphics in this iPad Pro seems promising. Powered with two OLED displays for better viewing experience and this technology is called Tandem OLED.
So everything was going well until the Camera and LIDAR thing came out. The 12 MP Camera seems quite a great deal with 4K ProRes video, Smart HDR 4 and more.
And the LIDAR has always been the highlight for iPad Pro as that is the revolution in the Artificial Reality (AR) arena.
Whereas here is the catch again, where is the iPad Pro’s secondary camera? I was always intrigued about it. As iPad Pro had two cameras and that was the highlight. Apple just dropped one camera, and no one even noticed. I understand having additional camera on a smartphone is quite appropriate but removing one from the iPad Pro wasn’t something I was expecting. Whereas with slim design, better performance and graphics, having that secondary camera would be a bigger awesome.
Magic Keyboard
Now Magic Keyboard is completely steel and, thinner and lighter as we expect. With bigger touchpad that has haptic feedback gives Macbook feel is the indication that one of the Macbook lineup would get dilute one day. As Apple moving forward will focus on providing better iPad Pro instead of entry level Macbooks.
Apple Pencil Pro
The winner of the day was actually the Apple Pencil. The new Apple Pencil Pro. I always imagined how Apple Pencil can do more and this was really the biggest highlight.
Now the Apple Pencil Pro offers:
- With new sensor, squeeze the pencil to pop-up the tool palette, and you get a haptic feedback as if you’re holding a real-pencil.
- A gyroscope to the middle to analyze how you’re handling the pencil and in which direction which automatically changes the orientation of the pen’s or brush’s shape. Which is really a big deal for content creators as with orientation there are possibilities of new style of drawing.
- Apple Pencil Pro can be found with Find My. Have you ever loose a Apple Pencil yet?
- Developers can also create their custom actions for Apple Pencil is like cherry on the top. As many media companies would be looking forward to create those custom actions for better user experience.
And that’s it, that was this Apple Event for launching two new versions of iPad and two additional accessories. I hope I would get mine soon.
