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Next-Gen iPad Air With 12.9-Inch Display and Redesigned Camera Unit Revealed in CAD Renders
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But bigger bezels would make it physically bigger than the current 12.9" Pro and require a new keyboard only compatible w the Air.
Though I suppose maybe size-wise it might end up being the same with the new 13" Pro and share the rumored "aluminium keyboard case".
I just assumed the 13" Pro might be the same size as the current pro just with even slimmer bezels, but maybe not.
Though I suppose maybe size-wise it might end up being the same with the new 13" Pro and share the rumored "aluminium keyboard case".
I just assumed the 13" Pro might be the same size as the current pro just with even slimmer bezels, but maybe not.
Personally I use my iPad in environments with a lot of light competition and I’d love to see a 2000-nit peak screen so that the lower levels of brightness are lifted. A dark show is still very very dark on the current Pro. Comprehensive control of the screen brightness and color would be awesome too.
Really dislike Apple purposefully making the bezels thicker on the non pro products. Purposefully compromising the design to upsell.
It's cheaper to produce products with thicker bezels. if you're trying to hit a particular price point for a model of device, concessions have to be made.
IMO, with the addition of the 12.9” iPad Air, Apple is going to considerably differentiate the iPad Airs from the Pros. The Airs seem to actually slot into where the Pros are now with the exact same screen sizes, though the 12.9” may not have a mini-LED screen. I haven’t heard a single rumor that it does. The Pros will get its re-design, since Apple does this in cycles: first the Pros, then the Airs, then the mini, then the base. Since the base iPad got a re-design last, it’s the Pro’s turn. I predict the Pros will adopt the slight curvature used on the iPhones to make it more comfortable to hold rather than keeping its squared off, boxy edges.
With the drastic rumored changes to the screen (double stacked OLED + larger sizes), pin-outs, and potentially MagSafe features, the Pros may slot into what we might deem an iPad Ultra with a higher price tag due to those expensive OLEDs, though Apple is unlikely to change the name. These extra features will go into Apple’s recent trend of differentiating their product lines, similar to what they did with the iPhones two years ago and the MacBook Pros only a few months ago. People complained the Air was too close to the 11” iPad Pro. After this next release, probably in March, that won’t be an issue anymore.
What does confuse me is why the Air and Pro will still get the same SoC since Apple is in its phase of trying to differentiate its product lines. It made sense for the M3 Pro to go to 6/6 cores instead of 8/4 if they were planning on putting one in the iPad Pros to further separate the Pros from the Airs. Perhaps the thermals for the M3 Pro is just too challenging.
With the drastic rumored changes to the screen (double stacked OLED + larger sizes), pin-outs, and potentially MagSafe features, the Pros may slot into what we might deem an iPad Ultra with a higher price tag due to those expensive OLEDs, though Apple is unlikely to change the name. These extra features will go into Apple’s recent trend of differentiating their product lines, similar to what they did with the iPhones two years ago and the MacBook Pros only a few months ago. People complained the Air was too close to the 11” iPad Pro. After this next release, probably in March, that won’t be an issue anymore.
What does confuse me is why the Air and Pro will still get the same SoC since Apple is in its phase of trying to differentiate its product lines. It made sense for the M3 Pro to go to 6/6 cores instead of 8/4 if they were planning on putting one in the iPad Pros to further separate the Pros from the Airs. Perhaps the thermals for the M3 Pro is just too challenging.
It’s not exactly purposefully. The dimensions of a screen are chosen to maximise the number of panels per sheet. That’s why the screen sizes of iPads and MacBooks are not exactly 13, 14, 15 nor 16 inches.
Those rumors have been strictly for the new iPad Pro. Nothing about the iPad Air
So next year, when the non-Pro iPhone 17 models get ProMotion screen, are you going to regurgitate the same thing?
Most Android phones don’t have ProMotion. They have 120Hz, 90Hz, or 60Hz. There is no in-between. ProMotion is not just 120Hz, and that’s the difference. Apple did not introduce ProMotion on iPads or iPhones until they could vary the refresh rates, and that requires higher-cost panels. High end Android phones can do that, too, but the vast majority of phones do not.
I’m very much a “buy for your needs” kind of guy. I wouldn’t touch the Lenovo yogas with a 10 foot pole but I’ve deployed to two people now because it made sense for their role with the features they explicitly asked for.
There are workers who absolutely can use iPadOS for what their tasks are. It may not make sense for you, but I’ve seen creatives shooting documentaries to corporate types always on the move. iPads make perfect sense for their day to day 🤷♂️
I hold no weight to marketing departments branding of “pro” or not.
My -wild- guess is that the Air will remain within the Air prices, with the 12.9” new model being $100-200 more, and the new M3 Pro will stay at the same price as the current Pro… With the caveat that the M3 Pro won’t be the new expensive OLED model that’s been rumored.
Instead, the OLED iPad Ultra will be a whole new category. If this ends up being true, I’ll be pretty happy, because that will mean I’ll be able to get a new M3 iPad Pro with an LCD IPS pro-motion display.
Remember, this is just a wild guess. It doesn’t mean it will happen, so all the downvotes I’ll receive won’t change anything, as this is just a random opinion.
It most likely will not move the camera because it’s not yet time for the Air’s re-design. Remember Apple does their re-designs one iPad at a time. The Pros were updated in 2018 followed by the Air, then the mini, then the base model. They never re-design more than one model at any one time. Since the base iPad was the last to be changed, the Pros are next. There is near 100% certainty the Pros will make the camera landscape, but it’s not yet the Air’s time. Next year is probably when the Air will adopt the Pro’s new design language. It’s unlikely the mini will ever get a landscape camera, and that’s a good thing since everyone uses it in portrait mode because no Apple keyboard exists for it.
Like on the iPhone, Apple will change the camera bump every year, but the design language goes in a four year cycle, so having a different camera bump does not mean there will be other physical changes.
Most don't but the OnePlus 12 and Samsung's Galasxy S24 series do.
That’s what I said. Quote: “High end Android phones can do that, too, but the vast majority of phones do not.” My disagreement was with the implication that even cheap Android phones have ProMotion, and they certainly do not because ProMotion requires varying refresh rates while cheap Androids have fixed refresh rates. Apple does not do fixed refresh rates above 60Hz.
Yeah, I think Apple is indeed differentiating the iPads just as they did the MacBooks. The MacBook Airs, with Apple Silicon, have been made into Pro “lites” while intended for the mainstream market while the Pros are targeted directly at the prosumer market.
They’re doing the same thing with the iPads.
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They could just move the pencil charger to where the camera currently is, just swap them
It would not be too much to imagine the keyboard updated for the new air as well as the new pro. Its getting old now and it has no function key row… which ironically the base ipad keyboard does have.
Would block the speakers and wouldn’t be able to hold it landscape
I am personally not a fan of a tablet running a desktop OS (tried one at work and walked away unimpressed). But maybe that's just me and my atypical needs.
It depends entirely on your needs… ive used surface and ipad tablets and used them in different scenarios… sometimes it was great to have a desktop class OS on the Surface… and sometimes great to have ipad OS on the ipad.