I have the 2021 iPad Pro 12.9 BUT If apple excites me about the iPhone 13 and about new iPads that will automatically send my fold 3 packing as I already have the fold 2 as truthfully Samsung made a huge mistake when they released such phones ‘with spen support’ to replace an amazing line of phones that being the Note series. yay us!!!
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All iPads So is it just rumors or a non issue or what about apple releasing a new 5G iPad Air in September/October?
- Thread starter ealexander
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I could see the 9th gen iPad not supporting 5G, since the base iPad always lags behind the others, but the Air and Mini are almost guaranteed to be 5G.
I think Cellular Carriers aren’t trying to launch new devices with only 4G.
I’m sure they’d love all devices to be 5G, but it’s up to Apple to decide that, not the carriers.
I think the main problem is cost - 5g modems cost a lot and raise the price of the ipad significantly. Not so much an issue for a higher tier product like the iphone or iPad Pro which people are prepared to pay a premium for.
May be more an issue for the entry level tablets where Apple is trying to complete based on price. People buying these tablets are even less likely to be paying extra for a 5g connection either way, so it’s possible Apple will stick with 4g to keep the overall cost down.
Could go either way for the iPad Air, if it gets a refresh this year.
Apple and carriers work together on this for sure. But with the retiring of 3G carriers are really pushing for 4G to go into legacy mode
Cellular is already priced separately for iPads. Affording Apple more flexibility in pricing it out. The current chip infused demand bubble also has them pushing prices up across the board. 5G is likely to be used as a way for them to try and “sell” that bump. As that’s what they’ve already done with iPhone 12.
It’s entirely possible that all cellular devices from Apple receive 5G. I do notice that both the 7th and 8th gen iPads have Gigabit-class LTE, so if the 9th gen gets 5G it probably just won’t support as many bands as the Air and Pro.
Has Apple ever released a device that didn’t support all established bands for LTE and 5G especially when unlocked?
The answer is yes. Just go on Apple's website and use the compare feature under iPads. You'll find that the 8th gen iPad supports fewer bands than the Air 4 and they were announced simultaneously.
The 7th gen iPad had 1 fewer band than the Air 3 and it came out after the Air 3.
The 6th gen iPad had fewer bands than the iPad Pros from the year before.
The 5th gen iPad had fewer bands than the iPad Pro from the previous year.
Basically all entry iPads ever since Apple brought back the entry level model in 2017 have had fewer bands than the higher end models even from previous years. It's a definite trend.
thanks! You’ve been a big help
If having the most bands is important then yes. The higher end models tend to have the better components, so if you want the best tech, the Pros (and to a lesser extent the Airs) are the way to go.Ahhh so I’ll just buy high end iPadsthanks! You’ve been a big help
The fact that they dubbed 120Hz refresh rate as ProMotion, they must have intended to keep it exclusive to Pro models. I wonder if that's the case, then the non-Pro iPhones may also never receive ProMotion.
Lots of rumors do suggest that the next Air will be OLED, and one rumor said it would have quad speakers, but it probably won't get ProMotion. It will very likely get 5G. I'm a tiny bit surprised the Air 4 didn't get 5G, since it came out around the iPhone 12 models. But I'm sure Apple just held it from the Air, so they could make a big deal about the 2021 Pros getting 5G. They're strategic like that.