The iPhone 11 & iPhone 11 Pro have been announced. In the run up to the announcement, based on leaks and rumors, there was generally not a ton of excitement for this update. People really want a design refresh and 5G, apparently. Similarly, many can’t see what the point of updating the iPad Pro within 12 months would be or what they could possibly do to update it.
Now that we know more about the iPhone 11, I thought it’d be interesting to see what kind of technology could you see from these making their way into the iPad Pro from the iPhone line? Previously we’ve heard the cameras might be coming, and a popular request is that the RAM would get a bump across the line, which Apple still does *not* ever mention or list as a spec; there’s also debate as to whether an A13X chip is in the pipeline or not, with some suggesting there’s isn’t one but that there is a revised A12X out there (which I don’t think they would call A12X if it was part of a product announcement).
- U1 chip (ultra wideband location chip - not talked about at the event but listed as being in the phone)
- WiFi 6
- updated rear cameras (actually rumored, even if most people roll their eyes at any camera upgrades on an iPad)
- updated front-facing / TrueDepth camera (admit it— people DO use their iPads for FaceTime and such, why not?)
- Spatial Audio (don’t know much about this really— they didn’t really get into it, not sure how much of this is hardware components / hardware design).
Honestly, I feel like an A13X might be essential to the update though— I can’t imagine them not updating a flagship line without putting a new chip in it. Aside from speed, efficiency / battery life was the big selling point for the new A13– significantly better battery life claimed on the 11 Pro series.
My take on the new iPhones is that they’re nice updates— aside from the cameras, which tend to always be the big update, the phone is the sum of a lot of smaller updates that, together, elevate the device above the previous generation, even if it doesn’t make it a must-have for all owners of said previous generation. The only reason to not do the same for the iPad Pro is if the investment doesn’t justify the projected revenue, IMO. (Or if they simply can’t allocate the resources without risking other timelines.)
Anything else I’ve missed? What are your thoughts?
Now that we know more about the iPhone 11, I thought it’d be interesting to see what kind of technology could you see from these making their way into the iPad Pro from the iPhone line? Previously we’ve heard the cameras might be coming, and a popular request is that the RAM would get a bump across the line, which Apple still does *not* ever mention or list as a spec; there’s also debate as to whether an A13X chip is in the pipeline or not, with some suggesting there’s isn’t one but that there is a revised A12X out there (which I don’t think they would call A12X if it was part of a product announcement).
- U1 chip (ultra wideband location chip - not talked about at the event but listed as being in the phone)
- WiFi 6
- updated rear cameras (actually rumored, even if most people roll their eyes at any camera upgrades on an iPad)
- updated front-facing / TrueDepth camera (admit it— people DO use their iPads for FaceTime and such, why not?)
- Spatial Audio (don’t know much about this really— they didn’t really get into it, not sure how much of this is hardware components / hardware design).
Honestly, I feel like an A13X might be essential to the update though— I can’t imagine them not updating a flagship line without putting a new chip in it. Aside from speed, efficiency / battery life was the big selling point for the new A13– significantly better battery life claimed on the 11 Pro series.
My take on the new iPhones is that they’re nice updates— aside from the cameras, which tend to always be the big update, the phone is the sum of a lot of smaller updates that, together, elevate the device above the previous generation, even if it doesn’t make it a must-have for all owners of said previous generation. The only reason to not do the same for the iPad Pro is if the investment doesn’t justify the projected revenue, IMO. (Or if they simply can’t allocate the resources without risking other timelines.)
Anything else I’ve missed? What are your thoughts?
