All iPads Why are the bezels on the air thicker than the pro?

[MacDevil7334]

No, they need to keep the width and height the same for case and keyboard compatibility. You'll note that the 11" Pro and 10.9" Air are EXACTLY the same for width and height. Depth is slightly different, but that is less important.

So, once they've decided to keep those dimensions the same they'll stuff whatever screen that will fit there with existing technology at a decent price and factoring in other technology restraints that may be a factor (like possibly the thickness of Touch ID).

Right, I didn’t say anything about the physical dimensions of the devices. The length and width have to be the same to maintain compatibility with the iPad Pro accessories.

What I was talking about was screen dimensions, which are indeed different per Apple’s product specs. I was making 2 points:

1. The difference in screen size has no impact on usability. A difference of 784 pixels is basically nothing on a display with over 3.8 million pixels. Thus, the choice to put a 10.9” display in the Air seems like a rather arbitrary choice driven by marketing rather than any technical constraints. It is possible the TouchID sensor drove this difference in screen size, but we won’t know that until iFixit gets their hands on one for a teardown.
2. Quite a few of the early rumors pointed to a 10.8” display on the Air. I was speculating that Apple might have originally intended to go with that size. However, since the physical dimensions of the Air chassis are the same as those of the Pro, that would have led to really thick bezels on the Air. That would have undermined Apple’s “all screen design“ claim, which led to the 10.9” size as a (somewhat odd) compromise.

 

[one more]

I do not mind the bezel thickness as such, but find it funny that they are thicker than the side bezels of Air 3:



I guess Apple made them like this for the sake of symmetry. ??‍♂️

 

[rui no onna]

What I was talking about was screen dimensions, which are indeed different per Apple’s product specs. I was making 2 points:

1. The difference in screen size has no impact on usability. A difference of 784 pixels is basically nothing on a display with over 3.8 million pixels. Thus, the choice to put a 10.9” display in the Air seems like a rather arbitrary choice driven by marketing rather than any technical constraints.

Eventually yes. In the immediate future, some apps might be a bit blurry until they're updated to support the 10.9" iPad's new resolution. Ugh.

 

[MacDevil7334]

Eventually yes. In the immediate future, some apps might be a bit blurry until they're updated to support the 10.9" iPad's new resolution. Ugh.

Eh, I think it will be fine honestly. Any app that utilizes iOS’s Adaptive Layout feature that Apple has been pushing for the past few years (clearly with all the different upcoming iPad screen sizes in mind) will work fine right out of the gate. For apps that don’t utilize this feature, the Air has the same ratio as the Pro, so no black bars on any apps that support the 11 inch Pro. And the difference in screen size is so small, any downscaling will likely not be noticeable. This won’t be anything like when the 12.9“ was first introduced and the screen size difference from the 9.7” was massive.

 

[rui no onna]

Eh, I think it will be fine honestly. Any app that utilizes iOS’s Adaptive Layout feature that Apple has been pushing for the past few years (clearly with all the different upcoming iPad screen sizes in mind) will work fine right out of the gate. For apps that don’t utilize this feature, the Air has the same ratio as the Pro, so no black bars on any apps that support the 11 inch Pro. And the difference in screen size is so small, any downscaling will likely not be noticeable. This won’t be anything like when the 12.9“ was first introduced and the screen size difference from the 9.7” was massive.

Yeah, apps should really switch to adaptive layout. I don't understand why some of them don't but even last year, I encountered a few apps that were obviously using a resampled 9.7" layout on the 10.2" iPad.

 

[MacDevil7334]

I do not mind the bezel thickness as such, but find it funny that they are thicker than the side bezels of Air 3:

View attachment 955088

I guess Apple made them like this for the sake of symmetry. ??‍♂️

Yeah it’s also interesting that the Air 4 screen is actually slightly narrower too (1640 pixels wide on the Air 4 vs. 1668 on the 3). The Air 4 has a taller screen aspect ratio, which is how it still is bigger measured on the diagonal. But, it‘s interesting that it actually shrunk slightly on the short edge.

 

[satchmo]

Comparison with the 11 pro.
Screen grab from the chinese video. The Air is on top and on the left.

Mayve not that noticable on it's own, but next to another, it's something I can't unsee.
It's subtle, but certainly makes the Air look less premium.

 

[macdogpro]

View attachment 955122

View attachment 955123

Comparison with the 11 pro.
Screen grab from the chinese video. The Air is on top and on the left.

Mayve not that noticable on it's own, but next to another, it's something I can't unsee.
It's subtle, but certainly makes the Air look less premium.

I even can tell the bezel difference from Apple online event video. Just like the iPhone XR bezel and the X.
It does making the lower model look less premium.
I don’t mind the thicker case tho, more bend-proof

 

[Digitalguy]

it's an obvious marketing differentiation... believing that touch id takes room sounds a bit like trying to justify Apple for everything they do... like no! it's too evil to be Apple, there must be a reason.... lol... of course not, my Android smartphone has a fingerprint reader on the power button that has also other functions and has zero bezels, zero....

 

[EugW]

Personally I don't care too much about that. Hell, I'm running a 10.5" iPad Pro. If you want to talk bezels, look at that one.

I'm much more interested in other things, such as the rumoured mini-LED for example. That will be a real differentiating factor, unlike something as trivial as 0.1" of screen.

 

[Seanm87]

View attachment 955122

View attachment 955123

Comparison with the 11 pro.
Screen grab from the chinese video. The Air is on top and on the left.

Mayve not that noticable on it's own, but next to another, it's something I can't unsee.
It's subtle, but certainly makes the Air look less premium.

Looks hideous. I actually think the air 3 looked better.

 

[Digitalguy]

Personally I don't care too much about that. Hell, I'm running a 10.5" iPad Pro. If you want to talk bezels, look at that one.

I'm much more interested in other things, such as the rumoured mini-LED for example. That will be a real differentiating factor, unlike something as trivial as 0.1" of screen.

same here, running the 10.5 and even liking the side bezels... yeah mini-led will be a big differentiator, I am already seeing the difference between my ipads and my new Tab S7+ with OLED...

 

[joeblow7777]

There's likely some technical reason. It's also a hair thicker than the Pro, I believe. I don't think that Apple did these things on purpose just to make it less "premium" than the Pro, because it makes no sense. 99% of people won't even know or care about those slight differences.

 

[Digitalguy]

There's likely some technical reason. It's also a hair thicker than the Pro, I believe. I don't think that Apple did these things on purpose just to make it less "premium" than the Pro, because it makes no sense. 99% of people won't even know or care about those slight differences.

why not? Why the budget ipad was 10.2 instead of 10.5 with the same size... marketing, marketing, marketing....

 

[MacDevil7334]

Personally I don't care too much about that. Hell, I'm running a 10.5" iPad Pro. If you want to talk bezels, look at that one.

I'm much more interested in other things, such as the rumoured mini-LED for example. That will be a real differentiating factor, unlike something as trivial as 0.1" of screen.

Yep. The 2020 Pros are pretty clearly placeholder models, which is why the differences with the Air seem so small right now. When the mini-LED models drop next year with A14X chips, it will be a much bigger difference between the Air and the Pro.

 

[joeblow7777]

why not? Why the budget ipad was 10.2 instead of 10.5 with the same size... marketing, marketing, marketing....

You really think that they went out of their way to make the Air 10.9" instead of 11" because of marketing?

The 10.2" iPad has a different chassis and non-laminated display compared to the 10.5" Air/Pro iPads. I'm no engineer, but I don't think that it's unreasonable that there might be internal reasons why the tech on the cheaper devices requires a little more space leaving a little less room for the displays.

 

[muzzy996]

TLDR but the "less premium" comments catch my attention. IMO such a comparison should be made between the new Air and the base iPads not the other way around as seems to be the case for some of the posts in this thread. After all the new Air sits in between the base iPads and the Pro line, so shouldn't it be "more premium" than a base iPad and "less premium" than a Pro? The laminated display and symmetrical bezels are subjectively an improvement over the base model, although I can understand some lamenting about the side bezels (when in portrait) being thicker now.

 

[DanTSX]

View attachment 955122

View attachment 955123

Comparison with the 11 pro.
Screen grab from the chinese video. The Air is on top and on the left.

Mayve not that noticable on it's own, but next to another, it's something I can't unsee.
It's subtle, but certainly makes the Air look less premium.

Maybe it isn’t intended to be a premium product? They sell these things at wal mart and Costco after all....

IPad Pro would be the premium product. Even though I wouldn’t consider it “premium” either.

 

[Seanm87]

It may not be the top of the line product in terms of “premium”. It’s very un apple like to compromise on the design of something unless for a specific reason.

I cant believe I’m saying this as i hate when people on here say it, but Steve Jobs would never done something like that. All the products, even the cheaper ones, were designed to be as perfect as they could be.

 

[joeblow7777]

It may not be the top of the line product in terms of “premium”. It’s very un apple like to compromise on the design of something unless for a specific reason.

I cant believe I’m saying this as i hate when people on here say it, but Steve Jobs would never done something like that. All the products, even the cheaper ones, were designed to be as perfect as they could be.

You're right. Say what you will about Apple, but it's not consistent with their philosophy to make a product less sleek for no good reason. Even their cheapest products usually have the most premium design that the technology allows. Their brand is all about style, after all. Sometimes to a fault.

 

[Digitalguy]

You really think that they went out of their way to make the Air 10.9" instead of 11" because of marketing?

The 10.2" iPad has a different chassis and non-laminated display compared to the 10.5" Air/Pro iPads. I'm no engineer, but I don't think that it's unreasonable that there might be internal reasons why the tech on the cheaper devices requires a little more space leaving a little less room for the displays.

I really do. They pay attention to details even when they make things worse on purpose, even if that costs them money. They could reuse things and that would be cheaper most of the time. But they take the 11 pro design and they carefully remove pro-motion, they carefully make it 0.1 larger bezels, they carefully lower the brightness by 100 nits, they even remove the reverse charge feature that allows you to charge your phone with your ipad... It's not just about saving money, it's about making a clear distinction between tiers....

 

[Never mind]

Is this apples lame way of making it less premium? They did the same on the XR/11 but at least that can be explained by the difficulties of using an LCD panel instead of OLED in a bezeless design.

So is there actually any technical reason why? Or is it just to purposefully make it look worse?

don’t want to be too sarcastic but how in the heck are we to know the answer to this question?

 

[EugW]

I suspect 95% of the iPad Air target couldn’t give rats azz about the difference in bezel size here. I sure don’t and I’m a geek whose next iPad is probably going to be a Pro because of mini-LED.

And the other 5% that do care? They’re free to buy a Pro and get a bunch of other extra features at the same time.

 

[ejin222]

I really do. They pay attention to details even when they make things worse on purpose, even if that costs them money. They could reuse things and that would be cheaper most of the time. But they take the 11 pro design and they carefully remove pro-motion, they carefully make it 0.1 larger bezels, they carefully lower the brightness by 100 nits, they even remove the reverse charge feature that allows you to charge your phone with your ipad... It's not just about saving money, it's about making a clear distinction between tiers....

I'm wondering if that's exactly what Apple did... Could it be as simple as Apple just taking things out?

Granted, I don't know the technical aspects of which screens they used, but the 2019 Air had 500 nits of brightness also and didn't have ProMotion. It looks like, at least screen technology wise, that the 2020 Air used an upsized version of the 2019 rather than taking the Pro's features out (unless it is that easy).

Maybe someone with better technical knowledge can confirm?

 

[darngooddesign]

Maybe not that noticeable on it's own, but next to another, it's something I can't unsee...

The obvious solution is to only buy one of them, and if you have both, don't put them next to each other.