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Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,663
4,500
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?
they just lowered the brightness and removed promotion, these are things that can be done in software/firmare, you don't need new hardware to change brightness and remove pro-motion...
 

dz5b609

macrumors 6502a
Mar 22, 2019
738
2,029
they just lowered the brightness and removed promotion, these are things that can be done in software/firmare, you don't need new hardware to change brightness and remove pro-motion...

They're using entirely different panels for the pro and the air without pro-motion capabilities and with a lower maximum brightness, because those are cheaper (hence why they can sell the Air for less than the pro).

Your (wrong) implication is that Apple would use the more expensive panels instead of the cheaper ones because?
 
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Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,663
4,500
Then how can you claim that Apple lowered the brightness and refresh rate with software?
My post was not well written, I should have written "they could very well have lowered". Anyway that was a reply to the fact that this could be reusing the 2019 panel because of brightness and refresh rate, which are things than can be change/disabled even if the panel support them
 

C. Robert

macrumors 65816
Oct 1, 2013
1,377
974
Baltimore
They took away .1 inch just to make people question life. Apple can be very greedy and selfish. This is what the line-up should look like.
Ipad: 64 and 128
iPad Air: 128 and 256
iPad Pro: 256 to 1tb.
That would still be usable for all levels and people wouldn't question their purchase.
 
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muzzy996

macrumors 65816
Feb 16, 2018
1,119
1,068
*shrug* I suppose it's not impossible that a manufacturer opts to use the same hardware and intentionally gimp it in software to create a mid tier device but I'm skeptical in this case. It would seem more plausible to source a cheaper panel in order to preserve target profit margin when marketing a mid tier iPad.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,613
8,636
Oh is that true? Will be interesting to see the tear down. Apple is known to put fake speaker grills just for the looks.
No, it’s not true. When looking at the diagram and descriptions of the speakers in the Air vs the Pro...

7B9554F6-480D-4BA0-9190-5BBF331581D2.jpeg

The Pro actually defines 4 separate sections as speakers. The Air, only 2. For the Pro, they call out “Four speaker audio” for the Air, just “Stereo speakers”.
 

CalMin

Contributor
Nov 8, 2007
1,890
3,696
*shrug* I suppose it's not impossible that a manufacturer opts to use the same hardware and intentionally gimp it in software to create a mid tier device but I'm skeptical in this case. It would seem more plausible to source a cheaper panel in order to preserve target profit margin when marketing a mid tier iPad.

Exactly this.

It’s a mid-tier device with lower specs than the high end made to hit a specific price point. It also needs to be differentiated from the higher spec device for market segmentation reasons I.e. it’s the “better” one in a good/better/best list.
 

VSMacOne

macrumors 603
Oct 18, 2008
5,936
2,895
My money is on differentiation between the Air and 11" Pro. There are some technical differences, like the lower max brightness (mentioned in an article I read last week) and no Pro Motion, but none of those would have necessarily warranted the smaller screen.
 

klasma

macrumors 604
Jun 8, 2017
7,504
20,914
?? Can you elaborate on the restrictions? Thanks.

The iPad Pro works like this in the four possible orientations (L = left channel, R = right channel, x = camera position):
Code:
                            L R                                     L R
                         +-------+                               +-------+
     +---------+         |     x |          +---------+          |       |
   L | x       | R       |       |        L |         | R        |       |
   L |         | R       |       |        L |       x | R        |       |
     +---------+         |       |          +---------+          | x     |
                         +-------+                               +-------+
                            L R                                     L R

The iPad Air 4 will apparently work something like this:
Code:
                            L L                                     L L
                         +-------+                               +-------+
     +---------+         |     x |          +---------+          |       |
   L | x       | R       |       |        L |         | R        |       |
   L |         | R       |       |        L |       x | R        |       |
     +---------+         |       |          +---------+          | x     |
                         +-------+                               +-------+
                            R R                                     R R

Or possibly even just like this:
Code:
                            L L                                     R R
                         +-------+                               +-------+
     +---------+         |     x |          +---------+          |       |
   L | x       | R       |       |        R |         | L        |       |
   L |         | R       |       |        R |       x | L        |       |
     +---------+         |       |          +---------+          | x     |
                         +-------+                               +-------+
                            R R                                     L L

That is, you will only get correct L/R output in the landscape orientations.

I doubt that the Air 4 only has two speaker drivers, each outputting via two grills, due to the distortion that the reflections in that in-case path would create, and due to the extra space such a path would consume. It's maybe not impossible to compensate for that, or maybe one of each grill pair is indeed only cosmetic, we'll see. I wouldn't count the fact that the Apple spec diagram uses the word "speaker" only once for each side as a strong indication, because for the consumer the two drivers for each side would effectively act as a single speaker, and also because in case of a purely cosmetic grill the diagram would be lying.
 
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