?? 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.