Everything revealed at Apple ‘Let Loose’ event: OLED iPad Pro, iPad Air 6 & more
AppleApple held the “Let Loose” keynote today, announcing a handful of new products, including new iPads. Here’s everything the company announced during the event.
Apple just concluded the Let Loose event and left us with a suite of new iPad. While 2023 was a quiet year for Apple’s tablet, the company has packed 2024 with four new iPad models, all with plenty of new features and upgrades.
The OLED iPad Pros are the stars of the show featuring an OLED display (of course) and an unexpected M4 series chipset. Expect the new iPad Pros to offer a stunning viewing experience alongside handy software features. Apple has also announced the iPad Air 6, which might be the tablet for the masses with its lightweight build, slightly lower price tag than the Pro, and a larger screen size.
Apple has also paired the new iPads with new accessories in the form of an upgraded Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro. But, the base iPad model has received no upgrade.
Say hello to OLED iPad Pro
AppleRumors of an OLED iPad Pro have been making rounds for quite some time, and now the device is finally official. OLED, short for organic light-emitting diodes, is a display type you’ve already seen on iPhone and Samsung’s S series tablet.
These new tablets boast Tandem OLED displays for deeper blacks and a whopping 1600 nits of peak brightness. Apple is calling the new displays Ultra Retina XDR. The iPad Pro also gets a major redesign with a super thin and light build. Apple says it’s their thinnest device ever, with the 11-inch model coming in at 0.21 inches (5.3mm) and the 13-inch at just 0.20 inches (5.1mm).
Beyond the display upgrade, the iPad Pro packs a whole new M4 chip. Apple jumps straight to the M4, skipping the M3 for these iPad Pro models. This M4 chip uses a second-generation 3nm process and features a 16-core Neural Engine.
It’s optimized for artificial intelligence tasks, with a brand new CPU that includes four high-performance cores and six efficient cores. Plus, it boasts a 10-core GPU, along with dynamic caching and mesh shading technology. This chip is 4 times faster than the previous M2 chip.
Apple has changed the position of the iPad’s front-facing camera from portrait to landscape. They rock a 12MP main camera, with support for 4K ProRes video.
The new iPad Pro starts at 256 GB. The 11-inch model is available at a starting price of $999 with the new 13-inch model starting at $1299.
iPad Air 6 with new screen sizes
AppleThe iPad Air refresh is here, and this time in two screen sizes— 13-inch and 11-inch. No OLED displays here, though. Both use an LCD panel.
Apple equips the new iPad Airs with an M2 chip. The last gen models pack an M1, so that’s a solid improvement. M1 and M2 chips have various performance and efficiency differences. Another improvement is camera orientation. It is now landscape, placed on one of the side edges.
The iPad Air 6 lineup includes new blue, purple, starlight, and space gray options. Both models start at 128GB, doubling the previous storage, with 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB options also available. They are available to order today and will begin shipping on May 15, 2024, starting at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model.
Don’t forget the Apple Pencil Pro
The Apple Pencil Pro brings many upgrades over the existing Apple styluses. The latest Apple Pencil has haptic feedback for the first time.
There’s also a new “squeeze” function that can trigger certain functions simply by squeezing. You can use the squeeze gestures to open a “contextual menu” to let you quickly perform actions like adding shapes, stickers, and text to a canvas. It also has a gyroscope to change the orientation of the tools you are using. Apple Pencil Pro also supports Find My so you can locate it easily when lost.
The Apple Pencil Pro is priced at $129.
Finally, a new and improved Magic Keyboard
Apple wants to give you a laptop-like experience while using your iPad Pro and the Magic Keyboard Pro is the key to it. The keyboard brings a larger trackpad and aluminum construction for the top case.
It is available at the same price as the previous Magic Keyboard. You pay $299 for the 11-inch version and $349 for the 13-inch.