Apple launched the sixth-generation iPad Air and seventh-generation iPad Pro today. The new updates are coming after a near two-year-long hiatus and so it goes without saying, Apple will be banking heaving on them to beat its recent tablet sale slump. Both iPad Air and iPad Pro 2024 editions are packed to the gills with high-end specs—per their price—and should help Apple make a big splash in the market. Apple is also introducing a new Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard accessories to complement the new devices.
iPad Pro— OLED screen and M4 speed-bump
The iPad Pro 2024 has two big USPs. It has a new OLED screen and Apple M4 silicon. The M4 chip is based on a second-generation 3-nanometre technology. Apple says it will have up to a 10-core CPU (50 percent faster than M2) and a 10-core GPU (4x faster than M2), though we don’t know how many of those are inside the iPad Pro at the time of writing. What’s known is that its hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing chops will be available on the iPad Pro— a first for any iPad. Apple is doubling down on storage in this generation and will offer a choice of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB memory.
The iPad Pro still comes in 11- and 13-inch screen sizes but the panel has been revamped to OLED, or tandem OLED in Apple marketing speak. Apple says it is using two OLED panels and combining the light from both to provide “phenomenal” full-screen brightness— that is up to 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, and 1600 nits peak for HDR. The new screens obviously have a new name. Apple is calling them Ultra Retina XDR.
Elsewhere, the new iPad Pro has a sleeker design with the 13-inch model measuring only 5.1 mm (the 11-inch is 5.3 mm). Apple says it’s its thinnest product ever. It will be available in two finishes— silver and space black. There is one more design update. The 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera is switching to a landscape orientation. You still get USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 speeds (40Gb/s). Wi-Fi 6E and 5G are available.
The 11-inch iPad Pro price in India starts at Rs 99,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 1,19,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at Rs 1,29,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 1,49,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. For education, the 11-inch iPad Pro will be available for Rs 89,900 and the 13-inch iPad Pro for Rs 1,19,900. General availability is pegged for May 15.
iPad Air— double whammy
The iPad Air 2024 upgrade is a bit more conservative obviously. The big new update is that Apple is offering two screen sizes in this generation—11- and 13-inch— same as the iPad Pro. The other big update is the underlying chip which is now M2 which in theory is up to 50 percent faster than the M1 inside the previous model.
The new iPad Air has a landscape front camera (but no FaceID), Wi-Fi 6E (and 5G), and up to 1TB of storage.
The 11-inch iPad Air price in India starts at Rs 59,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 79,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Air starts at Rs 79,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 94,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. For education, the 11-inch iPad Air will be available for Rs 54,900 and the 13-inch iPad Air for Rs 74,900. General availability is pegged for May 15.
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