Listen to the audio version of the article
«The biggest day for iPad since it was launched»: these are the words used by Tim Cook at the opening of “Let Lose”, a virtual event that Apple dedicated today – May 7th – to his tablet. And in fact the news announced by the Cupertino company on the iPad front are decidedly interesting, introducing new, more performing models and further narrowing the line that divides tablets from laptops. Ergo: if the new iPads seem like new MacBooks to you, don’t pay too much attention.
But let’s go in order, and see the announcements.
iPad Air also 13 inches
A 13-inch iPad Air didn’t exist yet. iPad Air 2024 will be the first, available in this size (the 11-inch one also remains). From Cupertino they have decided that the heart of these new tablets will be Apple’s M2 chip. Four colors available: blue, purple, starlight and space gray. The devices will be available from May 15th on the Apple Store: starting price, 719 euros.
Feature-wise, the new iPad Air has a single 12MP rear camera lens and a 12MP front camera, as before, now centered on the long edge. It also supports the Apple Pencil Hover feature, which was previously exclusive to the iPad Pro.
A new iPad Pro with M4
But there is no doubt that the new iPad Pro has attracted attention. Here too the dimensions are 13 and 11 inches, and they have a very renewed design, with a decidedly thin profile and OLED screens on both versions. Also in this case the front camera has been positioned in the correct position (in the center of the long side, for video calls). The 2024 iPad Pros use a tandem OLED structure that allows the display to reach 1,000 nits of peak brightness in full screen – just like the previous Mini LED model – and 1,600 nits for HDR content. The 13-inch model measures just 5.1 millimeters thick, which Apple says is its thinnest device ever. (The 11-inch model is 5.3 millimeters thick.)