Thought I'd get the ball rolling on a thread for Apple's "Let Loose" event on May 7th. It'll stream at 10AM Eastern here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1J38FlDKxo
The expectations are that it will almost entirely revolve around iPads... and given that an Apple Pencil is front-and-center in the teaser graphic, I'm pretty sure they're a lock.
The star is likely to be the iPad Pro line. It's poised to get OLED screens (LTPO, even), camera upgrades, a slimmer design... and either an M3 or M4 chip, according to Bloomberg. An M4 would be wild — Apple would not only debut its latest chip in the iPad for the first time in a long while, but that'd mean M3 had just half a year at the top. Realistically, I expect 'just' an M3.
After that, the iPad Air could jump to the M2 and get a 12.9-inch model. That could be the real money maker for Apple — you could get a large iPad without paying through the nose for a Pro. There was talk of a mini-LED screen on the larger Air, but that seems to have been tamped down.
The Magic Keyboard would be redesigned to be more laptop-like, and the Apple Pencil might receive squeeze gestures (say, bringing up a frequent drawing tool shortcut) as well as haptic feedback.
Yes, Apple is late to the OLED tablet party, but let's be honest: for most tablet buyers, this will be their first exposure to it. The real question is whether or not Apple will do anything meaningful to the software at WWDC with iPadOS 18. iPads have great hardware, but it's still hard to use them as heavy-duty production machines outside of certain circumstances. I just want a good around-the-house tablet like the regular Air, but someone who wants to fully replace their laptop will probably want more.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1J38FlDKxo
The expectations are that it will almost entirely revolve around iPads... and given that an Apple Pencil is front-and-center in the teaser graphic, I'm pretty sure they're a lock.
The star is likely to be the iPad Pro line. It's poised to get OLED screens (LTPO, even), camera upgrades, a slimmer design... and either an M3 or M4 chip, according to Bloomberg. An M4 would be wild — Apple would not only debut its latest chip in the iPad for the first time in a long while, but that'd mean M3 had just half a year at the top. Realistically, I expect 'just' an M3.
After that, the iPad Air could jump to the M2 and get a 12.9-inch model. That could be the real money maker for Apple — you could get a large iPad without paying through the nose for a Pro. There was talk of a mini-LED screen on the larger Air, but that seems to have been tamped down.
The Magic Keyboard would be redesigned to be more laptop-like, and the Apple Pencil might receive squeeze gestures (say, bringing up a frequent drawing tool shortcut) as well as haptic feedback.
Yes, Apple is late to the OLED tablet party, but let's be honest: for most tablet buyers, this will be their first exposure to it. The real question is whether or not Apple will do anything meaningful to the software at WWDC with iPadOS 18. iPads have great hardware, but it's still hard to use them as heavy-duty production machines outside of certain circumstances. I just want a good around-the-house tablet like the regular Air, but someone who wants to fully replace their laptop will probably want more.