If you’ve been paying attention to the rumors leading up to Apple’s Let Loose iPad event, you knew what to expect: iPad Air and iPad Pro in 11- and 13-inch sizes with new processors, a new Apple Pencil, and an updated Magic Keyboard.
Still, there were a few details during the announcement that hadn’t been predicted, and which caught us a little bit by surprise. None of these are earth-shaking revelations, but they can be enough to slightly color our views of some of these products. Here are some of the things we hadn’t expected going into the event.
Prices that didn’t go up
The iPad Pro is $200 more expensive no matter which size you pick–a price you might justify with that fancy new OLED display and twice the storage, perhaps. But the 11-inch iPad Air did not get more expensive, which is a relief. This is the first year a 13-inch iPad Air is available, so we have nothing to compare it against, but $799 feels right.
Also not more expensive? The new Apple Pencil Pro, which comes in at the same $129 price as the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil, despite having several new capabilities.
And the new Magic Keyboard, which has an aluminum deck, larger trackpad with haptic feedback, is slimmer, and has a function row, costs the same as the older Magic Keyboard ($299 for 11-inch iPads; $349 for 13-inch iPads). It’s still too expensive, but it’s nice to see feature inflation without price inflation.
The biggest surprise of all? The 10th-gen iPad actually got a $100 price cut, down to $349, which makes it just $20 more than the 9th-gen iPad that is no longer available. We always thought this should have been Apple’s move from the start: don’t keep the 9th-gen model around, just replace it with the 10th-gen model with a very modest price increase (if any).
The iPad Pro’s new Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil don’t cost any more than the previous generation.
Petter Ahrnstedt
Back to a single camera
Where did the 10MP ultra wide camera on the iPad Pro disappear to? It’s just gone! We don’t know how often it was used, but for the first time since 2020, all that’s left is a 12MP Wide camera. Apple could have at least upgraded it to the 48MP wide camera on the new iPhones, to give us that 2x optical “crop zoom” option. Also missing is mmWave 5G in the cellular models—but most people probably won’t even know it’s gone.
M4 missing a core
If you buy an iPad Pro with less than 1TB of storage, you get 8GB of RAM. If you buy the 1TB or 2TB option, you get 16GB of RAM. That’s the same as it was with the M2 iPad Pro from 2022.
But what isn’t the same is that you get a lesser M4 processor too. That’s right, while both models have six efficiency cores, the < 1TB models have only three performance cores. If you want the full M4 processor, you have to spend a minimum of $1,599 for the 11-inch 1TB model or $1,899 for the 13-inch 1TB model. Yikes.
More storage for the same price
Given the price increase and 18-month timeframe since the M2 iPad Pro was announced, it’s a good thing the 128GB model is simply gone from the lineup and the iPad Pro now starts with 256GB of storage. It takes a little bit of the sting out of the $200 price hike, but not much. No tablet at this price should dream of giving you only 128GB of storage.
The iPad Air loses its 64GB model as well and gains a new 2TB option on the high end, leaving the 10th-gen iPad as the only model with 64GB of storage. If you want more storage, rest assured that Apple still charges a ridiculous price for additional storage. Some things never change.
The new iPad Air is thin and light—but not as thin and light as the iPad Pro.
Petter Ahrnstedt
Lighter than Air
The 11-inch iPad Pro used to be slightly heavier than the 10.9-inch iPad Air—just 5 grams but enough to justify the Air moniker. The new 11-inch iPad Pro is now 18 grams lighter.
The difference is even greater with the 13-inch models. The 13-inch iPad Air is about 10 percent lighter than the old 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but the new 13-inch iPad Pro is a few percent lighter still. At 579 grams, it’s a whopping 103 grams lighter than the M2 model and 38 grams lighter than the 13-inch iPad Air.
The iPad Pro is also about a millimeter thinner than the Air. Maybe Apple needs to rename the iPad Air?
Author: Jason Cross, Senior Editor, Macworld
Jason has written about technology for more than 25 years - first in the gaming press, then focusing on enthusiast PCs and general technology. He enjoys learning how complicated technology works and explaining it in a way anyone can understand.