Apple Unveils The New iPad And iPad Pro Coming To Stores Later This Month

Tech

Oct 19

Apple iPad advert — Image Source: 9to5Mac

Attention all Apple lovers. Just in time to make it on your Christmas wish list, Apple has unveiled the new iPad and iPad Pro. The newest models come with some flashy new colors as well as some new features and upgrades.

First, let’s examine the traditional iPad. In terms of appearance, it will now be available in blue, pink, silver, and yellow. Aesthetically, they have also moved the iPad to a 10.9-inch display from the previous model’s 10.2-inch with a new feature being the “all-screen display” which is essentially just moving the Touch ID button to the top. The A14 Bionic chip (compared to the last model’s A13) has provided a boost to CPU speed and doubled the number of cores. Another of the new features they are touting is the front-facing camera. The wide-angle camera has been moved to the top when you are using it in landscape orientation to improve video calls. The rear-facing camera is a 12 MP camera that shoots in 4K compared to the previous model having an 8 MP camera that only shoots in 1080p with slow motion also being increased from 120 fps to 240 fps. Wifi 6 now comes standard and the cellular models are now 5G compatible.

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There was also a new magnetic keyboard rolled out for the iPad which appears to have a better tactile setup, a larger trackpad, and shortcut buttons at the top. It essentially transforms the iPad into a Microsoft Surface rival. Some small but useful changes to the latest software rollout include unsending or editing recent messages and being able to copy or look up text from paused videos. There are 2 memory options with the 64 GB starting at $449 and the 256 GB starting at $599.

On the iPad Pro side, it boasts the new M2 chip which boasts increased stats over the M1 chip from the previous generation and comes with either 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM. The camera system has also been upgraded to capture ProRes video in 4k at 30 fps but otherwise seems to be fairly similar to the 5th gen. Like the conventional iPad, it has also been upgraded to be 5g compatible and is now compatible with wifi 6e compared to wifi 6. One of the most intriguing upgrades is surrounding the functionality of the Apple pencil. The iPad screen can now detect electromagnetic signals above the screen which will actually be able to sense the 3-dimensional positioning of the pencil.

So far, most of the progress seems to benefit artists, especially with the ability to hover to preview what you want to do before you do it among small details to make workflow faster, however, I can see developers taking advantage of this to a greater extent at some point down the road. The new OS has also introduced the ability to use overlapping windows, which is essentially what Windows OS was named after but will certainly unlock the advantages that they offer to quicker navigation and workflow. When combined with one of the keyboard options and plugged into an external display, the iPad has essentially become a tablet, laptop, and desktop all in one. Storage starts at 128 GB with options at 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. The 11-inch model starts at $799 with the 12.9-inch starting at $1099.

Both the iPad and iPad Pro are available for pre-order, and they will be hitting shelves on October 26. Full specs and comparisons can be found on the Apple website.