Apple Unveils New iPad Pro, iPad Air and More in ‘Let Loose’ Event

On Tuesday (May 7) in its ‘Let Loose’ event, Apple introduced a new line of iPads on what Tim Cook called the “biggest day for iPad since its introduction.” And the CEO of Apple is not wrong—this is the biggest iPad update since the introduction of M2 chips in the iPad, which was a while back.

The launch introduced us to two brand-new versions of the iPad Pro, two new versions of the iPad Air, a new and updated Apple Pencil Pro, and a revamped, lighter, boasting a bigger trackpad Magic Keyboard.

What Will the New iPad Pro 2024 Offer?

The newer versions will be available in two sizes, 11-inch and 13-inch. The smaller one will be priced at $999 and the bigger one will be priced at a whopping $1,299.

Interestingly, the specifications of both these models are exactly the same. So, you’re being asked to pay an outrageous $300 extra just for two inches worth of more screen real estate. Wow!

Better Display

The display is perhaps the most exciting part of the iPad upgrade, at least for me. For the first time ever, iPad Pro will come with a high-quality OLED display, which will make the visuals look brighter and more vibrant.

Now, building large OLED displays that are equally bright requires a bit of extra engineering and Apple seems to have finally cracked that.

As a result, you’ll now be getting a much higher brightness capacity—1,000 nits of peak full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness.

Apple M4 Chip

The iPad Pro will now be powered with the brand-new ultra-powerful Apple M4 chip, which means the CPU core is going to be at least 50% faster than the last version and 10x faster than the first iPad Pro model.

Additionally, the GPU core is also 4x faster than the last model. It’s also worth noting that currently it’s just the new iPad Pro that dons the Apple M4 chip.

Other iPad Pro 2024 Features

This also makes them lighter and easier to handle. Although the previous iPads were compact enough, too, the fact that Apple was able to make a thinner iPad with the same battery life is commendable.

Last but not least, the iPad comes with a 12-megapixel rear camera with the ability to record 4K videos and an updated flash that will make it easier to scan documents.

“The new Pro pioneers our most advanced technologies, and pushes the limits of what an iPad can be.” – John Ternus, Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Greg Joswiak, also shared a post on X announcing the launch and giving us the first glimpses of the iPad Pro.

What About the iPad Air 2024?

The iPad Air will be available in its usual 11- and 13-inch size options. The smaller one is priced at $599 for 128GB whereas the bigger one is priced at $799.

As has always been the case, the iPad Air 2024 models have gotten spec bumps that put them on par with the previous iPad Pro lineup. They now come with the M2 chip, meaning more power and speed than the iPad Air you’re using to read this.

There are also some new colors to choose from—gold, blue, and purple. However, more vibrant color options would have been greatly appreciated.

This change is supposed to improve your video conferencing experience—or it could very simple just be another one of Apple’s typical quirks to make sure that similar products aren’t exactly the same.

New Accessories – Apple Pencil Pro & Magic Keyboard

Speaking of accessories, Apple has also introduced an updated stylus called the Apple Pencil Pro which is priced at $129.

A full slew of upgrades mean that it’s easily one of the major highlights of the entire Let Loose event.

However, this stylus only works with the newest versions of the iPads. The reason for this, as stated by Apple, is that while repositioning the iPad camera to the landscape edge, Apple had to readjust the position of the Apple Pencil charging magnets, too. So, unfortunately, you can’t use the Apple Pencil Pro with older iPads.

The Magic Keyboard will have to be bought separately. Depending on the size you pick, it will cost you $249 or $299.

Why Is Apple Focusing on iPads?

White it’s true that the iPad is one of Apple’s most profitable product lineups, it only managed to generate a revenue of $5.6 billion this quarter, which is a 17% drop year-on-year. Find out more about Apple’s 2024 performance so far in my thorough Apple’s Q1 revenue breakdown.

This can certainly be one of the major reasons why Apple is trying to revive the iPad lineup. Perhaps for the same reason, Apple has now brought down its entry-level iPad’s pricing from $349 to $249.

Another reason could be that an update was long overdue—as simple as that. Thanks to the above-mentioned new features, such as the advanced M4 chip and the OLED display, Apple users might finally get the push to upgrade their existing, older iPad models.

Concluding Thoughts

What’s particularly interesting to me is the timing of the ‘Let Loose’ event. As you might know, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is set to happen in the first half of June this year—just around a month from now.

This is where we’re expecting Apple to come out guns blazing with across-the-board software upgrades, new iOS and iPad OS, maybe more Siri improvements, and most importantly, major announcements regarding AI tools and features.

So, was the ‘Let Loose’ event to make sure we’re not overwhelmed with the sheer amount of announcements at the WWDC? Why didn’t Apple just club the iPad launch with its most anticipated event? Who knows. But we’ll find out soon enough!