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Apple has gone and announced a spring event for May 7th at 7AM PT / 10AM ET. While the company didn’t say what the event is about, the Apple Pencil in its graphic suggests we’re finally about to hear about new iPads — but which ones? Well, almost certainly OLED iPad Pros, which we’ve been hearing about for months, but the company might also announce a new iPad Air in two sizes for the first time.
Rumors have also circulated in the last few months about a new Apple Pencil and updated Magic Keyboard accessories that would give iPad Pro owners a more laptop-like feel. Because more accessories are all the iPad needs, right? It doesn’t seem likely that there will be an update of the 10th-generation vanilla iPad or the iPad Mini quite yet, so all eyes will be on what Apple plans to do with its next iPad Pro.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has repeatedly called this the most significant redesign in years, but it’s not entirely clear how material the change will be. Both models will probably get OLED screens, which is fantastic for me, a person who just doesn’t want a 13-inch iPad Pro but is dimly grumpy about the low contrast of the 11-inch model.
Apple might also move the iPad Pro’s front-facing camera to the long side like it did for the 10th-generation iPad refresh, which I’d say is an absolute must, and it will probably get the M3 chip found in the newest crop of Apple computers.
We’ve been living with essentially the same iPad Pro design since 2018 — the year the iPhone XS was released. It’s a great design that brought a lot of firsts to the tablet line: USB-C, for instance, and a slick new Apple Pencil that magnetically attaches to the side for charging and pairing. It even added Face ID, which, for some reason, still doesn’t exist on the other iPads (not to mention the company’s laptops!).
I’m excited to see what this redesign brings, but it’s still hard to understand what and who the iPad Pro is actually for. It’s a fantastic tablet! But it also feels like it’s still dragging around the legacy of iOS while occasionally cosplaying as macOS, confused about where its strengths lie. And if it really is just a nicer screen, that may not be enough to revitalize the line. After all, once you get over a nice screen and a properly placed selfie camera, you’re still just using an iPad.
Apple will also likely announce the iPad Air in both 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes, mirroring today’s iPad Pro lineup. It’s rumored that it will use the same Magic Keyboard accessories as the current iPad Pros.
The new iPad Air will probably also get a new M2 processor, which makes sense and will be totally meaningless to most people since the M1 chip in the current iPad Air still feels like overkill. (Not that anyone is complaining.) It might also have the front-facing camera moved to the long edge, like the iPad Pro.
But the biggest, most important change is that screen size. Right now, if you want a big iPad, you’re looking at spending at least $1,200 for a brand-new iPad Pro — that’s a hard sell if screen size is the most important factor to you, and a larger Air will make things way easier.
There may be a new, hardier Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro that’s made of aluminum and features a bigger trackpad. Underneath, the keyboard would still have the soft material of the existing iPad Magic Keyboard. It may still only have the one USB-C port, unfortunately, but hey, maybe it will hold up better over time than the current ones apparently do for some folks.