Apple unveils its thinnest product ever
Apple introduced a new iPad Pro in two sizes powered by an M4 chip, alongside a redesigned iPad Air available in two different sizes powered by an M2 chip, and a new Apple Pencil Pro.
Over the years, has continuously pushed the limits of thinness in its product lineup. Marking yet another milestone, the technology giant has unveiled its thinnest product to date—a new 13-inch iPad Pro powered by a new M4 chip.
During the Apple event, the tech giant introduced the new iPad Pro in two sizes, alongside a redesigned iPad Air available in two different sizes, and a new Apple Pencil Pro.
iPad Pro
The new iPad Pro models boast a sleek design with the 11-inch model at 5.3 mm thin and the 13-inch model even thinner at 5.1 mm.
The new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: a 13-inch model and an 11-inch model. Image credit: Apple Inc.
The devices feature Ultra Retina XDR display, utilising tandem OLED technology that uses two OLED panels and combines the light from both for full-screen brightness up to 1000 nits for SDR and HDR content and 1600 nits peak for HDR.
Powered by the M4 chip built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology, the devices offer enhanced power efficiency. More on the chip later.
The updated camera system includes a 12MP back camera with Smart HDR and a True Tone flash, alongside a landscape-oriented Ultra Wide 12MP TrueDepth camera in the front.
The iPad Pro devices feature a USB-C connector with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 support, offering fast wired connectivity of up to 40Gb/s for various accessories including external displays and storage.
The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro will come in silver and space black finishes with storage options of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB.
The 11-inch model starts at Rs 99,900 for Wi-Fi and Rs 119,900 for Wi-Fi + Cellular, while the 13-inch model starts at Rs 129,900 for Wi-Fi and Rs 149,900 for Wi-Fi + Cellular.
Apple Pencil Pro pairs, charges, and is stored on the side of iPad Pro through a new magnetic interface. Image credit: Apple Inc.
In addition, Apple launched a new Pencil Pro that has a barrel sensor for detecting user squeezes, prompting a tool palette for swift tool, line weight, and colour switches. It incorporates a haptic engine for gentle taps confirming actions like squeezing, double-tapping, or snapping to Smart Shapes. Equipped with a gyroscope, users can roll the pencil for precise tool control, while rotating the barrel adjusts pen and brush tool orientation akin to pen and paper.
The new Apple Pencil Pro is compatible with the new iPad Pro and is priced at Rs 11,900.
Apple also introduced a redesigned Magic Keyboard for the new iPad Pro that is thinner and lighter. It features a function row for quick access to controls like screen brightness and volume. With an aluminium palm rest and a larger, more responsive trackpad with haptic feedback, it provides a MacBook-like experience, according to Apple.
The 11-inch Magic Keyboard is priced at Rs 29,900, and the 13-inch version is Rs 33,900, with layouts for over 30 languages.
iPad Air
Alongside the iPad Pro, Apple expanded the iPad lineup with a redesigned 11-inch model and an all-new, larger 13-inch iPad Air, both powered by the M2 chip.
The redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air. Image credit: Apple Inc.
Both models feature advanced displays incorporating a Liquid Retina design, anti-reflective screen coating, True Tone technology, high brightness, and support for P3 wide colour.
In the redesigned iPad Air, the front-facing Ultra Wide 12MP camera is now positioned along the landscape edge. Additionally, the 12MP Wide back camera on the iPad Air can capture high-resolution photos and detailed 4K video recording, supporting 240-fps slo-mo.
The new iPad Air features landscape stereo speakers with Spatial Audio, while the 13-inch model enhances sound quality with double the bass.
The M2 chip enhances performance in the iPad Air, featuring a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. With increased memory bandwidth, the new iPad Air is nearly 50% faster than its predecessor with the M1 chip for a wide range of productivity and creative tasks, according to Apple. Compared to the iPad Air with A14 Bionic, the new iPad Air offers up to 3X faster performance, Apple claims.
iPad Air is used with a Magic Keyboard, featuring a floating cantilever design that attaches magnetically and supports multiple viewing angles. It comes with a trackpad and a USB‑C connector for pass‑through charging. Image credit: Apple Inc.
The new iPad Air models have support for Apple Pencil Pro, Apple Pencil (USB-C), and Magic Keyboard.
The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models come in blue, purple, starlight, and space grey, with storage options ranging from 128 GB to 1 TB. The 11-inch model starts at Rs 59,900 for Wi-Fi and Rs 74,900 for Wi-Fi + Cellular, while the 13-inch model starts at RS 79,900 for Wi-Fi and Rs 94,900 for Wi-Fi + Cellular.
M4 chip
The M4 chip integrates 28 billion transistors, using second-generation 3-nanometer technology for enhanced power efficiency. It also incorporates a redesigned display engine.
M4 comes with an upgraded CPU with up to 10 cores—four performance cores and six efficiency cores. These next-gen cores feature enhanced branch prediction, wider decode and execution engines for performance cores, and deeper execution engines for efficiency cores. Moreover, both core types include improved ML accelerators.
M4 has a new up-to-10-core CPU consisting of up to four performance cores and now six efficiency cores. Image credit: Apple Inc.
M4’s new 10-core GPU enhances the next-gen graphics architecture of the M3 chip family. It incorporates Dynamic Caching, allocating local memory dynamically in hardware and real-time, boosting GPU utilisation and enhancing performance for demanding professional applications and games.
M4 introduces a new neural engine, a dedicated IP block for accelerating artificial intelligence tasks, capable of processing 38 trillion operations per second, marking a 60X improvement over the original neural engine in the A11 Bionic chip.
Apple will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month to unveil the latest iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS advancements.
Edited by Kanishk Singh