New iPads? How to Watch Apple's Let Loose Event and What to Expect
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Following numerous speculations and forecasts of an iPad launch from third parties, Apple officially scheduled an online event on May 7. Nothing much else is given, but it is heavily anticipated to be centered on the new iPad Pro, iPad Air, and a slew of new accessories including a Pencil 3. Here's what you can expect and how to watch the event.
When is Apple's next special event happening?
Apple announced the upcoming special event dubbed “Let Loose” which will kick off at 7:00 am Pacific Time (10:00 am ET / 4:00 pm CET) on May 7, 2024, falling on a Tuesday.
How to watch the Apple event
It's confirmed to be an online affair similar to the recent Apple events which means everyone is invited and can view the stream. Apple also listed it will be available for viewing on apple.com, on the Apple TV app, and its YouTube channel. You can receive notifications by heading to Apple's website or YouTube separately.
What you can expect from the Apple event: New M3 iPads, Pencil 3, and more
There are minor details we can observe from the primary artwork that Apple used for its event teaser. It depicts an Apple Pencil with the backdrop of a colorful Apple logo that appears to be made from a folded canvas. A different styling of the Apple logo is seen upon refreshing the company's website, although sans the Pencil.
What we can guess from this material and information from leaks and rumors is the new iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets will be announced after over a year without any iPad refresh.
M3 iPad Pro with an OLED screen
The last iPad Pro was launched in October 2022, so it is long overdue for a successor. Similar to the last generation, the upcoming 2024 iPad Pro is believed to arrive in two sizes: 11-inch and 13-inch — a slight increase over the viewing real estate of the current iPad Pros.
What's the major changes in these new iPad Pro tablets? You get an OLED screen that replaces the mini-LED panels. This could equip the iPad Pro's screen with punchier colors, better viewing angles, and a more efficient output, among others.
Additionally, the new iPad Pro is powered by Apple's new custom M3 chipset that is found in the 2024 M3 MacBook Pro (review) and M3 MacBook Air (review). The chip brings a notable performance increase in both CPU and GPU sections, as well as in the Neural Engine. It's unclear if the M3 chip would help stretch the battery life of these iPads.
Two iPad Air models
The OLED iPad Pro would be joined by two new iPad Air models as well. In addition to the successor of the iPad Air 5th gen (review), a bigger iPad Air with a 12.9-inch display is set to arrive as well.
Concerning the changes and features, these iPad Air tablets ought to feature an M3 SoC, as speculated by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Prolific leaker and consultant Ross Young also chimed in that the 12.9-inch iPad Air variant will use a mini-LED screen, similar to the last iPad Pro.
Apple Pencil 3 and Magic Keyboard
Apart from the new iPad Pro and iPad Air, Apple will also debut a next-generation Pencil and Magic keyboards to pair with these tablets.
The existence of Apple's Pencil 3 was spotted before, with the stylus adding gesture-based controls like squeeze. We can safely say it should feature an enhanced writing experience, perhaps with reduced latency and more fluid input.
On the other hand, Apple could also introduce a keyboard with a trackpad and another without a trackpad. We can safely assume there will be improvements in the tactility of keys for the two lines and a wider trackpad size for the latter.
Which of these Apple products are you looking forward to? Please let us know in the comments.
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