Here’s the Lowdown on Apple’s New iPad Air, iPad Pro & Apple Pencil Pro Models

By Danial Martinus • 08 May 2024 in Gear

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Apple has just unveiled the latest models in its iPad Air and iPad Pro lineups, along with a surprising new “Pro” variant of the Apple Pencil. This move sees the Cupertino-based behemoth putting a heavier focus on portable productivity beyond the MacBook sphere.

Redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air

Now available in two sizes, the iPad Air comes packed with enhanced performance, some new AI capabilities, a new landscape front camera, as well as faster Wi-Fi. If you’re an Apple Pencil user, you’ll be glad to know that the updated iPad Air lineup also supports the new Apple Pencil Pro (more on this later).

New to the iPad Air is the inclusion of Apple’s M2 Neural Engine, making it 40% more powerful than its M1-powered predecessor. With the new chip, the iPad Air also delivers exceptional AI performance that works in tandem with intelligent iPadOS features like Visual Look Up, Subject Lift, or Live Text.

From creating engaging content to playing demanding, graphics-intensive games like Zenless Zone Zero, users will feel the speed of M2 in everything they do.

“We’re so excited to introduce the redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air, offering two sizes for the first time. With its combination of a brilliant Liquid Retina display, the phenomenal performance of the M2 chip, incredible AI capabilities, and its colourful, portable design with support for new accessories, iPad Air is more powerful and versatile than ever,” says Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing.

The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air will be available in blue, purple, starlight, and space grey, with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations.

New iPad Pro models debut Apple’s M4 chip and feature OLED displays for the first time ever

Apple’s all-new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: An expansive 13-inch model and a super-portable 11-inch model. Both sizes come packed with the “world’s most advanced display”, which is what Apple is calling its new Ultra Retina XDR display. You’ll also be getting a super crisp, detailed, and vibrant visual experience thanks to OLED technology, which has finally made its way into the iPad lineup.

But you’re probably more interested in the new M4 chip, which makes its debut in the iPad Pro lineup this year. The next generation of Apple silicon promises to deliver a huge leap in performance and capabilities. With M4, the iPad Pro’s Ultra Retina XDR display delivers stunning precision, colour, and brightness. It also features hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, which come to iPad for the first time.

Couple that with higher unified memory bandwidth, and you’ll see up to 4x faster performance than M2 with pro rendering apps like Octane. But M4 isn’t just good at being powerful, it’s also super efficient. Compared to M2, M4 can deliver the same performance using just half the power, and compared to the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a quarter of the power. This means you’ll be able to let your creative juices flow for a lot longer throughout your day.

(source: Apple)

Perhaps one of the biggest “features” of the new iPad Pro is its thickness. At just 5.1 mm, the iPad Pro 13-inch is actually Apple’s thinnest product ever — even thinner than an iPod Nano (if you’re old enough to remember it). This further adds to its portability, making it weigh 100g lighter than its predecessor. The smaller 11-inch variant comes in at a thickness of 5.3mm, weighing less than 450g.

The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space black finishes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations.

Say hello to the new Apple Pencil Pro

The all-new Apple Pencil Pro takes the Apple Pencil experience even further with a new sensor in the barrel that can detect a user’s squeeze, which brings up a tool palette to quickly switch tools, line weights, and colours, all without interrupting the creative process. Its custom haptic engine delivers a light tap, providing confirmation when users squeeze, use double-tap, or snap to a Smart Shape.

The Apple Pencil Pro also features a gyroscope that gives users precise control of the tool they’re using. For example, rotating the barrel of the Apple Pencil Pro changes the orientation of shaped pen and brush tools, just like pen and paper. You can also hover the Apple Pencil Pro over your display to visualise the exact orientation of a tool.

Time to fork out your money

Apple hasn’t announced exact release dates at the time of writing, but you can at least prepare your bank accounts. Here’s how much the iPad Air, iPad Pro, and Apple Pencil Pro cost.

iPad Air: