This week Apple revealed its new iPads for 2024. The company introduced the M4 iPad Pro and the M2 iPad Air, which both now come in 13-inch and 11-inch sizes for the first time.
Following years of very little innovation in the iPad category, the refresh is welcome. But aside from the new sizes and certain technical enhancements to the iPad Pro, such as the OLED display, the unveiling of the new iPads is a head-scratcher. Somehow, Apple has made this new lineup even more confusing than it was before. This is particularly true for the iPad Air.
Apple has traditionally used the “Air” brand on its iPads and MacBooks to signify that the devices were the thinnest and lightest products Apple sold in that category. But this no longer holds true.
Here are the weight and thickness specs for all the noncellular iPads Apple sells now (the cellular models can add up to a few more grams to a device’s weight):
- 13-inch iPad Pro: 5.1 mm, 579 grams
- 11-inch iPad Pro: 5.3 mm, 444 grams
- 13-inch iPad Air: 6.1 mm, 617 grams
- 11-inch iPad Air: 6.1 mm, 462 grams
- 10.9-inch iPad: 7mm, 477 grams
- 8.3-inch iPad mini: 6.3 mm, 293 grams
As you can see, the 13-inch iPad Air is now a full millimeter thicker than the 13-inch iPad Pro and a full 38 grams heavier. And while the 11-inch iPad Air still comes in at a slight 18 grams less than the 11-inch iPad Pro, it is also now 0.8mm thicker than the Pro.
So if neither iPad Air is thinner or lighter than the equivalent Pro, how can it be called an Air? The taxonomy no longer makes any sense. And the confusion doesn’t end there.
Consumers should also be aware that although Apple advertises the new iPad Pros as having the M4 chip—a first for any Apple device, and exciting because it’s up to 1.5x faster than the chip in the previous iPad Pro—that 1.5x speed increase isn’t true for all M4 iPad Pros.
The above benchmark is only true if you buy the M4 iPad Pro with 1TB or 2TB of storage. It comes with an M4 chip that has four “performance cores” (a part of a chip built to kick in when you need the most speed possible—such as when rendering video) and six “efficiency cores,” for a total of 10 cores. But if you opt for less storage in your iPad Pro–256GB or 512GB of storage—your M4 chip will actually have one fewer “performance core,” just three, plus six “efficiency cores” for a chip total of nine cores.
Yes, this is confusing—so much so that most customers will probably never even realize the M4 iPad Pros actually ship with two different M4 configurations depending on the storage capacity, of all things. This means don’t expect to see the 1.5x CPU boost unless you shell out for the 1TB storage or above models. Oh, and the 1TB and 2TB iPad Pros also get double the RAM, at 16GB, than the two lower-storage models.
It doesn’t stop there. The lineup for Apple’s most popular iPad accessory, the Apple Pencil, is also now even more of a nightmare to navigate. Apple now sells four different models of the Apple Pencil: the Apple Pencil (2nd generation), the Apple Pencil (USB-C), the Apple Pencil (1st generation), and the new Apple Pencil Pro.
Oddly, despite how Apple lists it in its Apple Pencil features chart, the Apple Pencil (USB-C) is actually newer than the Apple Pencil (2nd generation)—yet still it lacks features that both the Apple Pencil (2nd generation) and Apple Pencil (1st generation) have.
And Godspeed to the everyday iPad owner who thinks they are going to walk into an Apple Store and simply purchase any Apple Pencil they like. Some Apple Pencils only work with four types of iPads, while others work with 11 models, and still others work with 16 models.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he famously culled its product line, which had become bloated throughout the 1990s in his absence. This allowed customers to easily decide on the product best for them. Jobs believed that too much choice led to consumer paralysis.
I would be shocked if the average consumer could look at the current 2024 iPad lineup and easily tell which iPad best suits their needs. If you’re thinking about ordering one, be sure you understand their intricate differences before you click the “buy” button.
The new M4 iPad Pros and M2 iPad Airs are now available for preorder and go on sale to the public on May 15.
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