Following numerous speculations and forecasts of an iPad launch from third-parties, Apple has officially scheduled an online event on May 7. Not much is given, but it is heavily anticipated to center on the new iPad Pro, iPad Air, and slew of new accessories including a Pencil 3. Here’s what to expect and how to watch the event.
When is Apple’s next special event happening
Apple has announced that the upcoming special event dubbed as “Let Loose” will kick off at 7:00 am Pacific Time (10:00 am ET / 16:00 pm CET) on May 7, 2024, which is 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 watch the stream. Apple also listed it will be available to watch on apple.com, on the Apple TV app, and its YouTube channel. You can get notified by going to Apple’s website or YouTube separately.
What to expect from the Apple event: New M3 iPads, Pencil 3, and more
There are little details we can make from the primary artwork that Apple has used for its event teaser. However, it shows an Apple Pencil with the backdrop of a colorful Apple logo that appears made from a folded canvas. A different styling of the Apple logo is presented when refreshing the company’s website, although without the Pencil.
What we can make from this material and supported by leaks and rumors is that new iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets will be announced after more than a year of no iPad refresh.
M3 iPad Pro with OLED screen
The last iPad Pro was launched in October 2022, so it is a long overdue for a successor. Similar with the last generation, the upcoming 2024 iPad Pro is believed to come in two sizes: 11-inch and 13-inch — a slight increased in the screen viewing estate of the current iPad Pros.
What’s the big changes in these new iPad Pro tablets include an OLED screen that replaces the mini-LED panels. This could give the iPad Pro’s screen punchier colors, better viewing angles, and 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 notable performance increase in CPU and GPU sections as well as in Neural Engine. It’s unclear if the M3 chip should 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 12.9-inch display is set to arrive as well.
As regard to the changes and features, these iPad Air slabs should feature an M3 SoC as told by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Prolific leaker and consultant Ross Young has also chimed in that the 12.9-inch iPad Air variant uses 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 is also debuting a next-gen Pencil and Magic keyboards to pair these tablets.
The existence of Apple’s Pencil 3 has been discovered before, with the stylus adding gesture-based controls like squeeze. We can safely say it should get enhanced writing experience, too, perhaps with reduced latency and more fluid input.
On the other hand, Apple could bring both keyboard with trackpad and without a trackpad. We can safely assume there will be improvements in tactility of keys for the two lines and a wider trackpad size for the latter.
Which of these Apple products are you looking to pick up? Let us know in the comments.
