9th May 2024

New iPad Airs And iPad Pros: Every Announcement From Apple’s May Special Event

When Apple revealed their surprise Apple May Special Event, we were convinced it’d be dedicated to iPads and we were right. New iPad Airs and iPad Pros were announced, accompanied by fresh versions of two accessories: the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. Here, we reveal all on these exciting new products and what features you can benefit from.


iPad Air

The new iPad Air comes in a different size: 13 inches. While the 11” device is also still around, this now starts with 128GB of storage rather than 64GB, so it’s an upgrade in that respect.

These new iPads have a new landscape 12MP Ultra Wide front camera, which will mean users will finally look like they’re directly facing the camera, improving video calls. They also come with the M2 processor essentially an identical chip to the former iPad Pro. The new iPad Air can therefore be considered like the old iPad Pro, just without face ID and ProMotion.

iPad Pro

Speaking of the iPad Pro. The sizes are the same (11- and 13-inch), but they’re now much thinner: 5.3mm for the 11-inch model and 5.1mm for the 13-inch device. This makes the 13” iPad Pro the thinnest Apple product ever with the brand dubbing them ‘Thinpossible’. As they have the M4 chip, they’re faster than ever before too.

The iPad Pros have a new colour finish option as well: Space Black, just like the new MacBook Pros. What’s more, they can be matched up with the new Magic Keyboard (more on this later). The new iPad Pro has an Ultra Retina XDR OLED display too, two identical OLED panels in a tandem design, which some are calling the world’s most advanced display ever. It can go up to 1,000 nits of brightness for SDR, then 1,600 for HDR brightness. There’s also 120HZ ProMotion technology to explore, and options to upgrade to 1TB and 2TB of storage. Such a choice comes with a more powerful chip, 16GB of RAM, and nano-texture glass for lower reflectivity.

M4 chip

The iPad Pro uses the brand-new M4 processor, which is an upgrade to its predecessors. The chip is based on TSMC’s N3E node and has a next-generation GPU. It has two extra efficiency cores, along with a 16-core Neural Engine. Not to mention, there’s a 20% boost to thermal performance and the CPU is 50% faster compared to the M2 in the previous iPad Pro.

As for its camera, this is the same 12MP but Ultra Wide has been removed, and Adaptive True Tone Flash added for improved document scanning.

Apple Pencil Pro

We were pleased when Apple revealed that Apple Pencil Pro has ‘Find My’ support finally, misplacing it will no longer be an issue! Plus, it has the anticipated ‘squeeze’ gesture. There’s also a gyroscope so users can roll it for more accurate control of the specific tool that they’re utilising.

The best thing about the new Apple Pencil Pro? It’s available with both the new iPad Air and iPad Pro, meaning you can choose from either device to start putting it through its paces.

Magic Keyboard

You’ll have to stick to the M4 iPad Pro if you want to try the new Magic Keyboard, but you’ll have a lot to look forward to. The keyboard has seen another speed bump improvement in performance. It also has a full function row and aluminium bottom portion with a larger trackpad.

What’s more, 2024’s Magic Keyboard features better responsiveness via haptic feedback, and there’s a fresh hinge design to make it even thinner.

Leverage the new iPads with Lease Loop

The technology in the new iPads is amazing, but we don’t think users will realise how good it is just yet. This is because the devices are still using the current iPadOS. However, it’s not long until this year’s WWDC as usual, there should be an update to iPadOS as well as the other operating systems. At the Apple May Special Event, they also announced AI-based features for the new Final Cut Pro 10.8 for Mac, which was interesting. AI is clearly going to be a focus, and we think we may see features that will really distinguish why this series of iPads is the one to buy. In June, we’re anticipating the expected iPadOS upgrade will unleash the fresh iPads’ capabilities.

It’s worth noting that Apple has also chosen to reduce the price of the 10th generation iPad in light of releasing these new devices meaning their entry point has come down. That said, all Apple devices are premium devices, and Lease Loop remains available to help you spread the cost over time as well as capitalise on our support. For us, it’s all about enabling you to achieve your ambitions long term.

Get in touch with our friendly team to discuss leasing options for your business.