Apple unveils completely redesigned iPad in four vibrant colors

[TheLostSwede]

Apple today introduced the new iPad with an all-screen design featuring a large 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display. The new iPad is powered by the A14 Bionic chip, which delivers even faster performance with incredible power efficiency for demanding tasks while still providing all-day battery life. Updated cameras include an Ultra Wide 12MP front camera located along the landscape edge of iPad for an even better video calling experience, and an updated 12MP back camera to capture sharp, vivid photos and 4K video. A USB-C port supports a wide range of accessories, Wi-Fi 6 brings even faster connections, and cellular models feature superfast 5G so users can stay connected on the go. Designed specifically for the new iPad, the all-new Magic Keyboard Folio features an incredible typing experience, a click-anywhere trackpad, and a versatile two-piece design. With iPadOS 16 and support for Apple Pencil (1st generation), iPad offers users more ways to be creative and productive. The new iPad is available to order starting today, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.

"We're so excited to bring the completely redesigned iPad to our most advanced iPad lineup ever," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With a large 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, powerful A14 Bionic chip, a first-ever landscape front camera, fast wireless connectivity, USB-C, and support for incredible accessories like the new Magic Keyboard Folio, the new iPad delivers more value, more versatility—and is simply more fun."



New All-Screen Design in Four Vibrant Finishes
The new iPad features an all-screen design in four gorgeous finishes—blue, pink, yellow, and silver. The stunning 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display extends to the edges, so users have even more screen area for apps, games, and having fun on iPad—all in nearly the same size as the previous generation. The new Liquid Retina display provides a beautiful visual experience with 2360x1640-pixel resolution, nearly 4 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness, and True Tone technology. Touch ID moves to the top button of iPad, making it seamless to unlock, log in to apps, or use Apple Pay.

A14 Bionic Brings More Performance to iPad
The powerful A14 Bionic chip comes to iPad, delivering a 20 percent increase in CPU and 10 percent improvement in graphics over the previous generation. This makes the new iPad up to 5x faster than the best-selling Android tablet, and for users looking to upgrade from a device like iPad (7th generation), they will see up to 3x improvement in overall performance with the new iPad. Advanced machine learning functions are powered by a 16-core Neural Engine in A14 Bionic—offering double the number of cores of A13—boosting machine learning capabilities by up to 80 percent. For everyday tasks like working on a school project, editing a high-resolution video, or playing a graphics-intensive game, A14 Bionic brings remarkable performance and efficiency.

Advanced Cameras and Audio
For the first time on any iPad, the front-facing camera is now located along the landscape edge. Whether users are on a FaceTime call or recording a video for social media, they will always be looking right toward the camera. The landscape Ultra Wide front camera with a 12MP sensor and 122-degree field of view supports Center Stage, which automatically pans and zooms to keep users in view as they move around. The upgraded 12MP Wide back camera on iPad delivers high-resolution photos and detailed 4K video with support for 240-FPS slo-mo.

Dual microphones are designed to work in unison with the cameras, capturing audio from the camera being used and minimizing distracting background noise. New landscape stereo speakers, combined with the larger display on iPad, offer a great video-viewing experience.

Wi-Fi 6, 5G, and USB-C for Faster Connectivity
Users can do even more on iPad with faster wireless connectivity on the go. With new support for Wi-Fi 6, connections are 30 percent faster on the new iPad than the 802.11ac Wi-Fi supported on the previous generation. Cellular models with 5G allow iPad to reach peak speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps in ideal conditions, providing users seamless access to files, communication with friends, and streaming content from wherever they are. Combined with continued support for Gigabit LTE, physical SIM cards, and eSIM with on-device activation, iPad offers amazing flexibility when it comes to connectivity. The USB-C port supports a wide range of accessories and faster charge times when used with higher power charging adapters.

Accessories
Accessories extend the versatility of iPad and open up even more possibilities for creativity and productivity. The new Magic Keyboard Folio, designed for the new iPad, delivers an incredible typing experience with full-size keys, 1 mm of travel, and responsive feel. For the first time, iPad will have a keyboard with a large trackpad and support for a click-anywhere experience and Multi-Touch gestures, which makes scrolling, swiping, pinching, and moving the cursor even more seamless. The new 14-key function row allows for easy access to shortcuts and everyday tasks, like adjusting the volume or display brightness. The highly configurable and versatile two-piece design includes a detachable keyboard and a protective back cover that attaches magnetically to iPad. The keyboard magnetically attaches to the Smart Connector on the edge of iPad, which provides power and data. This means the keyboard never needs to be charged or paired, and users can easily fold the keyboard behind iPad or detach it entirely. The back cover has an adjustable stand for even more flexibility when playing games, watching video, and more.

iPadOS 16 Brings Powerful New Features
iPadOS 16 introduces new productivity and collaboration features, so users can get even more done on iPad.

• New features in Messages allow users to edit or unsend recently sent messages, recover recently deleted messages, and mark conversations as unread so they can come back to them later. There are also new collaboration features in Messages that make starting and managing shared projects quick and seamless.
• Freeform, a powerful new productivity app built into iPadOS with a flexible canvas and full support for Apple Pencil, gives users the ability to see, share, and collaborate all in one place.
• iCloud Shared Photo Library allows users to share photos seamlessly and automatically among up to six family members.
• Safari adds shared Tab Groups to browse the web with others, and the browsing experience gets even more secure with passkeys.
• In Mail, users can now schedule emails ahead of time and are even given a moment to cancel delivery of a message before it reaches a recipient's inbox.
• The Weather app comes to iPad, designed to take full advantage of the stunning display with beautiful animations, and with just a tap, users can see the most important weather information.
• Live Text uses on-device intelligence to recognize text in images across the system, and the feature now comes to video, making text completely interactive in paused video frames. Visual Look Up now allows users to lift the subject from an image or isolate a subject by removing the background with just a tap.
• iPadOS 16's Messages using Split View and Markup on the new iPad.
• iPadOS 16's Freeform feature on the new iPad.
• iPadOS 16's Mail using Split View on the new iPad.

iPad and the Environment
The new iPad models are designed to minimize their impact on the environment and include—a first for iPad—100 percent recycled gold in the plating of multiple printed circuit boards. The new iPad is also the first iPad to feature recycled copper, with 100 percent recycled copper in the foil of the main logic board. It also features recycled aluminium, tin, and rare earth elements. All iPad models meet Apple's high standards for energy efficiency and are mercury-, BFR-, PVC-, and beryllium-free. Redesigned packaging eliminates the outer plastic wrap, and 97 percent of the packaging is fiber based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025.

Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to be 100 percent carbon neutral across the entire manufacturing supply chain and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will have net-zero climate impact.

Pricing and Availability

• The new iPad is available to order starting today, October 18, at apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the US, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, October 26.
• Wi-Fi models of the new iPad are available with a starting price of $449 (US), and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at $599 (US). The new iPad, in 64 GB and 256 GB configurations, comes in blue, pink, yellow, and silver.
• Apple Pencil (1st generation) is compatible with the new iPad. A new USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter is required for pairing and charging and is included in the box with a new version of Apple Pencil (1st generation) for $99 (US).
• For existing owners of Apple Pencil (1st generation), the USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter is sold separately for $9 (US).
• The new Magic Keyboard Folio designed for the new iPad is available for $249 (US) and comes in white.
• The new Smart Folio designed for the new iPad is available for $79 (US) in white, sky, watermelon, and lemonade.
• iPad (9th generation) will remain in the iPad lineup. Wi-Fi models of iPad (9th generation) are available with a starting price of $329 (US), and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at $459 (US), in silver and space gray finishes.
• Education pricing is available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and home-school teachers of all grade levels. Wi-Fi models of the new iPad are available with a starting price of $419 (US), the new Magic Keyboard Folio is available for $229 (US), and Apple Pencil (1st generation) is available for $89 (US).

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[RandallFlagg]

$449... That's $120 more than the last iPad.

 

[cvaldes]

$449... That's $120 more than the last iPad.

Unsurprising. Costs have gone up. Materials, silicon wafers, foundry expenses, various components, all the electricity that those factories use, fossil fuels used to transport something from Point A to Point B, wages, etc.

Look at how much NVIDIA jacked up their Ada Lovelace cards. And how AMD motherboard manufacturers priced AM5 platform products. And how AMD priced their Zen 4 CPU parts.

My guess is that RDNA3 cards will debut at higher price points as well.

 

[Space Lynx]

Unsurprising. Costs have gone up. Materials, silicon wafers, foundry expenses, various components, all the electricity that those factories use, fossil fuels used to transport something from Point A to Point B, wages, etc.

Look at how much NVIDIA jacked up their Ada Lovelace cards. And how AMD motherboard manufacturers priced AM5 platform products. And how AMD priced their Zen 4 CPU parts.

My guess is that RDNA3 cards will debut at higher price points as well.

and so have those precious yacht club memberships

 

[cvaldes]

and so have those precious yacht club memberships

I'm not a member so I know nothing about such matters.

I do know that my broadband Internet monthly fee creeps up a few cents every month (I'm off contract). My annual insurance premiums usually go up a bit too.

In fact, I can't think of any significant item on my budget that has gone down in the past year.

If I had a premium yacht club or country club membership I would expect dues to go up as well. After all, their expenses have gone up. Even the paper napkins at the local coffee shop cost the owner more. Electricity rates have gone up, wages increase, etc. It's not like those places are run by solar-powered robots. Payroll is typically the largest budget item for most hospitality industry businesses.

Final assembly of Apple devices is still mostly done by human beings.

 

[Dristun]

1) Why oh why apple never brings the fun colours to their premium products... Ever since the rose gold macbook 12" it's always just "serious" stuff.
2) Laughable that it's not on M1 (especially considering ~35% price hike) - means it doesn't get new multitasking features that the M1 and new M2-equipped iPads are getting. These are the only meaningful upgrades to ipadOS UX!

 

[cvaldes]

1) Why oh why apple never brings the fun colours to their premium products... Ever since the rose gold macbook 12" it's always just "serious" stuff.

They probably know that consumers can slap a cover on it anyhow or plaster it with stickers. It's just their marketing department's decision on how to project that image.

Mercedes-Benz could offer the S-Class sedan in bubblegum pink or with some edgy graphics, but they don't.

2) Laughable that it's not on M1 (especially considering ~35% price hike) - means it doesn't get new multitasking features that the M1 and new M2-equipped iPads are getting. These are the only meaningful upgrades to ipadOS UX!

This is the entry level tablet. There are important cost considerations at play and this device is targeted at a different primary audience. As far as I know, the M-series SoCs also consume more power than the A-series silicon. Power usage and battery life are also important.

 

[Dristun]

It's just their marketing department's decision on how to project that image.

And I don't like it, haha. I don't want a cover - I want a bright green macbook pro instead of my space gray one.

 

[cvaldes]

And I don't like it, haha. I don't want a cover - I want a bright green macbook pro instead of my space gray one.

Well, head to the hardware store and find some green paint.

Note that you can't buy a bright green Lenovo and you'd still need that can of paint for that as well.

Remember that no one can please everyone all the time. And not just consumer electronics.

You're going to have to come to grips with the reality that nothing is perfect for everyone. The biggest problem for a company is when their thing isn't "perfect" for ANYONE.

Apple sells enough product to convince the average sane person that they actually make fairly savvy decisions on what products to bring to market.

After all, there could easily be a bright green MacBook sitting in a lab somewhere in Cupertino.

Anyhow, going back to the original topic, this is the entry level iPad, the model they sell the most. Hopefully they will sell a lot during this holiday season, usually Apple's biggest quarter.

 

[95Viper]

Stop the troll posting
Stay on topic.
Keep off color comments to yourself.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

1) Why oh why apple never brings the fun colours to their premium products... Ever since the rose gold macbook 12" it's always just "serious" stuff.

It's an image apple tries to craft, and seeing how much cash they rake in, its working.

2) Laughable that it's not on M1 (especially considering ~35% price hike) - means it doesn't get new multitasking features that the M1 and new M2-equipped iPads are getting. These are the only meaningful upgrades to ipadOS UX!

but y tho? The M1 is, frankly, a total waste in the ipad pro. Too thermally limited to run at anywhere near the performance of macbooks, and iPad OS is still restrictive, with its roots in iphone land. If they finally opened up iPadOS to be like mac OSX it'd be useful, but so far we havent seen that.

 

[Dristun]

It's an image apple tries to craft, and seeing how much cash they rake in, its working.

but y tho? The M1 is, frankly, a total waste in the ipad pro. Too thermally limited to run at anywhere near the performance of macbooks, and iPad OS is still restrictive, with its roots in iphone land. If they finally opened up iPadOS to be like mac OSX it'd be useful, but so far we havent seen that.

I don't know why, actually - I think Apple's just upselling people (and forcing upgrades) to the new Pro models by limiting what's available on the lesser ones. I'm on a 2018 Pro11" myself, and was quite annoyed that they kept some of the new stuff exclusive to M1 and argued that it doesn't run well enough on the older ones.

Personally, I have no intention to upgrade though. As you said - they should bring more features. Air2 worked for me for almost 5 years and I think this one will be with me for at least as long.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I don't know why, actually - I think Apple's just upselling people (and forcing upgrades) to the new Pro models by limiting what's available on the lesser ones. I'm on a 2018 Pro11" myself, and was quite annoyed that they kept some of the new stuff exclusive to M1 and argued that it doesn't run well enough on the older ones.

It is annoying, if there is a real reason it'd likely be that the A cores are meant for phones, and that the M series' more specialized design allows iPadOS to do some multitasking things without obliterating battery life.

I'd be more annoyed honestly that for the $120 price increase they didnt bother using the A16, or even the A15. No, we get the 14. Bleh.

 

[Space Lynx]

@TheLostSwede is the A14 bionic chip slower than the A15 bionic chip? and if so, then why is the mini with the A15 chip still cheaper than this...

 

[cvaldes]

@TheLostSwede is the A14 bionic chip slower than the A15 bionic chip? and if so, then why is the mini with the A15 chip still cheaper than this...

The A-series SoCs always improve in performance between model numbers. It's worth pointing out that Apple can clock the same SoC at different frequencies. I know they underclocked at least one iPod touch SoC for better battery performance.

Remember when you buy an iPad, you aren't just paying for the SoC. The display itself is a major cost component. There's the battery as well. The display isn't just a smaller model, they have different capabilities, image quality performance, etc.

And of course, the current iPad mini was launched last year, before a lot of things happened (Ukraine invasion, spiraling energy prices, stock market slump, inflation, recession, other macroeconomic factors).

My guess is that the next iPad mini (whenever it comes out) will cost more than the current iPad mini.

Historically Apple avoids making price changes in the middle of a product cycle apart from the very rare price cut (which usually happens when new product is released).

 

[Tom Yum]

Moving the new non-base base model iPad to usb-c while still only supporting the 1st gen pencil (which still only supports lightning) is just stupid. Yay, they provide an adaptor, that will either break or get lost, and then you will either be up for paying $30 for an adaptor to your $99 pencil, or running the gauntlet with knockoff adaptors from amazon.

Surely at this point it is cheaper for apple to simplify production lines and move everything across to the 2nd gen pencil? But no, they've gotta keep that upsell intact for the iPad Air.

 

[trsttte]

Hold on, so they moved the basic iPad to usb-c (finally!) and only support the 1st gen pencil that uses ligthning!?

The 1st gen pencil was ridiculous from the start, pluging on the bottom of the tablet to charge, now you need an adapter and a cable (because in all their wisdom, a female to female adapter was the choice - don't know whats worse lol).

What the fuck were they thinking?

 

[cvaldes]

Hold on, so they moved the basic iPad to usb-c (finally!) and only support the 1st gen pencil that uses ligthning!?

The 1st gen pencil was ridiculous from the start, pluging on the bottom of the tablet to charge, now you need an adapter and a cable (because in all their wisdom, a female to female adapter was the choice - don't know whats worse lol).

What the fuck were they thinking?

They were probably thinking that buyers of the entry level iPad might be more price conscious and could balk at the higher price of the Apple Pencil (2nd gen). The cost of the little pigtail adapter is probably a buck or two at most to them.

 

[trsttte]

They were probably thinking that buyers of the entry level iPad might be more price conscious and could balk at the higher price of the Apple Pencil (2nd gen). The cost of the little pigtail adapter is probably a buck or two at most to them.

Wasn't reducing the cost of the 2nd gen pencil an option? Maybe launch a 2nd gen lite artificially limited somehow? What the hell am I saying, of course not, it's Apple after all.

The 1st gen pencil was a joke since it launched, it was always amazing how they didn't figure out a simple magnetic charging system and opted for plugging it to the base of the tablet (in a perfect position to break the pencil connector off). They already fixed this on the ipad air and even on the ipad mini, I just don't get why the lowest end continues to get stuck with that terrible design. Maybe because those users might be the less likely to use and/or buy the pen in the first place, I don't know, still seems like a terrible design oversight when they seemingly lifted everything else from the ipad air.

Well whatever, I'm not their target market anyway and this kind of moves just reinforces that sentiment.

 

[cvaldes]

My assumption is that there are a number of different Apple Pencil prototypes in some lab in Cupertino, with different designs and at different COGS.

Same with the iPad. There's probably one with straight sides, sloped sides, with a magnetic on one side or another. Hell, they moved the front-facing camera to the landscape edge. Jeff Williams didn't just call up Pegatron/Foxconn in the middle of the night and tell them to change it because he had a weird dream.

We know Apple tests dozens, maybe sometimes hundreds of designs and ends up with one or two to take to market. It's not like they throw pieces of paper with product features into a fishbowl and pick ten of them out for the interns to put together.

As I've mentioned before, no one can please everyone all the time. For whatever reasons they have, Apple decided to make certain compromises which led to this particular iPad design for 2022. With this particular Pencil. And this particular adapter cable.

All of these consumer products are compromises: materials, components, design, weight, parts availability, ease of manufacturing, ease of use, reliability, thermals, acoustics, durability, aesthetics, ergonomics, and more. Oh, let's not forget cost either.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Most people on this planet aren't going to buy it. Apple doesn't expect anyone to buy one of every product they sell. Neither does Samsung, nor AMD, nor NVIDIA, nor Daimler-Benz.

You are free to whine and moan online but it should be noted that Apple does not respond to such feedback directly. They might silently take notes, especially if comes through their own formal customer feedback systems, but they don't use market research studies and very, very rarely even have customer surveys.

Complaining about the Apple Pencil (1st gen) design isn't going to be revelatory to Apple at this point. I'm sure they have read enough about the topic. You are better off complaining about the 2nd generation Pencil, they will look at those comments more closely when considering designs for future generation Pencils.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

1) Why oh why apple never brings the fun colours to their premium products... Ever since the rose gold macbook 12" it's always just "serious" stuff.
2) Laughable that it's not on M1 (especially considering ~35% price hike) - means it doesn't get new multitasking features that the M1 and new M2-equipped iPads are getting. These are the only meaningful upgrades to ipadOS UX!

They are mostly corporate sales that count. Having ordered thousands of ipads and iphone over the years for various consulting, law, and government firms we would never order anything but space gray or silver. Ever. Even then you standard on one and that's all you get.

Keeping the pro monkier means making it look pro. Fun colors are not pro. People would leave the eco system and yes stuff is that petty in pro markets.

 

[bonehead123]

hummm....doesn't look very "all-screen" to me, based on the pics above....still seems like it has some seriously oversized bezels.....or am I missing somethin ?

 

[cvaldes]

hummm....doesn't look very "all-screen" to me, based on the pics above....still seems like it has some seriously oversized bezels.....or am I missing somethin ?

They are mostly referring to the removal of the physical home button that was present on the previous 9th generation model.

There still needs to be a bezel around the functional part of the screen of some sort due to the way human hands are sized and how one holds a tablet. With a smartphone, it's a size that is pretty easy for many to securely grasp along the edges. Tablets are too wide for that so often fingers are skirt along the perimeter. If those were actual input surfaces, there would be plenty of false signals which would interrupt smooth usage.

Someday when you hold a real tablet, you'll see what I mean. If this were a fixed, immovable display, the active screen area could easily be extended to outer perimeter.

Note that there are also engineering challenges in creating a display panel that goes all the way to the edge that also make those panels more expensive.

This is Apple's entry level tablet offering and cost considerations have a heavy influence on component selection. Undoubtedly Apple prototyped many combinations of different parts during hardware development and this is the hardware combination they decided to take to market.

 

[mechtech]

Unsurprising. Costs have gone up. Materials, silicon wafers, foundry expenses, various components, all the electricity that those factories use, fossil fuels used to transport something from Point A to Point B, wages, etc.

Look at how much NVIDIA jacked up their Ada Lovelace cards. And how AMD motherboard manufacturers priced AM5 platform products. And how AMD priced their Zen 4 CPU parts.

My guess is that RDNA3 cards will debut at higher price points as well.

Don't forget about how much those "record profits" also went up.

 

[cvaldes]

Don't forget about how much those "record profits" also went up.

When times are good, revenue, profit, even gross margin can all go up. When business is contracting, a company needs make decisions about what to prioritize.

Remember that companies can control things like COGS and pricing which affects gross margin. They can't control revenue, i.e., the number of times a customer opens up their wallet nor can entirely predict which will be their most popular products.