Despite rumors that the new iPad Pro and iPad Air would be announced on Tuesday, March 26, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman tweets that this isn’t true.
He doesn’t elaborate or offer a timeline for when they might be announced. However, Gurman has previously predicted new Apple tablets in “late March or early April.” What’s more, I predicted they would be unveiled on March 18 or 19, and I was obviously wrong.
Whenever they’re unveiled, the biggest change will almost certainly be the introduction of OLED displays on the iPad Pro line-up. They’re likely to be hybrid OLED displays made with a combination of flexible and rigid materials. This could mean the updated iPad Pros would be even thinner and lighter design than current models.
Speaking of which, the 11-inch model may slim down by 13.5% to about 3.2 inches, while the 12.9-inch model is likely to shrink by 21.8% to 3.1 inches. This makes them the slimmest flagship tablets you can get your hands on. What’s more, the display on the bigger model will, I think, grow slightly — from 12.9 inches to 13 inches.
There’s also a rumor that both the iPad Pro and iPad Air may be offered with a matte screen option. Unlike a regular glossy display, a matte display comes with an anti-glare coating that helps minimize reflections on your screen. Since smooth surfaces such as glass or plastic reflect light evenly, they may have a harsh glare and interrupt your content.
Such changes may see a price hike in the tablet line-up. Apple’s upcoming OLED iPad Pro will start at $1,500, rising to between $1,800 and $2,000 depending on size and configuration, representing a major increase in prices compared to Apple’s current equivalents, according to the news aggregator account “yeux1122” on the Naver blog.
However, I’m going out on a limb and predict that any price hikes won’t be more than $100.
The rumor mill says that the orientation of Face ID will be tweaked — and I think that’s true. The orientation will favor landscape mode, which matches up with how most users interact with their iPads.
Look for the iPad Pros to get support for MagSafe charging, although theres’s a chance this might not happen.Why? Apparently, MagSafe charging works better with a glass back, but that would make the iPad Pro more fragile. Having an aluminum back would make it difficult to make the device compatible with the MagSafe Charger.
