Upcoming iPad Pro could arrive with more glass, wireless and MagSafe charging

[nanoguy]

In context: The iPad and tablets in general have seen a resurgence since last year as they're practical devices for many people to work and study from home. This growth has continued into the first quarter of 2021. Apple saw iPad sales jump almost 80 percent year-over-year. Now the company is looking at ways to modernize the look of certain models and align the design and features with those of the latest iPhones.

Apple made a huge splash earlier this year with a new iPad Pro that comes with a Mini LED display and is powered by the same M1 chip that's at the heart of new Macs. The latest iPad Air refresh looks strikingly similar to the iPad Pro, too, and has many of the features that made the latter a "Pro" model.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Cupertino giant is looking to differentiate the iPad Pro with a more premium design that will also support wireless charging. To that end, the company will switch to a glass back instead of the aluminum enclosure it uses across all tablets. This will also align the overall design and features with those of the iPhone, which has sported a glass back and wireless charging since the iPhone X and iPhone 8 in 2017.

With the iPhone 12, Apple revived MagSafe to reflect the company's take on how wireless charging should work. That technology is not perfect, but Apple is reportedly working on further refinements that could arrive as soon as next year.

The company is also testing reverse wireless charging for accessories like AirPods, but Bloomberg says this is still in the early stages of development so it may or may not make it into the next iPad Pro. If it does arrive, it could be accompanied by a MagSafe battery pack and a wireless charging mat that is less ambitious than the canceled AirPower, which suffered numerous technical issues during its development.

Image credit: Michael Ma

The iPad mini could also see its first redesign in six years that would bring it closer to the look of the rest of modern iPads. A larger display with slimmer bezels and no home button would be the most likely changes.

Apple is also working on a slimmer entry-level iPad, but that model will retain the home button and large bezels, while the mini could see Touch ID moved to the power button, similar to how it works on the iPad Air.

The last rumor is that of Apple experimenting with its own take of long-range wireless charging. However, that's likely in the early stages of testing and may never see the light in current form as it's both impractical and potentially hazardous. However, the company has been exploring ways to add Qi wireless charging capabilities to the MacBook cover and palm rest areas, which may have a slightly better have chance of becoming a reality.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89941-upcoming-ipad-pro-could-arrive-more-glass-wireless.html

 

[punctualturn]

Amazing CPU's/SOC, but useless thanks to the locked down hell that iPadOS is.

 

[DZillaXx]

These machines are still dumb for a power user or business.

Needs a real finder, file management has always been a joke on iOS.

Doing something as simple as attaching a Locally Stored PDF onto a email is more than a chore than needed. And no real pro user is going to be using apple's crappy mail app. If users can't use their Gmail app or Outlook app to do the most basic things quickly, what is the point of the device.

It does work great for anything stored through cloud storage platforms such as onedrive or dropbox.

I feel iPadOS is a few major updates away for finally being a real laptop replacement. Right now it can be done, but with a lot of draw backs and missing features. And that being said, a normal base ipad is going to do all this work just as well. I find the iPad Pro to only really be well worth it to a very small user class group...

 

[Dimitriid]

The ipad pro 2018 is still basically all you could ever ask from a tablet, even a "Pro" tablet. Even the current M1 ipad pro already feels like "Ok but why tho?" far too much: Much more processing power. Ok but why tho? A super high quality screen unlike anything you can get. Ok buy why tho? Are you seriously going to edit video on *just* Luma fusion? Are you seriously going to edit super high quality image on a device that still has no great, intuitive file manager?

You can do *most* things you can with a macbook air with it, but much more poorly, unless they're specifically well, tablet things like drawing, media, etc. And those things are still more than good enough on the 2018 pro model.

Apple really needs to integrate pro OS features into a "pro" device already. And no this isn't me asking for just Big Sur, but do let it run big sur versions of things like Finder, Premiere, Photoshop, etc. On the tablet itself. Just those apps, just enough so you can reasonably replace a full laptop if you pay Apple far too much for their keyboard and trackpad combo but you can also grab and draw on and do tablet things.

That'd sell me on an ipad pro a lot more than M1X or more GPU cores.

 

[Nobina]

The ipad pro 2018 is still basically all you could ever ask from a tablet, even a "Pro" tablet. Even the current M1 ipad pro already feels like "Ok but why tho?" far too much: Much more processing power. Ok but why tho? A super high quality screen unlike anything you can get. Ok buy why tho? Are you seriously going to edit video on *just* Luma fusion? Are you seriously going to edit super high quality image on a device that still has no great, intuitive file manager?

You can do *most* things you can with a macbook air with it, but much more poorly, unless they're specifically well, tablet things like drawing, media, etc. And those things are still more than good enough on the 2018 pro model.

Apple really needs to integrate pro OS features into a "pro" device already. And no this isn't me asking for just Big Sur, but do let it run big sur versions of things like Finder, Premiere, Photoshop, etc. On the tablet itself. Just those apps, just enough so you can reasonably replace a full laptop if you pay Apple far too much for their keyboard and trackpad combo but you can also grab and draw on and do tablet things.

That'd sell me on an ipad pro a lot more than M1X or more GPU cores.

Why have pro features when you can just name your device "pro" so people can pretend they are productive for simply owning your product.

You have "pro" iPhones. Can you do professional tasks on them? In theory, but it's dumb. The word "pro" means it's slightly upgraded version of the regular thing, it doesn't mean what you might think it does.

 

[Dimitriid]

Why have pro features when you can just name your device "pro" so people can pretend they are productive for simply owning your product.

You have "pro" iPhones. Can you do professional tasks on them? In theory, but it's dumb. The word "pro" means it's slightly upgraded version of the regular thing, it doesn't mean what you might think it does.

It's not what "I" think it means though: It's far more common sense to assume "Professional" means "Used by professionals"

Other than that you're right: the pro monicker it's pretty meaningless. But since Apple is immensely popular people buying the devices like to hear after-purchase validations about how "pro" their devices truly are: a stroll around youtube will find you tons of lucrative content creators constantly talking about their "Workflows" with Apple products which consists mostly of either workaround and rationalizations like "I feel very pro with this neat dongle I plug into my scarce ports on my pro device!" type stuff or just people doing "Professional" work on overpriced devices but talking for about half the video about how sleek they look and how premium the materials are and very little about the clunky OS and features that actually matter on their "workflows" /rant

 

[Nobina]

It's not what "I" think it means though: It's far more common sense to assume "Professional" means "Used by professionals"

Other than that you're right: the pro monicker it's pretty meaningless. But since Apple is immensely popular people buying the devices like to hear after-purchase validations about how "pro" their devices truly are: a stroll around youtube will find you tons of lucrative content creators constantly talking about their "Workflows" with Apple products which consists mostly of either workaround and rationalizations like "I feel very pro with this neat dongle I plug into my scarce ports on my pro device!" type stuff or just people doing "Professional" work on overpriced devices but talking for about half the video about how sleek they look and how premium the materials are and very little about the clunky OS and features that actually matter on their "workflows" /rant

Well, you can use the iPad Pro to record a video of you eating a tide pod or something mental and post it on TikTok. If it blows up, you used your iPad Pro like an actual pro.

 

[R00sT3R]

Overpriced status symbols for the bearded hipster types...and that includes the females!

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Keeps upgrading the iPad pro, better CPU, more memory, storage, screen etc and keep hamstringing it deliberately with the crap iOS. For the obscene prices, over $4K for top spec 12.9" models in Australia only a ***** would buy one over a powerful real laptop for half the price.