Apple’s thinnest design ever needs to be seen to be believed

Apple has levelled up its iPads by creating the thinnest design ever with an array of futuristic tech at its disposal.

As part of its latest event, Let Loose, the tech giant has released a new lineup of iPads that has sparked a buzz among fans.

Its new AI software is essentially able to predict your needs, as the new iPad Air and iPad Pro feature OLED, M4 and more – but what exactly can this new tech do for you? 

What is Tandem OLED?

One of the most advanced pieces of technology in Apple’s new range is Tandem OLED. 

An organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, is a thin, solid-state device containing a carbon-based semiconductor layer that emits light. 

Apple has announced its thinnest ever iPad design (Picture: Apple)

OLED technology delivers an incredibly high contrast ratio and high resolution, and since it has no backlight, OLED emits through each pixel to allow for a thinner display. 

The result is known as electroluminescence. Each OLED pixel in the screen creates light depending on how much electric current is sent to it.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, said in the event: ‘A single OLED panel doesn’t deliver enough brightness for the state-of-the-art XDR display.’

To rectify this problem, Apple stacked the OLEDs to build a second OLED display into the iPad Pro using ‘tandem OLED’ technology. This will help the tablet achieve its advertised 1000 nits of full-screen brightness and 1600 nits of peak brightness when viewing HDR content.

‘We’re calling it Ultra Retina XDR,’ Mr Ternus said. 

What is the M4 chip?

The Pro model has gained a new M4 chip – a component that will power artificial intelligence (AI) features.

Apple says the M4 is a system on a chip that will advance the performance of the Apple silicon – the Apple processor used for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods and AirTag. 

The chip will focus on improving performance for the AI-related tasking iPadOS. Apple says the M4 will also help with the precision, colour, and brightness of the Ultra Retina XDR display and can deliver up to 1.5x faster CPU performance over M2 in the previous-generation iPad Pro.

Apple has added in new for the new iPad Pro (Picture: Apple)

Compared to M2, M4 can deliver the same performance using just half the power. 

The M4 also features the most powerful Neural Engine in an Apple product, which is capable of 38 trillion operations per second. 

A neural engine is a series of AI accelerators that are designed for machine learning by Apple. It essentially helps make certain tasks such as facial and object recognition, behaviour prediction, preference prediction and user identification more efficient. 

The new AI capabilities is boosted in apps like Logic Pro 2, which will help those wanting to use their new iPad for a professional experience for songwriting, beat-making, producing, and mixing. 

What is new about the latest Apple Pencil Pro?

It’s not a stylus, but a pencil. Apple has introduced a new sensor in the barrel that can sense a user’s squeeze and can help the user navigate options without touching the screen. 

Apple has added a custom haptic engine that moves with the users and can provide confirmation when users squeeze, double-tap, or snap with the pen to offer a smoother experience. 

The pencil pairs, charges, and is stored on the side of iPad Pro through a new magnetic interface as well as also supporting Apple Pencil (USB-C). 

The Apple Pencil Pro can be used with the iPad Air (Picture: Apple)

What are the new Apple products? 

With the exciting new array of products, Apple has introduced: 

iPad Air. The new product comes in two sizes, 11 inches and 13 inches. They both will be available in blue, purple, starlight, and space grey, with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations. 

The 11-inch iPad Air starts at £599 for the Wi-Fi model, and £749 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Air starts at £799 for the Wi-Fi model, and £949  for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

iPad Pro. The new 11-inch iPad Air starts at £549, and the 13-inch model starts at £749.

Apple Pencil Pro. Also compatible with the new iPad Air, it is available for £129, and £119 for education. Apple Pencil (USB-C) is available for £79 and £69 for education.

Magic Keyboard. Available in black and white finishes, is compatible with the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air.

It can be purchased for £299 for the new 11-inch iPad Air, and £349 for the new 13-inch iPad Air, with layouts for over 30 languages. For education, the 11-inch Magic Keyboard is available for £279 , and the 13-inch Magic Keyboard is available for £329.

The products are available to be ordered from today.