On Tuesday, May 7, Apple will hold its first product event of the year, ‘Let Loose’. The company is set to introduce new lineup of iPad Pro and iPad Air. The iPad Pro tablets will get OLED displays, a new thinner chassis, and run on the M4 chip. The iPad Air will be updated with the M2 chip, and be offered in a new larger 12.9-inch display size for the first time.
As reported today by Mark Gurman, Apple is set to announce all of this in a brisk video presentation running about 35 minutes in length. This is similar to the runtime of the October ‘Spooky Fast’ event.
Alongside the new iPad Pro and iPad Air lineup, Apple is also expected to unveil new generations of the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, the latter featuring a new squeeze gesture with haptic feedback.
The jump to the M4 chip in the iPad Pro will be heralded as signifying Apple’s advantages in on-device artificial intelligence might, as well as incremental bumps to CPU and GPU power. But it seems we will be waiting until WWDC in June to see what kind of AI features Apple will be incorporating into the system, with proactive AI features expected to be a focus of iOS 18.
Atypically, the May 7 event is scheduled for 7 AM Pacific Time, rather than Apple’s usual 10 AM time slot. Apple is believed to be experimenting with the format to see when it can acquire the most eyeballs, and a slightly earlier start time is better for Europe and Asia timezones.
Obviously, stay tuned to 9to5Mac this week as we bring you full coverage of all the announcements. Refreshes for the other iPad models are expected to follow later in the year.
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