The Next 11” iPad Pro
The iPad Air 4 was a quantum leap for customer tablets, but where does that leave the next 11” iPad Pro?
We all know it's coming; we just don't know precisely when, but the 11" iPad Pro refresh is looking to be minor compared to some of the treatments the 12.9" Pro is expected to receive.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! The latest iterations of the iPad Pro feel almost unfair to criticize. Radically refreshed in late 2018 and receiving a minor spec bump, bigger camera bump, & a 2GB RAM jump in 2020, the iPad Pro of 2018 is still a shockingly high-performing tablet! From the industrial design, build quality, new Apple Pencil, display tech, USB-C support (I could go on and on), the iPad Pro was uncontested.
But when Apple introduced the iPad Air 4 in 2020, it got scarily close to ousting the iPad Pro 11". Despite missing LiDAR, an ultra-wide camera, ProMotion, and having 4GB of RAM (vs. 6GB on the 2020 Pro), the new Air rivalled the performance of the 2020s A12Z by debuting the new 5nm A14 chip and coming in $200 cheaper than the base-level Pro. For the vast majority of users, this was the defacto 11" to buy.
So when the Air came out, the gaze of many in the Apple community gaze shifted to what might be next for Apple's next Pro tablet. The Air had gotten so good that it almost suggested the Pro was due for a massive leap itself.
Rumours have been sparse, but they suggest that the Pro will continue the same form factor of the 2020 models. This next iPad would have some variant of A14 (likely an A14X) with added performance cores capable of matching the performance enjoyed on M1 Macs. The most anticipated rumours suggest that mini-LED will come to the iPad Pro, bringing a wider colour gamut, higher contrasts, and HDR viewing. But this feature is rumoured to debut exclusively on the 12.9" iPad Pro.
So what does the 11" Pro get? What will help define its place & premium in the Apple ecosystem? Well, there's the rumour that 5G may arrive in the Pro line (the Air 4 stuck with LTE) along with Thunderbolt connectivity for improving compatibility to displays and faster sync. But that's kind of it. There's talk about an updated Apple Pencil and an updated Magic Keyboard, but details are sparse, and there's always the chance these will be backwards compatible with the 2018 & 2020 Pro. And a new Magic keyboard exclusive to the 2021 Pros would have to be pretty damn phenomenal to encourage someone to upgrade their costly tablet only to buy the expensive accessory. I can't imagine that being a strategy that will drive sales of 2021 11" Pros in volume.
Then there's always the potential of software introduced that expands the perks of owning an 11" Pro over a 10.9" Air. For example, Apple could introduce Final Cut or Xcode (god, could you imagine trying to run those on an 11" tablet?) and have them be exclusive to the Pro-line given the added compute power & RAM. But that would require announcing those at launch, and keeping such software exclusive for the Pro-line would, in my personal opinion, be a shitty move.
All of this prognosticating also had me thinking that one move Apple could take is to do away with the 11" Pro and keep the Pro moniker exclusive to the 12.9" form factor. After all, the original iPad Pro was introduced in only the 12.9" size before coming down in size the following year. This would give Apple more product differentiation between the Pro & Air, with more room (both literally and figuratively) to add costlier technologies and features in the future that eventually trickle down to the Air & suffix-less iPad. Don't worry; I don't see this happening.
Maybe it's just not fair to compare the 11" Pros incremental upgrade to the quantum leap treatment the Air got this year. Despite sharing the same form factor as the Air, the Pro still provides an elevated experience to users who care about its features; think business v. coach seating: the same plane, one just offers an elevated experience. This means that the extra cash for a 2021 11” iPad Pro gets you: ProMotion, more performance cores, Ultra-wide camera and LiDAR, more RAM, the rumoured of potential 5G & faster Thunderbolt connectivity, a brighter display, FaceID, higher storage configurations, thinner (the current Pro is 0.2 mm thinner than the Air), an extra 784 pixels in that .1" of extra screen, Flash, Portrait Lighting, and a four-speaker audio system. For many, some collection of the features above is a powerful incentive to upgrade to the Pro.
The gap between the Air & Pro has narrowed, but in a manner that I believe benefits most of Apple's customers. For $599, people can now get the swankiest looking tablet with a feature set that a few years back would've demanded a premium. While a 2021 11" Pro won't see the quantum leap update that the Air received, the upgrades and current complement of features result in a product with a collection of components that, while seemingly minor in isolation, as a whole, keep the 11" Pro a compelling member in the iPad family.
