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New iPads: We’re Not Portable Anymore

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iPhone Guru

February 28, 2017

New iPads: We’re Not Portable Anymore

Spring is here and Apple fans are waiting for the big March event in Cupertino. Macotakara, the Japanese blogger close to Asian supply chains, has posted on Monday, some speculations as to what will take place. They cover a significant increase of storage for the iPhone SE (128 GB), a red color for iPhone 7 (how we survived without a red iPhone, I wonder!) and a new flagship for the iPad: “iPad Pro 2”. Actually, we think the tablets are going to be the headliners.

The next representative of the iPad line-up, is expected to come in sizes of 12.9 and 10.5 inches. The more budget-priced iPad to replace the low-end iPad Air 2, is rumored to arrive in size of 9.7 inches. That will be great, as they have been overlooking iPad Mini since late 2015. Macotakara is usually accurate about his predictions, as he seems to have an enormous grapevine. So, I’m pretty sure, the Apple tablets will grow in size. They’ll just stop being portable mobile devices, that’s all.

Oxford Dictionary describes ‘portable’ as “Able to be easily carried or moved, especially because being of a lighter and smaller version than usual.” End of quotation. I can’t see in what part new iPad Pros are portable. They’ll probably be thin and sleek, and nice looking with top OLED screens but just LARGE. Large displays are OK, until you face the problem of how to handle them. To say nothing of the fact that you can’t hold such big tablets with one hand. You either will have to use both hands, or go and buy a prop-stand, which to me, kills the idea of portability altogether. It’s like carrying an LCD TV around.

I’ll need the larger bag, and of course, with the larger size, comes the heavier weight. At least, MacBook has a keyboard. And I won’t overwork my wrist while holding the tablet in one hand and tapping the text with an index finger of the other. Sure thing, Apple will roll out some kind of keyboard, and that will be neither here nor there.

Really, I’m not quite sure what I feel toward hybrids. A hybrid looks like an unwanted crossbreed of a tablet and a laptop to me. Too awkward to type and too weak to run the desktop software. Unless of course, the iPad Pro 2 will feature a fast processor. That’s the main intrigue of this next upcoming event. What will be the answer to the octa-core Snapdragon 835? The ‘dragon’ will certainly go to Apple’s closest rival – Samsung.

The hopes for a new A10X chip, built on the existing A10 processor as in the iPhone 7, soar really high. Both 10-nm process competitors combine high-power and low-power cores, their performance depending on the task’s difficulty. Apple calls its’ processors “Fusion” chips, but the technology as such, is not a unique one any more. Almost all multi-core CPUs feature high-performance and low-performance cores nowadays. It has to do with the batteries capacities, of course. Eight powerful cores will drain your battery dry in no time. While engaging slower cores for easier tasks will mean a larger charge life for the tablet, which is an advantage from the point of view of portability.

Also, Apple hints at a new wireless charging feature for the new iPads, as the company joined the Wireless Power Consortium.

I suspect they’re going to ditch the charging socket as well, then. I mean, they did it to the headphones socket. What can stop them now? They can pull the plug on the fingerprint sensor, why not? The sensor will go under the screen. Guess what part of the screen bottom to tap for entering the tablet! What a nightmare that could be, to have to blindly find the hidden sensor! But, to make up for this inconvenience, we’re going to offer you the Apple Pen 2 with a magnet and a shirt clip. Wow!

As with the OS, Apple is enigmatic about it as well. You see, timing is critical here. Being introduced in March 2017, the iPad Pro 2 will get the iOS 10, but if introduced in the fall, it’ll sport the iOS 11. No big problem really, because, I’m sure the March tablets will be easily upgraded in due time. The hardware will not have become too obsolete by the fall.

Well, to sum the story up: the new iPad Pro is expected to be fast, great-looking, very-very expensive and, well, large. Yes. Look for a bigger backpack or bag, people.