September Apple Event Reaction

 

Image credit: iPhone Hacks

Today, September 15th, 2020, Apple held an event. There they announced three devices and 2 services and I'm going to react to all of them, right now. 

 

I'll start with what I though was most mind-blowing, the new 10.2-inch iPad and 10.9-inch iPad air. These two devices are the next versions of their respective counterparts from 2019 and they blow those straight out of the water. The regular iPad gets a A12 bionic chipset, an upgrade from last year's A10, and improved Apple Pencil support with iPad OS 14. The design hasn't changed at all though, same old bezels with home button touch ID, same old lightning port, same old storage and color options, and same old smart keyboard. I feel like that dated design is the only thing that's keeping it back because without those bezels there would be no reason to buy any other tablet.  

The price hasn't changed either still coming in at 329$ for the basic configuration and 299$ for education. I'm not sure if anybody noticed this but during the presentation Apple jabbed at Chromebooks saying that the new iPad is faster and by all means it is. The new A12 is a beast and I'm extremely jealous because to get even close to that on Android you must pay a premium, huge premium. The fact that this was their flagship chipset only 1 year ago signals how Apple can pay down their silicon year after year lending more power for less money. For all it adds up this is an incremental spec bump, but I have to say that spec bump makes a bigger difference than meets the eye. 

 
 

Let's turn to the biggest iPad announcement of the day: the iPad Air. Unlike its little brother the Air has changed, from 10.5-inch screen to 10.9 inch "all screen" design. Although it's not "all screen" (see side bezels) it is rounder and sleeker taking on the iPad pro redesign that seems to be taking over the whole of Apple.  

 

It's the iPad Air so the minimal bezels are still bigger than the iPad Pro but no matter what they are still going for the pro form-factor. The fact that it has an A14 chipset, but the current iPad Pro is stuck on a variant (albeit enormously powerful) of the A12 is kind of embarrassing. That A14 is immensely powerful as well, it is the first 5nm chipset from Apple and it has 6 core CPU and 4 core GPU meaning that this iPad is a rocket. 

   Compatibility with gen 2 Apple Pencil, compatibility with the 11-inch magic keyboard, and fastest processor made by Apple. These are traits of the iPad Pro not of the Air, even the cameras are pro level with the front camera being 7 megapixels 1080p at 60 FPS. The only difference is the new touch ID sensor that has been moved to the power button, prudent decision especially since face ID would drive the cost up. That style of fingerprint sensor has been on Android for years with remarkable success I'm glad to see Apple not go to in-screen fingerprint sensors because those are unreliable and in my opinion a recipe for bad ergonomics. Overall, the Air got a huge and confusing update, it's too pro to be Air and Apple needs to figure that out and soon or else their going to have mass confusion for a product that remarkably known for being simple. It will come at the price of 499$ with the choice of 5 colors. 

 

 

Let's turn tail to the last hardware announcement, the Series 6 Apple watch. This is a more incremental upgrade with a brighter display, new SiP, and blood oxygen monitoring. Those are the three biggest features and that's what I'll be focusing on. The brighter display is for the always-on display meaning that visibility is much better in sunlight, most Wear OS watches, and the Galaxy watches struggle with that, so Apple addressed that problem with the Series 6. 

 

They also announced the new S6 SiP that boosts performance and keeps the 18 hours of battery life of the series 5. Apple is just flexing their silicon muscles; this SiP can run rings around the Snapdragon 4100 in new watches and passes the Samsung silicon from Galaxy Watches. The Blood Oxygen monitoring is new, the feature is being developed with several medical authorities to help test for Covid-19. The new sensor might still need to get approval from FDA, but the feature might prove to be particularly useful. The Series 6 is a very incremental update that improves on everything that made the Series 5 timeless.  

The Verge reports: 

"The Apple Watch Series 6 will be available starting at $399 for a 40mm model, the same price as the outgoing Series 5. Cellular models start at $499. The Series 6 is available to order starting today, September 15th, and will start shipping on Friday, September 18th. As part of its efforts to reduce waste, Apple says it will not be including a USB power adapter in the box with the Series 6 watch, just the charging cable." 

 

 

There is also the Apple watch SE which is the new affordable Apple Watch taking over from the Series 3. The Series 3 has also gone down in price from 299$ to 199$. The SE continues the narrative of affordability with the iPhone SE and now with the Apple Watch SE. The SE has the S5 SiP from the Series 5, it's a generation old but it's still modern. It has all the sensors of the Series 4 and some new features such as sleep tracking. The SE is a particularly excellent value in the Smartwatch world, and I can't wait to see what else the SE brand brings in. The Apple SE starts at 279$ and 329$ for LTE and is available today.  

 

There are also 2 new services: fitness+ and the Apple one bundle. Fitness+ is a service like peloton offering exercise videos and courses to help you get into shape and stay in shape. Fitness+ is free for 3 months with every purchase of an Apple watch. Fitness+ is another stride for Apple into fitness and will boost their focus on health.  

Apple One however, is more Amazon prime meets the TV bundle. The various tiers bundle all the Apple services into a monthly bundle with the main differences being iCloud storage, those tiers being 50GB, 200GB, and 2TB, respectively. This service is surprisingly excellent value for the money, especially for those in the Apple ecosystem. The combination of entertainment with usability could be a deadly combination for other services such as Prime or Walmart+. 

 
 

I'll go in-depth in a later article, hopefully these devices shape out to be everything it seems to be. 

  

Best, BenTechCoder