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Apple’s bumper year ahead
Redesigns and new products galore in 2021
EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN
Apple has plenty of new and updated products on its 2021 roadmap, with big changes in the offing.
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his year is shaping up to be a big one in terms of Apple products, with plenty of important redesigns and new devices said to launch in 2021.
Going into production this April are updated 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros, which according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, will feature A14X chips, boasting performance on a par with Apple’s M1 Macs – the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini.
The new iPad Pros are also expected to come with Thunderbolt ports for the first time, replacing the current model’s USB-C ports.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, adding Thunderbolt would enable the new iPad Pro models to be connected to a wider range of peripherals including external monitors and drives, while also bringing faster syncing speeds.
The 2021 iPad Pros are also expected to come with miniLED displays, which massively ramp up the number of LEDs present in the screen, resulting in much better contrast and brightness. Apple might also add 5G support into the mix here.
Other major iPad updates are expected, but are likely to come later this year or even in 2022, with the iPad mini arguably being given the biggest overhaul in Q3. It’s expected to feature a redesigned chassis that slims the bezels to bring the device in line with the iPad Pro and iPad Air.