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iPad Air iPad Air 5 to get 4 speaker set up?!

iPad Bro

iPad Bro

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 2, 2021
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So, I just watched MaxTech’s latest video on the iPad Air 5 and I was definitely surprised to hear that it will probably be getting a 4 speaker set up similar to the iPad Pro. IMO that would make me want to go back down to the iPad Air, because the speakers is the only Pro feature that I absolutely cannot live without. What do you make of all this? Do you think MaxTech is right on the money about this 4 speaker set up or do you think the iPad Air 5 will stick with the 2 speakers the Air 4 currently has? I honestly don’t know what to do now, because I just bought a Pro 12.9, but I would love to save some dough and have an Air 5 with 4 speakers even more. Mini-LED isn’t a deal breaker for me. I thought the 10.9 (and yes, the 11) was the perfect iPad size for me, and I loved holding it in my hands so much when I had an Air 4. Should I take the risk of the Air 5 having the 4 speakers and sell my Pro now so I can secure one since it’s not guaranteed to stay in stock long after release or when pre-orders go up or should I just stick with what I have? It just seems way too good to be true to me. It’d literally be my PERFECT iPad (for me) if it had those speakers and with my money I’d have at the beginning of March before the release of the Air 5, I could afford a Magic Keyboard and possibly an Apple Pencil 2 to boot.

What would you do if you were me? And what do you think about this new development about the iPad Air 5? Are you excited or skeptical?
 
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I’d also like to say that if they did, for some reason, decide to release the iPad Air 5 in Product Red as a color option, I would literally be jumping for joy. ?
 
I do wish the Air gets Face ID: the Pro's additional power is not for me.

I've had enough of Touch ID on my current iPad: the Air 2 !!!
 
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Yeah, Face ID would be a good feature to have. I didn’t think of that. Just to note, 9to5 Mac is also reporting the 4 speaker upgrade for the Air 5. Please let it be true!

Also, although I do some photo editing in Affinity Photo, I mostly use my iPad for content consumption (movies, TV, music), web browsing, e-mail, etc. I haven’t once really thought I need the additional power of the Pro. The Air handled my everyday tasks just as well. I don’t push this thing to the limits or anything close to it. It’s overkill for someone like me, but I value some of the features like Face ID and the 4 speaker set up. ProMotion is nice too, but I never notice the difference when going back to the Air or other iPads.
 
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Well you know the speaker grill/hole drill outs are already there on the Air4 . . . . quad speakers could happen. The Air4 totally meets my needs for a portable device, but the Air5 would have to be quite a compelling package for me to upgrade. And even at that I’d probably use headphones or bluetooth speakers if sound quality was my goal. But you never know what Apple could pull out of the hat either.
 
Virtually no chance. It’s one of those silly claims to fool people and generate click revenue.

Look at the teardown of iPad Air vs. iPad Pro to better understand why. The internal layout is entirely different. One is clearly optimized for cost. You can’t simply add another set of speakers just because there are external openings. For example, the Air uses fewer modular connectors to reduce cost. The USB-C port flex is soldered on instead of being modular. The battery pack is monolithic while the Pro uses two individual packs with different shapes and monitoring chips. This is why the iPad Pro has larger capacity battery despite it being thinner and having more speakers than iPad Air - more expensive batteries that better utilize space and a more compact logic board.

In short, it’s unlikely Apple will suddenly discard these cost efficiencies. More importantly, why would Apple forego another feature to Close the gap? To discourage iPad Pro sales?
 
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I don’t see how it’s there to generate click revenue when it’s not even in the title of the video whatsoever, but okay. You seem to know what you’re talking about, so I’ll listen to what you’re saying. I was optimistic about it, but I’ll just hang onto my Pro. I can still get a Magic Keyboard soon, but the Apple Pencil will have to come a bit later. Stuff is expensive, bro. At least I can stop hoping for a better Air 5 now.
 
His video title is ”iPad Air 5 FINAL LEAKS before Apple’s March 8th Event.” To me, that reeks of click bait. We’ve got more than 3 weeks to go and that title implies he’s an authoritative voice and there can’t be any more leaks.

Sorry for the disappointment, but those are just my thoughts.

iPad Pro has LiDAR, dual lenses, and flash and recent rumours suggest iPad Air will finally get flash. It just seems unlikely iPad Air will get 4 speakers unless the Pro is getting 6 or some other huge audio upgrade.
 
I don’t trust that channel one bit. I’d make my purchase decisions based on real life and am not wasting time listening to clickbait YouTubers. Sure it may take a few days longer sometimes because I may not be at the very front of the queue but so what, I’m keeping the device for years anyway.
 
MaxTech is a good channel, but as most youtube channels they have a clickbaity style. I would definitely not sell a pro based on such a weak rumor. It's very unlikely that Apple, after going through the trouble of making stereo speakers and even increasing the bezels by 0.1 inches just to differentiate it from the pro, would now dump the stereo speakers and give the air the only feature that has never trickled down from the pro since 2015 (because for quite a few people it's the main reason to go with the pro)
 
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iPad Bro said:
I don’t see how it’s there to generate click revenue when it’s not even in the title of the video whatsoever, but okay. You seem to know what you’re talking about, so I’ll listen to what you’re saying. I was optimistic about it, but I’ll just hang onto my Pro. I can still get a Magic Keyboard soon, but the Apple Pencil will have to come a bit later. Stuff is expensive, bro. At least I can stop hoping for a better Air 5 now.
Click to expand...
Everything on YouTube that has ads or sponsors is for click revenue. :) They’re hoping that the viewers will talk about or post links to MaxTech so that others will go “Hmm, never heard of MaxTech, think I’ll go watch it to see what’s up.”
 
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For me personally the landscape stereo speakers are more than good enough on the Air 4, I’d rather they added either an OLED screen OR 120 Mhz variable refresh rate to match the Tab 8. Who knows, Apple could give the new Air a AX chip like the Air 1 and 2, with performance right in between the A15 and M1 chip now that the Pro models have the M chips.
 
snipr125 said:
Who knows, Apple could give the new Air a AX chip like the Air 1 and 2, with performance right in between the A15 and M1 chip now that the Pro models have the M chips.
Click to expand...

Seems unlikely unless Apple gets a bunch of defective M chips. It's probably not cost effective to design a chip just for the iPad Air.

Besides, single-core is nearly identical with the difference purely down to differing clock rates. It's only multi-core and GPU that can be improved.

A14: 2x Firestorm + 4x Icestorm + 4 GPU cores

M1: 4x Firestorm + 4x Icestorm + 7-8 GPU cores
 
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MaxTech sometimes goes in on highly speculative predictions, many of which turn out to be false. They were one of those guilty of fanning the “iPad pro apps” drama of May/June 2021.

I don’t know where the 4-speaker rumour has come from, I’ve not seen anything about it anywhere.
 
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MaxTech, while they can sometimes provide useful information and interesting theories, has a tendency to lean into clickbait A LOT. They will upload videos with the word 'CONFIRMED' in the title that are simply their predictions or thoughts and theories, sometimes supported by rumors and sometimes not. It really grinds my gears. Sometimes these guys just completely make **** up - I monitor these rumor sites daily and have not once seen any mention or rumor from a credible source about the next-gen iPad Air getting a four-speaker setup. Take that for what it's worth.
 
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They often make nice and entertaining videos and when they review products I find them very thorough but I agree that you have to take the speculation videos with a big grain of salt.
january / February is a bit of a dry period in terms of apple product releases (same in the summer after WWDC) so that‘s when they have to get a bit more creative to get enough videos out.
 
I guess Air 5 will get 128 to 512 gigs now that the 9th gen has got the same variants as Air 4. But for me A15, Center Stage and Flash are the most obvious upgrades

I would also like to see the 6GB RAM, Thunderbolt, 600 nits and upgraded mics and speakers

There would still be differences with the 11" Pro:
- Face ID and back camera system
- ProMotion
- 8GB + M1

That would be worth the $200 difference for those who need that (the special attractive of the Pro 'd still be ProMotion)

Hoping this is possible as this Air 5 wouldn't outperform the Pro in anything but single core performance - just as the Air 4!
 
Another thought... this one very unlikely

Air 5 to be same body as Air 4 - with Center Stage and Flash

Internals: M1, 8GB+128-512GB

Would be the cheapest M1 device and Pro would still be worth the extra $200 thanks to its "PRO" specs like PROMotion, PRO Mics, PRO Speakers, Thunderbolt, Face ID...
 
So for me Air 5 will be adding Mini 6's features plus Pro 11's external OR internal features
 
fearless22 said:
Hoping this is possible as this Air 5 wouldn't outperform the Pro in anything but single core performance - just as the Air 4!
Click to expand...

It wouldn’t. M1 has a faster clock than A14 and the higher clocked A15 on iPhone 13 Pros just match M1 single-core performance. The lower binned A15 on the mini 6 is still slower than M1. Seems like there’s zero IPC improvement from A14 to A15.
 
Quad speaker would be sweet. But I have a feeling Apple is about upselling. Want larger screen? Get the Pro. Want quad speaker? Get the Pro.

The Air 5 imo will be basically just a larger mini 6. Meaning A15, 5G, center stage, etc, inside existing shell. So I wouldn't expect additional components like quad speaker.
 
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I do and do not want the quad speakers. If they did quad speakers on the Air 5 and gave us a Product Red color option, I would be tempted to get rid of my 12.9 Pro. But I feel I’d still be better off with all of the extra added benefits. I might be able to get a couple hundred extra by selling it and getting the Air 5 if that was the case, but that’s not enough to give up all of the Pro features. I like my 12.9 Liquid Retina XDR display, ProMotion, slimmer bezels, extra RAM, the M1 chip, etc. I know the speakers would still be dumbed down if the Air 5 got quads, so I just talked myself out of doing something really stupid right there. :p
 
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