Nobody asked for a thinner iPad Pro! Nobody asked for a lighter iPad Pro! I’ve seen variations on both since Apple announced its slimmest tablet, including in reviews from major tech outlets. Either is a great statement.
First of all, those complaints are wrong. Many people had long expected Apple to make a slimmer tablet. As much as I love the M2 iPad Pro that I use every day, it can be unwieldy. This is because I use it like a tablet, on the couch, playing music on Korg Gadget and Logic Pro, and doodling on Procreate. At some point, the arm holding my iPad sends a message to my brain (usually by turning my RSI back on) that yes, someone wants a lighter iPad Pro: me.
I imagine that many who argue otherwise (while also complaining that they would prefer the new iPad’s battery life to match that of a MacBook) should be using a MacBook because presumably, they are using the iPad as such. That said, my membership in Team Thinner and Lighter has its limits, especially as rumors emerge that Apple will apply the same line of thinking to the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Winner winner thinnest iPad
The thinnest M4 iPad Pro? I understand. I mean, it was strange that Apple decided to compare it to an iPad nano. That’s a deep cut. What’s Next? “Our New iPhone has even more buttons than an Apple Pippin”? But hey, it helped Apple visually show that it had launched its thinnest product to date. (At least if you ignore the camera bump. And Apple always does that.)
But this is not just marketing. A lighter iPad is easier to hold and use. And of course, if the battery life had been equal to that of a MacBook instead of the iPad Pro 2022, it would have been nice. But it doesn’t seem vital to me. It’s hard to make the same argument for a thinner iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Compromising on the iPhone’s battery life, or even saying it’s no worse than last year, seems dangerous in a market of competing phones with colossal batteries and increasingly demanding iPhone use cases. RONCH RONCH RONCH battery drains while the phone consumes 5G. Or you dare to play or scroll through social media apps designed by sociopaths. Or use your Pro Max to its full potential by recording high-quality videos.
At that point, you’d give anything for a few more hours for a few millimeters less. It defeats the purpose of slimming a phone and shaving 42g off its weight if users need to carry a battery.
Design of the Times
That’s not to say I’m going to argue that no one is asking for a thinner or lighter iPhone 17 Pro Max. Many people are. But selling one would be a strange decision for Apple and would make me wonder if its priorities are in the right place.
A thinner iPhone wouldn’t be inherently more portable. An iPhone Pro Max will always be a huge slab of metal and glass. On the other hand, only people who work as calibrators will notice a reduction of 8 to 5 millimeters. There will still be a massive bump on the camera. (Apple: “DON’T mention the camera bump!”) And if, like the new iPad Pro, it ends up thinner than a typical charging cable, that will make things interesting for case designers.
There was a time when Apple’s obsession with thinness gave us MacBooks that could serve as weapons for ninjas, but with keyboards that people hated. You wondered if Jony Ive wouldn’t be satisfied until the devices were so thin that they couldn’t be seen from the side, apart from the camera bump. (Apple: “DON’T, etc!”) It was a curious metric to focus on and only makes sense in very specific circumstances. iPad? Yes. iPhone? No.
Of course, this could be the latest in an endless series of Apple rumors that never amount to anything. I hope so. And at least this one about a slimmer iPhone 17 hasn’t reignited speculation about an upcoming genuinely pocketable iPhone. After all, we know that no one was asking for a smaller iPhone. Or at least no one that Apple cared about.
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