It ’s an exciting time to be an Apple substance abuser . What was expected to be a spring event has turned into a bowed stringed instrument of declaration spread out over five days in February and March bringing a wad of new products : A novel app ! A novel iPhone ! Two new iPads ! A new cow chip ! Two young Macs !
But aside from the strangeness of the launch , Apple also made a few determination that have us scratching our heads . While there is unquestionably a bunch of great clobber – the MacBook Air price cut , the iPhone 16e ’s processor , the Mac Studio ’s RAM limit – the proclamation are litter with some truly foreign decisions that leave the lineup in a unearthly position for the next 12 - 15 month . Here are five moves that have us inquire what Apple is thinking .
iPhone 16e: No MagSafe
When Apple launched theiPhone 16e , it assoil up a ton ofquestions within the iPhone lineup . The SE and its very old design are go , all models now have USB - degree Celsius , and there ’s a new lower - end model with a vindicated upgrade path . But while we expected a fair amount of sacrifices to get to the humble monetary value , we did n’t expect Apple to leave off its proprietary MagSafe charge tech . MagSafe isone of Apple ’s best iPhone featuresand it ’s even made its way over to AirPods type and Android telephone via the Qi2 monetary standard . So for Apple to decamp it on the newest iPhone 16e — even a budget manakin — is very curious .
you’re able to get a MagSafe puck to stick to the iPhone 16e if you try , but make no misunderstanding — it ’s not MagSafe .
David Price / Foundry
You can get a MagSafe puck to stick to the iPhone 16e if you try, but make no mistake—it’s not MagSafe.
iPad Air: Just an M3
When Appleupdated the iPad Air in 2024after more than two years , it was somewhat worth the wait . There was a new 13 - in model , a faster M2 chip , a landscape front camera , quicker Wi - Fi , and bread and butter for the Apple Pencil Pro . But this time around , not so much . Apple’slatest iPad Air updatearrives less than a year after the last one and brings the one thing no one needs , a slimly faster M3 chip shot . And that ’s it . No OLED screen , no raw gloss , no C1 modem , nothing .
iPad: No Apple Intelligence
If the iPad Air was an unneeded update , the11th - gen iPadis even unecessarier . We were n’t await much , but Apple could n’t even clear that bar . or else of an A17 Pro chip or A18 scrap to bringApple Intelligence reinforcement , we got an A16 potato chip that ’s only marginally faster than the A14 in the previous model and does n’t support Apple Intelligence . It ’s still a great deal at $ 349 — especially with double the storage — but why would Apple release a gimmick in 2025 that does n’t support its marquee feature ?
Every new gimmick in Apple ’s iPad , iPhone , and Mac lineup is built for Apple Intelligence — except theA16 iPad .
Apple
Every new device in Apple’s iPad, iPhone, and Mac lineup is built for Apple Intelligence—except theA16 iPad.
Mac Studio: M3 Ultra
Thenew Mac Studiois a preposterously powerful machine for its size . ( Or any sizing for that matter . ) The high - death buffalo chip configuration has a 32 - core mainframe with 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores , 80 graphic cores , and support for up to 512 GB of RAM . The only strange thing is that the buffalo chip is part of the M3 family , not the M4 . report say the reason is that the M4 chip shot does n’t have the UltraFusion packaging architecture need to fuse two M4 Max into one Ultra , but if that ’s true , then we ask : Why did n’t theMac Studioarrive last year with an M3 Max and M3 Ultra ?
iPad: Apple Pencil
Oh Apple Pencil , we ’ll never realise you . Even with a new iPad lineup , Apple still sellsfour Apple Pencils , two of which are still list as compatible with the new iPad : the USB - C Apple Pencil and the first - gen Apple Pencil , which was released almost a decade ago . It has none of the newer features in the USB - C good example , include magnetic charging , wireless pairing , or Apple Pencil loom . Yet it costs $ 20 more .
