How to watch Apple's iPad event live

Andrew Williams
·2 min read
(Apple)
(Apple)

Apple has announced the date of its next major launch event. It begins at 3pm on May 7.

This is not Apple’s biggest event of the year, when it unveils new iPhones, but an iPad-related one.

“Let loose” is its tagline, and the teaser image shows someone holding an Apple Pencil.

Keen to see what happens, as it happens? You will be able to watch the show online.

How to watch Apple’s iPad event

As usual, Apple will broadcast its launch event from the Apple.com website. You’ll see the required page closer to the event, from the site’s homepage.

Alternatively, a stream will be available from the Apple TV app. The YouTube page for the event is already live, too, and you can set a reminder on that platform if YouTube is your video portal of choice.

What to expect from the Apple event

iPad and MacBook launch events typically attract much less attention than the usual iPhone jamboree each September, but this iPad one is likely to be more interesting than most.

Apple is expected to announce the first iPad with an Oled screen, a series-topping iPad Pro with an Apple M3 processor, also seen in the latest MacBooks.

Current top iPads have mini-LED screens. These displays light up using clusters of LEDs, allowing for much greater contrast than a classic LCD. But each pixel in an Oled is its own light source, making contrast effectively infinite in the right scenario.

The big question is whether the new Oled iPad Pro will be able to reach the super-high brightness of today’s iPads. They can hit 1600 nits when displaying HDR content. That’s bright.

Such high brightness is not uncommon in watch and phone-size Oled screens. But tablet and laptop-size Oleds are typically much less searing.

We also expect to see the iPad Air refreshed, including a model with a larger 12.9-inch screen. Today’s iPad Air has a 10.9-inch display, and the new version will be there for those who wince at the cost of the iPad Pro 12.9. It is not going to be cheap.

The iPad event teaser also primes us for a new Apple Pencil. Rumours suggest it may have Apple’s Find My tech inside – a sensible idea given how easy styluses are to misplace. Some say it will have a new gesture, too, letting you fire off commands by just squeezing its sides.

How much this new tech will cost, and when it’s out, will have to wait until May 7.