When Apple unveiled the Apple Pencil Professional throughout Tuesday’s “Let Free” occasion, the corporate seemingly bid adieu to the second-generation Apple Pencil. An Apple device reveals that unspecified Apple Pencil 2 compatibility points imply the older stylus gained’t work with 2024 iPad Professional and iPad Air fashions.
So, in the event you’re an artist shopping for a brand new iPad, or somebody who takes a number of handwritten notes, you most likely have to finances an additional $129 for a brand new Apple Pencil Professional.
Apple Pencil 2 compatibility: Stylus doesn’t work with 2024 iPads
In keeping with Apple’s machine comparability device, the brand new M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Professional fashions are solely appropriate with the brand new Apple Pencil Professional and the finances Apple Pencil (USB-C). By comparability, earlier iPad Professional fashions (11-inch tablets gen 1 by 4 and 12.9-inch tablets gen 3 by 6) and iPad Air fashions (gen 4 and 5) are proven as appropriate with Apple Pencil (second gen) and the USB-C Apple Pencil.
In the end, because of this on high of the hefty price ticket for getting a brand new iPad Professional or Air, you’ll doubtlessly have to drop both $79 or $129, relying on which Apple Pencil mannequin you wish to pair together with your shiny new pill.
New options in Apple Pencil Professional
Picture: Apple
Throughout Tuesday’s occasion, Apple identified the necessity for a brand new Magic Keyboard for iPad Professional. And the professional pill’s slimmest-ever design makes that apparent.
Nonetheless, the corporate was much less clear about whether or not house owners of present Apple Pencils would want to improve in the event that they purchased a brand new iPad. Sure, the Apple Pencil Professional provides new options, together with a “squeeze” gesture, haptic suggestions and help for Apple’s Discover My Community. However for present iPad house owners who don’t use their Apple Pencil 2 a lot, it could be good if the older stylus nonetheless labored with the brand new iPad.
The sixth-generation M2 iPad Professional helps the second-generation Apple Pencil in addition to the USB-C Apple Pencil. On paper, that pill ought to run on the identical chip featured within the new iPad Air. If the brand new iPad Air fashions really don’t help the second-gen Apple Pencil, it could possibly be resulting from a {hardware} limitation, presumably on account of a brand new charging mechanism. (Apple moved the iPad Air’s front-facing digital camera to the pill’s lengthy edge so it really works in panorama mode. And the Apple Pencil Professional attaches magnetically to the aspect of appropriate tablets for charging.)
Alternatively, Apple could possibly be proscribing the performance to spice up Apple Pencil Professional gross sales. We’ll seemingly want to attend and see what early reviewers say when the units launch on Might 15.
Both means, for Apple’s most costly iPad fashions (the M4 iPad Professional line), until you have already got final yr’s USB-C Apple Pencil, you’re going to shell out just a few further bucks so as to add an Apple Pencil, and much more for the “Professional” pencil expertise.