In classic fashion, the Apple Store has gone down ahead of today’s ‘Peek performance’ spring media event. We expect to see the announcement of a new iPhone SE with 5G support and a spec-bumped iPad Air. We also expect Apple to continue the Apple Silicon transition, perhaps introducing a brand new ‘Mac Studio’ model and a new Apple-branded external display at the same time.
Here’s everything we expect to see today:
New iPhone SE
The March event is not the venue for Apple to show off flagship iPhones. However, every few years ,Apple refreshes the cheapest iPhone in the lineup, the iPhone SE. For 2022, Apple will update the iPhone SE with new internals, but retain the same iPhone 8-era industrial design. That means the 2022 iPhone SE will get an A15 chip and 5G cellular support. A year or so ago, there had been rumors for a while that the 2022 SE would feature a more dramatic design overhaul, but those expectations subsided several months ago.
New iPad Air 5th-generation
The iPad Air was last updated in October 2020, where it adopted the iPad Pro design language albeit with a Touch ID side button instead of (the more expensive) Face ID biometrics system. However, in the intervening year and a half, even Apple’s cheaper iPads have jumped ahead, with features like Center Stage. The fifth-generation iPad Air will catch up in those areas, and we expect it to get a big speed boost thanks to the inclusion of the M1 chip — previously only used in Macs and the 2021 iPad Pro.
New Macs
Whereas the iPhone SE and iPad Air announcements are pretty set in stone, the rumors around Mac hardware is less certain. It certainly seems like we will see new Macs today, but exactly what models remains unclear.
Other possible Mac announcements include an Apple Silicon-based iMac Pro, a higher-end Mac mini, and an M2-powered MacBook Pro. The M2 MacBook Air does not appear to be ready; expect that radically redesigned laptop to arrive in the fall.
