These 2 iPad Pro features should come to the iPhone
With its powerful M4 processor and support for the Apple Pencil Pro, the 2024 iPad Pro is certainly an attempt to bring PC and Chromebook enthusiasts over to Apple’s ecosystem. But some of the iPad Pro’s new features would feel right at home on the iPhone, especially future iPhone Pro or Pro Max models, or the rumored iPhone 17 Slim.
The 2024 iPad Pro’s exceptionally thin design and improved document scanning capabilities feel like a perfect match for the iPhone. While it’s true that the iPad Pro is positioned as a portable and powerful work device, our smartphones are always with us – making lightweight designs and the ability to capture receipts and other important documents on the go all the more important.
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There’s precedent for new features appearing on the iPad Pro before trickling down to the iPhone. The 2020 iPad Pro got a LiDAR scanner in March 2020 before that technology arrived on the iPhone 12 Pro later that year. In 2016, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro was the first to get Apple’s True Tone display to improve white balance, which made its way to the iPhone 8 series and iPhone X the following year. Apple’s ProMotion technology that dynamically adjusts the screen refresh rate for smoother scrolling is another example of a display improvement that debuted on the iPad Pro in 2017 before landing on the iPhone 13 Pro in 2021.
Apple should continue that tradition by bringing newer iPad Pro features to the iPhone as well.
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Why these features belong on future iPhones
The new iPad Pro is Apple’s thinnest yet.
According to the company, the new iPad Pro is Apple’s thinnest product ever. At just 5.1 millimeters thick, the 13-inch model is thinner than the 8.25mm iPhone 16 Pro and the even slimmer 7.3mm iPhone SE by a wide margin. (Apple is clearly making products slimmer; the recently launched Apple Watch Series 10 is the thinnest watch yet).
It can be argued that thinness is more important with the iPad Pro, as it reduces the overall size of the system when combined with keyboards and covers. But considering that we carry our phones everywhere and reach for them 144 times a day, according to… Reviews.orgsuch a dramatic reduction in thickness would go a long way.
It could also make the larger iPhone 16 Pro Max feel less cumbersome, perhaps swaying buyers who previously passed on it because of its weight. At a time when virtually every other smartphone manufacturer is exploring foldable devices, a dramatically sleeker look could put Apple’s iPhone design back in the spotlight.
The same can be said for the document scanner. Apple’s new iPad Pro models use artificial intelligence to identify documents in the camera app and reduce shadows by taking multiple photos at once and stitching the scan together. If you’re like me, your phone is your main tool for saving receipts during business trips and sharing photos of restaurant bills with friends when deciding how to split costs.
While it may not be the most exciting camera upgrade, it’s certainly a practical one. Data from business-to-business research firm Aberdeen Strategy & Research The mention in a 2023 blog post indicates that 30% of employees own a smartphone for work purposes only, and 68% of employees use an iPhone, indicating that there may be more demand for an improved iPhone document scanner than expected .
Apple seems to know that people use their iPhones to digitize and share documents, as evidenced by the addition of Live Text in 2021, which recognizes text in photos so you can copy and paste handwritten notes and more. An improved document scanner like the one on the new iPad Pro would be a great addition to this capability.
Like the aforementioned super-thin design of the iPad Pro, the document scanner seems especially suitable for future iPhone Pro Max models. Apple’s larger Pro iPhones are known for having the company’s very best cameras, so it would make sense to see it get a photography-focused tool like this. The cameras on the iPhone Pro models, just like the new iPad Pros, already have an adaptive True Tone camera flash. So if Apple were to bring this upgraded document scanning to the iPhone Pro Max, it might come via a software update.
Will these changes actually apply to future iPhones?
Apple Intelligence won’t include any new features specifically for document scanning, but it will introduce other tools that can be useful for productivity.
Apple never discusses new products and updates until it’s ready to officially announce them, which means we won’t know what to expect from future iPhones until they arrive. Still, there is some reason to believe that Apple is indeed working on a slimmer iPhone, even though we may not see it until 2025. This is evident from reports from analyst Jeff Pu. Ross Young (as 9to5Mac has reported) and Ming Chi Kuoas well as news media The information And Bloomberg.
While there’s no improved document scanner in iOS 18, Apple Intelligence does include a handful of productivity-focused tools, like features for rewriting text and erasing objects from images.
Apple’s iPhone lineup has changed a lot over the years, especially when it comes to the Pro and Pro Max models. Exploring a wafer-thin design and improving the camera’s functionality in practical ways could help Apple further differentiate its professional phones from the standard iPhone.
