What to expect at Apple tomorrow ‘Far Out’ event tomorrow

Apple’s upcoming iPhone model lineup, most likely called iPhone 14 is expected to be unveiled at Apple’s ‘Far Out’ event where it will likely announce updated Apple Watch Series 8 models and a possible new and larger extreme sports model. Apple may also announce AirPods Pro 2 and a possible announcement for the next iPhoen SE at the event as well, but the focus of this post will be on the iPhone 14 model series.

iPhone 14 & iPhone 14 Max / Plus

Apple’s standard iPhone 14 is likely to feature a 6.1-inch Retina display, A15 Bionic chip with an 8-Core GPU, 6GB of slower LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB of storage on the base model, faster 30W wired charging, stronger MagSafe magnets, better battery life, WiFi 6E support and a price starting at $749.

Apple’s iPhone 14 Max / Plus will be the first of its kind from Apple with a 6.7-inch display and a sub $1000 price tag. It is likely to feature a 6.7-inch Retina display, A15 Bionic chip with an 8-Core GPU, 6GB of slower LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB of storage on the base model, faster 30W wired charging, stronger MagSafe magnets, better battery life, WiFi 6E support and a price starting at $849.

iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max

Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro is likely to feature a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display, A16 Bionic chip, 6GB of faster LPDDR5 RAM, 128GB of storage on the base model, faster 30W wired charging, stronger MagSafe magnets, better battery life, a 48 MP camera, WiFi 6E support and a price starting at $1,049.

Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max is likely to feature a 6.7-inch Liquid Retina display, A16 Bionic chip, 6GB of faster LPDDR5 RAM, 128GB of storage on the base model, faster 30W wired charging, stronger MagSafe magnets, better battery life, a 48 MP camera, WiFi 6E support and a price starting at $1,1049.

iPhone SE 4

Recent rumors from Jon Prosser point to the next iPhone SE to continue to be a parts bin phone and instead of using the iPhone 8 chassis, could use the iPhone XR chassis instead. Why use the iPhone XR chassis? Using the iPhone XR chassis enables Apple to keep the price low since it only had one rear-facing camera sensor, whereas the iPhone 11 had two. Additionally, the iPhone XR has easily been one of Apple’s best sellers for many years, combining the looks of the iPhone X and later next-gen iPhones with a budget-friendly price. I would argue that selling another 6.1-inch iPhone could be problematic. If the 6.1-inch iPhone SE sells for $429, then what separates it from the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 at $749 or the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro at $1099 other than the differential of $320 and $670 respectively at first glance in stores? Presumably, the camera performance, display quality, CPU performance and so on, but won’t one of these devices cannibalize the other two?

I would posit that perhaps a better strategy is selling this year’s iPhone 13 mini as the next iPhone SE. Once of the chief issues with the iPhone 13 mini has always been its high cost at $699, but currently the iPhone 12 mini is selling for $599. Could a supposed iPhone SE based on the iPhone 13 mini sell for $499?

Apple will likely keep the iPhone 13 mini around next year like it has kept the iPhone 12 mini, but will it keep the iPhone 12 around too? Currently, Apple has kept the iPhone 11 around and will likely drop it from the lineup, replacing it with the Apple’s first-gen 5G iPhones, the iPhone 12 series. Will Apple give us a newish iPhone XR or even newisher iPhone 13 mini for the iPhone SE 4? According to display analyst Ross Young, the iPhone SE 4 could ship with a 5.7-inch display, something more akin to what is on the 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini and 5.8-inch iPhone X-iPhone XS. While the likelihood of seeing the iPhone SE 4 at tomorrow’s event is low, this event is in fact mostly dedicated to iPhone introductions, so we will have to wait and see.

Apple Watch Pro

The rumored redesign for the Apple Watch has hit many dramatic snags over the last year, we once expected to see a redesign with flat sides for the Series 7, but instead only received a display size increase.

The Series 8 is expected to retain the Series 7 design, but the rugged Apple Watch Series 8 Pro, may receive a more radical and ugly design. It is rumored to also feature a larger 55 mm display, a larger battery and a titanium chassis.

Ian Zelbo created some polished renders based on the leaked CAD and while Ian has certainly made it look more attractive, it is simply putting lipstick on a pig and hopefully whatever Apple does introduce will be better designed than the images above, unfortunately Mark Gurman say that the design accurately depicts the soon to be announced model. The rugged model is expected to sell for somewhere in the $900-$100 range.

Apple Watch Series 8

The Series 8 expected to feature a new body temperature car crash detection, potential updates to activity tracking and an updated low power mode.

Apple Watch SE 2

While not much is known about the next Apple Watch SE, it is likely to receive updates akin to the what the Apple Watch Series 6 received and most likely be based on that model. With the Apple Watch Series 3 likely being dropped from the lineup, the new Apple Watch SE should be the least expensive model selling in the $199-$279 range.

AirPods Pro 2

The current AirPods Pro were launched in 2019 and hasn’t yet seen an update. Mark Gurman says that we will see a new updated model at tomorrow’s event. Rumors suggest that the stems on the Pro model might get shorter. The AirPods Pro 2 is expected to feature improved audio quality similar to the AirPods 3 and an updated H1 chip with self-adaptive noise cancellation cababilities. The charging case is said to feature a speaker so it can play sound when AirPods are lost and have improved Find My integration and a USB-C port replacing the lightning port.

Entry-level 10th-gen iPad

Apple’s next entry-level iPad has been the subject of many articles so far this year, many expecting a total overhaul of the design and updated internal hardware while retaining its market leading price of $329 when in launches at the rumored October event. Here is everything we know so far about Apple’s latest and least expensive iPad in the lineup.

According to alleged schematics published by MySmartPrice, the 10.2-inch entry level iPad will be replaced with a new 10.5-inch iPad, powered by the A14 Bionic, feature optional 5G and a USB-C port for the first time. The A14 Bionic received a 30 percent performance boost over the A13 Bionic that powered the iPad Air 4 and iPhone 12 and the newer chip will help to further conserve battery life. Apple will need to add more RAM to this model if the company wants to support the new iPadOS 16 multitasking feature Stage Manager. Both the iPhone 12 and iPad Air 4 have 4GB of RAM, Apple says however that the Stage Manager feature requires the M1 chip and 8GB of RAM. As a recap, Stage Manager is a new feature coming with the iPadOS 16 update this fall that enables users to open and interact with multi app windows at once.

Additionally, the schematics show what the new iPad could look like. The design brings the entry-level iPad up-to-date while retaining its beloved circular Touch ID button but getting a decidedly more up-to-date look, renders based on schematics.

While nearly all of the current iPhone and iPad models currently available support 5G, the cellular versions of the 9th-gen iPad still only support LTE. We can presume however that with the inclusion of the A14 Bionic, Apple’s first 5G supported chip, that the 10th-gen iPad will support 5G as well as an optional Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

The design will also feature upgraded audio with the addition of a quad speaker setup. The camera looks like it may be getting an upgrade of sorts, although details are currently scarce. It looks like it will retain the single camera sensor but the camera bump will now include the microphone hole. It looks like the iPad will also lose its headphone jack too. As mentioned above, this new iPad will feature USB-C, bringing it in-line with the rest of the iPad model lineup.

While the design of the iPad is getting a major update the display looks like it will by very similar to the 9th-generation iPad, but could grow from 10.2-inches to 10.5-inches, matching the size of the very first iPad Pro that still featured a Touch ID home button. Given current economic circumstances, the current $329 price of the entry-level iPad could increase by the time the 10th-generation model launches this fall, marking the first time this has occurred since the launch of the cheaper parts bin model. It isn’t currently clear if there will be more than 2 colors at this time since the current lineup includes just silver and space gray.

The 10th-generation iPad is expected to be launched at one of two Apple will hold this fall. One event in September will include the launch of the iPhone 14 series, Apple Watch Series 8, the other event in October will be to launch new Mac models and most likely the next-gen iPad Pro models powered by Apple’s latest M2 chip. It isn’t clear yet which Apple event the entry-level 10th-gen iPad will be launched at but given past product launches and the delay of iPadOS 16 till October, our money is on the October event.

How to watch Apple’s event tomorrow

Apple’s event can be watch on Apple’s website here or on Apple’s YouTube channel here tomorrow at 10am PT.