Tag Archives: Tablets

Apple’s next iPad mini could lose the speaker grilles — and finally gain water resistance

Posted on by

Apple has a long history of deleting holes. The headphone jack went in 2016, the same year the MacBook Pro traded its HDMI, SD card, and USB-A ports for a row of Thunderbolt 3 ports and a lifetime supply of dongles. US iPhones lost the SIM tray in 2022, and now the speaker grilles on the iPad mini appear to be next on the chopping block. Leaked images in Apple’s own code, spotted by MacRumors, show the iPad mini 8 with a single slim slot at the top of its display glass, much like an iPhone earpiece. That slot lines up with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s reporting on a new vibration-based speaker system, and sealing up the holes buys the mini its first-ever water resistance.

This time, though, removing holes actually gives you something back. Phones have played with the trick before, with Xiaomi’s original Mi MIX using a piezoelectric driver to push sound through its body back in 2016. Apple’s version arrives alongside an A20 Pro chip, a landscape front camera, and a rumored 8.4-inch OLED display. The whole package is expected at Apple’s “Pro and Tell” event in Los Angeles on October 28. Gurman thinks it could cost closer to $799, so let’s see if Apple has the courage to call that a bargain.

Apple Spent Years Fighting Vibration. Now It’s Making Music With It.

The 24-inch iMac packs two pairs of force-cancelling woofers into its 11.5mm body, with each pair moving in opposite directions so their vibrations cancel out before they rattle the chassis. The 16-inch MacBook Pro and Studio Display use the same trick, since Apple spent years treating vibration as a problem to engineer away. The iPad mini 8 reportedly flips that thinking, using vibration as the sound source itself. Apple hasn’t revealed how its system works, so the exact driver and where it lives inside the chassis remain unknown. The leaked images show one slim groove in the glass where the stereo grilles used to be, with the power and volume buttons still on the top edge.

To make the Apple Watch Series 2 swim-proof to 50 meters (164 feet) in 2016, Apple sealed every opening except the speaker, which needs air to make sound. Its fix was to make that speaker vibrate any water back out after a swim, a feature anyone who has heard Water Lock’s little burst of beeps already knows. The iPad mini 8 looks like the next chapter of that story, shrinking the speaker opening to a single slit. Gurman reports water resistance for the first time on an iPad mini, though no IP rating (the standard dust and water score) has leaked yet. Even modest splash protection would cover the kitchen counter, the poolside lounger, and that nightly bath read.

An iPhone 18 Pro Brain, an OLED Face, and a $799 Question Mark

Apple’s code also lists the A20 Pro from the iPhone 18 Pro, built on TSMC’s 2nm process. That leapfrogs two generations past today’s A17 Pro, and MacRumors expects RAM to climb from 8GB to 12GB. More memory means bigger on-device AI models and fewer apps reloading as you bounce between notes, a PDF, and Procreate. The front camera moves to the landscape edge, so video calls stop featuring your left ear. A new Smart Folio (model A3632) in Apple’s French product filings packs two-thirds more magnet material than the 6th-gen mini’s folio, a hint the body has changed enough to need its own cover.

An 8.4-inch OLED panel, up from today’s 8.3-inch LCD, would give late-night reading true blacks and far richer contrast. The refresh rate (how often the screen redraws each second) is still a coin toss, with Gurman reporting Apple tested both 60Hz and 120Hz versions. A Korean supply-chain tipster insists the production panels are locked at 60Hz, which would leave this tablet scrolling less smoothly than a base iPhone 17. The current mini already jumped from $499 to $599 in June on rising memory costs, and Gurman’s guess for the new one lands closer to $799. Apple can seal nearly every hole in this tablet, but the one it might leave in your wallet looks wide open.

The post Apple’s next iPad mini could lose the speaker grilles — and finally gain water resistance first appeared on Yanko Design.

OPPO Pad Mini Fits a Matte OLED Screen Into a 10-Ounce Tablet

Posted on by

Tablets give books and sketches more room than a phone, but their glossy screens can turn a nearby window into part of the content. Making the tablet bigger doesn’t help when you’d rather carry less. OPPO’s Pad Mini Matte Display Edition tackles both frustrations with an 8.8-inch matte OLED screen inside a slim metal body designed for reading and creating away from a desk.

The Lavender Purple finish makes that metal shell less businesslike than another gray rectangle. Sandblasted, anodized aluminum carries OPPO’s etched Glow texture, giving the surface a subtle sparkle rather than a mirror finish. At approximately 0.21 inches thick and 9.95 ounces, the tablet leaves less bulk to accommodate in a small bag, although adding a protective case would change those dimensions.

Designer: OPPO

Of course, the more interesting matte surface is the one facing you. OPPO says the display treatment reduces glare, while the 2520×1680 OLED panel retains full color and refresh rates up to 144Hz in supported apps. This isn’t an E Ink reader dressed as a tablet. You can move from a novel to an animated film without asking the screen to change technologies.

Reader Mode offers another way to change the experience, with softer colors and a black-and-white option for concentrating on text. OPPO also lists a minimum brightness of two nits for nighttime reading. That gives you settings to adjust when a bright white page feels excessive, rather than treating the same display setup as suitable for a sunny commute and bedtime.

Add the optional OPPO Pencil 3 and the compact screen becomes somewhere to write instead of just scroll. You can circle text or pictures and drag them between windows, collecting references for a travel plan or gathering material beside your notes. The stylus has a shortcut button for selection tools, putting a frequently repeated action somewhere your fingers can find.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage keep the Mini from being merely an oversized reading device. ColorOS 16 allows floating windows for keeping reference material nearby while you work. That said, an 8.8-inch screen still has limits. Open several apps together, and you’ll have less room for each one, no matter how freely the windows move.

An 8,000mAh battery is a substantial component inside such a thin body, with 67W SUPERVOOC charging supported when it needs a refill. OPPO claims up to 19.5 hours of continuous video playback, based on its laboratory testing. That’s more relevant to a long trip than the headline 48-hour figure, which shouldn’t be read as two days of uninterrupted screen use.

OPPO has yet to reveal availability dates and pricing across markets. Slim bezels keep the enclosure compact, but leave less space for a thumb beside the screen. For longer reading sessions, a case with something to grip might be more useful than keeping the tablet as thin as possible, even if it adds a little bulk.

The post OPPO Pad Mini Fits a Matte OLED Screen Into a 10-Ounce Tablet first appeared on Yanko Design.

Meet Apple HomeView: A weirdly genius combination of the iMac, Watch, iPad, and HomePod

Posted on by

Apple’s design team apparently raided four different family albums and stitched the best bits into one object. HomeView has the iMac G4’s floating-screen silhouette, Apple Watch-style faces, the iPad’s slab of glass, and a speaker base that recalls the HomePod. I have a soft spot for that sunflower-lamp iMac, so seeing a dome and a tilting display make a comeback in 2026 made me unreasonably happy. Somehow the pile of parts works visually. It looks like a lamp, has a tablet’s touchscreen, and doubles as a speaker.

Apple announced HomeView on October 13, 2026. It pairs a 7-inch Liquid Retina screen with a domed aluminum speaker base and a stainless steel hinge that lets you tilt the display. An A18 chip and the rebuilt Siri AI run the show, and Apple says it recognizes up to six enrolled users, each with a personalized experience. A wall-mounted version offers the same screen and core functions, though its speaker hardware differs. Both models cost $299 in the U.S., with preorders open and availability scheduled for November 13, 2026.

Designer: Apple

The iMac G4’s Dome and Personality Make a Comeback

The iMac G4 arrived in January 2002 with a 15-inch flat panel hovering over its base. Its sunflower-inspired form emerged from Steve Jobs and Jony Ive’s design discussions; Walter Isaacson’s account credits Ive with suggesting that the screen be separated from the base like a sunflower. HomeView echoes that silhouette but swaps the long swinging arm for a compact hinge, which suits a counter where nobody wants a lamp neck knocking over the olive oil. The tilt adjustment gives you some latitude on a low nightstand or a tall kitchen island.

The G4 showed how much personality a computer’s shape could carry. HomeView’s similar stance makes a box packed with a camera and microphones look friendlier, at least to my eye. A dome with a head-on-neck posture reads more like a desk pet than a gadget, which is a handy trick for something that recognizes faces. The thick black bezel is a taste call I’m happy to defend: it gives the Photos face a proper picture-frame border.

Apple Watch-Style Faces and iPad Glass Decide What You See

The screen looks like it comes from the iPad side of the family: a square slab of glass with rounded corners and a front camera for FaceTime. Center Stage adjusts the framing as people move or join the call. Apple lists a brightness range from 500 nits down to 0.3 nits, allowing the display to dim substantially at bedtime. True Tone adjusts the white balance to ambient lighting. Selected interface elements also respond to your distance, showing simpler information across the room and more detail as you approach.

The faces feel distinctly Apple Watch-like. Photos offers Portrait-style depth effects, while Flow reacts to movement in the room. Snoopy’s animations respond to the time of day, weather, and sporting events, a very Watch way of being useful and adorable at once. Home Modular puts favorite accessories on one dashboard, and Home Camera can stream up to nine video feeds at once. Fan designers were exploring this territory years ago. Justin Latham’s HomePod Nano concept, which we covered in 2023, imagined a speaker with a display running a proposed watchOS fork. It was a fan concept, not an Apple product or working software announcement. HomeView’s Live Activities surface the current song, an active timer, or an incoming Intercom message, bringing that glance-and-go logic to a household screen.

The Speaker Base Does the Heavy Lifting

The base recalls the HomePod, although Apple’s images show a perforated, color-matched exterior rather than the HomePod’s fabric mesh. Small grille holes also run along the display’s lower edge. A down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators sit in the base, while two full-range drivers occupy the display.Apple says computational audio uses its silicon and onboard sensors to adjust loudness and bass response in real time.  The wall-mounted model has two full-range drivers but no base-mounted woofer or passive radiators, so the two versions shouldn’t be treated as acoustically identical. HomeView supports multiroom audio alongside HomePod, HomePod mini, and AirPlay-compatible speakers. Intercom also reaches HomeView and HomePod speakers elsewhere in the house.

The original HomePod was announced in 2017 at $349, when we dubbed it Apple’s “tune-busting Fabergé Egg.” Against that historical price, $299 for a speaker, screen, camera, and face recognition looks tempting on paper. You can pre-order HomeView on Apple’s site now, with both the tabletop and wall-mounted models arriving November 13. The tabletop unit ships with a color-matched USB-C cable, while the wall version relies on Schneider Home’s power mounts, which start at $59.95 and are sold separately. Siri AI launches in beta and in English, and Apple is not selling HomeView in the EU for now. Every ancestor in this object was Apple’s bet on a different decade, and HomeView is the first time they all share one counter.

 

The post Meet Apple HomeView: A weirdly genius combination of the iMac, Watch, iPad, and HomePod first appeared on Yanko Design.

5 Reasons why a foldable iPad Duo is a BAD Idea

Posted on by

Exactly a month and 2 days ago, John Ternus unveiled Apple’s first foldable phone. It’s been a decade in the making, Apple’s done a whole bunch in the interim, hit $1 trillion in 2018, and subsequently grown to a $3 trillion brand, shifted from a hardware company to a hardware AND services company, launched a spatial computing headset, pretty much worked on and shelved their Apple Car. Rumors are tracking a few more devices that Apple’s been secretly working on. A smart ring that does the same job as a watch, or alternatively a screen-less Watch Air that competes with the likes of Whoop and Fitbit, and even a foldable single-screen laptop modeled on the same design of the iPhone Duo.

I’m not entirely sure whether Apple’s truly working on a larger folding device, but scaling the iPhone Duo up to a larger hardware unit isn’t a good idea for a bunch of reasons. Aside from the fact that it would cannibalize a whole slew of existing products, it would also create a bit of a UX nightmare for the iPadOS developer community. An iPad Duo (let’s just call it that) is nothing but a MacBook Neo with extra screens. The MacBook Neo ITSELF is designed to be compact and handle compact tasks, giving it a foldable design with maybe iPad Pro-level power achieves nothing. Here are a few reasons why the foldable iPad Duo isn’t the best idea.

1. The foldable Android tablet doesn’t exist for a reason

Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Google, Motorola, and a bunch of other makers have folding phones on their roster – yet nobody’s tried to push a folding tablet beyond maybe just 1 iteration. Huawei unveiled the MateBook Fold last year and hasn’t done much to work on a v2.0. It cost around $3,300 when it launched and occupied headlines for precisely a month before becoming yesterday’s news (partially because of its China-only distribution platform). The point I’m making is that companies haven’t explored the foldable tablet space because there’s little merit to it. Lenovo’s worked on a ThinkPad X1 Fold too, but here’s the hilarious bit – they’re marketing it more as a laptop than as a traditional tablet.

Tablets aren’t designed to be carried in pockets, therefore a smaller tablet that turns into a bigger one isn’t really a pressing need. Even if they were, the size of a pocket confines you to a very limited bounding box, giving you a folding phone template rather than a folding tablet one. Tablets themselves aren’t as popular as phones are, and folding phones are already a niche to begin with – making folding tablets mainstream would cost more money than it’s worth.

2. The aspect ratio nightmare

Of all the companies that have worked in the foldable space, there’s always been one question they’ve struggled to answer. What aspect ratio do we make? Because a foldable device exists in two states – a shut state and an open state. With phones, there are broadly 3 templates – the flip style foldable, which offers a square aspect ratio that turns into a vertical screen when opened. The second is the long book ratio that turns squarish when opened sideways. The third one, which Apple’s popularizing, is the middle ground – a book-shaped design that’s short and stout and has a repeating aspect ratio like the A4 and A3 paper so that the OS can scale meaningfully.

At least in this concept, we’re looking at what I believe is one of the most bizarre aspect ratios ever. This concept by Krishnavi Anand Krishnavi opts for an almost 1:1 ratio when shut, opening to reveal what feels like a widescreen 16:9 device. Both versions have their caveats – a 1:1 tablet doesn’t exist and it shouldn’t. Nobody works on a square screen, content isn’t optimized for it, heck even physical notebooks are vertical (who writes on square paper). Open it and you have a socially acceptable 16:9 device, but tablets are usually one of two things – they’re either big and 4:3 or they’re small and 16:9. Nobody makes a large 16:9 tablet because carrying it is a nuisance – you might as well just buy a laptop with a convertible design. A large 4:3 foldable tablet would fold down to a small 3:2 device, which still feels palpable, but continue reading and you’ll realize why the odds are stacked against a foldable tablet.

3. Building a massive hinge + flexible screen is cost-prohibitive

Apple’s poured hundreds of millions, if not billions into R&D for its titanium hinge. Every company has its own workaround for a hinge, ensuring durability, reliability, and the ability to conceal/remove the crease. It works well in flip phones, it’s tricky with book style foldables but companies have still come a long way in all these years. Scale that up to a device that needs a 7-8-inch long hinge and the engineering problems compound significantly. The hinge needs to uniformly open from one end to the other. Any discrepancy and the screen could stretch/tear. Any damage and the device could get stuck in a closed or open position for life. Laptops have suffered from hinge problems for years now, they’re the first mechanical part to fail on a laptop), so you can only imagine how much more work a tablet has to do – while still ensuring you can open/close it 10-20 times a day.

Not only is the hinge a problem, the screen is too. The screen used on a foldable phone is very different from the one used on you 15.6″ laptop. Companies work with suppliers to find the right kind of OLED that can take daily bending without the pixels suffering failure. The crease has to vanish when open and allow the screen to meaningfully bend when shut. A laptop display also doesn’t get touched hundreds of times a day the way a tablet or phone does. So it’s easier for a company to commission hundreds of thousands of small 6″ or larger OLED displays. Scale that up to a 12-15″ OLED display and you aren’t doubling the price, you’re quadrupling it (hold your phone to your laptop and see, four of its 6″ screens will fit in your 13″ laptop). A 4x pricier display eats up all your profits on a folding tablet.

4. The iPad Duo doesn’t have a target audience

This might be the biggest problem yet. We’re still struggling to find a mainstream audience for folding phones – so you can imagine how difficult it’ll be to find someone willing to shell out upwards of $3k on a folding tablet. The audience doesn’t exist because the use-case doesn’t exist and neither does the appetite (more on the appetite later). What would you do on an iPad Duo that you can’t already do on a laptop or a tablet? Phones need to be compact for a reason so the idea of folding your phone for easy carrying still holds up logically – folding a tablet makes absolutely no sense when it isn’t fitting into a constrained space like your pants pocket.

People buy their pants regardless of the phone they carry so the phone has to work backwards to fit into pants. With tablets and laptops, it’s the other way around – you buy a sleeve or a backpack based on the size of device you have. A larger laptop demands a larger bag, a sleeker, smaller tablet works great with a sling. Nobody buys the sling before they own the tablet. But I digress – the foldable tablet doesn’t exist because the market doesn’t. In over 10 years of working for Yanko Design, I’ve seen dozens of folding phone concepts, but even concept designers don’t work on foldable tablet concepts because there’s honestly nothing to desire there!

5. People want affordable computing, not foldable computing

This year, when Apple launched the MacBook Neo, we wrote about how it proved Apple wrong in one fundamental way. Apple’s always priced their products at a premium, thinking that they get to choose their audience – it worked when the economy was in a steadier state, when diesel wasn’t more than $6 a gallon. When Apple launched the MacBook Neo, the laptop literally flew off shelves, proving that there was a VERY strong demand for affordable computing. Especially when RAM and storage prices are already so high thanks to this AI boom that nobody asked for.

The MacBook Neo’s success with the Vision Pro’s silent failure proved that it’s time for tech to be democratic again. To focus less on shareholder value and more on actual consumer value. The iPhone Duo already costs upwards of most people’s salaries (globally speaking), so building an iPad Duo that would probably touch $3.5-4k in price makes no sense for a product that’s supposed to be for consumers, not enterprises. The iPad Duo doesn’t exist, and from the rumor mill, it probably won’t for the aforementioned reasons. John Ternus has proved to be an astute consumer-centric design lead, realizing what products fill the current gaps in Apple’s offerings. Speaking of which, I’m still waiting on that smarter Siri 2.0…

The post 5 Reasons why a foldable iPad Duo is a BAD Idea first appeared on Yanko Design.

Amazon’s new Alexa tablets fix Fire’s biggest limitation with Google Play and Alexa+ support

Posted on by

Buying a tablet often comes down to what you want to do with it. Some people need a bigger screen for work, others want something comfortable for reading or binge-watching shows in bed, and many want a device that runs their favorite apps without fuss. The biggest advantage is that these tablets support the Google Play Store, giving users access to apps like YouTube, Gmail, and Google Docs instead of keeping them within Amazon’s app ecosystem.

Amazon’s new Alexa Tablet range, unlike the earlier Fire line-up, looks to cover these everyday needs with three models featuring 8.7-inch, 11-inch, and 12-inch displays. Prices start at $229.99, and US shipping begins October 14. This gives buyers another option in a market where the Apple iPad, OnePlus Pad 4, Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S series are familiar choices. Those tablets appeal to users looking for everything from premium performance to creative tools, but not everyone needs that level of capability. Amazon’s tablets take a more everyday approach, pairing Android apps with Alexa+ for help with tasks, recommendations, and content. For households already using Amazon services, the appeal is having a device for streaming, reading, browsing, and getting things done without stepping up to a more expensive flagship tablet.

Designer: Amazon

Click Here to Buy Now: $499

Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro

The Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the flagship model, featuring a 12-inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, 2.8K resolution, and a 120Hz refresh rate. Its eight-core MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor delivers up to three times the CPU performance and nine times the graphics performance of the Fire Max 11, according to Amazon. The tablet includes 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, quad Dolby Atmos speakers, Wi-Fi 6E, and up to 16 hours of video playback.

Buyers can choose between a standard display and an optional Nanomatte version designed to reduce glare while retaining detail and color accuracy. A higher-end configuration offers 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro also supports an optional keyboard and stylus for people who want to do some work on their tablet. The optional Pro Pen supports pressure sensitivity and tilt detection, while the magnetic Pro Keyboard connects without Bluetooth pairing. Prices start at $499.99, with the Nanomatte version starting at $549.99 and the 16GB/256GB configuration priced at $679.99.

Click Here to Buy Now: $499

Amazon Alexa Tablet 11

The Amazon Alexa Tablet 11 is designed for entertainment, browsing, and everyday multitasking. It features an 11-inch display with 2.5K resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a 90Hz refresh rate. An eight-core MediaTek processor paired with 8GB of RAM powers the tablet, while dual Dolby Atmos speakers provide its audio output. Amazon rates its battery life at up to 15 hours of video playback.

The aluminum-bodied tablet includes Alexa+ for voice and touch interactions, personalized recommendations, and contextual assistance. It also provides access to Google Play apps alongside Amazon services such as Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, and Amazon Music. Available in Graphite, Amethyst, and Matcha, the base configuration comes with 64GB of storage, while a 128GB option is available for an additional $50. Pricing starts at $329.99, with an ad-free version priced at $349.99. US shipping begins October 14, 2026.

Click Here to Buy Now: $329

Amazon Alexa Tablet 8

The Amazon Alexa Tablet 8 is the most portable model in the lineup, featuring an 8.7-inch display inside an aluminum body measuring 7.95mm thick and weighing 329g. Its compact form is intended for reading, web browsing, and streaming while travelling. The tablet uses an eight-core processor, supports Wi-Fi 6, and offers up to 14 hours of video playback.

Like its larger siblings, the device includes Alexa+ and access to the Google Play Store, expanding its usefulness beyond Amazon’s own applications. Its 1,340 × 800 display resolution is more modest than those of the other two models, reflecting its focus on portability and everyday use rather than premium visuals. The tablet comes in Graphite, Rosette, and Teal. Pricing starts at $229.99 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage configuration. A 4GB/128GB version costs $279.99, while the 8GB/128GB model is priced at $299.99. An ad-free option costs an additional $20, and US shipping begins on October 14, 2026.

The post Amazon’s new Alexa tablets fix Fire’s biggest limitation with Google Play and Alexa+ support first appeared on Yanko Design.