iPad with MagSafe: how Apple wants to bypass metal
17/1/2022
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
The new iPad is rumoured to be equipped with MagSafe. However, this will only be possible if Apple completely rethinks the back of the iPad.
Apple faced quite the problem while developing the 2022 iPad: «Metal or glass?» The overarching goal was to bring the iPhone’s MagSafe technology to iPad. I’m referring to the ability to charge your device wirelessly, not the eponymous plug on newer MacBooks. In addition, you should be able to fix additional attachments to the back of the iPad with its magnet – a battery pack, for example.
However, the iPad’s current design philosophy including a metal backplate is standing in the way of innovation. This according to the industry portal 9to5Mac.
Wireless charging and metal
MagSafe and wireless charging will require the back of the new iPad be made of glass, not aluminium as before. After all, wireless charging through an aluminium plate is, if not completely impossible, extremely difficult.
Here’s the problem: glass is fragile, even bulletproof variants. On a small surface such as the iPhone you can get away with this, but an iPad is a bit larger. The risk of any glass breaking is significantly higher.
However, glass would be the ideal material. Not the usual glass you’ll find in your kitchen cabinet, but something akin to Gorilla Glass Victus. More shatterproof and scratch-resistant than other glass. In addition, glass is inert. The material doesn’t affect radiation in any which way. This applies to radiation from any device, wireless electricity, NFC or Wi-Fi.
The current iPad solves this problem with a so-called antenna strip next to the camera. It’s supported by antennas built into the frame on the 5G version of the iPad, as this YouTube video shows.
Metal, on the other hand, affects radiation, sometimes blocking it completely or weakening it. If the new iPad stays with metal, then a MagSafe battery solution would have to produce far more output to even penetrate the metal backplate. However, any charging would still remain at modest speeds, leading to energy waste, non-functioning network connections and negative headlines. Apple shouldn’t really care about the latter, but the former is in stark contrast to the company’s sustainability and efficiency goals. No one wants an iPad or a device whose Wi-Fi only works occasionally, and even then only if you hold your device the right way up.
Apple’s creative solution
The question of whether the iPad really needs MagSafe wasn’t posed by the manufacturer. For Apple, MagSafe is obviously so good that it has to be transferred to as many devices as possible. Yet according to 9to5Mac, Apple faces the following problems:
- Apple needs to use glass on the back to allow radiation penetration.
- Simultaneously, Apple cannot use glass on the back, lest the iPad become fragile.
- Apple has to use metal on the back, it keeps the device sturdy.
- But yet again, Apple cannot use metal on the back as it blocks radiation.
According to the industry portal, then, Apple is breaking with another principle widely used in the smartphone and tablet industry: a monocoque design. For tablets and phones, this denotes a back made from a single piece of material. From an economic point of view, this makes sense, as production is streamlined and work steps can be saved. At the product level, a monocoque design helps with waterproofing. For the end customer, such a design can be reflected in the price. As less work goes into manufacturing the device, lower costs are the end result.
The next iPad – expected for launch in the autumn of 2022 – will no longer be manufactured using a monocoque process. 9to5Mac believes that only the iPad Pro will be released in 2022. Apple itself has neither confirmed nor denied this.
According to their report, the iPad Pro 2022 will still have a metal back, but a glass element will be installed in the centre. It’ll be in the shape of an apple, of course, resembling today’s design.
However, the apple is supposedly a bit bigger, with stronger magnets installed behind it than in the iPhone, ensuring that the MagSafe accessory doesn’t accidentally detach.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
