The 2024 iPad Pro's powerful M4 processor and support for the Apple Pencil Pro are surely an effort to draw PC and Chromebook enthusiasts into the Apple ecosystem. But some of the iPad Pro's new features would feel right at home on the iPhone, specifically future iPhone Pro or Pro Max models or the rumored iPhone 17 Slim.
The 2024 iPad Pro's exceptionally thin design and upgraded document scanning capabilities feel like a perfect match for the iPhone. While it's true that the iPad Pro is being positioned as a portable and powerful work device, our smartphones are with us all the time -- making lightweight designs and the ability to capture receipts and other important documents on the go feel all the more important.
Read more: iPhone 16 Design Rumors: How It Could Look Different From the iPhone 15
There's a precedent for new features arriving on the iPad Pro before trickling down to the iPhone. The 2020 iPad Pro gained a LiDAR scanner in March 2020 before that technology arrived on the iPhone 12 Pro later that year. Back in 2016, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro was the first to get Apple's True Tone display for improving white balance, which made its way to the iPhone 8 lineup and iPhone X the following year. Apple's ProMotion tech that dynamically adjusts the screen's 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.
Read more: The Best and Worst Times to Buy a New iPhone
Why these features belong on future iPhones
The new iPad Pro is Apple's thinnest yet.
Numi Prasarn/CNETThe new iPad Pro is Apple's thinnest product ever, according to the company. With the 13-inch model measuring just 5.1 millimeters in thickness, it's slimmer than the 8.25mm iPhone 15 Pro and the even sleeker 7.3mm iPhone SE by a large margin.
There's a case to be made that thinness matters more in the iPad Pro since it reduces the system's overall bulk when paired with keyboards and covers. But given that we carry our phones everywhere and reach for them 144 times per day, according to Reviews.org, such a dramatic reduction in thickness would go a long way.
It could also make the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max feel less cumbersome, perhaps winning over shoppers that may have passed on it before because of its heft. At a time when just about every other smartphone maker is exploring foldable devices, a dramatically slimmer look could put Apple's iPhone design back in the spotlight.
The same could 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 snapping multiple photos at once and stitching the scan together. If you're anything like me, your phone is your primary tool for saving receipts during work trips and sharing photos of restaurant bills with friends when deciding how to split the cost.
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 mentioned in a 2023 blog post indicates that 30% of employees have a smartphone just for work purposes, and 68% of employees use an iPhone, perhaps suggesting there may be more demand for an improved iPhone document scanner than expected.
Apple seems to know that people use their iPhones for digitizing and sharing documents, as evidenced by the addition of Live Text in 2021, which recognizes text in photos so that 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 companion to this capability.
Like the iPad Pro's aforementioned superthin design, the document scanner also seems like a strong fit for future iPhone Pro Max models in particular. Apple's larger size Pro iPhones are known for having the company's top-of-the-line cameras, so it would make sense to see it gain a photography-oriented tool like this. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max's cameras already have an adaptive True Tone camera flash like the new iPad Pros. So if Apple were to bring this upgraded document scanning to the iPhone Pro Max, perhaps it could do so through a software update.
Will these changes actually come to future iPhones?
Apple Intelligence doesn't include new document-scanning features specifically, but it will introduce other tools that may be useful for productivity.
Qi Yang/Getty ImagesApple never discusses new products and updates before it's ready to officially announce them, meaning we won't know what to expect from future iPhones until they arrive. Still, there's some reason to believe Apple may indeed be working on a slimmer iPhone, although we may not see it until 2025. That's according to reports from analysts Jeff Pu, Ross Young (as 9to5Mac has reported) and Ming-Chi Kuo, as well as news outlets The Information and Bloomberg.
There's no mention of an improved document scanner in iOS 18, Apple's next software update for the iPhone, which will be launching this fall. But Apple Intelligence, a suite of new AI-fueled features that will be launching in beta with iOS 18, does introduce some additions that could be useful for productivity-related use cases. The update, for example, will include tools for rewriting text and generating images from sketches and prompts.
Apple's iPhone lineup has changed a lot over the years, particularly when it comes to the Pro and Pro Max models. Exploring a paper-thin design and improving the camera's functionality in practical ways could help Apple further distinguish its pro-level phones from the standard iPhone.