Week 16 in review: M1 iPad, AirTags official, Galaxy S20 FE with SD865 is here

Another week came and went, and it's time we did a recap. Apple's first event of the year took place and it brought new iPad Pros, a new iMac, the AirTag smart tracker and a purple paint job for the iPhone 12 and 12 mini.

The Apple iPad now has an M1 processor straight off the MacBook Pro and Air. It's unclear if the tablet will finally start to do more computer stuff like have proper file system support, or run desktop apps like Final Cut Pro. But it now has support for Thunderbolt 4 through its USB-C port, allowing it to power an external monitor.

The iPad Pro 11-inch retained its excellent 120Hz IPS LCD, but the 12.9-inch iPad Pro now has a mini-LED display with a typical brightness of 1,000 nits and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. It's still 120Hz, HDR10 and Dolby Vision certified. Apple calls it the Liquid Retina XDR.

The iMac got a thin and colorful new design and the ARM-based M1 chip. It has a 23.5-inch 4.5K display with 500 nits, a starting configuration of 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD and a starting price of $1,299.

The AirTags launch on April 30 for $29 per piece or $99 for a four pack. They have built-in Ultra Wideband technology for precision finding. In true Apple fashion the tags can't attach to anything without a paid accessory. Still, putting an AirTag into a pocket is free after that initial $29 fee.

The smartphone market got back to growth in Q1 with a 24% increase in shipments. Samsung led the way with a 32% jump in sales, followed by Apple and Xiaomi. In raw numbers Samsung shipped 77 million phones, Apple 57 million and Xiaomi 49 million. Huawei was on the opposite end of the spectrum, dropping out of the top 5 for the first time in years.

The next generation under-display cameras will reportedly be a big improvement over the first one we saw in the ZTE Axon 20. These new cameras are reportedly coming in the second half of 2021 with phones from Samsung and Oppo (foldables), vivo, Xiaomi, ZTE and Meizu in the works.

Samsung's Galaxy S20 FE now uses the Snapdragon 865 chipset uniformly across both 4G and 5G models. The Exynos 990 will be faded out.

The Google Pixel 5a 5G, which is rumored to arrive on June 11, will sport a Snapdragon 765G, matching the Pixel 5 for processing power.

Okay, those were the key topics of the week. You can find the full list of best read stories below. See you next week!