It's April, Apple. How About That New iPad Pro? | iPad Insight

Photo Source: 9to5Mac

It’s April Fool’s Day, and it also happens to be Apple’s 45th birthday. It sounds like a great day to start thinking about their new hardware that we keep hearing about, but continues to stay just out of reach.

I actually said much the same in early March when we all thought an Apple event was just around the corner. One month and lots of rumors of the iPad Pro, Air Tags, and Apple TV later, and now we should finally be closing in on the first Apple hardware release window of the year.

At this point, I think we know most of the details of this new device. The miniLED screen and Thunderbolt-compatible USB-C port have been discussed by the most reliable sources. Most recently we have have solid confirmation of an earlier report that the A14X will be on-par with Apple’s powerhouse M-series chipsets. According to 9to5Mac, iPadOS 14.5 Beta 5 contains code that pertains to the new chip:

Every Apple chip is referred to internally by a codename, and iOS 14.5 includes references to a GPU from a chip called “13G,” which is not used by any currently available iOS devices. Based on the previous chip-naming schemes and information obtained by 9to5Mac, we can say that 13G is the A14X SoC, a variant of the A14 Bionic chip.

According to our research, we also found that the A14X is based on the T8103, which is the codename for the Apple M1 chip used in the first Apple Silicon Macs. This corroborates a recent Bloomberg report that claims the next-generation iPad Pro will have “an updated processor that is on par with the faster M1 chip.”

These codenames and naming schemes tend to be very reliable, as is data gleaned from iOS and iPadOS betas. This is great news then, as it means the new A14X really will be the equivalent of an M-Series chip. It’s clear that Apple isn’t done pushing the limits of the hardware performance of the iPad Pro.

While I can’t wait to get my hands on this new iPad Pro for more reasons than this new processor, it’s definitely intriguing. I doubt it will mean too much on day one with the new hardware, but I can’t help but look down the road to WWDC now. If Apple is going to keep pushing the horsepower envelop with this device, they need to deliver some new software features and applications that take full advantage of it. After a fairly pedestrian update with iPadOS 14, I think it’s time for Apple to impress us again.

The only thing left to find out about the iPad Pro now is when we can get our hands on it. Early this month sounds good to me.