New iPads On The Horizon: Updated iPad Air, iPad Pro, And Entry-Level iPad

[GGforever]

There are a substantial number of people who prefer to use an iPad for certain light-weight tasks over traditional laptops. For such folks, Apple's iPad lineup has always promised great performance and efficiency at reasonable prices, considering that they are willing to deal with the limitations of iPadOS. A plethora of recent reports have shed light on the expected release schedule for this year's iPads, including the entry-level budget iPad, the iPad Air, and the highest-end iPad Pro.

Of course, the iPad Pro is easily the most exciting among the bunch, although that does not seem to be the case this year. Multiple reports have pointed at a spec-bump for the iPad Pros, which will likely boast the Apple M5 SoC when it sees the light of day. Considering that the iPad got a major design overhaul just last year, no other major upgrades are anticipated for 2025. The entry-level iPad and iPad Air will witness a similar treatment, both getting an SoC upgrade to the A17 Pro and M3 respectively. This is particularly big deal for the entry-level iPad, which will now get to reap the benefits of 8 GB of memory, double that of the current generation, making the already budget-friendly iPad an even better value.




As for launch dates, the iPad Pro is expected to ship in the second half of this year, likely around the same time when the Apple M5 SoC will be unveiled. The budget iPad, as well as the iPad Air, will presumably be launched alongside the iPhone SE 4, which is expected to drop sometime during Spring of this year. Of course, as with all rumors, there is always room for correction, but the current launch timeframe that the rumor mill has churned out does seem to make sense, considering Apple's track record.

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[Baba]

Earlier this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple could have its next-generation M5 chip ready for the next iPad Pro by late 2025 or early 2026.

A year from now is a "horizon?" Focus on quality news rather than copy paste everything on the internet to get your clicks.

 

[kondamin]

The extra ram would make them pretty long lasting performance wise if the AI crap can be disabled

 

[Octavean]

I have had a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9” model since its release and I honestly don’t feel the need to upgrade it. Sure I’d like to have an M4 or an M5 Pro model but this old thing is still fast and feels powerful. That’s the great part about iPad Pro’s being over powered for their use case.

 

[Dr. Dro]

That A17 base iPad is looking very tasty. Cellular one would work wonders for me even as a replacement for my phone, especially if it has eSIM support.

 

[Franzen4Real]

I have had a 2018 iPad Pro 12.9” model since its release and I honestly don’t feel the need to upgrade it. Sure I’d like to have an M4 or an M5 Pro model but this old thing is still fast and feels powerful. That’s the great part about iPad Pro’s being over powered for their use case.

I have had that same model as well since release, use it almost daily and love it. The one and only thing I've experienced that makes me want to upgrade at some point is that it is just barely "good enough" for using the pencil to mark up large PDF docs. It works, but does have some stutter/lag if you're trying to work quickly. Other than that, it has been flawless for 6+ years now.

 

[Octavean]

I have had that same model as well since release, use it almost daily and love it. The one and only thing I've experienced that makes me want to upgrade at some point is that it is just barely "good enough" for using the pencil to mark up large PDF docs. It works, but does have some stutter/lag if you're trying to work quickly. Other than that, it has been flawless for 6+ years now.

Yeah, I never got the Apple Pencil so I can't comment on that. If I did it would be for art using a program like Procreate app or something.

I have the Cellular 12.9" model, although, I never used that feature. I reckon if I were to buy a new iPad Pro I could forgo the Cellular feature but I think I would still prefer the Cellular version just in case. If I had a gripe, I would have to say that would be storage. That's a bit on me though since I went for the lowest or nearly the lowest end model with the feature set I wanted. I could have spent more and gotten more storage. Having said that, the storage thing has only recently become a problem.

FWIW, I've owned the first iPad and the iPad 3rd gen. Those got sluggish on their own fairly quickly and I sold them off before they lost their value. The iPad Pro on the other hand keeps on keeping on,....

 

[Franzen4Real]

Yeah, I never got the Apple Pencil so I can't comment on that. If I did it would be for art using a program like Procreate app or something.

I have the Cellular 12.9" model, although, I never used that feature. I reckon if I were to buy a new iPad Pro I could forgo the Cellular feature but I think I would still prefer the Cellular version just in case. If I had a gripe, I would have to say that would be storage. That's a bit on me though since I went for the lowest or nearly the lowest end model with the feature set I wanted. I could have spent more and gotten more storage. Having said that, the storage thing has only recently become a problem.

FWIW, I've owned the first iPad and the iPad 3rd gen. Those got sluggish on their own fairly quickly and I sold them off before they lost their value. The iPad Pro on the other hand keeps on keeping on,....

actually the Apple pencil works perfectly with all of the art apps I've tried, I think it is just the rendering of large construction drawing PDF's taxing the cpu/gpu too much. This was more of a case of trying to move desktop work to an iPad back during Covid work-from-home, and I was just asking a little too much from the iPad. it was still very usable, I'll bet even an M2 iPad may be enough to get over the slight hiccups.