Apple plays its cards close to its chest with new and upcoming products, but the rumour mill works overtime nevertheless. Accordingly, we’ve seen some tantalising tidbits about the next round of iPad Pro models, indicating that we may see them later this year.
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman has written in the subscribers-only Q&A of his latest Power On newsletter that we could potentially expect new updates to the 11-inch iPad Pro M1 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro M1 in September or October of this year, and they’ll be sporting M2 chips.
Given that the best iPads for drawing are already more turbo-charged than ever thanks to the introduction of the original M1 chip, if this rumour turns out to be true, we would expect these iPads to shoot to the top of such a list.
The current flagship iPad, the M1 iPad Pro 12.9, could see an update sooner than previously thought (Image credit: Apple)
There aren’t many more details than that, but Gurman also says in his newsletter that the new iPads should feature, “wireless charging, and upgrades to the camera system.”
Also, while Gurman hasn’t confirmed either September or October as the release date, October seems like a more likely pick to us, as the iPhone 14 is rumoured to be making its debut in September. It seems unlikely that Apple would want these two announcements crashing into each other.
We do want to stress that this is all just rumour – Apple has not confirmed any of these details, and is not going to do so anytime soon. However, Gurman is a journalist with a pretty good track record – he called the announcement of the M2 MacBook Air at WWDC – so this is certainly one to keep an eye on.
The M1 and M2 chips side by side. (Image credit: Apple)
The M2 chip is the next generation of Apple silicon, following on from the already class-leading M1. It’s the next phase of Apple’s ongoing project of bringing all the processors for its iPads, MacBooks and other products in-house. It consists of 20 billion transistors – which is 25 per cent more than the M1 chip – and this delivers 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. For those who aren’t inclined towards techspeak, the upshot of this is that it’s faster than the M1 chip, and more adept at handling complex tasks.
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As for the future beyond 2022, Mark Gurman has also speculated that iPads with even larger screens may start arriving in 2023 and beyond – but warned readers not to get their hopes up too drastically. In a 2021 edition of Power On, he wrote, “I'm told that Apple has engineers and designers exploring larger iPads… They're unlikely for next year – with Apple's attention on a redesigned iPad Pro in the current sizes for 2022 – and it's possible they never come at all.”
With WWDC over, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. If you’re finding all these different models of iPad confusing, check out our iPad generations article where we run through the different types and sizes available. And for using your iPad as a drawing tablet, don’t miss our guide to the best iPad stylus.
Jon is a freelance writer and journalist who covers photography, art, technology, and the intersection of all three. When he's not scouting out news on the latest gadgets, he likes to play around with film cameras that were manufactured before he was born. To that end, he never goes anywhere without his Olympus XA2, loaded with a fresh roll of Kodak (Gold 200 is the best, since you asked). Jon is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq, and has also written for in Digital Camera World, Black + White Photography Magazine, Photomonitor, Outdoor Photography, Shortlist and probably a few others he's forgetting.
