The past few days have brought us some nifty Apple leaks, including an iPhone 13 prototype dummy, plus details about the iPad Air 4. Turns out that there’s also a 5G iPad Pro in the cards for 2021. As of this moment there are zero Apple devices with 5G, but that may change next year.
The jury is still out on whether or not we’ll be getting 5G iPhones this year. The Coronavirus pandemic has delayed Apple engineers and officials travels to China and their subsequent testing of modems and components. While 5G iPhones may still happen in 2020, the 5G iPad Pro will only pop up in Q1 or Q2 2021. Apple already refreshed its iPad Pro lineup this year, with new LiDAR cameras and some other spec bumps, so it would be weird to see even newer iPad Pros in the Fall.
The same source that talks about 5G slates (L0vetodream on Twitter) also mentions that the 2021 iPads will come with mini LED displays and will be powered by the powerful Apple A14X chipset; it will also be equipped with ipad pos software. The newest iPad Pro models have an Apple A12Z CPU, which frankly could be better. Its performance is at best on par with the Apple A12X on the 2018 iPad Pro. There’s an extra GPU core unlocked with a graphics boost or two, so that’s it.
Many expected an Apple A13X on the new slates, but that didn’t come through. It remains to be seen who supplies the 5G modems on the iPads, with usual suspects like Qualcomm and Intel in the crosshairs. Also, it will be interesting to see how Apple changes up the design and thickness of the tablet, also battery to suit the 5G needs of the public.
