If you’re someone who loves the idea of an iPad but thinks even the iPad Pro 12.9 (2022) is still just too small, then Apple might have a solution in the works, as a new leak suggests the company is working on a gargantuan 16-inch iPad.
That’s according to The Information (via Phone Arena), who spoke to “a person familiar with the project,” and this new larger model will apparently go on sale in the last few months of 2023.
Apparently, the plan is to make the iPad even more laptop-like, with this 16-inch screen matching the size of Apple’s largest laptop: the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021).
That extra screen real estate would have obvious benefits: more room to split-screen windows and, among other things, a bigger canvas for drawing with the Apple Pencil.
That said, if Apple really wants to make an iPad that’s more like a laptop, then there’s still work to do on the software side, as in our review of the 2022 iPad Pro, we found the new Stage Manager multitasking feature to be a little under-baked, and that iPadOS as a whole has workflow issues that hold it back from facilitating serious productivity.
In any case, this larger screen size will, of course, come at a cost – literally. While the report doesn’t mention a price, the iPad Pro 12.9 (2022) starts at $1,099 / £1,249 / AU$1,899, so a 16-inch Pro model would likely be significantly more expensive.
That said, the report doesn’t actually say whether this monster slate would be part of the Pro line, but we can’t imagine it would be a lower-end model, so presumably it will either be an iPad Pro or a new super-premium slate. Perhaps an iPad Pro Max or an iPad Ultra?
As ever, we’d take this leak with a pinch of salt, but Apple has clearly been trying to bridge the gap with its laptops for a while, so it’s believable that a larger iPad would be in the works to further that goal.
Analysis: this isn’t the first time a larger iPad has been leaked
While this is the first we’ve heard of a 16-inch iPad specifically, there are already previous leaks suggesting that we might see an iPad that’s bigger than 12.9 inches.
Mark Gurman – who has a very solid track record for Apple information – claimed back in 2021 that bigger iPads were being developed, then followed that up with a claim that we might see a 15-inch model. More recently we heard from another source that a 14.1-inch model was in the works.
With multiple sources pointing towards larger iPads, it seems very likely that at least one is coming. But which of these sizes it will be – or whether we’ll see several new sizes contending to be among the best iPads – is unclear.
