• Apple will reportedly refresh its iPad Pro line in early 2027
• The main change is likely to be a new chipset, but it's uncertain whether the M6 or M7 will be used
• It's also very likely that these will be extremely expensive tablets

It will soon be a year since the last iPad Pro models launched, but if you were hoping for successors this year, you’re probably out of luck, as a new report suggests we won’t see new models until 2027.

According to reputable Apple tipster Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg (via MacRumors), the company will launch new 11-inch and 13-in iPad Pro models in ‘spring’ 2027 — presumably meaning sometime between March and May.

Apparently, their designs won’t be changed much, but the internals will be updated, with a new chipset and potentially a vapor chamber to help keep them cool.

However, which chipset they’ll use remains uncertain — the iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) and iPad Pro 13-inch (2025) both have an M5 chipset, so we’d expect at least an M6. But according to this Bloomberg report, Apple will debut its M7 chipset “as early as the first half of 2027.” So if that’s out in time for the next iPad Pro’s launch, there’s a chance it will be included.

Either way, this should be a very powerful tablet, but if it does launch with an M6 chipset only for Apple to announce the M7 soon after, that might make it less desirable than it could otherwise be.

A pricey prospect

The bigger concern about the next iPad Pro, though, is how much it might cost. The ongoing RAM crisis recently caused Apple to raise the prices of many of its devices, including iPads, and since the 9-month-old iPad Pro 2025 has shot up in price, there’s no doubt that 2027’s iPad Pro models will launch at a very high price too.

Exactly how high is uncertain, though. For reference, the iPad Pro 2025 series now starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$1,999, so the iPad Pro 2027 will almost certainly cost at least that much. But if RAM prices keep increasing, then it’s feasible that it could cost even more — especially with inflation and a new chipset.

So, you might want to get saving — or just make do with your old tablet for a while longer, especially if you upgraded in the last few years.

It’s almost time for WWDC 2026, where Apple is expected to announce iOS 27 and all sorts of other software updates. But will we see new hardware? And more specifically, new iPads? Well, we can’t say for sure, but we do have a fairly good idea of what to expect (and not expect).

Sadly, the answer to that question is probably 'no' — for two reasons. The first is obvious — WWDC is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, with the key word there being ‘developers’, meaning that the focus is on software, not hardware.

Now, that doesn’t completely rule out new devices. After all, Apple has announced various Macs and MacBooks at WWDC in recent years. The HomePod was also unveiled at WWDC back in 2019, and looking back further, some early iPhones even got a WWDC unveiling.

In fact, the iPad Pro (2017) was even announced at that year’s WWDC, so a new iPad in 2026 isn’t completely out of the question.

But it is very unlikely — while hardware does sometimes make an appearance at WWDC, most years, there’s next to none, and we haven’t heard any indication that a new iPad will land at this year’s event.

Plus, in recent years, Apple has tended to unveil its new tablets either early in the year, in March or occasionally April, or towards the end of the year, in September or October. Mid-year launches are rare.

And this year, we did indeed see an early-year launch, with the iPad Air (2026) landing back in March. That was only a few months ago, so it would seem odd for Apple to launch another model so soon.

So, based on all of that, I’d say it’s very unlikely that we’ll see a new iPad at WWDC 2026. That said, if you’re an iPad fan, it could still be worth tuning in to the keynote, which kicks off at 1pm ET / 10am PT / 6pm BST today (Monday, June 8,) or 3am AEST on Tuesday, June 9 if you’re in Australia.

Why you should still tune in

While we probably won’t see new iPads at WWDC 2026, Apple is almost certainly going to unveil some new software in the form of iPadOS 27, which could include some major changes and upgrades.

Nothing has been announced on that front yet, but leaks and rumors point to the long-awaited Siri overhaul, which could turn Apple's voice assistant into a proper AI chatbot, powered by a custom version of Google Gemini.

This upgrade reportedly won’t be limited to just making Siri smarter, though; it’s also likely to include new capabilities, like better AI photo editing prowess and on-screen awareness, so Siri can understand and respond to whatever’s on your screen. It will probably also be able to perform multi-step actions across multiple apps.

Beyond that, iPadOS 27 is also likely to bring improvements to various apps, such as the ability to use natural language to create shortcuts in the Shortcuts app, more customization options in the camera app, redesigned Safari and Weather apps, and a Grammarly-style keyboard upgrade.

These are all things that we’ll probably see in iOS 27 too, but on the iPad-specific side, reports point to new layouts for Apple Music, Apple TV, and the Podcasts app to make better use of the iPad's larger display. Plus, there are likely to be various performance and stability improvements.

While iPadOS 27 will probably be announced at WWDC 2026, it’s unlikely to launch in finished form until September — but in the meantime, we expect various betas to roll out, giving you a chance to try many of the features early if you don’t mind some bugs.

So, if you want to see exactly what Apple is cooking up on the software side, here’s how to watch WWDC 2026 live — though, of course, we’ll be covering all the announcements here too.

When might we see new iPads?

So, if we probably won’t see new iPads at WWDC, when might we? Well, the next point in the year when Apple would typically announce new tablets is September or October — either alongside the iPhone 18 line in the former month or separately a month later. The latter, though, has been more common, especially in recent years.

Of those two months, I’d guess October is the more likely, so the new tablets have some time to shine rather than getting buried in the iPhone launch. Of course, there’s a chance we won’t see any more new iPads this year, and that Apple will instead wait until March of 2027. After all, we don’t always see late-year iPad launches, but we have in the last two years.

Whenever we do get new iPads, the most likely models are the base model iPad (2026) and an iPad mini (2026), both of which have been rumored for a launch this year. That said, Apple doesn’t stick to yearly updates for its iPads, so it’s hard to predict.

There may also be a new iPad Pro this year, but with no real reports of one and the previous model only landing last October, we wouldn’t count on it. And with the latest iPad Air having landed earlier this year, it’s unlikely the next model of that will be among Apple’s next tablet releases — especially if we do see new slates this year.

2025 will be remembered as the year when, while we were still waiting on a truly smarter, AI-infused Siri, Apple introduced next-generation AirPods Pro, an ultra-thin iPhone, took its Pro iPhones to the next level, and delivered speedy Macs in several designs.

But perhaps the most exciting additions were to Apple’s iPad lineup. We got three new models: the entry-level 11th-Gen iPad, the iPad Air with M3 chip, and the iPad Pro with the M5. There was nothing new design-wise, but, with a nod to Bruce Springsteen, it was all about the fuel injection rather than the chrome wheels.

The fuel injection came courtesy of the latest Apple silicon, and Apple made the most of that extra power with arguably the biggest changes to iPadOS yet. With true windowing and the introduction of some of the best aspects of macOS, iPadOS 26 is what really made 2025 a landmark year for Apple's tablets.

Apple showed more of its cards with the iPad than ever before

It’s clear that Apple has been performing a balancing act with the iPad for many years – many users rely on their tablets for a mix of entertainment and productivity, and others want their iPad to be the one device to rule them all.

Much of what iPadOS 26 delivered was productivity focused, in the shape of a proper menu bar and dock; more flexible, reliable, and customizable multitasking; a major update to the Files app; and support for background tasks. It’s more macOS-like than ever before, including the red, yellow and green buttons for closing, minimizing and expanding windows, and even a menu bar that feels right out of macOS. We got a Mac-like experience in a form factor that offers easier portability, unique experiences, and – maybe most importantly – flexibility in terms of input.

You can operate the iPad with your fingers, a trackpad, the Apple Pencil, or even a connected mouse or trackpad. It’s a supremely versatile performer, but given how far Apple had taken performance – remember the redesigned iPad Pro launched in 2024 with the M4 chip, before that piece of silicon hit the Mac – the company needed to offer a more robust software experience. As my colleague Lance Ulanoff learned from senior Apple execs, it was something the company had been working on for quite some time.

iPadOS 26 shipped with most of its promised features in September 2025. I’ve used it across a broad range of iPad models, including the current lineup (11th Gen, mini, Air, and Pro) and the 9th-Gen entry-level iPad – while that model isn't as capable as the 11th-Gen iPads or the iPad Pro, the software upgrades have blurred the lines between models when it comes to performance.

As I wrote back shortly after Apple unveiled the fresh software, while it was still in beta, it was a purpose-built upgrade for the iPad – one that catered to the iPad faithful and stayed true to Apple’s ethos. It wasn’t blowing up the classic iPad experience, but it did introduce a familiar, easy-to-grasp way to manage windows. It also delivered some more advanced features that catered to users already maxing out the iPad experience.

Keeping the hardware ticking along

I reviewed all the iPads that Apple released this year, and the common theme is speed upgrades – to the point where the advantages you'll get from going Pro are less obvious than previously. The iPad Air comes in two sizes and is really a stunner, even if it’s not as ultra-thin as the iPad Pro.

In either an 11-inch or 13-inch size, with fun colors to pick from, long battery life, support for key accessories like the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, and with the M3 chip now under the hood, it really feels like the model to choose if you want a larger size without the Pro price premium, and don't need sufficient power to use it as your main device.

It’s a strong performer, and a device I keep coming back to, even after testing the latest-generation iPad Pro with the M5 under the hood. If you don’t need the extra vibrancy or contrast capabilities of the OLED screen or Face ID – though I do wish this were on more models – it really comes down to budget.

Complicating your choices further is the 11th-Gen iPad – Apple Pencil quirks aside – which is an excellent model, and likely the best iPad for most users. The A16 Bionic chip under the hood provides plenty of headroom for both work or play, and while it doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, it doesn’t really matter here. It checks the boxes for what you’d want from an iPad, and at an approachable price point.

The iPad mini didn’t receive an update, which means the dream of an OLED screen in this size remains just that for now. But even that device supports iPadOS 26’s new windowing, which makes the case for a Magic Keyboard even more palpable than in years past. Please, Apple.

What’s to come in 2026?

While I can’t predict the future, the ever-churning Apple rumor mill gives us some idea of what we can expect to see from Apple in 2026, and it’s also instructive to look at what Apple did this year. I think the next entry-level 12th-Gen iPad could arrive at some point in the coming year, but don’t expect a treasure trove of new features.

I think the big upgrade here will be a better A-series chip from Apple that's not only more efficient but also adds support for Apple Intelligence. Hopefully, whatever version of iPadOS follows will also, finally, arrive with the AI-infused Siri. Similarly, rumors suggest the iPad Air will keep the same looks and feature set but gain a slightly faster M-series chip, likely the M4.

Basically, this would be a carbon copy of Apple’s approach to iPad upgrades that we saw this year and last year. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that new entry-level iPad and iPad Air upgrades will likely arrive sometime in 2026.

The more exciting model we could see next year is an iPad mini with a refreshed design, a better chip, and an OLED screen. This likely wouldn't arrive until the second half of the year, and it’s also reported that it might get a more water-resistant case.

The smallest iPad will likely be the most exciting change next year, while the iPad Pro could receive a chip upgrade, although nothing major in terms of a redesign is planned until 2027, according to recent reports.

Where we might see more exciting developments is in a refinement of the new iPadOS experience and the introduction of new features – maybe more customization around windowing to start. It’s one of the biggest ways Apple can improve the experience for people who already have an iPad and potentially tempt others to upgrade.

But if Tim Cook is listening, let’s keep the list of supported models long when it comes to future updates. I think that’s a major reason why 2025 was so successful for iPadOS 26 and the iPad as a whole.

• Apple has released iPadOS 26.1
• The new update brings back Slide Over multitasking, which was removed with iPadOS 26
• Fan-favorite Split View is still missing

Apple has released iPadOS 26.1, the first major update to iPadOS 26, bringing fixes and new features to the best iPads.

Many of the new features, like a tinted mode for Liquid Glass and new gestures in Apple Music, are shared between iPadOS 26.1 and iOS 26.1, which launched simultaneously, but there is one key feature exclusive to Apple's tablet lineup.

For iPad users specifically, the update brings marks the return of a much-loved iPadOS 18 feature, giving touchscreen-focused users back some of the multitasking power they lose with iPadOS 26.

iPadOS 26.1 brings Slide Over back to the iPad, serving up touchscreen users some extra multitasking power. The feature allows users to quickly access an app in a floating window on the edge of the display which can be swiped away off-screen when not needed.

Slide Over was a staple iPadOS feature for years up until the release of iPadOS 26, when it was quietly removed. Of course, iPadOS 26 also brought with it massively expanded multitasking capabilities with new free-floating windows and background processing. But for some users it seems that this shifted the priority to keyboard users, inspiring plenty of annoyed Reddit threads.

Luckily, Slide Over is back in iPadOS 26.1, and thanks to a new resizeable window could be considered more powerful than ever. As MacRumors reports, you can now access Slide Over by tapping the green full-screen button on the app window and pressing “Enter Slide Over”.

That’s sure to feel like a win for touchscreen users who felt left behind by iPadOS 26 – but there’s still more Apple could do to cater for its hands-on audience.

Split View is still missing

Apple didn’t just remove Slide Over with iPadOS 26 – it also took out Split View, which through iPadOS 18 allowed users to quickly and easily open two apps side by side, with a slider in the middle of the display controlling the size of each app.

And while Slide Over has made a return with iPadOS 26.1, filling the screen with two apps remains more tedious than before.

You can still do so, but now you’ll need to work with the new windowing system, dragging apps around and holding the full-screen button to access different app layouts.

As someone who uses their iPad with a keyboard and on its own in roughly equal measure, I’ve been missing Split View since the launch of iPadOS 26 – as much as I love the new windowed multitasking, I do think Apple needs to keep a good range of features available for people who want to use their tablet's touchscreen to get things done.

Will you be using Slide Over in iPadOS 26.1, or are you waiting for Split View to return? Let us know in the comments below.

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: One-minute review

Apple hasn’t changed much with the latest iPad Pro, and with good reason. It has the same sleek, ultra-thin aluminum body, available in either 11-inch or 13-inch sizes, as its predecessor, and like last year’s model it feels effortlessly premium in the hand.

The Ultra Retina XDR display is also unchanged, but it’s still stunning, with vibrant colors, deep blacks, and a peak HDR brightness of 1,600 nits. Whether for daily use, watching a film, gaming, or writing with an Apple Pencil, it felt buttery smooth and visually immersive. It’s certainly still a step up from the screen on the iPad Air.

What is new here is the M5 chip, which makes Apple’s most powerful iPad faster and more capable than ever. While that’s a tall order, Apple has accomplished it, and responsiveness feels virtually instantaneous.

In my time with the iPad Pro, multitasking and creative work felt effortless. I could edit photos in Pixelmator, draw in Procreate, or even cut 4K footage in Final Cut Pro without a hiccup. AI features, like handwriting cleanup and image upscaling, happen almost instantly. Gaming is equally impressive, with smooth frame rates and detailed graphics making even triple-A titles look incredible.

While the Magic Keyboard is an extra cost as an accessory, when the iPad Pro is docked in it it feels closer to a laptop than ever, letting you type, multitask, and navigate iPadOS 26 seamlessly.

This year, Apple also added its N1 wireless chip, bringing Wi-Fi 7, Thread support, and a move to a made-in-house modem for 5G connectivity. This means that when you’re on the go – whether you’re working from a café or traveling – connections feel fast and reliable, with strong download and upload speeds if you opt for a cellular plan. The 12-megapixel Center Stage camera keeps you perfectly framed in video calls, and the rear camera handles casual photography well.

It’s expensive, and the color options remain limited, but for power users who want the ultimate iPad experience, the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 is hard to beat – and I’m happy to report that the starting prices of $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 for the 11-inch, or $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199 for the 13-inch iPad Pro with M5, are the same as last year. That said, the rest of the iPad lineup – the entry-level iPad with A16, the iPad mini, and the iPad Air with M3 – remain especially strong.

The latter, which also comes in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, will likely be the strongest competition to the iPad Pro, and whether you go for the iPad Pro or the iPad Air will ultimately depend on how much you care about design, display, and long-term performance. But know that, if you’re considering upgrading to the M5 Pro from a previous iPad Pro, you’ll be best served if you’re rocking the M1 model or earlier, as you’ll enjoy tangible speed improvements, the better screen, and the all-new design.

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Price & availability

Apple’s 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro with M5 officially launched on October 22, 2025. In addition to deciding which size you want, you’ll need to pick between two colors, and storage and connectivity options.

In either Space Black or Silver, the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699, while the 13-inch iPad Pro with M5 starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199. If you’re keeping track generation over generation, there’s no price increase there. Prices go up from there if you want to add cellular or get more storage. The iPad Pro starts at 256GB, but also comes in 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB configurations; the 256GB and 512GB models come with 12GB of RAM, while the 1TB and 2TB models come with 16GB.

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Specs

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Design

• It’s still an ultra-thin, sleek iPad
• No design changes compared to the previous generation
• The 11-inch might be the perfect size for most

Given that Apple rolled out a radically thinner and overall much sleeker design with its last-generation iPad Pro in 2024, it’s no surprise that the company is sticking with the same build for this generation’s model; as noted the biggest change here is under the hood, and indicated by the ‘M5’ in the name.

Apple’s 11-inch iPad Pro still looks elegant, sleek, and sharp, and I enjoyed testing the smaller variant, given how much more portable it is. As mentioned, there is also a larger 13-inch iPad Pro powered by the same M5 chip.

The design from generation to generation is identical – the 11-inch iPad Pro M5 measures 249.7 x 177.5 x 5.3mm and weighs 444 grams with just Wi-Fi, or 446 grams with cellular connectivity. And it also beats out the 11-inch iPad Air with the M3 chip for both thickness and weight – at 6.1mm and 460 grams the Air is slightly thicker and heavier.

Even held in one hand, the new Pro feels light. I often held it vertically with my left hand while navigating the interface, or scribbling notes with an Apple Pencil – both Pro and USB-C models are supported – with my right. Watching a film, making a FaceTime call, or reading horizontally while holding the tablet with both hands is equally comfortable. This is also the best orientation to get the most out of the great stereo speakers, as these live on the left and right sides. The sound produced is pretty robust and surprisingly loud given how thin the iPad Pro is.

The 11-inch size, paired with the Magic Keyboard, is practically the perfect mini laptop within the iPad lineup. The weight is well balanced, and the screen – thanks to windowed apps – feels surprisingly expansive.

Apple has stuck with an aluminum build all around, which keeps the iPad light while allowing it to be ultra-thin without sacrificing durability. At 5.3mm for the 11-inch and 5.1mm for the 13-inch, the iPad Pro is actually thinner than the iPhone Air, which measures 5.6mm.

The biggest disappointment for me is that despite the new chip, color options remain limited to Space Black or Silver. Both look good, and Pros might prefer subtle tones, but a more vibrant option, like the iPad Air’s purple or an iPhone 17 Pro-style orange, would have been fun.

A color-matched Apple logo sits centered on the back of the Space Black 11-inch iPad Pro; it’s shiny against the matte frame and slightly darker. There are also three silver Smart Connector dots at the bottom, which is how the Magic Keyboard connects without any setup, with the main camera bump at the top left when the slate is held vertically.

The main camera array is unchanged from the previous generation, with the slightly raised bump housing a 12-megapixel wide camera, LiDAR sensor, and adaptive True Tone flash. Beneath the aluminum finish are ample magnets to support cases, including the Magic Keyboard.

When you hold the iPad Pro vertically, the power button is on the top right, with the volume controls nearby. The Apple Pencil Pro magnetically attaches to the right side and charges wirelessly, while the USB-C Pencil attaches but requires a charging cable. The USB-C port sits on the bottom vertically or the right side horizontally.

The volume and power buttons are also easy to locate when you’re using the iPad longways – power moves to the top left, and the volume rocker shifts to the top left. You don’t need to worry about unlocking with the power button either; a simple tap on the screen lights up Face ID, which is built into the front camera, and easily unlocks the iPad. Of course, you can also use it to authenticate purchases and autofill passwords.

It’s a practical design, and overall, this remains Apple’s most premium and luxurious iPad. Like the iPhone Air, its design prioritizes thermals and ergonomic weight, making the iPad Pro comfortable to use and letting the display truly shine.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Display

• Stunning tandem OLED display with punchy, vibrant colors
• It delivers an immersive visual experience

Apple is sticking with its impressive tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR display, and it’s truly a best-in-class screen. Colors look especially vibrant and accurate, with rich detail and subtle gradations, but it really excels at delivering incredibly strong contrast – something the 11-inch iPad Air with the M3 chip can’t quite match, considering that this is an OLED panel, and a unique one at that.

I thoroughly enjoyed having multiple windows set up within iPadOS 26, viewing them side by side or jumping between Mail, Gmail, Slack, Chrome, Safari, and Messages. Taking in the latest episode of The Morning Show on Apple TV, or films or series from other streamers, was a delight – the iPad Pro really excels at delivering these visuals. Whether you’re watching content, drawing in Procreate, editing photos in Pixelmator, gaming, or using Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve, the display can easily scale to the task depending on your workflow.

Just as with the previous-gen Pro, the tandem OLED is essentially two OLED displays stacked together to produce higher brightness levels for stunning visuals – and it really delivers. The Ultra Retina XDR display offers 1,000 nits of brightness across the full screen, can spike up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness for HDR content, and delivers a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The display resolution comes in at 2420 x 1668 at 264ppi.

Another key advantage of going Pro with an iPad is ProMotion, which enables an adaptive refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz and ensures that games (hardware-accelerated ray tracing is supported here) and other content look buttery smooth. It also helps when writing with Apple Pencil, further reducing latency, and makes scrolling through iPadOS 26 feel noticeably more fluid.

Apple ships the 11-inch iPad Pro with an oleophobic coating that helps reduce reflections and resist fingerprints, and it does an admirable job – if the screen is off, you’ll notice smudges, but when it lights up, the brightness makes them fade away. It still catches some reflections, though, especially outdoors on a sunny day or under harsh indoor lighting. The fix here is to opt for the Nano-Texture Glass display, which works wonders, but it comes at an added cost. My test unit has the standard glass.

Considering the high price of the iPad Pro with M5, a big part of that is down to this display, and I’ll give it to Apple – it’s the best display in the iPad lineup and one of the best I’ve used on any device. Whether I was watching a movie, playing a game, or doing more routine things, it was a visually immersive experience with vibrant, punchy color and deep blacks. You’ll need to decide, though, if you really do need the best display, as the 11-inch iPad Air delivers an excellent mix of performance and features, albeit with a slightly less advanced display.

• Display score: 5 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Cameras

• The front-facing camera is again located in the ‘proper’ spot
• CenterStage isn’t new, but it still works wonders for video calls
• The rear camera is fine for a tablet camera

Tucked into the top bezel, and centered above the screen when the iPad is held or docked horizontally, is a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera. You might recall that Apple made the decision to move it to the ‘proper’ location for a tablet with the last generation, and that placement, along with the same camera specs, carries over to the iPad Pro M5.

It’s basically in the perfect spot, especially when the iPad Pro is docked in a Magic Keyboard or a similar third-party folio, where you’re using the iPad in a similar fashion to a laptop. This makes it ideal for recording videos – maybe a self-tape – but also for video calls through FaceTime, WebEx, and Zoom, and other services.

The main appeal of this camera is in Center Stage, which uses software magic to keep you in the frame when you’re on calls, automatically panning and zooming to keep you centered. This is helpful if you like to walk and talk on calls, but also, more practically, if you’re cooking and hop on a FaceTime call – you can rest the iPad somewhere and freely move around without worrying you’ll be out of the frame. It’s excellent.

There’s also the same camera as last year on the back. If you’re someone who likes to take photos with a tablet, you can certainly do that here, and the 12-megapixel lens is good. I’ll share a gallery of some test shots below, but you’re still better off with your iPhone’s camera, or an actual camera.

• Camera score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Software

• iPadOS 26 breathes new life into the iPad Pro
• Mainstay features like windowing apps run very well here

While every iPad comes running iPadOS 26 out of the box, the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros with M5 are the first to launch with iPadOS 26. It certainly feels at home on the most expensive iPad in the lineup, and makes the most of the M5 chip inside.

I can freely resize pretty much any number of apps into windows with overlapping, or just set it up as side-by-side split. I have a menu bar up top when tasks call for it, and a dock down below, and I can drag and drop elements between apps as I see fit. That could be to edit a photo in Photoshop or Pixelmator after importing from Photos or Files, save it, and then load it directly into our content management system to build an article, or selecting photos and dropping them into Messages or an email.

This flexibility is definitely the highlight of iPadOS 26, but if you want to focus on one thing at a time you can also go full-screen with apps. I used a wide variety of apps on the iPad Pro with M5, covering my full workload: Safari, Chrome, Gmail, Slack, Google Drive and Docs, and occasionally photo-editing apps like Photoshop or Pixelmator. I routinely kept all of these open, along with Messages, Mail, Music or Spotify, Notes, Calendar, and Photos.

For personal use, I streamed via Apple TV (yes, it’s weird not writing Apple TV+ anymore), Disney+, Netflix, and Peacock, took FaceTime calls, and tried plenty of games, including Mini Metro, RFS+ Pro, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Resident Evil 4, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and Fortnite. Everything played smoothly for the most part, with barely a slowdown or hiccup.

While the vastly improved, AI-infused Siri (still) isn’t here yet, I got a sense of how Apple’s other AI and machine learning features perform, along with some third-party ones. Clean-Up for photos ran swiftly, performing the expected action after the main model download. I also used summarized notifications, priority notifications, and dabbled with ‘Reduce Interruptions’ in Focus Mode. Live Translation was quick, on a par with competing services, and Logic Pro 2 for iPad’s stem splitter worked very well.

I spent most of my work time with the iPad docked in the Magic Keyboard. This is the slightly more premium ‘for iPad Pro’ version of Apple’s accessory, with 14 rows of function keys, a full QWERTY keyboard, and an expansive trackpad. Typing feels great, with good travel and punchy keystrokes – I wrote this entire review using it.

When docked, the 11-inch iPad Pro feels very laptop-like, slightly floating as it’s locked in with magnets. You can tilt it up or down, and when you need to take notes you can easily snap it off and use the Apple Pencil. It makes the iPad Pro feel like a true workhorse, especially with iPadOS 26 – resizing windows and performing other tasks feels seamless with either touch or the trackpad.

It is an added cost – the Magic Keyboard for the 11-inch iPad Pro costs $299 / £299 / AU$499, or $349 / £349 / AU$579 for the 13-inch version – but it certainly makes the iPad Pro more capable. It’s also compatible with the previous M4 model.

The Apple Pencil Pro remains an excellent tool for note-taking, drawing, sketching, and navigating iPadOS. It magnetically attaches to the side of the iPad Pro and recharges wirelessly. The Apple Pencil USB-C can also attach, but must be plugged in to recharge. Taking notes with an Apple Pencil feels almost the same as writing on paper, and I especially like Scribble to Text for responding to messages without interrupting my workflow. Math Notes is another great feature – you can write an equation and an equals sign, and the iPad does the heavy lifting.

• Software score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Performance

• The M5 chip makes this iPad Pro blazing fast
• It adds in a lot of headroom, leaving me with no concerns about performance for years to come

Arguably, the biggest change with the iPad Pro is the M5 chip under the hood, which powers the entire experience. It drives the display, enables vibrant and immersive visuals, plays back excellent audio from the built-in stereo speakers, and lets you take full advantage of iPadOS 26.

The 2024 iPad Pro was the first Apple device to get the M4, and the M5 chip duly makes its debut in the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro, alongside the new Vision Pro and new 14-inch MacBook Pro. Apple is spreading its latest 3-nanometer silicon across more devices, and it shines on the iPad by making an already fast device even faster.

In the 1TB iPad Pro I’ve been testing, and also in the 2TB model, the M5 chip is configured as follows: a 10-core CPU with four performance cores and six efficiency cores, a 10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and neural accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine. It also comes with 16GB of RAM and 153GB/s of memory bandwidth.

This results in incredible performance day in and day out. Like the models before it – or even the 11-inch iPad Air with M3 – it’s a challenge to make this iPad Pro slow down. Apple has made the ultimate iPad even faster, and increased the headroom further.

Many of the improvements in the M5 chip help it perform even better for AI-focused workflows. Pixelmator Pro handled ‘Super Resolution’ faster, and cleaning up handwriting in GoodNotes was lightning quick. The same goes for using Stem Splitter in Logic Pro to separate recordings, or exporting 4K footage in Final Cut Pro. Games – whether smaller titles or full AAA releases – were a blast to play, with the performance and graphics combining to create wonderfully immersive worlds.

The 11-inch iPad Pro with M5 was simply a powerhouse in my testing, to the point that I effectively moved my entire workflow from a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 to this iPad paired with the Magic Keyboard. Between the chip and iPadOS 26, everything feels fast, smooth and completely dependable, and the software is finally close to matching the hardware. If you’re after a desktop-like experience, you can plug the iPad Pro into an external display, and it can offer up to a 120Hz refresh rate – that’s more of a surprise addition, and might hint that a new Studio Display from Apple is on the horizon.

I also ran the 11-inch iPad Pro with M5 through Geekbench, a standard benchmarking tool used by TechRadar. The 1TB model scored 4,121 single-core and 16,240 multi-core – outpacing the M4 iPad Pro (3,700 and 14,523, respectively) and the 11-inch iPad Air with M3 (3,023 and 11,716).

While we haven’t tested them, the 256GB and 512GB models come with a slightly less powerful M5 chip: a 9-core CPU (three performance and six efficiency cores), a 10-core GPU with neural accelerators and hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a 16-core Neural Engine. That’s paired with 12GB of RAM and 153GB/s of memory bandwidth. For most workflows, this shouldn’t affect everyday performance, though export times for creative tasks might be slightly longer.

Simply put, the iPad Pro offers full-throttle performance at nearly every turn. Whether or not you need that much power, the iPad Pro with M5 feels more than capable of taking full advantage of iPadOS 26 – and whatever Apple might be cooking up next. For now, it handles demanding tasks that would push lesser iPads and even some Macs; the performance here is truly next-level.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Battery & connectivity

• Still a very efficient battery, with more than all-day battery life
• The iPad Pro now supports fast charging, for 50% in 30 minutes
• Apple’s new C1X modem arrives in an iPad for the first time

As with previous iPads and iPhones, Apple is not sharing the exact battery size for the 11-inch or 13-inch iPad Pro; instead, the tech giant likes to share estimates for browsing and playback times. Apple promises that you can get up to 10 hours of surfing the web or watching video on Wi-Fi, or up to nine hours of web surfing with a cellular connection.

Those are the same numbers as for the M4 iPad Pro, so it’s likely Apple didn’t increase the battery size under the hood, but the M5 efficiencies, along with the Apple-made modem, likely help to keep that pace, and it’s actually the same promised battery life as the 13-inch iPad Pro with M5.

In my testing, even when using the iPad Pro for work paired with the Magic Keyboard, I got a full day out of it with close to six hours of screen time, which is very good for an iPad. Battery life isn’t much of a concern with recent generations of iPads, and this year Apple is looking to further alleviate any qualms with the arrival of fast charging.

While the 11-inch Pro ships with a 20-watt USB-C adapter in the box, you can pair this iPad with Apple’s own 40W Dynamic Power Adapter that can push up to 60W, or simply opt for a 60W power adapter to charge this iPad up to 50% in 30 minutes. With Apple’s own 40W adapter, I did meet the 30-minute mark exactly here, but with a higher 65W adapter, I saw it hit 50% in a bit less time.

Aside from the upgrade to M5 from M4 – and more RAM for the 256GB and 512GB models – Apple’s other big hardware change was moving to its N1 wireless chip and C1X modem. The former here delivers Bluetooth 6, Wi-Fi 7 and support for the Thread smart-home connectivity standard, while the latter represents a move to Apple’s own in-house modem.

These upgrades deliver two major perks, according to Apple: up to 30% lower power consumption than on the previous-generation iPad Pro and 50% faster cellular data speeds. As cellular iPads have been for some time, it’s an eSIM-only experience here across the globe.

I’ve been testing Verizon’s network, which is particularly strong in New Jersey and New York, mostly seeing three or four bars with 5G UW showing in the top corner. When working from a coffee shop or simply on the road, it felt just as dependable as using my home network, and at times delivered faster download and upload speeds.

It’s a nice swap for an Apple-made modem, and the M5 Pro has been performing just as well as previous cellular iPads I’ve tested, but the arrival of the N1 chip for modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards is also welcome here.

• Battery and Connectivity score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: Should you buy it?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (2025) review: How I tested

I spent five days thoroughly testing the 11-inch iPad Pro with M5, specifically a Space Black 1TB model with cellular connectivity. I also tested it with a matching Magic Keyboard in black and an Apple Pencil Pro. After unboxing it – you can check out my unboxing video on TechRadar’s TikTok – I quickly got to setting it up, and adding the apps and services that I would normally use on my iPad.

For much of my testing period I aimed to use the iPad Pro M5 as my main work device, which meant sidelining my 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro, and writing, editing, taking meetings, sending Slack messages, and writing emails on the iPad Pro M5. I also played games, sent messages, edited photos, and streamed movies, TV shows, and music, as well as making and taking many video calls.

To test cellular, I used a Verizon eSIM and ran various speed tests and upload tests in different locations to get a feel for performance.

First reviewed October 2025.

• Apple has unveiled a new M5-powered iPad Pro
• It's promising big leaps in performance
• A possible major update in AI operations

Apple's best and thinnest iPad is getting a major performance update that leans heavily into AI. On Wednesday October 15, Apple unveiled its new iPad Pro running the new M5 Apple Silicon, a chip that's simultaneously appearing in new 14-inch MacBook Pros.

That's notable because the last time Apple rolled out a major Apple Silicon update in the iPad Pro (the M4), it took months for it to appear in a line of new Macs.

The iPad Pro, both the 11-inch model and the 13-inch one, which are among the best tablets you can buy, offer virtually no design updates. The iPad Pro 11 is still 5.3mm thick, and the 13-inch model is still a stunning 5.1mm thin. Both offer the same Ultra Retina XDR screen featuring the tandem OLED technology that makes that thinness and the incredible blacks possible.

The focus, it seems, is really on the new M5 chip. Apple promises it's faster, reportedly 3.5 times faster than the M4 found in the last iPad Pro.

However, it's the focus on AI capabilities that might spike the most interest, even as Apple fails to deliver the ultimate version of Apple Intelligence. Certainly, this tablet and the M5 sound prepared for it when it arrives, we believe, early next year.

Like the A19 Pro chip Apple unveiled last month in its iPhone 17 Pro, the new M5 features an updated GPU with a Neural Accelerator inside each core. Apple says the improved power and performance will, along with a faster 16-core Neural Engine, raise the bar for productivity tasks and AI operations.

It might also be a faster tablet because of the 150GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, which Apple claims is 30% faster than the previous silicon.

The M5 arrives on iPads running iPadOS 26, the new multitasking-friendly iPad platform. It's clear the silicon is designed to take advantage of and support those multi-window, desktop-like capabilities.

Connectivity is also getting a boost with the introduction of Apple's C1X and N1 chips that will improve cellular connectivity and add support for WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread.

Despite the internal updates, Apple's held the line on pricing, with the iPad Pro 11-inch starting at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 (Wi-Fi model) and the 13-inch model starting at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199 (Wi-Fi model). Both iPad Pros are available in Space Black or Silver and in storage capacities up to 2TB.

Pre-orders are already open at the Apple Store and start shipping on October 22.

An AI tease

There are no major surprises here in this update, but it's encouraging to see Apple continuing to funnel its best and fastest Apple Silicon to its lightweight, workhorse tablets.

The focus on AI performance is interesting because it immediately begs the question: where is the rest of Apple Intelligence? When can we get a Siri as system-aware as, say, Gemini or even Galaxy AI?

As we know, those updates are still in the pipeline, but Apple is open to working with other generative AI models, and it will be interesting to see how the M5 works with different third-party AI operations from, for instance, ChatGPT.

And it does bode well for a future, more powerful version of Apple Intelligence and Siri, which will surely have tons of headroom space to work in whenever they arrive on the new M5-powered iPad Pro tablets.

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• Three new Apple products could launch this week, a new report claims
• All three should include the M5 chip, along with a few other changes
• Rumors suggest Apple plans to launch more products in early 2026

Update October 15: Apple has now announced the new M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch and iPad Pro M5, alongside an updated Apple Vision Pro.

Original story follows:

September saw Apple unveil fresh iPhones, Apple Watches and more, and that means the company is now gearing up for its traditional October product launches. According to the latest rumors, these will be centered on the new M5 chip, which will find its way into everything from iPads and MacBooks to the Vision Pro headset.

In fact, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman writes in his latest Power On newsletter that Apple plans to lift the lid on these products as soon as this week. If you’re wondering what we could see, we’ve run through all the latest rumors below, helping you get up to speed in time for the release date.

1. M5 MacBook Pro

Apple often releases new MacBook Pro models in October, and that seems likely to play out again. This year, the changes are expected to be minor, with a new M5 chip the only significant change. This chip is touted to bring better performance and efficiency than the M4 chip that went before it.

If you’ve been hoping for much more, though, you might be disappointed. While rumors have suggested that Apple is working on a redesigned MacBook Pro with an OLED display and a thinner chassis, this isn’t expected to arrive until the M6 chip touches down.

There is an interesting change of course from Apple regarding the M5 chip, though: the company might split the launch of the different M5 chip tiers. That is, the M5 model could launch this week, with MacBook Pro models outfitted with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips scheduled for early 2026.

It’s not immediately clear why this will happen, but news outlet AppleInsider claims to have spoken to sources at Apple “that have knowledge of macOS Tahoe development and hardware testing” who have confirmed this timeframe.

2. M5 iPad Pro

At the start October, the tech world was rocked by the news that the unreleased M5 iPad Pro had been leaked to a pair of Russian YouTubers, who posted videos featuring the complete unboxing and examination of the devices.

The tablets were fully functional and appeared to be genuine – if unreleased – Apple products, suggesting a launch was imminent. That idea has been cemented by an apparent leak by AT&T, as the company’s website suggests you will soon be able to pre-order the M5 iPad Pro.

According to testing performed by one of the YouTubers, the M5 chip in the iPad Pro offers 10% faster single-core performance, 16% better multi-core performance, and 34% improved graphics output compared to the M4 chip.

Presumably, the M5 chip in the MacBook Pro should offer similar enhancements. Like the MacBook Pro, though, the M5 iPad Pro is anticipated to be a minor chip upgrade and not much else.

3. A Vision Pro update

The Vision Pro headset has never hit the heights that Apple hoped for, so will a second-generation model be able to put things right? Judging by what is rumored for this product, that’s far from guaranteed, as industry whispers suggest that the Vision Pro 2 will come with a faster M5 chip and a better strap to make it more comfortable to wear over the long run, but few other changes.

Unfortunately, that means it looks like Apple is not going to be addressing some of the main concerns that have plagued the original Vision Pro. While a new strap would be welcome, it sounds like Apple will not be cutting down the actual weight of the headset. The price also looks to be a point of contention, with a cheaper Vision Pro reportedly being postponed to allow Apple to focus on its upcoming augmented reality glasses.

So that’s three products that are set to bring minor updates this week, rather than wide-ranging overhauls. But they’re not the only devices on Apple’s roadmap – Gurman says that upgraded versions of the HomePod mini, AirTag and Apple TV are on the way, as well as the iPhone 17e, an M5 MacBook Air and the M5 Pro and M5 Max versions of the MacBook Pro. We might have to wait until next year for some of those products, though.

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• The M5 iPad Pro is rumored to have two front cameras, but this is uncertain
• Two unboxing videos seem to contradict each other
• We’ll know for sure when the M5 iPad Pro launches in a few weeks

Last week saw a major Apple leak as the upcoming M5 iPad Pro was unboxed in detail by several prominent Russian YouTubers. It’s the second time a seemingly real Apple product has escaped containment before launch, with the M4 MacBook Pro being revealed ahead of schedule in October 2024. And with almost every M5 iPad Pro secret being thrust into the light, we’ve now received the answer to most of our questions – except one.

Back in July, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman claimed that Apple was working on adding a second front-facing camera to the M5 iPad Pro. The first unboxing video that revealed this device (posted by YouTuber Wylsacom) seemed to suggest that it would come with a single-front facing lens, as Wylsacom said this element was identical to the M4 iPad Pro – which, as you might have guessed, only has one camera on the front.

Yet in his Power On newsletter posted this weekend, Gurman said that he could “say with certainty” that the M5 iPad Pro would in fact feature two front-facing cameras. And now, we seem to have confirmation of that idea.

That’s because a second Russian YouTuber (Romancev768) managed to get hold of a leaked M5 iPad Pro, and their unboxing video specifically showed off the second front-facing camera. In their video, you can see one lens on the tablet’s long edge and another on its short side.

Romancev768 noted that the second lens doesn’t appear to be a true camera as they couldn’t take pictures with it, and they mused that it might instead be a sensor to help with Apple’s Desk View video feature.

On the other hand, the YouTuber also opined that the camera could simply be locked by software and will be unlocked by the time the device launches. Given Gurman’s wording that a second “camera” would be present (not a camera and an extra sensor), the latter option might be the more likely.

Camera enhancements?

Adding a second camera could potentially improve video performance and Face ID recognition, no matter whether you’re using the tablet in portrait or landscape mode. Presumably, the device would just pick the best lens for the job without you having to manually flip it over, which would let you use it in whichever mode is most comfortable.

Interestingly, Gurman didn’t seem to be aware of Romancev768’s video. Seemingly in light of Wylsacom saying that the M5 iPad Pro’s front-facing camera was the same single-lens setup as the M4 model, Gurman noted that Apple has a history of dropping features (like the dual-camera setup) at the eleventh hour, although he added that doing so here would be a “strange, last-minute cut.”

Combined with Romancev768’s uncertainty over the new lens’s capabilities, we can’t be sure that you’ll end up with two “true” cameras if you get the M5 iPad Pro. Ultimately, we’ll have to wait until the device launches before we can be confident.

What else is new?

The M5 iPad Pro unboxing videos gave us more clarity on two other features that have been rumored for Apple’s tablet.

The first is the introduction of the Apple’s M5 chip. According to benchmarks posted by Wylsacom, this chip is about 10% faster in single-core performance and 16% quicker in multi-core testing. As for its graphics output, this is an impressive 34% faster than the M4.

The second change is an increase in the entry-level memory from 8GB to 12GB, which should bring greater performance to the iPad Pro. Interestingly, leaked benchmarks show this 12GB RAM amount being present in the base-level M5 iPad Pro with 256GB of storage. In the M4 version, the 256GB and 512GB models had 8GB of memory, while upping the storage to 1TB or 2TB increased the RAM to 12GB. Whether that means the M5 iPad Pro’s 1TB and 2TB editions will also offer increased memory capacities is unknown for now.

The issue of the front-facing lenses may not yet be resolved, but the M5 iPad Pro is coming into sharper and sharper focus. With its launch expected in the next few weeks, there’s not long until you’ll be able to try out all of its new features.

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• The chip could offer decent performance increases over the current M4 chip

Want to know what’s coming in the as-yet-unreleased M5 iPad Pro? We might have just caught our first glimpse of the device, and it comes via the Russian YouTuber who famously revealed last year’s M4 MacBook Pro before it was officially announced.

That YouTuber goes by the name Wylsacom, and they’ve just shared an unboxing video that reveals the M5 iPad Pro in meticulous detail, in which they comment on the look and feel of the device, its internal configuration, and a smattering of performance metrics.

So, what can we expect? According to Wylsacom, the M5 iPad Pro will, as the name suggests, come with Apple’s M5 chip. The YouTuber put this chip through its paces using the Geekbench 6 benchmarking tool, and it scored 4,133 in the single-core test and 15,437 in the multi-core benchmark – those scores are roughly 10% and 16% faster than an M4 iPad Pro tested by Wylsacom.

As for graphics performance, the M5 model blazed ahead with a score of 74,568 in Geekbench 6, which is about 34% better than the 55,702 score the M4 iPad Pro achieved. That’s a much more significant performance difference, and may in part be down to Wylsacom’s M5 chip having 12GB of memory, as opposed to the 8GB in the M4 iPad Pro.

On the outside, the iPad Pro handled by Wylsacom doesn't appear to have many external changes compared to the M4 iPad Pro. It’s got a single rear camera, Apple’s Smart Connector, and four speakers, for instance, and the only difference of note here is that the words 'iPad Pro' don't appear to be present on the back of the tablet; otherwise, this seems to mostly be a chip upgrade and not much else.

Reading between the lines

Incredibly, it’s not the only M5 iPad Pro leak we’ve seen this week. At the same time as Wylsacom was testing out an apparently functional unit, the FCC, the US telecoms regulator, appeared to accidentally leak the device’s details on its website, according to MacRumors.

Specifically, the FCC revealed model numbers for unknown iPads and MacBooks – inferred to be the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro (with and without cellular connectivity) and an M5 MacBook Pro, based on past model numbers. That gives Wylsacom’s leak some credence, and suggests Apple is nearing a release date for all of these products.

Reading between the lines, the M5 iPad Pro might also give us some clues about the upcoming M5 MacBook Air. That’s because both devices are expected to use the same chip, and both will operate without a fan, instead relying on passive cooling. With that in mind, there’s a decent chance that the M5 MacBook Air will achieve similar performance numbers to the M5 iPad Pro, since the chips in both devices will be operating under similar thermal conditions.

Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that. For one thing, Wylsacom’s M5 iPad Pro featured a nine-core CPU, whereas the M5 in the MacBook Air will likely have 10 CPU cores (at least if it follows the pattern set by the M4 chip). So performance could vary a little, although we wouldn’t expect the differences to be huge.

With the M5 iPad Pro expected to arrive before the end of the year, and the M5 MacBook Pro rumored to be launching somewhere between late 2025 and early 2026, we don't have long to wait to see how these devices perform in real-world tests – and that could give us even more insight into the M5 MacBook Air.

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When I bought my iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) three years ago (a lovely pre-owned model which I've written about before), I knew its main function would be as a portable creative tool. I've used it to edit videos, write scripts, brainstorm ideas, and write pitches and treatments; sometimes on trains and sometimes on planes, and other times at my beloved local coffee shop (which I won't name because it's a bit too popular as it is).

That's three years of a loyal, faithful commitment... until recently, as I've been having some fun on the side, which is getting more and more serious. I'm in danger of becoming a two-tabber!

Two years ago, for TechRadar's sister site TopTenReviews, I tested the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C (and gave it a similar rating to TechRadar's own reviewer). There's a good chance you haven't heard of this device because Onyx makes ereaders but isn't Amazon, and therefore, the brand sits in relative obscurity. Indeed, after my review period finished with the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C, I stopped using it. For a year and a half, it very literally sat gathering dust.

But then, for reasons I'll get to, I started looking for a bit of fun on the side of my iPad Pro, and quickly found that the Boox Tab ticked all my boxes. In fact, it's proven so useful that I use it for certain creative tasks more than my iPad Pro now.

Meet the Boox

First, a brief introduction to the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C (boy, what a mouthful!). It's an ereader akin to the Kindle Scribe, but with all of Amazon's slate's features turned up to 11 (if that reference hasn't recently been made gauche...).

It's a really expensive device, costing $600 / £600 / AU$980, and that's without the keyboard folio, which I've been using too. Banish the thought of this being a standard Kindle-esque cheapie.

In part, that high price comes from the sheer size of this thing; it boasts a 10.3-inch display, which, unlike some ereaders, supports color. But the Onyx also offers the Google Play Store, making it a tablet at the same time.

I'm going to level with you: I used to cover ereaders (amongst other things at TechRadar), and have used them loads, but at heart I'm an aficionado for real books and real pen-and-paper writing. I'd rather look at a page than a screen, and my collection of books takes pride of place in my flat (well, as proud as a collection can be that's crammed into the corner of rental digs). I realize that an ereader is a gadget designed for someone like me, and it's definitely better than a tablet, but I still generally stick to the page if I can.

Lots of my reasons for picking this device aren't specific to the Tab Ultra C. It happened to be in the right place at the right time, and another stylus-toting ereader might work just as well for the tasks I describe. In fact, it's scarily expensive for what it is. But it's the Onyx that was at hand and the Onyx which won me over.

The problem with iPad

My iPad is a jack of all trades. It's powerful for video editing, though not as powerful as my edit rig. Its keyboard is useful for word processing, but not as natural to use as my laptop or PC. It's portable, though not as portable as my phone. But it can tick all of those boxes at the same time, which makes it really handy.

Before the Boox came into my life, its stylus was also my only way of writing by hand, which is useful for two purposes. Firstly, I much prefer to handwrite notes than to type them, and secondly, it's great for marking up scripts and documents; both of these would be feasible with just a pen and paper if they weren't bad for the environment and, just as importantly, easy to lose.

The problem with using the iPad for handwriting is that, whether you're using an Apple Pencil or, in my case, a knock-off Apple Pencil, it just doesn't replicate the feeling of a pen on paper. Ignore what Apple fans say, it's just not the same.

It's hard to quantify the components of the process of handwriting until you've considered it, but when you think about it, it's all about pressure; the squeeze of your fingertips on the pen, the firm lunge of the pen onto the paper, the iron barrier of your arm holding you at the perfect position.

There's none of that on an iPad. You touch the stylus on the screen and move it about, and a line appears. I know subsequent generations of iPad press releases have boasted about touch sensitivity and palm recognition, but at the end of the day, it's a country mile from the experience of using a pen on a piece of paper.

Going out of stylus

Disenchanted by the iPad Pro's handwriting shortcomings, I began using a pen and paper for all my note-taking, leaving sheafs of papers strewn across my bedroom like I was the subject of a 'tortured artist' movie whose set design department had been given too high a budget. Most of these papers I lost, or were drenched in coffee, rendering them illegible, and the ones that did survive gathered dust on my desk, as I didn't really have anywhere to file or store them.

Then I moved house, which brought with it a big tech cull and the repeated question: "Am I going to use you?". For loads of past review units I had hanging around, the quick answer was "no", but when I asked the Onyx, I hesitated. Maybe this device could fix my writing problem.

When I'd moved into my new place, I charged up the Onyx, opened up a blank page, and started to scrawl out a few things. Nothing ground-breaking, just a doodle and a sentence to see what the handwriting was like. Quickly, I found that it offered that natural-feeling handwriting experience that the iPad didn't.

A few neat touches make the Boox's stylus feel much more like a pen. These range from the haptic – like the slight friction from the tip on the screen when you drag it along the display and the 'give' when you push down with the stylus – to the stylistic; the stick has a pen nib you can put on when you're not using it. I felt permitted to use the stylus like a pen and the device like a page, which was much more comfortable for handwriting.

The screen doesn't feel as big and cold as an iPad's. This may seem irrelevant, but it meant that when leaning my hand to write, which happens approximately 100% of the time I'm scribbling, I'm not constantly reminded that this is a smart device.

And then there's the simple fact that E-Ink looks a lot more like paper than a tablet screen does, telling my brain once again that "No, this isn't a tablet", and also letting me take notes at night without stopping me from sleeping.

The Ultra ereader

I was won over by the handwriting experience of the Onyx Boox but what kept me using it, and stopped me returning to the iPad, was its useful features.

As on Kindles, you can import documents onto the device, and it's an easy process. You can see in the image above that I imported scripts that I could annotate, and shot lists that I could fill in, and I did both on film shoots. While an iPad would run out of power if it were left on all day (or would keep turning off), the Boox was a reliable driver, with ereaders generally lasting dramatically longer than tablets.

You can also make notes documents, which aren't massive clean pages to write on, but are instead documents that you can add pages and various style designs to. These were handy, as I could create a page for ideas on one project, and then add separate sub-pages for different facets or angles, and it was easy to scribble notes in each page and navigate between the two.

One lovely feature is Smart Selection, which lets you draw a lasso around some notes for the Onyx to auto-select, allowing you to move them about. This quickly became a vital part of my workflow, as I could move notes and ideas around between sections without having to scribble a comment out and re-add it.

I'll admit that I never used the device's Play Store access, and didn't read books with it due to my aforementioned predilection towards paper ones. But as I recall from my review testing time, you can actually mark up e-books, too, if you want to take some notes as you read.

You might find it bizarre that I'm commending an ereader's features versus an iPad, when the latter has much more potential. That's true, but if I'm working on a project, I don't want to be distracted, and my own worst enemy is myself. I know my iPad Pro has social media, it has games, and it has downloaded TV shows. There's too much temptation, and that just isn't present on the Onyx.

Keeping the iPad around?

Since discovering how nice (for lack of a better word) it felt to use the Tab Ultra C for hand-writing, its features have made it a stalwart part of my creative life. If I'm in the genesis stage of a new project, it's always on hand, so I can scribble out ideas or structure plans and lists.

It hasn't knocked anything out of my process; when an idea has reached maturity, I'm still going to use my iPad to formulate it and my PC to create it, and there are still loads of other gadgets that get in the way.

But the Onyx can be my faff-free interface with the digital realm, letting me ignore the annoyances of artifice that the iPad brings and spew my thoughts and ideas straight onto the (digital) page.

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Earlier this year, my iPad Pro 11-inch, after half a decade of faithful service, entered its ‘YouTube machine’ era thanks to the purchase of a 16-inch MacBook Pro. With it's M1 chipset and massive screen, my task-smashing MacBook muscled in on my iPad Pro’s turf and never left. My tablet isn’t one of the newer M-series iPads, which makes it harder to choose for high-intensity work like video editing and music production.

During a recent night of drafting blog posts and noodling around on Ableton Live, I found myself rearranging my desk setup to place my iPad and MacBook side by side – and wondered whether they might be better teammates than rivals.

So here are two features designed to enable teamwork between your iPad and MacBook – Sidecar and Universal Control. Now that I've devoted myself fully to these two features, I can’t imagine going back to using my MacBook Pro on its own.

Keep reading for my breakdown of each feature, with quick directions for how to activate these tools yourself, and some analysis about whether these features are for you.

Sidecar

Sidecar is a MacOS and iPadOS feature that allows you to use your iPad as a second display for your Mac. This is particularly convenient for MacBook users, given that MacBooks have smaller displays than an iMac or the monitors you'd use with a Mac mini or Mac Studio. Best of all, Sidecar works wirelessly.

To active Sidecar, first make sure that your iPad and Mac are signed into the same Apple account, connected to the same WiFi network, and have Bluetooth enabled.

Then, drop down the screen mirroring menu in the menu bar, and select your iPad.

To swap between mirroring the display and extending the display, go to Settings on your Mac and choose the Display settings. Here you can also rearrange the displays so that your mouse flows logically between them.

There you have it – no wires, no fuss! Just a convenient second display for your Mac. I’m a huge fan of Sidecar – I often use my iPad to reference Google or control a playlist, and having everything centralized on MacOS instead of splitting the load between my mac and iPadOS can make this a lot more convenient.

That’s especially true when you’re using Mac-specific apps and software. I love using Sidecar with Ableton Live to display specific plugins, or to view my music library on Pioneer DJ's Rekordbox’s desktop app, or keep a Finder folder in view while I edit videos in Capcut.

However, Sidecar is not a touchscreen version of MacOS. Other than a contextual toolbar at the bottom of the screen, your iPad won’t function as a touch surface for what’s on screen. You can use a compatible Apple Pencil to ‘click’ on things, but not for scrolling; with Sidecar, the iPad acts more as a monitor than its own smart device. Full compatibility information can be found on Apple’s help page.

Universal Control

Universal Control allows users to use a single keyboard and mouse to control both MacOS and iPadOS, and this can be your MacBook keyboard or any one of Apple's Magic Keyboards for iPad (though Reddit says there may be some friction when using the latter).

Unlike Sidecar, your iPad continues to run as normal during Universal Control, with its blobby mouse cursor and iPad keyboard shortcuts. You switch between screens by 'pushing' the cursor through the edge of the display. You can adjust display positions from the Display tab of your Mac's Settings app.

Universal Control makes more sense than Sidecar when you’re using software, apps, and functions that are specific to each device.

If you’re drawing with Apple Pencil on ProCreate while typing up ideas on the iPad’s notes app but you also want to control Photoshop on your Mac, all with one keyboard and mouse, then Universal Control is the feature you need. It's even more powerful with the release of iPadOS 26, which gives you access to more desktop-style features on the iPad while retaining its tablet-specific abilities.

This also boasts some unique advantages over Sidecar. First, you get access to your iPad’s entire screen – there’s no fixed toolbar or resized display window. Second, you get full access to the touchscreen while Universal Control is active. Finally, Universal Control gives you full access to your iPad’s local storage – that last one is important to me, as I often use the iPad’s files app to manage visual assets and ProCreate sketches.

The steps to activating Universal Control are a little more complex than Sidecar, so I’ll refer you straight to Apple’s website, which also has full compatibility info. Again, make sure your Mac and iPad are both signed into the same Apple account, connected to the same WiFi network, and have Bluetooth switched on.

Sidecar and Universal Control let me have my cake and eat it, two similar options with very different advantages that really bring the Mac and iPad together as one unit – I can’t see myself going back to just using one or the other.

Do you use Sidecar or Universal Control? If so, which one is your favorite? It’d be great to hear about your experience in the comments below.

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Last week was all about the iPhone 17 and the other three smartphone models launched by Apple, but there are plenty more devices on the way in the coming months – as revealed by one of the more reliable tipsters in the business.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman can usually be relied upon for accurate Apple rumors, and in his latest Power On newsletter he sets out the post-iPhone 17 roadmap, which takes us through the rest of 2025 and into the first part of 2026.

First up is a new iPad Pro, sporting an OLED screen and powered by an M5 chip: Gurman thinks it could launch as early as October. After that the schedule is less fixed, but a minor update to the Apple Vision Pro and a successor to the Apple AirTag are mentioned next.

Then we can look forward to an updated Apple TV box, with improved performance and networking capabilities, plus Apple Intelligence. Similar upgrades are tipped to be coming to a new HomePod mini, which could appear around the same time.

Continuing into 2026

Into 2026, and Gurman predicts that an M5-powered MacBook Pro is going to show up "early next year". The MacBook Airs will then get their own M5 upgrade, following on from the M4 MacBook Air that launched earlier this year.

The final three products (if you're keeping count) are a new Mac external monitor – Apple's monitor lineup last got an update in 2022 – then an iPhone 17e to follow the iPhone 16e, and the smart home hub that has previously been rumored.

Once we've got through all of that, it'll be time to start thinking about the iPhone 18 series. There are rumors that the iPhone 18 launch could actually be split across 2026 and 2027, with different models launched at different times in the year.

Of course, none of this is confirmed until Apple makes it official, but these predictions come from a trustworthy source and match up with other leaks. If you're looking to upgrade your Apple devices over the next 12 months, you might want to start saving.

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Apple’s ‘Awe Dropping’ event is just hours away, and while we were fairly certain the company would follow the usual pattern of revealing iPhone and Apple Watches at today's showcase, it appears there could be more to come.

New rumors (via 9to5Mac) suggest that, alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and a trio of Apple Watch models, the iPad Pro could make a reappearance.

What’s more, this new iteration of Apple's best iPad could also debut a new M5 chip, marking the second time a chip has debuted on an iPad after last year’s M4-powered iPad Pro 13-inch (2024).

M5 iPad Pro to debut today?

It would perhaps make some sense to reveal the latest iPad Pro today, given that the product line itself was revealed in September 2015, meaning we’ve been living with Apple’s high-powered tablet for a decade now. Not only that, but the exact date was (you guessed it!) September 9.

9to5Mac reports that an anonymous leaker’s account shared device details ahead of today’s event, with Apple Watch information and M5 iPad Pro models mentioned in the last-minute tip.

Now, the original iPad Pro didn’t go on sale until November 2015, so there’s every chance that, even if we do get a reveal of the new model today, it won't go on sale until later in the year. But between the rumored iPhone 17 models, new Apple Watch devices, AirPods Pro 3, and now the new iPad Pro, this could be a pretty packed event.

And that’s saying nothing of new operating systems for all of Apple’s platforms, which are expected to land today following a beta rollout since WWDC.

I’m ready to upgrade

While I tend to work on a MacBook Air 15-inch (M3), I’ve always had a soft spot for the iPad Pro, as ridiculously expensive as it is.

I’ve still got the M2 version, and I love the modularity of it: when I travel, it can be my reading companion, somewhere to catch up on my favorite shows or movies, or a place to play games. And, when I arrive at my destination, I can hook up a keyboard to get some work done, or use it as an extra display for my Mac.

None of this is exclusive to the Pro, though, but with iPadOS 26 finally taking the shackles off of Apple’s ‘Sleeping Giant’ of a tablet, I feel like the iPad Pro will finally come into its own – especially with a new generation of Apple Silicon under the hood.

I’ve been glancing enviously at iPad Pro M4 users, but wanted to bide my time until the M5 version arrived. Now that it could be closer than we thought, I think the time has come – not just for me, but for iPad Pro in general.

iPadOS 26 could unlock the iPad Pro

For years (well, a decade really), the iPad Pro has been seen as Apple’s premier tablet, but what does that really mean?

It used to be the only way to get a larger tablet, for example, but that’s not been the case for some time. It’s never been a slouch in the performance stakes, and yet many (myself included) are still reaching for the Mac over a device so universally praised for being the best example of what iPad can be.

Every few years, Apple does its best to revamp something within iPadOS, like the multi-window paradigm. But invariably, I’d wager the iPad Pro becomes more and more of a consumption device. Thankfully, this year could be different.

While I can take or leave the Liquid Glass design shift and can’t see myself getting particularly excited about a dedicated gaming app, I do think the new approach to multi-windowing and the Mac-like menu bar are colossal shifts for the platform.

Stage Manager always felt like a band-aid to a much deeper issue, trying to paper over cracks that, after a decade, I honestly didn’t see being fixed.

Imagine my surprise at WWDC 2025, then, when Apple confirmed that windows can not only be freely adjusted, but also controlled by a menu bar that helps keep settings for the active window within reach. “No more Stage Manager reshuffles!” I cheered to myself (internally, I hope), and that’s not all.

I’ve not recorded a podcast in some time, but with iPadOS 26 finally able to handle inputs from multiple sources, I’m tempted to dust off the mic and give it another go, especially in the current super-thin design.

The other (minor) issue with the M2 version is that its display tech is great until you see an M4 iPad Pro up close. That tandem OLED really is like looking into space at times, and there’s a mystifying beauty to it that really has to be seen. The screen on my M2 model is good, but the M4's equivalent makes it feel not good enough.

Will this finally be the year that the iPad Pro comes into its own? Fresh software and rumors of the kind of hardware upgrade that serves only to extend the gap to the competition have me thinking that it just might be.

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We're expecting a successor to the M4 iPad Pro 2024 at some point this year, and alongside the standard performance bump, it looks as though we're going to get a rather unusual camera upgrade: the tablet will apparently arrive with two selfie cameras.

This comes from reliable Apple tipster Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who says that the M5 iPad Pro 2025 will feature forward-facing cameras on both the longer and shorter sides of the device, hidden away in the bezels.

The thinking is that Face ID and FaceTime calls can then be more easily made whether the iPad is in portrait or landscape mode. Presumably the tablet would automatically pick the best camera for the job based on its orientation.

Last year's model moved the selfie camera to the longer side of the iPad Pro for the first time. Face ID still works as usual; however, the iPad is positioned in a more convenient way for video calls made in landscape mode.

Coming in 2025

Given that the current M4 iPad Pro got a significant slimmer design and an OLED display, it's unlikely that we'll see any major changes with the M5 version – apart from the performance boost that comes with a faster chipset on the inside.

Most of the rumors and leaks we've seen around the upcoming tablet so far have simply said the device is launching sometime in 2025. Most tipsters agree it'll show up in the second half of the year, which of course we're now in.

Gurman himself has said the tablet could launch near the end of 2025 or early in 2026. iPad Pros have previously been announced in months including April, May, and October, so it's tricky to predict when the upgraded model might eventually arrive.

We do know that iPadOS 26 is bringing with it a revamped visual design called Liquid Glass, like all of Apple's other software platforms, and that software update should be rolled out this September alongside iOS 26 and the iPhone 17 handsets.

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Apple’s iPad Pro could be set for an even slicker design. A new rumor suggests the next-generation OLED iPad Pro will have the slimmest bezels of any Apple tablet to date – bringing it closer than ever to a true edge-to-edge display experience.

According to a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo, upcoming models of the iPad Pro will have bezels similar in width to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. The information was shared by Instant Digital, an established leaker with more than 1.4 million followers.

The post also suggests that Apple has figured out how to reduce the width of the borders around the iPad display without introducing a notch, like the one found on the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. That tablet already has a screen-to-body ratio of more than 90%. Without a notch, the redesigned iPad Pro line would be firmly in all-screen territory.

Exciting as this latest iPad display rumor is, it also raises a lot of questions – and leaves many of them unanswered.

A borderless future?

We’ve heard rumors about ultra-slim iPad Pro bezels before, some of which came from the very same source. While Instant Digital has accurately leaked some Apple specs ahead of time, the account has also had its share of misses. That gives cause to take the suggestions with a pinch of skepticism.

Still, developing a tablet with ultra-sim bezels certainly seems like something within the Apple wheelhouse. And if there’s one device Apple loves to show off its design chops with, it’s the iPad Pro. From mini-LED panels to Apple Pencil hover support, the Pro line has long been a playground for premium features.

The move would require a reconfiguration of the internal hardware, particularly in relation to the display. Recent reports suggest part of the answer could come from chip-on-film technology, which LG will reportedly use to make integrated OLED panels for future iPad Pro models.

With slim bezels and no notch, Apple will still need somewhere to hide the front-facing camera and TrueDepth sensor system required for Face ID. When it removed the notch from the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple introduced the Dynamic Island. One option could be to bring this feature over to the iPad Pro lineup.

An alternative solution would be under-display sensors. We’ve seen these on other devices. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold range, including the latest Z Fold 6, has long been equipped with under-display cameras. We’ve also written about a recent Apple patent for an under-display Face ID system. This suggests that Apple is working on a way to eradicate notches from its iPhone range – and the technology could certainly be extended to its tablets.

Perhaps the most pressing question is when all of this will actually come about. The Weibo post makes clear that arrival point of the redesign is ‘not necessarily the next generation’.

The current iPad Pro (2024) launched in May 2024. The next-generation iPad Pro is expected to land late in 2025 with an M5 processor. As much as we’d like to see an all-screen iPad this year, it seems more realistic to hedge our bets and wait for slimmer bezels on the following generation – likely due in the first half of 2027.

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iPadOS 26 is on the way – revealed at WWDC 2025, Apple’s next-generation tablet operating system is the biggest single update to iPadOS we’ve ever seen (Apple’s Craig Federighi said as much during the keynote).

Amongst other new features, iPadOS 26 brings support for windowed multitasking to all currently available iPads, from the cheapest base-model iPad to the pricey and powerful iPad Pro.

If you ask me, that makes now a great time to pick up the base-model iPad. Just a few years back, windowed multitasking was a pipe dream on even the most powerful iPad Pros, and now it’s coming to all models.

With that in mind, it’s a good time for prospective iPad buyers to consider whether they need the power of an iPad Pro or iPad Air, or if the base model, with its upcoming suite of multitasking tools, might be enough for their needs.

The 11th-generation iPad comes equipped with an A16 chipset and 6GB of RAM, as well as 12MP front and rear cameras, an 11-inch display, and support for the Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard Folio.

You certainly save a good bit of money by going with Apple’s cheapest tablet, which starts at $349 / £329 / AU$599, compared to the iPad Air, which steps the price up to $599 / £599 / AU$999.

The latest iPad Pro comes in at an even heavier $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 – almost three times as expensive as the base model. And that's for the smaller 11-inch model – choose the larger iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) and it costs even more.

And while the iPad Pro is powerful, the standard 11th-generation iPad is honestly no slouch when it comes to internal hardware, especially for the everyday user. It has the same A16 chipset and 6GB of RAM as the iPhone 15, which we found could handle action games and 4K video editing while testing for our iPhone 15 review.

It also helps that the base model iPad is currently discounted in both the US and UK:

Sure, the iPad’s A16 chipset isn’t at the same level as the iPad Air and iPad Pro’s M-series chipsets, but it’s a solid choice for the things people use tablets for every day – web browsing, watching videos and movies, social media, messaging, and typing up notes and documents. Pair that with the ability to do all of the above in desktop-style windows, and the standard iPad starts looking rather capable.

It’s still true that the iPad Air and iPad Pro, with their desktop class chipsets, increased RAM capacity, and Apple Intelligence support will be a better choice if you’re in need of pro-level power, AI, or heavier multitasking.

And as a disclaimer, we don’t know how well the new window system will run on the base-model iPad. iPadOS 26 is still upcoming, so it shouldn't be the only reason you buy an iPad.

But, personally, I’m not worried. It’d be very unlike Apple to release a feature to a specific piece of hardware if it didn't at least work decently well; we saw this in practice with the limited launch of Apple Intelligence.

With that in mind, I find it really unlikely that Apple would release multitasking tools to the base-model iPad if these new features ran poorly. At this point in iPadOS 26’s development, I’m almost certain that Apple has tested the new tools extensively with a range of iPad hardware.

If you're in the market for a new tablet, be sure to check out our lists of the best iPads and best tablets. Would you consider picking up a base model iPad over an iPad Air or iPad Pro? Let us know in the comments below.

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iPadOS 26 is on the way – Apple revealed its next iPad software update at WWDC 2025, and since then the internet has been ablaze with reactions and speculation.

The big ticket items for this year’s iPadOS update pertain to multitasking – all currently-sold iPads (and likely several older models) are due to get support for up to six desktop-style windows at once, as well as a menu bar, and updates to the dock and background processing.

We already recommend the base model iPad and iPad Pro as some of the best tablets you can buy, but this upcoming update has got me thinking about where Apple now sits in the wider tablet market.

It’s no secret that Apple’s tablet hardware is the best on the market – there are simply no other tablets with the raw processing power the iPad Pro and iPad Air's M-series chipsets can offer.

Speaking frankly, the only thing giving other tablet makers a chance has been software – iPadOS has long been held back by a lack of flexibility and unintuitive design, while rivals like Samsung have pushed ahead with innovative features like DeX, which offers a desktop-style experience that works especially well with a keyboard and mouse.

But with iPadOS 26 bringing huge updates, that could all change.

Samsung's options

I recently spent some time testing the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus for an upcoming review, and found it to be a big, premium-feeling tablet that offers a lot of software flexibility at the cost of performance.

In fact, having used the Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus in a variety of situations, I think the only reason someone should buy one is if they absolutely need its combination of a large 13-inch screen, flexible multitasking, and intermediate price (starting at $649 / £649 / AU$1,099).

iPadOS 26’s windowed multitasking, from what we’ve seen so far, is not as developed or as open-ended as Samsung DeX, but in true Apple style it’ll probably be just useful enough to overshadow Samsung’s offering when combined with the iPad’s hardware power.

That takes away a major advantage to buying a Samsung tablet pretty much instantly.

If you ask me, Samsung should be really quite worried about this, and has one of two options to survive an upcoming iPad renaissance.

The first is simply cutting prices as much as costs allow. Samsung tablets are definitively premium devices, with great build quality and sometimes bigger screens than comparably priced iPads – but they’re still very expensive, and don't perform as well as Apple's tablets.

Like it or not, iPadOS is the standard for how a tablet works, so asking users to shell out almost as much as an iPad costs for a device that isn’t as powerful, runs potentially unfamiliar software, and offers just slightly more utility looks like a pretty mediocre deal.

The second option is stepping up performance without an increase in price – our Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review and Samsung Galaxy S10 Ultra review found the tablets to be solid performers, but not to Apple’s standards. That’s backed up by our own Future Labs testing data: neither Samsung tablet catches up to the latest iPad Air in single or multicore benchmarks.

A renewed rivalry

Both of these options ask a lot of Samsung, perhaps more than can be delivered in a few release cycles.

But with Apple’s smooth user experience, wider selection of professional apps, more powerful hardware, and upcoming multitasking improvements, I seriously can’t see the point in buying a Samsung tablet right now.

That's not me giving Apple an easy ride either, let me be clear that as someone who personally bought an iPad Pro in 2020, the long wait for proper multitasking on iPad has been very, very frustrating. But having used both iPads and Samsung tablets, I'd still pick the iPad any day thanks to its better app availability and smoother user experience.

And my own experiences aside, there's no denying that iPads are vastly more popular than Samsung tablets. A Forbes report from September 2024 estimates that Apple holds 35.8% of the tablet market worldwide, compared to Samsung's 20.1%. That's going to make the impact of iPadOS 26 feel even more significant, even if the features added are ones Samsung users have enjoyed for years.

That’s not to say there are no benefits to buying a Samsung tablet: One UI 7 is rich with customizable settings, and the aforementioned Dex mode really is fantastic. It’s just that iPadOS 26 is poised to take Apple’s tablet platform to a new level of competition.

I'd like to see a future in which the best iPads and the best Samsung tablets keep clashing head-to-head; here’s hoping Samsung can make the right moves to keep up. Look out for my full Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus review soon.

As ever, the comments section is open for discussion – is Apple destined to take over? Or does Samsung have more of a chance than I think? Let us know below.

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How quickly five years goes by – I can scarcely believe it, but it’s been almost half a decade since I picked up my 11-inch iPad Pro and second-generation Apple Pencil.

The approach of WWDC 2025 has brought an onslaught of rumors about Apple’s upcoming operating system updates, and given the timing of the above I’ve been drawn to the latest tip-offs and suggestions about iPadOS 19.

Speaking personally, I’m pretty excited by the prospect of an iPad operating system that’s tipped to be the most Mac-like iPadOS update ever – check out our recent roundup of iPadOS 19 features we want to see for a detailed breakdown.

But on the other hand, as a user of both Apple and Android devices, I’ll believe it when I see it. Android has surpassed Apple in terms of tablet multitasking and computer compatibility so successfully that I’d almost stopped hoping for any proper competition from Apple in the software arena (iPads arguably have the superior hardware and a better optimized app ecosystem.)

To be fair, in the last five years I’ve put my iPad Pro to good use. It carried me through the first two years of my degree, and has been a fabulous companion for streaming video, controlling Spotify playback, and doodling on ProCreate. I’ve edited audio and video, taken photos, made spreadsheets and diagrams, and scrolled through plenty of social media posts.

But since picking up a 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro just over a year ago, I’ve noticed my iPad usage falling steadily – to the point where its A12Z processor and still-lovely 120Hz LCD display have mostly been relegated to the status of YouTube machine.

As anyone who’s owned an iPad knows, that’s pretty much death’s door for an Apple tablet, no matter the model. In the latter years of my older iPad Air (the original model released in 2013), I was using the tablet for the exact same thing, despite not having a Mac at the time, and the iPad Pro's greater power and multitasking capabilities.

Given five years is somewhat aged for my iPad Pro, especially as its successors moved to the powerful and efficient M-series Apple chips, I’ve been eyeing up some of the best iPads as a possible successor to the Pro, and to give me a tablet that I'll use for a lot more than streaming.

To be honest, though, the spark I felt with my previous two Apple tablets just isn’t there this time.

The crux of this is I don't feel there's enough 'pro' features to justify and upgrade to the latest iPad Pro, and see it become my primary device for work and play over my MacBook. Unless you absolutely need the touchscreen or Apple Pencil, I think it’s quicker to get things done on the more flexible, more powerful macOS-based machine.

That’s because iPadOS just isn't powerful enough without proper desktop-style features – its multitasking is usable, but awkward, the files app convenient, but nerfed, the ecosystem smooth, but much more closed off than a traditional desktop. Essentially, I feel in its current guise iPadOS means the iPad Pro is essentially a powered-up iPad Air rather than a MacBook replacement that would pique my interest.

I’m not the first to say that the iPad’s remarkable hardware is held back by iPadOS. I'm not even the first TechRadar journalist to say so - Managing Editor, Core Tech Matt Hanson said he found that "the power of the M4 chip largely went to waste with the iPad Pro" earlier this year.

I think the hardware jump from my current 11-inch iPad Pro to one of the gorgeous 2024 models, with their slim build, Tandem OLED displays, and ludicrously powerful M4 chipsets, would feel even greater than the jump from the original iPad Air to my current 2020 iPad Pro, which makes the limitations of iPadOS even more frustrating. Why invest in all that power if the software can't take advantage of it?

So, without being too dramatic, I think this coming WWDC is Apple’s last chance to show me it really knows what it’s doing with the iPad.

While I’d settle for new features that offer a more purposeful tablet experience while remaining entirely separate from the Mac, what I really want to see is Apple pushing the iPad towards a bolder, more capable role, leaving its ‘YouTube machine’ moniker firmly in the past.

One could even suggest having a separate fork to iPadOS, such as iPadOS Pro, that focuses on pro-grade multitasking, a better mouse-centric interface when using an iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, and file management and transfer that's suitable for people doing professional work such as video editing.

There's always been the perceived concern that Apple wouldn't do this due to cannibalising MacBook users, but there's scope that by making iPadOS more macOS-like for iPad Pros you could get an more capable and flexible tablet that could augment one Apple product collection than dilute it; for example photographers and video editors could use an iPad Pro with a more pro-centric iPadOS to do on the fly edits or tap into powerful Apple Intelligence features, while out in the field, then move over to a MacBook Pro when back at their desk or in a more laptop-friendly environment.

So my hope is we see something special from Apple at WWDC that supercharges iPadOS, if not with an eye on professionals then in a fashion that really harnesses the M-series chip power to make iPadOS more distinct, and less of what's arguably a modified take on iOS 18.

WWDC 2025 kicks off on June 9 – be sure to bookmark our how to watch WWDC 2025 guide and keep an eye on our phones coverage and tablets coverage for the latest updates. Let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments below.

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WWDC 2025 is almost here, and we’re expecting to hear big news of Apple’s upcoming iOS 19, macOS 16, visionOS and iPadOS 19 operating systems updates.

While we’re expecting the best iPhones and best Macs to get some substantial updates, it could be an even bigger year for the iPad if the latest rumors are to be believed.

According to various rumors, iPadOS 19 could bring Apple’s tablet experience closer to a true computer feel than ever before, as well as getting a new look and perhaps even a new name.

So, with that all in mind, here are the six new features we'll be looking out for at the WWDC keynote on June 9 – check out our how-to-watch WWDC guide to tune in yourself.

Better multitasking

When Apple launched Stage Manager for iPad in 2022, reactions were mixed. The new UI mode gave users groups of kind-of free-floating windows, but was generally considered both too complicated in its usage and too simple in its capabilities.

With Samsung DeX giving Samsung users access to a proper laptop-style mode on their tablets, and Android 16 promising free-floating windows for multitasking, Apple needs to step up its game to keep up.

The simple answer is free-floating windows in Stage Manager. Apple’s multitasking solution actually has pretty good range when it comes to resizing windows, so this is the natural next step.

And as Reddit user albertserene suggests in a post to r/iPadOS, Apple could also offer the ability to save groups of windowed apps as presets, similar to the much-loved Desktops feature on Mac.

We recently reported on rumors from noted tipster Majin Bu that suggest Stage Manager could get a major update with iPadOS 19, but haven’t heard any further details.

Multiple accounts

Sticking with the iPad’s push towards computer-style use, it’d be great to see Apple allow users to set up multiple accounts on the same iPad.

This is an essential feature for families, entrepreneurs, and businesses, or indeed anyone who wants to use their iPad for two or more different purposes.

Apple does offer Profiles, but these are designed for use by one individual who wants to switch between different notification and app settings at different times.

Though there are no strong rumors for this feature, others like Mashable have also pointed out the lack of multiple user support on iPad, and it’s something we’ve had our eyes on here at TechRadar and TechRadar Pro for more than a decade.

A new look

It’s been a little while since we reported on rumors of a visionOS inspired visual overhaul for iOS and iPadOS – but in the time since I’ve become more excited at the prospect of a new look for Apple’s mobile operating systems.

A focus on transparency and glass-like UI would work well with an updated Stage Manager – with more on screen, it could be useful to have a way to peek through certain UI elements.

And focusing in on the two current iPad Pro models – the thinnest tablets Apple has ever made – a sleek new software design would compliment the beautiful hardware of Apple’s most powerful tablets especially well.

iOS and iPadOS haven’t had a major UI redesign since iOS 7, all the way back in 2013.

A Mac-style Menu Bar

Sticking with the themes of Mac-like productivity and new visuals, further rumors suggest that iPadOS could be getting a menu bar in the style of macOS.

Again going off of rumors from noted tipster Majin Bu, it seems the iPad could get a Mac-style Menu Bar, offering contextual options for the currently-engaged app as well as more general settings.

This could be a neat addition to the iPad, especially the 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Pro models. On smaller iPads – particularly the iPad mini – I’m a little more concerned about losing screen space.

Improved Siri

The long-awaited Siri update could be on the way with iPadOS 19, bringing the full power of Apple Intelligence to Cupertino's virtual assistant.

The new Siri should be able to answer more complex questions and perform a wider range of in-app functions. We’ve been looking forward to this update for quite a while now, considering that Siri has started to fall behind other digital assistants, like Google’s AI powered Gemini.

Furthermore, we had originally expected Siri to get an overhaul at some point during the lifespan of iPadOS 18, but this didn’t materialize due to the botched rollout of Apple Intelligence.

Split keyboard

This is a smaller one, and more of a speculation, but I’d personally like to see Apple bring back split keyboard support for every iPad that runs iPadOS 19.

As pointed out by Reddit user AungmyintmyatHane, Apple doesn't support the split keyboard feature on modern iPads.

I’m an iPad user myself, and it’s never made sense to me that my 2013 iPad Air allowed me to split the keyboard in two for easier typing in landscape mode, while my newer, more powerful, and more expensive 2020 iPad Pro 11-inch lacks the same function.

I doubt Apple would make much noise about this feature returning, but it’d go a long way in making the iPad feel more flexible.

What are you looking forward to most at WWDC? Let us know in the comments below.

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Part of what makes Apple’s iPad experience so compelling is the sheer versatility of the tablet. Back when I reviewed the new iPad Air with M3, I called out the multiple ways of using it: touch, Apple Pencil, or via a Magic Keyboard. It’s a pretty winning formula.

Here in the States, it was Small Business Week last week, and I had the chance to chat with Mandy Corcoran, a surface designer whose work has been used on products sold at Home Goods, TJMaxx, and Nordstrom Rack, to name a few.

Now, I love a good design in its own right, but the tech angle here lies deep as Corcoran – who goes by Amanda Grace Design – uses an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Procreate to do it all.

It all started in 2018 on Christmas morning, when her husband gave her an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, and as Corcoran says, “it changed everything.”

“I downloaded Procreate that day, and something just clicked,” she explained, noting that the Apple Pencil felt natural. After sketching digitally within Procreate, she had a realization that this would be a larger part of her life.

Before jumping into design work, Corcoran was rooted in tech; she was a programmer, which she described as very logic-based – “it’s structure, flow, and problem-solving, which always appealed to my brain. When I found seamless pattern design in Procreate, it felt like a creative extension of that mindset.” And she got her start with drawing – pre iPad – using a Wacom Cintiq and Adobe Photoshop.

When she designs patterns with Procreate, Corcoran says it lets her use her “tech-brain” creatively. She explains that there is a mathematical precision to the creative and design process, as she needs to fit various designs together, figure out the right flow, and ultimately end up with something meaningful.

“For me, it’s all about giving people tools to unlock their creativity faster,” explains Corcoran on creating templates and patterns. She noted that when she first started, there weren’t many templates or charts to help with layout and eyeflow.

So, when she first began designing, she went on a deep dive within the app and ecosystem, learning every part of it. This helped her create her first course and become one of the first educators offering customizable pattern templates in 2023.

And her focus, or special sauce, is really all around surface design – creating the tools herself, but also offering courses to let others create with these tools and design their own.

It’s sort of an iPad ecosystem for design, and a well-brewing one at that. She explains it as, “I run a design business, create online courses, build templates, test brushes,” all on the iPad, and it’s one device where she can have everything live without worrying about if there’s enough power or speed.

Corcoran uses an iPad Pro, a 13-inch one with the M4 chip under the hood. In TechRadar’s testing, it performed incredibly well, letting you blaze through almost any task you’d want to on an iPad and running more intensive creative workflows without a hitch.

She has been a fan of the Apple Pencil, describing it as “an extension of your thinking.” Corcoran’s been using the Apple Pencil Pro with her iPad Pro, which offers a bit more functionality, including barrel roll support and squeeze functionality.

“As someone who loves creating systems, I really appreciate how hover, double tap, and now squeeze with Apple Pencil Pro give me shortcuts at my fingertips – without ever putting my pencil down. That’s huge,” explains Corcoran.

Using it all together within Procreate and other creative apps, it allows for more precision when creating a design, and when Corcoran is teaching, it’s an easier way to explain “how to move faster” and with more confidence.

It’s clear that iPad and Apple Pencil have been a key part of Corcoran’s career, allowing her to create her own business but also encouraging other folks to create and design on their own. “iPad and Apple Pencil have allowed me to build a creative career on my own terms – and that’s not something I take for granted.”

Further, she says that you don’t need to be an expert to get started with being creative on iPad, encouraging folks and TechRadar readers to “just open an app like Procreate, tap around, and start playing.”

A few weeks back, on April 26, 2025, at the Apple Carnegie store in Washington, DC, Corcoran hosted a Today at Apple Session for 30 participants on creating within Procreate using patterns around a fruit theme. She described it as a full-circle moment, ultimately allowing her to teach what has been a life-changing process for her.

After creating countless patterns and designs – some now featured on products in major retailers – she left the crowd feeling inspired and confident.

“A few people told me afterward they’d never even realized how many things in their lives had patterns – and that this opened their eyes in a completely new way,” noted Corcoran.

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The iPad Pro and iPad Air have never been more similar – at the time of writing, Apple’s high end and midrange tablets both feature an M-series chipset, high-resolution display, single camera, support for the Apple Pencil Pro, and come in 11-inch and 13-inch variants.

That’s partially due to the fact that the iPad Pro and iPad Air have developed at different rates. The iPad Pro hits a bit of a ceiling when it comes to performance, as the monstrously powerful M4 chipset is, frankly, under-utilized by iPadOS.

It’s still the most powerful tablet on the market, though, with one of the best displays on any mobile device.

The iPad Air, conversely, had plenty of room to grow when Apple relaunched it in 2020, and has since picked up the M3 chipset, an enlarged 13-inch version, and support for the Apple Pencil Pro.

Its current generation, released in 2025, is a confident midrange device, rather than a blank intermediate between the cheap base-model iPad and pricey iPad Pro.

There are, of course, some substantial differences between the two devices, most noticeably in their display tech, peripheral support, and price tags.

If you're stuck deciding between either device, don't sweat it – simply read on for a detailed breakdown of the differences between each.

Editor's note: some of the iPad Air images in this article are of the 2024 iPad Air with M2 chipset. As the 2025 model was just a spec bump, the two iterations are visually identical.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Specs

Keep scrolling for a detailed head-to-head between the iPad Pro and iPad Air, but if you just want a quick overview, check out the table below.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Price and availability

The iPad Pro is the most expensive tablet Apple sells and one of the most expensive on the market overall.

The iPad Pro starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 for the 11-inch model with 256GB of storage and $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,299 for the 13-inch model with 256GB of storage. Storage for both tops out at an impressive 2TB, which will set you back $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,449 for the 11-inch model and a patently ridiculous $2,299 / £2,299 / AU$3,949 for the 13-inch model.

The iPad Air is more moderately priced, but those higher storage tiers can get quite expensive. The iPad Air starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch model with 128GB of storage, and $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 for the 13-inch model with 128GB of storage.

Storage for both iPad Air models maxes out at 1TB, which will set you back $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,899 for the 11-inch model, and $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,249 for the 13-inch model.

The iPad Air is quite a bit cheaper than the iPad Pro when looking at their respective starting prices, but the gap does narrow when you adjust for the Air’s smaller starting storage capacity.

Ultimately, which is better value for money comes down to the features you prioritize – the iPad Air is the cheaper way to get an M-series chipset in a tablet, but only the iPad Pro has a 120Hz ProMotion display, 2TB storage option, and super-thin design.

However, I will say that $599 / £599 / AU$999 is an excellent starting price for the 11-inch iPad Air, even if 128GB of storage is a touch low.

As for availability, we’re talking about Apple here, so we can confidently say that the iPad Pro and iPad Air are some of the most readily available tablets in the world.

Both models of iPad Pro and iPad Air are sold by Apple directly, third-party retailers, and some mobile carriers.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Design and Display

Though both the iPad Pro and iPad Air sport beautiful displays with the same choice between 11-inch and 13-inch options, the iPad Pro pulls ahead in several categories. This is where the iPad Pro really gets to shine, unfettered by the limitations of its operating system.

The iPad Pro comes equipped with one of the best displays on any device. That’s not an exaggeration: our iPad Pro (2024) review found that Apple’s tandem OLED is bold, bright, and fantastically detailed, with a resolution of 1668 x 2420 for the 11-inch model and 2064 x 2752 for the 13-inch model.

That tandem OLED moniker refers to the layering of two OLED panels on top of one another, which increases image consistency and reduces burn-in. The iPad Pro is the only Apple product to use this technology, which also resolves the bloom issue prevalent on prior iPad models.

Both the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro feature Apple’s ProMotion technology, which is the company’s term for displays with a variable 1-120Hz refresh rate. Models with 1TB or 2TB of storage can be fitted with nano-texture glass, which reduces reflections and glare.

The two iPad Air models, in comparison, offer displays with similar resolutions but fewer cutting-edge specs. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models come with LCD displays that are locked at 60Hz.

Additionally, neither display quite matches the resolution of its corresponding iPad Pro: the 11-inch iPad Air has a resolution of 1640 x 2360, while the 13-inch model has a resolution of 2048 x 2732. The iPad Air also lacks the option for nano-textured glass.

Design-wise, the iPad Pro and iPad Air each feature full-screen displays with Face ID functionality, an aluminum chassis, and three-point smart connector on the rear panel. The iPad Pro is notably very thin – at 5.3mm for the 11-inch model and 5.1mm for the 13-inch model, it’s the slimmest tablet Apple has ever made.

The iPad Pro pulls ahead in both design and display. Its display is best-in-class, and its design is forward-thinking. The iPad Air offers great displays and a solid build, but it can’t compete with the Pro on either front.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Cameras

The iPad Pro and iPad Air sport the same 12MP rear camera and 12MP selfie camera. The Pro gets a few software bells and whistles, but really there’s very little difference between the two.

Apple surprised some iPad fans at the time of the iPad Pro (2024) by dropping the tablet’s ultra-wide camera, a staple since the iPad Pro was redesigned in 2018. The iPad isn’t usually a first choice for photography, though, so it’s not that major of a loss.

Both rear cameras can record video at 4K, but only the iPad Pro can record in ProRes. Again, I’m not sure anyone is out filming pro-level video with an iPad, but it’s a nice option to have.

The 12MP selfie camera found on the iPad Pro and iPad Air is the same as the one found on the iPhone 16. Both support Center Stage, Apple’s face-tracking technology for video calls and recording. The iPad Pro also supports TrueDepth, the face-scanning tech that powers Face ID.

There’s not much difference to compare here – both will do fine for taking the odd snap and scanning documents, and the iPad Pro’s exclusive features aren’t meaningful enough that they should sway your decision.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Performance

Though the iPad Pro is equipped with technically better internal hardware than the iPad Air, the needs of most iPad users are such that the difference is unlikely to be very noticeable unless you’re taking on intensive media work or the heaviest multitasking.

The fact of the matter is that iPadOS 18 – which both tablets run – is now outpaced by these tablets' internal hardware, meaning you’re more likely to come up against a software ceiling than any sort of hardware deficiency. For both devices, screen size has no bearing on internal power.

To get specific, the iPad Pro comes with the M4 chipset. Models with less than 1TB of storage come with 8GB of RAM, while the 1TB and 2TB models each come with 16GB of RAM.

That extra RAM and processing headroom will prove valuable for those who enjoy gaming on their iPad Pro, or indeed who use their tablet for professional work with apps such as Final Cut Pro for iPad or Adobe Lightroom.

The iPad Air gets the M3 chipset and 8GB of RAM for all models. That’s honestly not far from the lower-specced iPad Pros in terms of hardware horsepower.

Both the M4 and M3 chipsets are desktop class and enable the iPad Pro and iPad Air to access the full suite of Apple Intelligence tools. Both are more than powerful enough to sustain highly demanding workloads and will breeze through day-to-day use, with full support for external monitors and windowed multitasking via Stage Manager.

As for accessories, both tablets support the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C). The iPad Pro is only compatible with the aptly named Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, while the iPad Air gets its own Magic Keyboard for iPad Air, while retaining support for the previous-generation Magic Keyboard. Both support pairing keyboards, mice, and other devices over Bluetooth.

The iPad Pro wins in this category due to its increased internal power and objectively better hardware specs – but do consider whether you really need that extra power.

The stubbornly limited power of iPadOS has smoothed out the advantages of the Pro when it comes to raw performance, and unless you're using it for professional work, the Air will probably have enough horsepower for you.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Battery

iPads are renowned for their long battery lives. The iPad Pro and iPad Air are no different, each providing a quoted 10 hours of video playback or web surfing; though the 13-inch models have a larger battery, their larger displays deplete the cell faster than the 11-inch models’ smaller panels.

Apple doesn't list specific battery capacities for iPads in milliamp hours (mAh), so the following are estimates listed by GSMArena.

The iPad Pro 11-inch sports an 8,160mAh battery, while the 13-inch model has a 10,290mAh battery.

The iPad Air 11-inch comes equipped with a 7,606mAh battery, which the 13-inch model bumps up to 9,705mAh

Across the board, these are some of the largest batteries you’ll find on any mobile device. The iPad Pro wins on capacity alone, but keep in mind that its larger, more advanced, 120Hz ProMotion display will likely draw a touch more power than the iPad Air’s 60Hz panel.

Specific charging speeds for either device are not listed by Apple. Again, though, Apple rates all four models as offering 10 hours of use, so on paper it’s a tie.

iPad Pro vs iPad Air: Verdict

The current-gen iPad Pro and iPad Air rank amongst the best iPads, or even the best tablets, ever made. Going with either device, in either size, will give you access to a smooth and powerful tablet experience as well as a key to the wider Apple ecosystem. Both are likely to feel as impressive and immersive as iPads typically do.

With that said, whether the iPad Pro or iPad Air will suit you better really comes down to your needs and budget.

If money is less of a concern, or you want to use your iPad for demanding professional work like photo or video editing, the the iPad Pro is the obvious choice.

Its stunning high-refresh rate display, faster chipset, higher maximum RAM, and svelte design give the iPad Pro an edge over the Air and other competitors. There's no getting around that huge price tag, though.

If you find yourself using your iPad more for more moderate work, or everyday tasks such as web browsing, social media, and watching shows and movies, then the iPad Air offers better value for money. The M3 chipset is very capable, and the iPad Air's display is still very good, even if it's not as excessively powerful as the iPad Pro.

So there you have it. The iPad Pro and iPad Air are both some of the most capable tablets that Apple has ever produced – the former better for media professionals and those who don't mind spending more, and the latter better for other professionals, students, and everyday users looking for better value for money.

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Though we’re still due at least one more mid-year update to iPadOS 19, we’re already hearing some juicy rumors about the next major update to Apple’s tablet operating system.

iPadOS 19 will probably be revealed at WWDC in June 2025, following the trend of previous years. Similarly, we expect that Apple’s next major iPadOS upgrade will make it to general release in September 2025, around the time we expect the iPhone 17 series to launch.

Apple doesn’t release iPads yearly in the way it does iPhones, so we’re not sure if any new iPads will be launched alongside the new software. We’d expect all current-gen iPads to support iPadOS 19 on release.

Keep reading for a roundup of the 4 biggest iPadOS 19 rumors we’ve heard so far, as well as 2 further things I’d like to see come to the iPad platform.

• iPadOS 19 is still fairly far away, but we've already heard some key rumors
• New homescreen features could be on the way, as well as a new low-power mode
• New features shared with iOS 19 are rumored to include an Apple Intelligence-powered Siri and visionOS-inspired redesign

Pinned files on the homescreen

Apple fans have been calling out en masse for more desktop-style iPad features for a few years now – and honestly, I get it. The iPad Pro and iPad Air especially are as powerful on paper as certain MacBooks, powered by M-series chipsets with as much as 16GB of RAM.

We don’t expect that iPadOS 19 will push Apple’s tablets drastically closer to the desktop experience, but a notable tipster suggests that at least one new desktop-style feature is on the way.

According to longtime tipster Majin Bu, iPadOS 19 will bring the ability to pin files and folders to the homescreen, which we imagine means they’ll appear similarly to app icons.

This could add flexibility to the iPad experience, allowing users to set up pages of their homescreen with each focused on different projects or folders. Users have long been able to add websites and widgets to the iPad homescreen, so adding files feels like a natural extension.

A new low-power mode

A further rumor from tipster Majin Bu notes that iPadOS 19 could bring an overhauled low-power mode to Apple’s tablet lineup.

The rumor suggests that iPadOS 19 will fold the low-power mode into Apple Intelligence, using AI to optimize performance and conserve battery life.

Currently, the iPad’s low-power mode prioritizes essential tasks, dims the screen, and locks the display to a 60hz refresh rate on models with ProMotion displays (which only includes iPad Pro models at the time of writing).

Though I’m a noted AI skeptic, this sounds like a great way to use it. Some of my concerns about AI are to do with power efficiency, so if Apple is looking to use it to conserve energy I'm happy to watch with curiosity rather than doubt.

Apple Intelligence, meet Siri

Siri is due to get its long-awaited Apple Intelligence update with the next major iPadOS update, in line with contemporaneous updates to iOS and macOS.

Apple had initially sought to imbue Siri with the full power of Apple Intelligence via a mid-year iPadOS 18 update, but this has unfortunately failed to materialize.

As well as marking another chapter in the messy rollout of Apple Intelligence, this has led various commentators to adjust their expectations and set sights on iPadOS 19 as Siri’s saviour.

As we recently covered, Siri is well overdue an update, as it still struggles to answer certain basic questions.

A possible redesign

As we previously reported, Bloomberg’s resident Apple expert Mark Gurman has suggested that iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16 will all come with a major visionOS inspired redesign – think transparent windows, circular icons, and less visual clutter.

Though we’ve not seen many rumors focused on the possible iPadOS overhaul, we have seen images that supposedly show the redesigned iOS camera app.

Though most of the latest Apple software redesign rumors have concerned iOS, it tracks that iPadOS would receive a similar visual refresh, as the two typically mirror each other when it comes to aesthetics.

iPadOS has technically never had a major redesign, as the operating system only diverged from iOS in 2019. The last major iOS redesign came in 2012, with the introduction of iOS 7.

What I want to see from iPadOS 19

I’ve been an iPad user since long before I joined the TechRadar team, and my trusty 2020 iPad Pro is still ticking along – but like many others I think there are a few key things Apple could do to elevate the experience with iPadOS 19.

The first is proper floating window support. I don’t care if it’s packaged as part of Stage Manager, I just want to be able to resize windows at will and place them where I want. I’ve given up on wanting the iPad to behave exactly like a Mac, but I don’t think this will cross any borders.

As mentioned, the iPad Pro and iPad Air now both sport desktop-class chipsets that are more than capable of running and resizing multiple windows – especially for first-party apps.

The second feature I’d like to see added is a software split keyboard. It honestly confuses me that my 11-inch iPad Pro doesn’t support this feature – the tablet is thin and portable, but just too big to type on comfortably when held vertically.

So there you have it – my two-part wishlist. Let us know what you want to see from iPadOS 19 in the comments, and for a refresher on Apple's current tablet lineup check out our list of the best iPads.

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• Demand has reportedly been weak for the OLED iPad Pro
• This means there are some expected changes to Apple's OLED roadmap
• This year's iPad Pro upgrade is set to be a minor one

Our iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) review will tell you that we love the most recent version of the tablet – the first to sport an OLED screen – but it doesn't come cheap, and its price is reportedly leading to weak demand for the Apple slate.

This comes from the industry analysts at Meritz Securities (via @Jukanlosreve), with around 5.7 million units apparently shipping last year. If accurate, that figure is some way down on the nine million units Apple was originally hoping to shift.

What's more, the same report says there won't be many changes in the OLED iPad Pro rumored to launch later this year. While it is predicted to get an upgrade to an M5 chip, it sounds as though everything else will be more or less the same.

Given that the device isn't exactly flying off the shelves right now, and won't get a big upgrade this year, Apple is said to be revising its OLED tech plans – with some products coming forward and some getting pushed back.

What's coming next

Under the new schedule, the OLED iPad mini will make an appearance in 2026, while the OLED iPad Air is going to jump forward from 2028 to 2027 – that's if Meritz Securities and its sources have got their information correct.

An upgrade to the OLED tech in the iPad Pro – incorporating something called Capsule OLED Encapsulation, for improved performance and durability – has apparently been pushed back from 2027 to 2028.

While the starting price of $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 might be putting potential buyers off the 2024 iPad Pro, it seems Apple will continue to use the most expensive OLED displays for it. The iPad mini and iPad Air are thought to be getting cheaper OLED tech.

We most recently saw a new 7th-gen iPad Air and a refreshed entry-level iPad from Apple – neither of which come with an OLED display. If you're wondering which one is the right pick for you, check out our guide to the best iPads.

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• The new M3 iPad Air offers good value at $599 / £599 / AU$999
• But it becomes less attractive when you start adding upgrades
• If you’re doing that, buying an iPad Pro might make more sense

Apple has just launched a new iPad Air with M3 chip, updating the mid-range tablet while keeping its $599 / £599 / AU$999 starting price the same as the M2 edition – a nice little boost for Apple fans. Yet I’ve been having a look at the different configuration options (see the full list below), and pretty quickly you run into a problem: the iPad Pro.

Here’s an example. If it was me and I had my heart set on buying an iPad Air, I would probably want to get the 13-inch model over the 11-inch version. Not only does this get you a more expansive screen – which is fantastic for watching movies and editing videos – but it’s actually brighter than the 11-inch iPad Air. Whereas that device goes up to 500 nits of brightness, the 13-inch iPad Air maxes out at 600 nits.

But picking that upgrade pushes the iPad Air’s price up to $799 / £799 / AU$1,349. Add in a storage upgrade from the base 128GB to 256GB and you’re looking at a grand total of $899. That’s fairly pricey for a mid-range tablet, and it means the iPad Air loses some of its luster.

A pricing problem

If you’re spending this much money, it might actually be worth considering the 11-inch iPad Pro, which starts at just $100 more ($999 / £999 / AU$1,699).

That gets you an excellent tandem OLED display, Face ID, ProMotion refresh rates, up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness, and the M4 chip, among other benefits. That’s a lot of extra oomph for not much more cash. The main drawback is you’re getting a smaller 11-inch screen, as the 13-inch iPad Pro starts at the more expensive asking price of $1,299 / £1,299 / $2,199.

But if you can live with the 11-inch display (which is still a fantastic screen thanks to that tandem OLED), you’re getting one of the best tablets money can buy for only a little more than a less-advanced iPad Air. And, ironically, the iPad Pro is even thinner than the iPad Air, despite the latter’s name implying that it should be the most lightweight option.

It’s a tricky position to be in. Don’t get me wrong, the base-level $599 / £599 / AU$999 iPad Air is great value, and you get a lot of tablet for your money thanks to its featherweight design and M3 chip. But once you start adding on the upgrades, it’s much less attractive compared to the iPad Pro.

Deciding which device is right for you comes down to personal preference, but if I was looking at the iPad Air and adding a few upgrades, I’d find myself drifting inexorably towards the iPad Pro.

Maybe that’s Apple upselling people by being clever with its pricing, or maybe it’s an oversight that’s undercutting the iPad Air. Either way, the new iPad Air makes the most sense when you don’t add any upgrades to it.

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Right now, Apple’s iPad lineup is a strong four, two of which come in two sizes. Just this morning, Apple ushered in the next generation of the iPad Air and the entry-level iPad, which is now dubbed iPad (A16).

Even with the gorgeous Dynamic OLED display on the iPad Pro, the bite-sized build of the iPad mini, and the sheer value of the iPad Air – now with M3 – the entry-level iPad is still a perfect balancing act.

On paper, the most recent upgrade seems minimal – it’s a jump from the A14 Bionic chip to the A16, which Apple promises delivers up to 50% better performance and a doubling of the internal storage from 64GB to 128GB. Both of these keep this iPad ticking, but what it doesn’t bring is support for Apple Intelligence.

It's kind of a surprise, yes, but it also shows that Apple isn’t necessarily on a quest to bring it to every device, or at least not at this time. Further, I think it’s a sign of what this entry-level iPad is all about and a testament to the fact that the rest of the hardware here makes it a pretty perfect package.

High-end looks with likely stellar performance

There is no knocking the iPad (A16) for its looks – it still comes in some fun colors and boasts an iPad Air-esque design with rounded edges and a healthy bezel around the now-called 11-inch Liquid Retina display that’s still 10.86 inches. It looks modern in every sense of the word, even though it’s stuck in the design language that was used when it was the tenth Generation.

This was also the first iPad with a front-facing camera on the landscape side and Apple’s still sticking with that placement on everything but the iPad mini. You also get an easy way of unlocking and purchasing with Touch ID built into the power button, and there is a camera on the back should you want to take photos with your iPad.

The Apple Pencil situation here is still a little complicated as the iPad (A16) has a USB-C port but supports the first-generation Apple Pencil even though it has a Lightning port built-in. To charge it, you’ll need an adapter and a USB-C to USB-C cable – it’s incredibly clunky, but it works.

You can also opt for the Apple Pencil with USB-C, which you can slide the top over to expose the USB-C port to plug it in for charge. That’s equally clunky. It does magnetically attach to the side of the iPad (A16) for safe-keeping, but that won’t charge it.

Once you figure out how to keep it charged, it works like an Apple Pencil should – giving you an experience that’s close to writing with pen to paper or drawing on a surface. Scribble is supported here, letting you write a message, and the iPad automatically translates it to text. It was kind of an Apple Intelligence-like feature before that was dubbed the name for Apple’s suite of AI functionality.

The A16 chip here should be plenty powerful for all the major tasks one would want to use an iPad for, like:

• Following a recipe
• Browsing the web
• Playing a game from the App Store or Apple Arcade
• FaceTiming with friends or family
• Reading a book
• Listening to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run
• Scrolling through photos or editing some
• Typing a story … maybe even this one?
• Taking notes with an Apple Pencil
• Endless other things
• Streaming movies and TV shows

You get the point, but the vast majority of things that one can do on an iPad are all possible here (with the notable exception of Apple Intelligence). No, it might not replace a high-performance workflow that you’d need an iPad Air or iPad Pro for, but for the basics and even some more fun processes, the iPad (A16) is more than capable.

After all, to deserve the name of iPad, it needs to be an iPad. But when my friends or family ask me which one is best, if they aren’t doing anything crazy and simply want an iPad to join the bandwagon, as a secondary device, or as one for streaming content, this entry-level iPad checks off the boxes.

It has the better Magic Keyboard

If you want to use the iPad for email, spreadsheets, or other productivity tasks, it also works with my favorite Apple keyboard accessory. The Magic Keyboard Folio has two parts: one that magnetically snaps to the back with a kickstand that you can prop up at various heights, and a keyboard on the front complete with function keys and a good-sized trackpad.

When you don’t need the keyboard, that front piece can snap to the back with the keys facing inward so you don’t accidentally have the keys pressed. It’s great and super functional; it’s not the cheapest, though, at $249.

The previous tenth-generation iPad is our pick for the ‘Best iPad’ overall, and on our Best Tablets page, is the best for most. I expect that this iPad (A16) will quickly shuffle into that spot with better performance after we go hands-on, even without Apple Intelligence.

So if you can live without Image Playground, summarized notifications, or writing tools and want an iPad for drawing, browsing the web, FaceTiming with friends or family, gaming, and streaming your favorite content, don’t dismiss the entry-level iPad … it’s pretty awesome. And I can’t wait to test one out, hopefully in Yellow or Pink.

Apple's taking preorders now for the iPad (A16) with a starting price of $349 / £329, and it will formally launch on March 12, 2025.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook channeled his inner Phil Collins this week by posting "There’s something in the Air" as a teaser. Yesterday we saw the arrival of a new iPad Air M3 tablet with a refreshed Magic Keyboard, and now Apple has followed that up by launching a new MacBook Air M4 and Mac Studio.

First, a recap of yesterday's news. That new iPad Air comes in 11-inch or 13-inch sizes, both of which cost the same as before. You can pre-order the 11-inch model for $599 / £599 / AU$999 or the 13-inch version for $799 / £799 / AU$1,349 ahead of a March 12 delivery, in your choice of Blue, Purple, Starlight, or Space Gray color options.

Apple also quietly updated the base iPad, doubling the base storage but keeping the A16 chip. This means it won't get Apple Intelligence – an odd decision, considering how much Apple has been promoting its AI features.

Fortunately for MacBook Air fans, that wasn't the end of the news. Apple has now also announced a new MacBook Air M4 model (complete with a slight price cut from last year) and a Mac Studio, which it's calling "the most powerful Mac ever". Here's all the latest news and reaction in another big day for Apple...

The latest news

• Apple has announced a new entry-level MacBook Air M4 laptop
• It's also landed alongside a new Mac Studio desktop
• This follows yesterday's launch of the iPad Air M3

Hello. Mobile Computing Managing Editor Roland Moore-Colyer here to take you through the Apple rumors and TechRadar musings so far. I've been covering such Apple announcements and major Apple events for years, so I feel I'm qualified to have a good ol' stab at speculating what we might see from Apple this week.

Thinking differently...

In days gone by, Apple would normally have a couple of big events a year with an in-person or live streamed event that would usually see the reveal of a handful of products around specific categories, such as phones, tablets and computers.

But as the crew at Cupertino have started to push out ever-more iterative updates to Apple's product lines, these events have given away to announcements on social media and Apple's own newsroom page. To me this lacks the spectacle but does give us regular Apple announcements to chew over.

The last Apple announcement of the newsroom ilk came in the form of the iPhone 16e reveal. Apple simply posted an information drop on its website and had the phone up for pre-order pretty sharpish.

There was a decent amount of information to chew over but one could argue the announcement lacked Cupertino's normal appetite for showmanship. I expect the announcement this week to be very similar to that of the iPhone 16e's.

Expect M4 chip power

So what do I and others expect to see from the Apple announcement? Well as discussed it'll very likely be a pair of new MacBook Air laptops.

While the current pair of MacBook Airs are hardly old, having been refreshed last year with the M3 chip, they don't sport the very latest chips; those can be found in the MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch.

Those models rock the 'Pro' version of the M4 chip, so we can expect to see non-pro version come to refreshed Airs.

As someone still using the MacBook Air M2, which is a fantastic little laptop that's going very strong after two years of consistent use, I'm not overly convinced Apple really needs to refresh the Air lineup on just a specs basis.

But Apple is Apple, and minor refreshes to its products are to be expected... if not exactly desired.

I'd like a new design for the MacBook Air please Apple

Having said that I love the MacBook Air M2, I'd not mind a few tweaks to the slim laptop's design. A 14-inch display, perhaps facilitated by some narrowing of the display bezels and a trimming down of the display notch, would definitely get my attention.

I love the LCD Retina display on my Air M2, but it can feel a tad cramped at times when I'm trying to get work done on the go and at speed.

But there are no rumors indicating to a reworked MacBook Air design. So I'm not going to hold my breath and expect the display notch to have been given a nip and a tuck.

Equally, one can never be 100% sure when it comes to Apple. And the MacBook Air's design language is a bit long in the tooth for tech standards. So perhaps we could be in for a surprise.

Other areas for MacBook Air improvement could come in the form of a refreshed keyboard. I love the keyboard on my Air, and my fingers fly across it when I'm writing at speed.

However, there's not the deepest of key travel and sometimes I feel the keyboard lacks the tactile feel of the amazing keyboard on the Microsoft Surface Laptop models; those balanced snappy responses with a decent bit of travel to make for a wonderfully tactile experience; I feel nostalgic for my old Surface Laptop 2.

On the flipside, I'd not want Apple to mess with the Force Touch trackpad, which is basically the best trackpad I've used on any laptop.

It's big, smooth and responsive and I adore it. Force Touch is an odd name however...

Other design changes and upgrades I'd like to see could come in the form of faster charging; the MacBook Air is by no means a slouch when sucking up electrical juice but it's not amazingly quick either.

I'd also not mind a few more ports. An extra USB-C slot would be appreciated, especially if Apple adds it to the right-hand side where there's seemingly loads of spare space.

And while I doubt Apple will ever do it, I'd love to see a full-sized SD card slot on the next-generation MacBook Air, as that would make transferring photos from my DSLR to macOS far easier than it currently is for me.

A final request for a MacBook Air upgrade would be a move to OLED displays. I feel Apple could thread the line of balancing bolder display tech with energy efficiency.

But if such an upgrade was coming this year I reckon the rumor mill would have been churning it out by now; we've heard no whispers.

When I'm in the office I use a Samsung laptop with an OLED display and adore how rich its colors are, and that deep contrast OLED offers. So there's potential here, but I suspect Apple will keep OLED panels for its MacBook Pros for a good few years still.

Dialing in my specualtion, the obvious upgrade for the MacBook Air, and one that I've mentioned earlier, would be an M4 chip.

We've already seen this system-on-a-chip get used in the latest versions of the iPad Pro, Mac mini and iMac, so it makes sense for new MacBook Air models to get it.

I highly doubt Apple will have tweaked the silicon to work any differently for the MacBook Airs than these other devices, though there's sure to be more headroom to push the chipset a little harder in a laptop chassis than in the iPad Pro.

Speaking from my experience with the MacBook Air M2, I'm rather unfussed on the next-generation Air having a dollop more power.

My Air has enough grunt to deal with basically any everyday task I throw at it. I opted for the model with 8GB of RAM and I don't think it's ever felt slow. Sure, it won't churn through the handful of proper PC games macOS supports, but it can run the excellent Baldur's Gate 3 so one might argue what more does one need...

Then again, I'm not a huge user of the AI-powered Apple Intelligence tools, which I suspect will only get more demanding as they advance.

So having M4 power could certainly make a new MacBook Air more futureproof.

Speaking of AI, I'd expect Apple announcement to lean hard on talking about Apple Intelligence and its integration into macOS, along with how an M4 chip-equipped Air will be poised perfectly to crunch through onboard AI tasks.

Not sure that'll rock my world but I stand ready to be entertained and informed.

Right, enough chatter about my thoughts on the MacBook Air. Let's take a closer look at the video Tim Cook posted. Check it out below.

As I mentioned earlier, the blue line that strikes through the word 'Air' has the look of a MacBook Air when closed, so would point towards a revealed of a new Air models.

Don't expect a new iPad Air this week

But then maybe Apple could go a bit rogue and reveal a new iPad Air.

However, putting aside Gurman's speculation that new iPads won't get revealed this week, I'm not convinced we'll see a new iPad Air this week. The Apple iPad Air 13-inch got launched last year to critical acclaim from TechRadar and others.

That iPad uses the M2 chip, so is arguably due a specs boost. But I'm not sure the iPad Air necessarily need a lot more power. For power-users the M4-equipped iPad Pros exist, albeit at pretty high prices.

Then again, giving a refreshed iPad Air an M3 chip would be one way for Apple to use up any M3 chips it had lying around and give it something else to announce. If that's the case, then I tend to agree with Gruman and don't expect to see a new iPad Air get revealed today; likely Apple will keep such an announcement in its back pocket for a reveal later.

I reckon Apple's announcement will come on Wednesday

So when do I think Apple will make an announcement? I'm predicting Wednesday.

Historically, Apple has favored Tuesdays for its product launches, but the iPhone 16e was launched on Wednesday, February 20. And my gut instinct tells me Apple could drop its announcement tomorrow, which would be two weeks on from the last announcement.

I feel that makes sense as it give some room for the nws to breathe before we get into the weekend. Of course, I could be totally wrong.

As an FYI, I'm keeping an eye on the Apple Newsroom webpage, just in case Apple suddenly drops its announcement today.

The page for the MacBook Air M3 is still up and running. Usually if there's a product drop that's imminently imminent, then Apple tends to have a message saying its updating the store.

Equally, pre-orders for a new MacBook Air might not go live on the same day as the announcement. Watch this space.

Apple announces... a new iPad Air M3

Well, that wasn't quite the MacBook-flavored news we were expecting, but we'll take it for now – Apple has just announced a new iPad Air with an M3 chip plus a new Magic Keyboard.

The new Air comes in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes – and the chip upgrade hasn't affected its price tag either, with the prices starting at the usual $599/£599/AU$999 (11-inch) and $799/£799/AU$1,349 (13-inch). The new Magic Keyboard, meanwhile, has a bigger built-in trackpad and a new 14-key function row.

Will the new iPad Air be an option for those waiting for the new MacBook Air M4? Probably not, judging by our Managing editor Matt Hansen's experiences when swapping his laptop for an iPad. But Apple's new Air certainly looks like a compelling mid-range tablet option.

The only question now is when we'll see that MacBook Air M4...

New base iPad misses out on Apple Intelligence

We've previously said that the Apple Intelligence launch is a mess – and Apple's quiet refresh of the entry-level iPad isn't going to help change people's minds about that.

Apple base iPad – now called the iPad (A16) – comes with a new chip, double the starting storage (128GB, up from 64GB), and the same price tag as before (starting at $349 / £329 / AU$599). But bizarrely, that A16 chip means it can't support Apple Intelligence.

Granted, Apple Intelligence features still aren't exactly living up to their potential, but it's strange for Apple to add a new product to its iPad lineup that doesn't support the features it's been crowing about for the last six months.

It might also make it difficult to recommend the new cheaper iPad, but we'll see when we get it in for testing...

What's new with the Magic Keyboard?

Arriving in the slipstream of the new iPad Air M3 is a refreshed Magic Keyboard for the Air series – so what's new?

The new keyboard attachment – which costs $269 / £269 / AU$399 for the 11-inch model, and $319 / £319 / AU$499 for the 13-inch one – gives you a larger trackpad than before, and also a row of function keys that you could previously only get on the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.

That means you can quickly tweak things like screen brightness or music volume, and generally get a more laptop-like experience. That's important because, with its new M3 chip, the latest iPad Air could tempt those who think (with some justification) that the iPad Pro 13-inch is overkill for their needs...

When can you buy the new iPad Air M3?

You can pre-order the new iPad Air M3 right now, with availability starting from March 12. So that's just over a week to wait, but which version should you get? I've broken down the pricing below.

With the maxed out version iPad Air M3 costing $1,449 / £1,449 / AU$2,499 (that's with 1TB storage and both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity), it might not sound so mid-range.

But that's unlikely to be necessary for most people – I'd personally be tempted by the 11-inch (512GB) Wi-Fi version, which looks ideal for travel, streaming and photo editing. Your needs may vary though, so here's a price breakdown for every model...

Where does this leave the MacBook Air M4?

It initially looked odds-on that Apple would announce the MacBook Air M4 today, rather than a new iPad Air – but the rumor mill isn't always correct, and it was new iPad day instead.

Does this mean the new MacBook Air is on the back burner? Not at all – in fact, I'd imagine we'll see that laptop refresh sooner rather than later. Maybe even tomorrow, if we're lucky.

While Apple isn't quite adopting the 12 days of OpenAI approach we saw last year, when the ChatGPT maker made a new announcement every day for almost a fortnight, it is definitely moving away from big events towards smaller announcements.

With that in mind, keep your eyes peeled this week for a MacBook Air M4 refresh – we'll be here to update you the second it's announced.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has taken to X to shed a bit more light on what we could see tomorrow. As he previously reported, the MacBook Air with the upgraded M4 processor is still expected to arrive this week, but we also might be getting some other devices.

It would make sense that Apple wants to finish updating its entire Mac lineup to its latest and greatest chipsets. The MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac were all upgraded to the M4 chip series in October of 2024, leaving the MacBook Air, Mac Sutido, and Mac Pro needing an update at some point.

While it’s fully expected that if the MacBook Air’ does get an upgrade, they’ll replace the M3 chip with the base M4, Gurman predicts that the new Mac Studio will get an M4 Max chip, but instead of an M4 Ultra it’ll be the M3 Ultra. Still likely plenty powerful, though.

Are you bummed that the new Apple iPad only got an Apple A16 chip, which means it won't get the most advanced Apple Intelligence features? Our News Chief Jake Krol reasons that the latest update still leaves Apple with the strongest tablet offering. The iPad is still the best tablet, even without Apple Intelligence.

Frankly, even with just an Apple A16 chipset inside, the iPad remains one of the most powerful tablets you can buy as well. I've reviewed the fastest Android tablets, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, and Apple is far ahead of its Android rivals when it comes to power and performance. The real question is what will you do with all of that power?

Of course, Tim Apple didn't say "iPad Air" in his hint on X, he just said "Air," which is why we've been anticipating a MacBook Air refresh, but is it possible there is another Air on the way? Maybe I just have smartphones on the brain after an exciting start to 2025, with some of the best phones we've seen already making an early appearance, but I think it's possible, if remotely so, that Apple could talk about a new iPhone.

I don't mean the iPhone 16e, of course, I mean the hotly-anticipated iPhone Air. Samsung showed off a Galaxy S25 Edge, a super-thin version of its latest flagship smartphone, and that seemed to make sense considering all the rumors we've heard about a slim new iPhone.

Apple usually launches new iPhone models in September, but the iPhone 16e just launched, and it wouldn't hurt sales too much to announce an upcoming member of the family, just to get people excited (and maybe help buyers forget about Samsung).

If Apple announces the iPhone Air this week, I'll take a bow, but don't hold me responsible if it never comes up.

So, what could be coming today?

Hello, and welcome again to our Apple liveblog for its "There something in the air" launches this week. If you missed yesterday's news, we saw Apple announce:

• a new iPad Air M3 (in 11-inch and 13-inch versions)
• an updated Magic Keyboard for the Air series
• a refreshed bae iPad with an A16 chip (but no Apple Intelligence support)

But is that going to be the end of the story? Not according to the rumor mill, which is still predicting the imminent arrival (perhaps even today) for:

• a new MacBook Air M4 (in 13-inch and 15-inch variants)
• a new Mac Studio (with the option of an M4 Max or M3 Ultra chip)

That Mac Studio wouldn't fit into the 'Air' theme of Apple's teaser, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman think it's "imminent" and "could be announced as early as this week along with the new MacBook Airs".

Whether we see either or both of those today remains to be seen – but I'm keeping a very close eye on Apple's newsroom and will be rounding up all the latest rumors here over the coming hours.

What to expect from the M4 MacBook Air

It's been a long wait for a MacBook Air M4, with the MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini all getting Apple's latest silicon before the entry-level laptop. But what can we expect if it does indeed arrive today?

On the performance front, some leaked benchmarks last month showed that the M4 Air could be only slightly behind the M4 MacBook Pro in terms of performance and efficiency. Naturally, this will also come down to how you spec the laptop and we won't know for sure how it performs until we test it, but the Geekbench hints are promising.

Aside from that new M4 chip, the next MacBook Air is also expect to get an improved LCD display (sadly an OLED panel is still a few years away), a better webcam, and stronger support for connecting multiple monitors.

As someone who's running an aging MacBook Pro from mid-2018, I'm definitely keeping a close eye on the new Air to see if it offers better value than a new Pro.

The end of Apple's 64GB era

An interesting footnote from yesterday's launches, as spotted by MacRumors – Apple no longer offers any iPhones or iPads with 64GB storage options.

That's because the iPhone 16e and new base iPad A16 have replaced the last two models that offered what today seems a pretty measly 64GB of base storage.

Of course, many will see 128GB as too little storage in this day-and-age, but we can expect the MacBook Air M4 to go beyond that if it arrives today. The current M3 model offers 512GB, 1TB and 2TB options, albeit for the usual hefty Apple premium...

Which iPad Air M3 should you get?

Before we return to today's MacBook Air M4 rumors, here's an interesting price comparison between the many possible iPad Air M3 configurations from TechRadar contributor Alex Blake.

His conclusion after balancing the value offered by all the different Air M3 models? For many people, the 11-inch iPad Pro might be a better bet. It starts at just $100 more ($999 / £999 / AU$1,699) than the larger 13-inch iPad Air M3 with 256GB storage – and it gives you a lovely tandem OLED display, Face ID, ProMotion refresh rates, up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness, and the M4 chip, among other benefits.

Of course, you may well need a larger 13-inch screen instead, in which case the Air M3 could offer better value. And if you don't add lots of upgrades, the base Air M3 model is tempting at $599 / £599 / AU$999. But it's definitely a useful comparison if you're thinking of pre-ordering a new iPad...

This time yesterday...

Yesterday's iPad Air M3 announcement took place at 9am ET / 2pm GMT. Could Apple repeat that trick today for the M4 MacBook Air?

It's by no means certain – Apple's launch process seems much more scattergun and unpredictable these days. But I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on my inbox and Apple's newsroomas the clock ticks closer to that time...

The MacBook Air M4 is here!

So it's finally here – Apple has just announced the new MacBook Air M4. Alongside that new M4 chip, Apple has upgraded its 12MP FaceTime camera with some Center Stage powers – it also now has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a boost from last year's Thunderbolt 3 ones.

And wait, there's also a new color. Apple has replaced the Space Gray option (which I always thought that was the most popular) with Sky Blue, which it's offering alongside Midnight, Starlight and Silver.

Pre-orders for the MacBook Air M4 open today ahead of shipping on March 12 – the 13-inch model starts at $999 and the 15-inch one starts at $1,599. Impressively, that looks like a $100 price cut from last year. More news on the promising entry-level laptop and its international pricing when we get it...

And just for good measure... a new Mac Studio

Well, this is turning into quite a day for Mac fans. Apple has also just announced a new Mac Studio, which it's billing as "the most powerful Mac ever".

It seems that Apple still wants to make sure this relatively compact desktop offering is still overclocked. It offers a range of ports, with the two USB-Cs now being a Thunderbolt 5 flavor, but the real change is under the hood.

The Mac Studio comes with the M4 Max, which is already well-reviewed, and a brand-new M3 Ultra. And while it’s not an “M4 Ultra,” it’s the most powerful one in the lineup, essentially fusing two M3 Max chips.

You can pre-order the Mac Studio from today with prices starting at $1,999 (we'll follow up with international pricing shortly).

That MacBook Air M4 price drop...

Here's some confirmation of that unexpected, but very welcome, MacBook Air price cut with international pricing.

The 13-inch model starts at $999 / £999 / $1,699, which is a drop from the MacBook Air M3's tag of $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,799. If you want a bigger screen, the 15-inch version starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099, which is again a drop from last year's starting tag of $1,299 / £1,399 / AU$2,199.

That new M4 chip brings more power in the form of a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU. You can also upgrade the laptop to 32GB of unified memory, though the base model starts at 16GB RAM.

All in all, getting those upgrades for less money than last year is likely to make the new MacBook Air very popular indeed. Still a but surprised that Apple dropped the Space Grey version for the new Sky Blue shade, though...

I've decided... the new Sky Blue looks like a winner

At first, I was a bit surprised that Apple had replaced Space Grey with its new Sky Blue color option for the MacBook Air M4. I always thought Space Grey was a bit of a default option and maybe Apple's most popular hue (though I have no data to back this up).

But after looking at the available photos of the new color, I've decided it's probably the one I'd go for. Space Grey is a bit serious for what is an entry-level laptop and metallic blue color looks like a nice compromise between going too iMac and keeping things safe and dull.

The color-matched MagSafe charging cables are nice, too. I'll reserve final judgement until I see it in the flesh, mind...

Early thoughts on the MacBook Air M4

TechRadar's Managing Editor (Core Tech) Matt Hansen is very familiar with both the MacBook Air family and Apple's M4 chip, having done in-depth tests of both. And he reckons the new M4 version looks very promising, on paper.

"It's good to see the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 launch at $999, the original price of the M1 MacBook Air. That’s incredible value for money considering the premium design and build quality" he said.

"And from my time using the M4 chip in the latest MacBook Pros, and last year’s iPad Pro, I’m pretty confident that it will be a great performer," he added. We'll give you our official verdict on where it sits in our guide to the best laptops soon once we've done some benchmarking and real-world testing, of course.

Alongside debuting the MacBook Air with M4, Apple removed the MacBook Air with M3 for sale, as we expected with a new generation, but also removed the MacBook Air with M2, which was the entry point to the lineup.

The 13-inch MacBook with M4 at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 fills that entry-level spot. Arguably, that will get Apple's latest chipset in the hands of more folks at a more affordable price. In the United States, with an educational discount, the MacBook Air is just $899 with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

Even so, while Apple is no longer selling the M2- or M3-powered MacBook Air, there is a good chance that third-party retailers will still offer it until stock runs out. Remember, you can still find the M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for a pretty unbeatable value.

Regarding the Mac Studio getting an M3 Ultra as the top-of-the-line chip versus an M4 Ultra, Matt Bolton – TechRadar's Managing Editor, Home Entertainment – has some thoughts.

"It’s perhaps a little odd that the Mac Studio uses the M4 Max, but the M3 Ultra – and not an M4 Ultra. There are three obvious potential reasons why:

• The M4 Ultra might just produce too much heat for the Mac Studio’s thermal design to handle compared to the M3 Max
• The M4 Ultra would be two M4 Max chips Frankensteined together, and perhaps Apple thinks it will struggle to make enough M4 Max chips to meet supply if it has to use two of them per M4 Ultra model sold
• The Mac Pro is perhaps about to be upgraded as well, and the M4 Ultra is being saved for that (perhaps partly connected to the reason above – maybe Apple would struggle to produce enough Ultra chips for both machines)

Of course, there could be any other marketing or logistical reason, but it remains one of the more surprising foibles of the new machines."

The color of hue

The Blue Sky MacBook Air is an interesting one, in that it takes this laptop further towards meeting the iPad Air, which has been available in lovely pastel hues for a while. If this takes off, will we get pink and green MacBook Air models? I’d be very tempted by the latter, and I could see Apple releasing them later in the year, to tempt people to buy one for the holiday season.

Making big comparisons

There’s some interesting choice of comparisons in Apple’s press release about the M4 MacBook Air. Note how often it’s compared to an Intel MacBook Air, even though such a thing hasn’t been sold since 2020.

• Spreadsheet calculation performance in Microsoft Excel is up to 4.7x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 1.6x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.
• Video editing in iMovie is up to 8x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 2x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.
• Photo editing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 3.6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air, and up to 2x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1.
• Web browsing is up to 60 percent faster when compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, and more demanding tasks get up to 2x faster performance.

Cynics will possibly say that Apple is just trying to offer the biggest possible comparison numbers – but I think it’s probably a lot more deliberate than that. Apple knows a lot about people’s buying behavior and how often they update, and I’m guessing that it’s got strong data saying that people who bought Intel MacBook Airs or MacBook Pros are starting to now look to replace them. It’s making the case for what a huge update the MacBook Air will be to these people specifically.

Game time

The evolution of gaming on the Mac is moving along quite well, especially as our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff saw a demo of Cyberpunk 2077 running on the ultra-powerful new Mac Studio.

For folks who want a Mac, let's say specifically or mostly for gaming, the case could be made for a machine with the best chip and a hefty amount of RAM to ensure everything runs smoothly. We've seen a steady stream of AAA titles become available for all M-series, and while they do run well on the MacBook Air and even the Mini, it's likely the Mac Studio will deliver the best of the best experience.

• Apple’s M5 chip could debut later this year
• It will find its way into the MacBook Pro before the iPad Pro, a report claims
• It’s expected to be a minor update compared to next year’s M6 chip

When we first got a glimpse of Apple’s M4 chip in 2024 it didn’t land first in a Mac – it came to the iPad Pro before anything else. Now, though, Apple is planning to switch things up, restoring the Mac as the first destination for new M-series chips.

That’s according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, at least. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman explained that the transition to M5 chips will begin “alongside new MacBook Pro models in the fall” of 2025. After that, “we should get an M5 iPad Pro by the first half of 2026,” Gurman argued.

While it might seem odd to reverse the order that was used for the M4 chip, it actually makes a lot of sense. In recent years, new iPad Pro models have appeared at a roughly 18-month cadence. The MacBook Pro, however, has started to be updated annually, with new models appearing in the fall.

The seventh-generation iPad Pro with M4 chip appeared in May 2024, while the sixth-generation edition came out in October 2022. Before that, the fifth-generation model landed in April 2021. Continuing that pattern, we’d expect the M5 iPad Pro to be revealed sometime around December 2025.

That’s slightly earlier than Gurman’s prediction of “the first half of 2026,” but Gurman’s timeline makes sense. After all, delays happen, and Apple is no stranger to that (just look at its attempts to get the all-new Siri out the door). With that in mind, looking out for an M5 iPad Pro in late 2025 or early 2026 seems sensible.

An incremental upgrade

What can we expect from the M5 chip? Well, it’s not likely to be an earth-shattering update, and a performance uptick of around 15% to 25% has been suggested. Elsewhere, we could also see the introduction of Wi-Fi 7, while the entry-level MacBook Pro might also get the Thunderbolt 5 connectivity that has come to the high-end models.

If you’ve been hoping for a more wide-ranging revamp, chances are you’ll have to wait until 2026, when Gurman believes Apple is planning a “true overhaul” of the MacBook Pro. This might mean an OLED display, a new chassis design, and a significant performance boost from the M6 chip, which could be made using an all-new 2nm process.

So, while the M5 chip is now anticipated to find its way into the MacBook Pro before the iPad Pro, don’t be surprised if it’s more of an incremental refresh than anything else. Anyone in the market for a total redesign of the MacBook Pro will probably have to wait a little longer.

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• A new rumor suggests the iPhone 17 Pro could have a very different design to what most leaks so far have suggested
• However, the source has a mixed track record, and we're not convinced
• We've also heard again that the iPhone 17 Pro Max might have a smaller Dynamic Island than its predecessor

One thing most iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max leaks seem to be in agreement on is that the design will be changing, with several sources suggesting the phone will have a Pixel-like camera bar and a two-tone rear. Now though, another possible design has emerged.

In his Front Page Tech YouTube show, Jon Prosser, a leaker with a mixed track record, has shown off a strange-looking iPhone 17 Pro camera layout, with the lenses arranged in the same triangular pattern, as on the iPhone 16 Pro, but they’re housed in a large black camera island, with empty space in the middle and the flash off to the right. You can see how this looks below.

It’s an odd, arguably ugly design, and one that doesn’t quite match with previous iPhone 17 series design leaks, though there are some similarities. Both this and earlier leaks showed a camera bar running the full width of the phone, but the bar was much narrower in earlier leaks, meaning the lenses would have had to run horizontally along it.

We’d say the earlier leaks look better, but as Prosser notes in the video, they come with a problem, in that having lenses arranged horizontally along the bar could get in the way of the phone’s Face ID components. So he believes that for Apple to have a horizontal camera bar, either it would have to be housed further down the back of the phone, or be more like the one he’s showing here.

According to Prosser’s sources, it’s this latter design that Apple is actually using, but despite Prosser’s claims we’d take this with a serious side of salt. As mentioned, Prosser has a mixed track record for leaks, and this design looks like an earlier sketch that was shared by Majin Bu – another leaker with a mixed track record – and which Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who has a much better hit rate for breaking Apple news, claims is “fake.”

Further complicating things is the fact that Apple may well have prototypes in multiple designs, so it’s not impossible that all of these leaks are correct, in so much as Apple might be testing these ideas, but which if any of them will be used for the final iPhone 17 Pro design remains to be seen.

For now, we’re skeptical of Prosser’s claims since they are at odds with most sources, but it’s not impossible that this is what we’ll see, and it would at least leave it looking less like a Google Pixel.

Changes up front too

And while it’s mostly the back of the iPhone 17 Pro – and likely also the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Max – that will probably be changing, there may be some changes to the front of the iPhone 17 Pro Max as well, with leaker Digital Chat Station (via GSMArena) claiming that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have a smaller Dynamic Island than its predecessor.

This will apparently be achieved by reducing the size of the components, and it’s not the first time we’ve heard that a smaller Dynamic Island might be planned – though not all sources agree that the Dynamic Island will be smaller, so this too we’d take with a pinch of salt.

Interestingly though, Digital Chat Station added that the same smaller Dynamic Island design will also be used with the foldable iPad when Apple launches one, and with a future iPad Pro model. So Apple could be changing the designs of quite a few of its products.

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• A leaked document mentions M3 iPad Air models
• We previously heard suggestions that the next-generation iPad Air could land early this year
• Apple has yet to release official information about the next iPad Air

Apple could be equipping the next iteration of the iPad Air with an M3 chipset and releasing it in early 2025, if a handful of recent rumors are to be believed.

Notable leaker Evan Blass (via 9to5Mac) shared a document to his private X (formerly Twitter) account containing allusions to a next-generation iPad Air, equipped with the M3 chipset.

As 9to5Mac reports, the document contains text strings that reference the possibly upcoming models: the first reads “apple-ipad-air-13-(m3)”, and the second reads “apple-ipad-air-11-(m3)”.

With no further major rumors surrounding the next iteration of Apple’s mid-range tablets, we might be in for just a chipset refresh with the next iPad Air. Apple’s mid-range tablets were last refreshed in May 2024, which saw the standard 11-inch iPad Air joined by an enlarged 13-inch model for the first time.

However, the timing of this latest rumor lines up well with previous speculation about the next iPad Air’s release date.

Bloomberg’s resident Apple commentator Mark Gurman published a roundup in October 2024 that suggested a new iPad Air would reach store shelves in early 2025 – likely around April.

Gurman has also predicted that a new Magic Keyboard could be on the way specifically designed for the iPad Air. This would complete the stratification of Apple’s iPad Keyboard line up, which has slowly grown from a single one-fits-all product to include more specialized units designed for the base-model iPad and iPad Pro.

Should you wait for the M3 iPad Air?

Though these rumors and suggestions are far from conclusive, they may hold some sway over those looking to pick up an iPad Air for themselves.

As MacRumors notes, the M3 chipset is substantially more powerful than the M2 – at launch, Apple said the M3 offered a 35% improvement on the M1 chipset’s performance, while the M2 offers an 18% improvement. Crunching the numbers suggests the M3 is around 14% faster than the M2 chipset, which is certainly substantial for an iterative improvement.

Apple has held iPad pricing steady over the past few years, so any chipset upgrade is unlikely to come with an attendant price hike. Waiting for the M3 then will probably mean getting more performance at no extra cost.

But for those using an iPad Air M2 already it might not be worth upgrading. The M3 chipset may be more powerful than the M2, but the capabilities of either iPad Air are likely to be very similar due to the cohesive (some would say limited) iPadOS platform. The performance headroom of the M3 is more likely to be noticed in day-to-day snappiness than in heavier workflows, to which the iPad is often awkwardly suited.

It could be a busy season for the iPad family, with murmurs of a new iPad Pro circling alongside these M3 iPad Air rumors. For a refresher on the best tablets Apple has to offer, be sure to check out our list of the best iPads.

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• A new report claims the iPad Air will soon get a new Magic Keyboard
• This will include some features from the high-end iPad Pro version
• The entry-level iPad might also get a new Magic Keyboard

In a way, Apple’s Magic Keyboard for iPad is the epitome of the company’s products: on the pricey side, but undeniably high-quality. If you’ve been tempted to buy one, it might be a good idea to hold off, as Apple is apparently on the verge of releasing new models.

The news comes from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who is well-known for his accurate leaks and predictions regarding Apple tech. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman explains that the new version of the Magic Keyboard is coming “in the not-too-distant future”.

It follows a report from Gurman in October 2024, which stated that Apple was planning to update the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air (in both 11-inch and 13-inch versions). Gurman wrote that these new versions would “bring some of the features of the iPad Pro keyboard down-market.”

The iPad Pro version of the Magic Keyboard was updated in May 2024 to come with a thinner and lighter design, a row of function and media keys, a larger glass trackpad with haptic feedback, and an aluminum palm rest.

These features are currently absent from the iPad Air version of the Magic Keyboard, and while not all of them might make it into the upcoming low-end version, at least some (including the function row) are expected to make the transition.

Upcoming updates

The Magic Keyboard is not the only product that Gurman believes Apple will update in the near future – alongside the accessory, we could see new versions of the iPad Air and the entry-level iPad.

The iPad Air “will focus on internal improvements,” Gurman has previously said. That means we’re likely to see a new M4 chip to ensure the tablet works with Apple Intelligence. The 10.9-inch iPad, meanwhile, is expected to get an A17 Pro chip – again, to guarantee compatibility with Apple Intelligence – as well as a memory increase to 8GB. Both models may gain Apple’s upcoming in-house 5G modem.

While the latest Power On newsletter simply says that the iPad Air will get the new Magic Keyboard, Gurman reported in September 2024 that the entry-level iPad would also get this peripheral. It’s unclear whether anything has changed regarding this, nor is it obvious why Gurman didn’t mention the entry-level tablet getting the Magic Keyboard upgrade in his most recent newsletter. It’s possible that the accessory is now only coming to the iPad Air.

Whatever the case, we should find out more when Apple releases the new products in the next few months. If you’re in the market for any of the products mentioned, it could be worth waiting a little longer if you can.

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Apple’s had a busy 2024, and alongside Apple Intelligence, new Macs, and a whole family of iPhones, there’s been the iPad. In fact, the iPad Pro and iPad Air were the sole focus of the company's first ‘Special Event’ in 2024, and a new iPad mini was central to the launch of Apple’s AI features.

And now that 2024 is coming to a close, it’s time to reflect on the iPad this year. Yes, we got the thinnest device Apple has ever made in the form of the iPad Pro, and the iPad Air trickled down a supersize iPad for the masses, and the new iPad mini, well, was a new mini in a very similar form factor. Even so, though, the 9th Gen iPad and 10th Gen iPad were left untouched.

iPadOS 18 brought some new tricks, including the arrival of Apple Intelligence – mainly Scribble and Type to Siri, a new look for Siri, and Clean Up – but those yearning for a more desktop-class experience were left waiting.

So, as we look to 2025 and likely the arrival of a few new iPads, including an entry-level and iPadOS 19, let’s look back at 2024's highs and lows, and what we want to see next year.

Apple’s iPad in 2024

Let’s roll it back to May 7, 2024, to Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event – the technology giant dropped the 11” and 13” iPad Pro and the 11” and 13” iPad Air. Both devices tested very well in our reviews, but the iPad Pro was a skinny, lightweight powerhouse. The iPad Pro is the thinnest product Apple has ever shipped, besting the iPad Nano, but it was also the first product with the M4 chip. The iPad Pro was super speedy and arrived with Apple's first-ever Tandem OLED display.

Seriously, we described that screen as “the most exciting thing about the iPad Pro” and further that Apple’s flagship tablet as an “incredibly accomplished and versatile device.” The M4 power, which made iPadOS run swimmingly, also extended a runway for more ‘Pro” creative workflows like music creation in Logic Pro for iPad and movie-making within Final Cut Pro. You can also do more in ProCreate with the Apple Pencil Pro.

While the iPad Pro was top-of-the-line, with a flashy, ultra-thin look, the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air packed a ton of value into a lower-priced package. Furthermore, it finally trickled down to a bigger screen with less Apple tax. Our review called the 13-inch iPad Air an “attractive and very portable slab that’s ready for just about anything.” Sure, it only has an M2 chip inside, but it still can run rings around most other tablets on the market

Both the Pros and Airs supported the new Apple Pencil Pro, which felt like an accessory that had been coming for a long time. The two headline features it delivered were haptic feedback, allowing one to squeeze the Apple Pencil Pro to trigger an action or open a menu, but thanks to a gyroscope, you could also barrel roll the souped-up styles. We’ve seen Apple update its apps to take advantage of this, as well as third parties like Procreate.

Maybe the most surprising thing Apple did with the iPad in 2024, though, was support the new Apple Pencil Pro on the iPad mini (A17 Pro or 7th Generation). It made the latest iPad mini jump beyond just being fit for note-taking but also leveled up its ability for drawing even if the display stayed the same.

And that about sums up the latest iPad mini – it keeps a familiar form factor, actually the exact measurement and the same 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display with Touch ID built into the power button and a CenterStage capable camera, but leaps with processing power. Like the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, the A17 Pro powers the iPad mini and makes it run quite well, but most importantly, it supports Apple Intelligence.

It’s still excellent and scored four and a half out of five stars in our review, but we – like many others – can’t help but hope that a redesigned iPad mini with an OLED display like the tandem one in the iPad Pro might be on the horizon.

What’s to come in 2025?

While we can’t fully predict the future, the rumor mill for the iPad lineup certainly comes in handy. Considering Apple ushered in new versions of every iPad except the entry-level in 2024, we’re fully expecting the iPad's 11th generation to arrive in 2025. Much like the current 10th Generation, it should stick with a familiar look, mimicking the iPad Air with a 10.9-inch Retina display.

As far as what could be upgraded, as Apple tends to do with the entry-level iPad, it will likely be a spec bump, and if you guessed AI, it might just support Apple Intelligence. This means it could jump from the A14 chip, currently found in the 10th generation, to an A17 Pro or even an A18 to support Apple’s latest software suite.

Expect it to stick with 64GB as starting storage, something that’s a win for us all, and a USB-C port for easy charging and data transfers. Might it get support for the Apple Pencil Pro? That remains a bit more uncertain, but it’s certainly not off the table with that accessory being supported on the latest iPad mini.

While we wouldn’t expect a new iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad mini in 2025 – remember, these were all upgraded this year – we should get iPadOS 19 for all these models. It will likely continue the Apple Intelligence rollout, but it could also be the software upgrade that brings better multitasking and possibly better interoperability with other devices.

Apple’s iPad lineup is looking pretty good now, but we might just get a surprise or two in the next year; we’ll all just need to stick along for the ride. As always, keep an eye on TechRadar for the latest on all things iPad, Apple, and tech as a whole.

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Read our 13-inch iPad Pro (2024) review and you'll see that we've been very impressed with the tablet Apple launched back in May – but it seems that something even better is in the pipeline, and it might arrive sometime before the end of 2025.

This information comes from well-known tipster @Jukanlosreve, based on comments made by senior LG Display researcher Park Kyung-woo about an increase in the number of OLED panels being used in iPads next year.

There's another interesting prediction here, which is that these new iPad Pros will come running the as-yet-unannounced M5 chipset that's currently in development. The Apple M4 chip that powers the latest iPad Pros and Macs was also unveiled in May.

If we are getting an M5-powered OLED iPad Pro sometime in 2025, then that's a tight turnaround – so it's probably not going to show up before the second half of the year, and may well appear around October time (ready for the holiday shopping season in the US).

The future of iPads

The same tipster says there are "other signs" pointing to the appearance of this slate in 2025 – and indeed, noted Apple reporter Mark Gurman has previously said he expects the next iPad Pro, with an M5 chipset fitted inside, to land in late 2025 or early 2026.

However, it doesn't sound as though major changes are coming, besides that boost in processor speed. Apple gave the iPad Pro some design tweaks with the 2024 model, so it seems likely that the look of the tablet will stay the same for another generation at least.

Apple is certainly making up for lost time considering it didn't launch any new iPads at all during 2023. We've also seen a new iPad Air make an appearance this year, while the entry-level iPad is expected to be refreshed within the next 12 months.

However, don't hold your breath for a foldable iPad – plans for a launch have apparently been pushed back to 2026 at the earliest, and there's a decent chance that we're going to see a foldable iPhone arrive before Apple adapts its tablet line.

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• OnePlus is reportedly working on a 13-inch tablet.
• This would likely be a direct competitor to the iPad Pro.
• OnePlus has yet to confirm the existence of the rumored device.

The iPad Pro has long been considered the peak of the tablet market, with even the best Android tablets rarely challenging Apple’s top-of-the-line iPad directly.

However, a new rumor suggests the iPad Pro could finally be getting some targeted direct competition from the Android world, though this may not come from who you’d immediately expect.

OnePlus is reportedly working on a 13-inch tablet to complement the OnePlus Pad 2, which sports a 12.1-inch display.

This rumor stems from a Weibo post by blogger Whylab, which suggests the new OnePlus tablet will sport a 13-inch 3840 x 2400 144Hz display, with 600 nits of brightness and a 240Hz touch sampling rate.

The poster claims in the comments section that the display will be an LCD panel, rather than an OLED.

The post also includes images which supposedly show the device’s screen, though the products shown are labelled as TCL products – it’s possible that the images are from a demonstration of the screen technology in question, rather than a prototype of the finished OnePlus product.

Taking on Apple

The OnePlus Pad 2 – launched in China as the OnePlus Pad Pro – is already a fairly close analogue to Apple’s iPad Air, with a similar form factor, versatile performance, and stylus compatibility.

The version of the OxygenOS Android supplied to the OnePlus Pad lineup is notably similar in appearance to iPadOS, too.

At a starting price of $549 / £499 / AU$699, the OnePlus Pad 2 substantially undercuts the $599 / £599 / AU$999 11-inch iPad Air price-wise and offers double the storage at the base tier.

With Apple’s cheapest 13-inch tablet – the enlarged iPad Air – starting at $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 there’s definitely room for OnePlus to take the same approach with an enlarged version of its pro-sumer tablet.

We didn’t review the OnePlus Pad 2, but we did get to grips with its predecessor: our OnePlus Pad review found the device to be a powerful “flagship-killer” disguised as a cheap tablet.

We liked the OnePlus Pad so much, in fact, that it still holds a place on our list of the best tablets.

For the moment, though, most of the above is based only on rumors and speculation. For the latest updates as we hear them, be sure to keep up with our Android coverage and tablets coverage.

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Genmoji is finally available to the public thanks to the new iOS 18.2 public beta, which was released this week. I’ve been using Apple’s generative AI emojis for the last few weeks, and after my initial testing period, I’m not only hooked, but I’m now convinced Apple Intelligence will be a huge success.

Why? Well, aside from how much fun it is creating emojis of anything that comes to mind, including a frog drinking beer or a French bulldog riding a skateboard, Genmoji feels like the kind of feature that will instantly impact society and our online lives.

It’s fun, cute, and the perfect way to entice users into investing in Apple Intelligence.

What even is Genmoji?

Genmoji is one of the main Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year. It’s an easy-to-use image generator that might be one of the best AI image generators, just because of how accessible it is.

Built into your iPhone’s emoji keyboard, Genmoji is always just a tap away and allows you to create useful emojis that work just like your standard yellow smiley face. So not only can you use Genmoji in a text, but you can also react to messages and even use it with Apple’s message effects. Third-party apps like Messenger and WhatsApp should also be compatible when the feature launches in December.

Many software features built into the best smartphones these days are fun to use but quickly become gimmicks that never make it into your day-to-day life. Others, like Genmoji, make sense as soon as you use them for the first time and you start to incorporate them into your everyday.

I’ve found Genmoji to be one of the most accessible and easy-to-use AI features, not just because of its UI but because it makes sense to whoever tries it out. I’ve shown Genmoji on my iPhone 16 Pro Max to the least tech-literate friends and elderly family members, and all of them just “got it.” Within a few moments of trying Genmoji out, everyone had the same reaction: hysteric bouts of laughter followed by asking how they could use it on their iPhones, too.

That reaction is often when you know that something will take off, that first exposure where people show interest and flock to the Apple Store to test it out. I previously worked at the Genius Bar in my local Apple Store, and you could always sense when a feature would be a success based on how many normal folks walked in to ask about it.

I imagine Apple Stores worldwide are bombarded with Apple Intelligence questions nowadays, and I suspect that the best way to showcase what AI on an iPhone looks like is with Genmoji – it’s just that good.

A gateway into Apple Intelligence

Genmoji is the perfect gateway into Apple Intelligence, a friendly and easy-to-use feature that quickly becomes part of communicating with your friends. Apple’s strategy with Apple Intelligence is very clever: Add a fun Apple-specific instant messaging tool like Genmoji with viral potential, and then watch as everyone scrambles to get a new Apple-Intelligence compatible device to be just as cool as their friends.

With viral culture a staple in today’s world and sites like TikTok spreading consumerism like never before, Gen Z is going to fall in love with Genmoji and, by doing so, enter into a world of Apple Intelligence that they may not have been interested in otherwise. Try telling a teenager that Writing Tools are cool, and they’ll most likely shrug their shoulders. But show a teenager Genmoji, and they’ll instantly want to show their creations to their friends.

If Genmoji does pick up in the way I think it will, it does open up some questions about cyberbullying. For instance, one of the best ways to use Genmoji is by creating emojis based on photos of people you have on your phone. In high school, this could be used to humiliate classmates, and that could cause huge concern.

This issue isn’t limited to Genmoji, though; it’s a problem with AI image generators in general. So far, from my testing, I’ve noticed Apple won’t edit my likeness, which could be to combat issues like bullying. For example, if I ask Genmoji to create me as an ogre (Shrek), it will just turn my t-shirt green, leaving the human elements as is. I’m also yet to see any use of Genmoji that would flag up as concerning, and that makes me hopeful that Apple has found a way to combat the dangers of image generation.

Genmoji is due to launch in early December and will be available on all the best iPhones and iPads, like the iPad mini 7, the cheapest device that offers Apple Intelligence.

If my gut feeling is correct, I think we’ll see a lot about Genmoji and, in turn, hear more about Apple Intelligence as mainstream consumers flock to AI as the perfect holiday gift. Apple is onto something with Genmoji, and it might just be the best Apple Intelligence feature, ready to expose other AI tools to the average customer.

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Apple’s plans for introducing OLED screens with its laptops seem to be a constant churn of rumors, and here’s another which claims that as far as the MacBook Air is concerned, it may not get this display upgrade until well into the future.

While the MacBook Pro is still expected to make the move to OLED in 2026 – bearing in mind this is just rumored, although it’s been put forward quite strongly at this point – the MacBook Air might have to wait until 2028, or possibly even later.

That’s the word from a new report published by Korean tech site The Elec – again, add skepticism appropriately – which asserts that, according to industry sources, the MacBook Air won’t get the OLED treatment in 2027 as previously rumored.

Why not? Well, the reason is wrapped up in pricing, as well as issues with the supply chain.

The MacBook Air is, of course, Apple’s mainstream laptop targeted at the consumer, and its pricing is quite different to the MacBook Pro, which is aimed at professional usage (and creatives, or enthusiasts, or others with deeper wallets when it comes to spending on tech).

Introducing OLED is a fair old hike on the cost of the laptop, as you might expect – fancy screens do not come cheap. And while this isn’t such an issue for the more weightily priced MacBook Pro, it’s more of a problem with the MacBook Air, which can’t take so much strain put on its affordability.

What this means is that Apple needs to suss out how to make the MacBook Air and OLED work, price-wise. Rather than using two-stack tandem OLED tech – panels with two emission layers, offering better brightness, and longevity of the screen – as rumored for the MacBook Pro, Apple could look at a single-stack OLED panel for the MacBook Air.

Essentially, a cheaper approach, one that would also differentiate between the quality of these laptops, and product segmentation that Apple would obviously want to maintain. There must be a reason to pay a lot more money for the MacBook Pro, after all.

A tricky balancing act

The long and short of it is that it sounds like Apple is exploring its OLED options here, and finding that supplies and choices are currently scarce on the ground in terms of more affordable routes forward. The result being that working out the reality of a MacBook Air OLED could take a deal longer than anticipated, waiting for the supply chain to be in better shape to hammer out an affordable deal for the screen upgrade – hence the possible delay to 2028, or further out.

Just to underline we should be cautious about this chatter, but that said, all of the above does make some sense. Furthermore, as MacRumors, which spotted the report, also observes, the iPad Pro OLED has not pulled the sales Apple had hoped for, and shipment numbers have dropped substantially this year – from an anticipated 10 million units of the tablet, reportedly down to 6-7 million. Which may stoke worries for Apple regarding the appeal of OLED on the MacBook Air, in the nearer term.

As far as the consumer is concerned, we guess the obvious worry from their perspective is that if we’re starting to talk about compromises for cheaper OLED – and losing the longevity benefits of the two-stack tandem solution for the MacBook Pro screens – how might MacBook Air OLEDs fare well down the line into their life? We are getting well ahead of ourselves here, though, into deeply speculative territory.

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It wasn’t long ago that I was sitting in the TechRadar office, talking the ear off of one of my colleagues about how book-style foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold didn’t quite make sense to me. 

I just couldn’t see the utility in a square, mid-sized display running a smartphone operating system – I had been an iPad user for almost a decade, and spending nearly half my life using large tablets had me convinced that nothing could best them for media consumption, reading, and light multitasking. News of the upcoming Huawei Mate XT – the world’s first tri-fold smartphone that expands to a 10-inch tablet – stoked this suspicion even further. But even as I saw my vision of the future unfold, my curiosity for conventional folding phones simmered. 

The thing is, I hadn’t actually used a foldable for any more than fifteen minutes at a time, usually while passing through a busy Samsung store. I’d never really entertained the idea of walking out with a Z Fold of my own thanks to the starting price of $1,899 / £1,799 / AU$2,749, but was always impressed by the construction, design, and possibilities. Maybe – just maybe – my cynicism had emerged from unresolved curiosity.

When given the chance to test out a folding phone long-term, I felt this curiosity reignite. My first hour with the OnePlus Open was spent in a tech-fueled trance as I opened, then shut, then opened it again, completely enraptured by the engineering on display (both literally and figuratively). A few weeks later, and I’m happy to report that I was wrong to doubt folding phones – these things absolutely rock.

More screen, less problems 

The central conceit of the OnePlus Open can be described in two words: big screen. Placing two phones next to each other – as Samsung suggests with its Try Galaxy feature – gives some semblance of the Open’s 7.82-inch inner screen, but using one quickly reveals it to be more than just the sum of its parts. 

Embedded videos in articles and other web pages become actually watchable when the device is unfolded, rather than something to note for later or just scroll past. The form factor makes multitasking realistic, with two apps side-by-side and a third in a floating window. You still won’t be doing complex work on a device like this, but cross-referencing web pages or watching a video in the background feels much more practical than gimmicky.

The inner screen on the OnePlus Open turns the smartphone into a bonafide option for media consumption, rather than a compromise. When passing through the airport on a recent trip away, I could unfold the phone to watch The Penguin at each point of stoppage before simply snapping it shut and into my pocket when things started moving again – I’d never have bothered with the smaller screen of a slab phone or unwieldy size of my 11-inch iPad Pro. The mini-tablet size means more room for decent speakers, too – the Open is rivalled only by the larger iPhones for the best smartphone speakers I’ve ever heard.

A larger screen means it’s easier to experience this stuff with friends, too. Injecting a smartphone into conversation can be a risk due to the awkwardness of asking someone to squint at a small screen – the Open makes showing a friend a photo or video clip much more enjoyable for all involved, doubly so when trying to share something across a table or across the room. The screen is just large enough to be inviting, and its hinge is a better conversation starter than any app or meme could possibly hope to be. Seeing people experience the fold for the first time still hasn’t gotten old.

I think there’s also something to be said for the level of intent implied by passing someone a device they need to hold with both hands. In fact, I’ve found myself inspired by the Open to think about the way I use my phone. The cover screen remains useful for checking messages, quick Google searches, and taking photos, but even knowing the inner screen is waiting behind a half-second of effort makes me consider whether what I’m doing is worth throwing onto the big screen, and if not, whether I should put down the phone and get back to the real world.

A couple of compromises 

There are, of course, some tradeoffs to using a folding phone. It’s generally accepted that battery life takes a hit, which is understandable if you’re driving the large inner screen more often than not. I found myself needing to charge midway through the day a few times with the OnePlus Open, but could make it through to the late evening most of the time. Additionally, phone makers tend to equip folding phones with objectively worse camera specs than their slab flagship counterparts. For what it’s worth, I found the Open’s camera setup to be very impressive, but photographers may be tempted by the snazzier specs and nimbler ergonomics of a traditional slab phone (see the Galaxy S24 Ultra or iPhone 16 Pro Max). 

There are also a couple of issues that come with the territory of being foldable. I found a few apps – especially older games like Professor Layton or Plague Inc. – did not respond well to my folding or unfolding of the phone while they were running, and I even experienced some crashes on Instagram when using the Open unfolded. It’s up to app developers to optimize their apps for the foldable platform, but there’s little incentive for them to do so while foldable devices remain a very small niche. And even as someone with large hands, the Open is undeniably large and heavy – I sometimes felt it weighing on my wrist while using it one-handed, and the unique geometry isn’t always the most comfortable to hold. 

Still, though, these feel like small prices to pay for access to a unique, adaptable, and gorgeous device. What surprised me about the OnePlus Open – and what I think probably sets it apart from some of its contemporaries – is just how good it is at being a regular phone. The 6.31-inch cover screen is not much narrower than my trusty old Huawei Mate 20 Pro and certainly feels a lot wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6’s strip of a cover display. The Open’s front screen is a bright, high-resolution, high refresh rate panel and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset gives the Open reliably fast performance. 

Do you need a foldable? 

The foldable experience is not one that’s built on necessity. There’s no real need to have Instagram take up six horizontal inches of screen space, to read articles with two hands, to see such a broad smorgasbord of apps in the app drawer – but it is nice.

Arguably, when it comes to modern ultra-premium smartphones, we’re past the point of thinking about necessity anyway. Are most users actually finding the bottlenecks in the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro chipset? Do shutterbugs reach for the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 100x zoom as often as they do the 1x wide lens? Is anyone so impatient as to need the Realme GT5 240W's eponymous charging speed? So much of the joy that comes with improving phone hardware is in how much it improves the small stuff, the things we’ve been doing for years and will do for years to come, and having a mini-tablet display available at a literal flick of the wrist* improves day-to-day web browsing, social media, video, and music much more than I ever expected (*don’t actually open it like this).  

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Huawei has officially unveiled two new tablets: the flagship MatePad Pro 12.2-inch PaperMatte edition and the “younger generation”-focused MatePad 12 X.

The MatePad Pro 12.2-inch comes equipped with – you guessed it – a 12.2-inch tandem OLED display, with a paper-effect outer screen that Huawei calls PaperMatte. The screen has a maximum brightness of 2000 nits, and works with Huawei’s M-Pencil stylus.

Huawei describes the MatePad 12 X as “a lightweight flagship model” designed for younger users – it features the same PaperMatte technology as its larger sibling, as well as a pearlescent rear panel.

Refreshingly, both new Huawei tablets include the Huawei Glide keyboard in the box, where rival companies like Apple and Samsung require you to purchase keyboards separately for their respective flagship tablets.

For reference, a Magic Keyboard for the 11-inch iPad Pro (2024) costs $299 / £299 / AU$499, and keyboard cases for Android tablets tend to hover at around two-thirds of that price.

Huawei does not sell consumer devices in the US due to ongoing political tensions, but the company is a powerhouse in China and seems keen to keep its presence felt in other Western markets.

In the case of these two new tablets, Huawei is offering a few sweeteners to customers in the UK – those who order a MatePad Pro 12.2-inch or MatePad 12 X from the UK Huawei Store between September 19 and October 22 will receive a £100 discount in the form of a Huawei coupon.

Furthermore, ordering under these conditions will net customers a free Huawei M-Pencil 3rd Generation, normally priced at £129.99.

The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2-inch PaperMatte Edition is available in two configurations. The 256GB storage option comes in black and costs £699.99. The 512GB storage option comes in gold and costs £799.

The Huawei MatePad 12 X comes with 512GB of storage as standard and is available in green or white for £549.99.

For more Huawei news, including news of the company’s groundbreaking Mate XT tri-fold smartphone, be sure to keep up with our Huawei phones coverage.

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iPadOS 18 recently landed alongside iOS 18, adding all sorts of tweaks, improvements, and new features to Apple’s tablets, but if you have one of Apple’s latest iPads, you won’t be able to download it right now.

Initially, iPadOS 18 was available for the iPad Pro 11-inch (2024) and the iPad Pro 13-inch (2024), but a number of users found the update bricked their devices, preventing them from turning on, and leading Apple to send out replacement iPads.

It’s unclear exactly how many users have been affected by this, but there are threads on Reddit and elsewhere reporting the issue, and it has proven widespread enough that Apple has temporarily prevented users of the iPad Pro (2024) from downloading the update.

In a statement to MacRumors, Apple said: “We have temporarily removed the ‌iPadOS 18‌ update for M4 ‌iPad Pro‌ models as we work to resolve an issue that is impacting a small number of devices."

A challenging chipset?

It’s not clear then why this is happening, but Apple’s mention of the M4 chipset there and the fact that the issue is only present on iPad Pros with that chipset, suggests the M4 chip might somehow be the culprit.

Don’t worry if you’ve already updated your iPad though – if iPadOS 18 was going to brick yours it seems it would do so during the update process, so if you’ve successfully updated already then your iPad should be fine. If yours did brick during the update though then it’s worth contacting Apple, because it sounds like Apple might need to replace it.

Other iPad models should be safe to download iPadOS 18, so if you’re using an older unit there’s no need to wait. As for users of M4 iPad Pros that are yet to update, we don’t know how soon Apple will fix this issue and once again make iPadOS 18 available, but we imagine the company is working to do so as soon as possible.

It should be worth the wait in any case, as iPadOS 18 lets you more freely customize the home screen, adds a calculator app, allows you to customize the colors of apps and widgets, lets you lock and hide apps, redesigns the photos app, and more.

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If you're trying to decide which iPad to buy, you may be wondering which models your fellow tablet buyers are going for – well, some new data has revealed which ones are the most popular follow Apple's recent 2024 refresh.

According CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners) data, during the June 2024 quarter the iPad Pro (2024) extended its lead over its fellow Apple tablets, becoming the most popular iPad by quite some distance.

During that period, 42% of iPad buyers went for an 11-inch or 13-inch iPad Pro, despite it starting the new model starting at the fairly lofty price of $999 / £999 / AU$1,699. In second place was the base iPad at 35% of sales (the same as 2023), which may seem a slight surprise considering the latest model is the iPad 10.9 (2022), but it did also get a $100 / £100 price cut this year.

The two iPad models that have slightly shrunk in popularity, compared to June 2023, are the iPad Air (which 12% of buyers went for) and the aging iPad mini. There's a chance that the iPad Air is stuck in something of a middle ground between the Pro and base model, while the iPad mini (2021) is now a few years old.

With rumors persisting that an iPad Mini 7 is still in Apple's plans, albeit only with a minor processor upgrade, it's understandable that iPad buyers are largely skipping that model. 

CIRP also points out that we'll also likely need to wait a few months to get a true idea of the impact of Apple's 2024 iPad announcements, but this June quarter data gives us an interesting snapshot of how its tablets break down.

What's coming next?

This data shows that the iPad Pro appears to be eating into the popularity of the iPad mini and, more surprisingly, the iPad Air. In some ways, that's understandable - the iPad Air is oddly no longer Apple's lightest iPad and the new Pro is Apple's ultimate tablet, arguably making it the more future-proofed purchase.

Still, we may see that Air and Pro data even out at the year progresses and the iPad Pro still isn't a full laptop replacement, as we discovered when trying to use it as our main computer for a few weeks.

The question for many will be which iPads Apple is planning to launch next – and the latest rumors from July suggest those will be an 11th-gen entry-level iPad and a 7th-gen iPad mini. We don't know exactly when we'll see them, but the latest speculation suggests both could land before the end of the year.

Whatever happens with the base iPad and iPad mini, you shouldn't expect to see a foldable iPad appear anytime soon. According to respected analyst Jeff Pu, that model has been pushed back to 2026, which means our options will likely be non-folding iPads for a while yet. 

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If you cast your mind back to Apple's 'Let Loose' event, you’ll remember that one of the biggest selling points of the OLED iPad Pro was just how thin the tablet is. With the “thinpossible” tagline, Apple made a big fuss about how it’s currently the thinnest Apple device ever - and this could be the start of a new downsizing trend.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, this is just the beginning of Apple’s thin and trim era. In his Power On newsletter, Gurman details the company’s plan to bring out a “significantly skinnier” iPhone next year. He also notes that thinner MacBook Pro models and Apple Watches are also on the way, although the leaker gives us no further information than that. 

Gurman further observes that this move may lead to the creation of the “thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry,” no less.

Of course, while Gurman has a long history of being one of the more respectable sources for Apple leaks, we have to take every rumor with a grain of salt, no matter where it comes from. If it’s true, however, this move to thinner devices would be a shift in Apple’s strategy, considering the last few iterations of its iPhones and MacBooks have remained the same size for the most part.

Furthermore, this rumor makes us wonder just how much thinner Apple products can actually get without turning into potentially fragile pieces of paper-like hardware! At some point, I struggle to imagine the reasons for further pushing the boundaries of ever-thinner technology besides just seeing if it’s possible.

Still, it will be interesting to see if there’ll be a future trend where rival tech giants rush to match Apple in making their products a lot thinner. While I’d hesitate to call Apple a trendsetter, it’s true that it is such a popular brand that the company tends to set the tone for the computing industry in a lot of different ways. Moves like ditching headphone jacks or the grey MacBook style and their simplicity have definitely had an impact across other rival brands.

So, if Apple decides to make its various product ranges a whole lot thinner, MacBooks included - could the rest of the computing industry follow? It’s not unthinkable. 

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The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes a ‘damp squib’ as “something that is disappointing because it is not as exciting or effective as expected.” And that’s how I’d describe Apple’s reveal of iPadOS 18 at WWDC 2024. 

While the iPad-centric operating system will get a lot of the slick features of iOS 18, such as smart categorization of emails in the Mail app and the ability to schedule messages in iMessage, the exclusive iPadOS 18 features are a big ol’ meh. 

Yes, the addition of a native Calculator app for iPads may have got a whoop at WWDC’s keynote and had many people flock to the TechTadar TikTok, but the rest of the features didn’t leave my colleagues or I with the impression that Cupertino’s snazzy fondle slates are being particularly pushed.

The Notes app gets the Smart Script feature to help smooth out quickly scribbled text, and there's now live audio transcription, plus some fresh customization that will let users rearrange icons and widgets where people want them on the home screen. 

None of that is bad, but as the iPad Air 2024 and iPad Pro 2024 come with the new Apple M4 chip, I was left with a distinct feeling that Apple’s in-house silicon is hardly being pushed. 

In fact, I’m a tad miffed Apple didn’t do more. It’s harped on about iPads being able to replace laptops, at one point coming to a head with the infamous “what’s a computer?” advert – which still makes me cringe to this day – yet refuses to make iPadOS into more of a desktop-like experience when connected to the Magic Keyboard. 

This has felt like a missed opportunity in my eyes, even though Apple has long railed against bringing iPadOS much closer to macOS. 

The crux of this is down to the power Apple has stuffed into the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models. While the M4 chip isn’t necessarily a huge step on from the M3 chip, in that in prioritizes efficiency and AI workloads over a big boost in raw performance, it’s still a slice of silicon that’s basically laptop-grade; in some cases desktop-grade when you take into account the iMac 24-inch and Mac mini. 

Sure, the suite of iPads will get access to the new Apple Intelligence, and will surely have access to the smarter Siri. But these tools seem generic and good for iPhones rather than something that’ll really tap into the power and flexibility of the new iPads. The addition of a Game Mode and improved audio via compatible AirPods is also nice to have, but again isn’t anything that iOS 18 won’t get; plus I feel these features aren’t helping turn the iPads into slick gaming machines despite the chips at their hearts.

All the gear with no idea

This is frustrating as my colleague Matt Hanson, Managing Editor of Core Tech, recently pointed out when he ditched his laptop for an iPad Pro for a few weeks that “the hardware's there – but the software isn't.” So it seems to me that Apple is really missing a trick here, despite having often been great at getting the most out of its tech.

And I feel all this puts the new iPads in an odd place. They may have more power, but that strength doesn’t look like it’s being well used, and older iPads can still do just about everything the newer ones can due to the lack of demanding software.

Now one could argue that we see similar things with some of the best Android phones that have powerful chips but don’t really ever push those capabilities. But phones still cover a different use case from tablets, despite being close cousins, meaning it’s not unreasonable to expect more from a tablet.

There’s a caveat here in that I’ve yet to try out iPadOS 18. But unless Apple has some hidden features it’s yet to showcase and Apple Intelligence really taps into M4 power, iPadOS 18 has left me underwhelming and I can’t help feel that M4-equipped iPads are overpowered to the extent that they may be a waste of money in slick rectangular form.

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So, Apple’s WWDC 2024 event is kicking off soon – head to our WWDC 2024 live blog for up-to-the-minute coverage – and the rumor mill is running at full throttle with all manner of speculation regarding what might be announced.

And for once, I really don’t care.

See, I think the best thing Apple could do at WWDC is announce an M4 MacBook Air – but that’s probably not going to happen, as leaks suggest Apple won’t have any hardware to show off. It wouldn’t be entirely shocking – after all, WWDC is a developer-focused event, so we’re likely to see more software than hardware – but Apple has historically used the event to launch new products like the Apple Vision Pro and 15-inch MacBook Air shown at last year’s event.

As such, I was initially hopeful that we’d see the powerful new M4 chip turn up in a new MacBook at this year’s WWDC, but Apple dashed those hopes by revealing M4 earlier than I had expected – and in a new iPad Pro, no less.

Make it make sense, Apple

I’m going to be honest here, Tim Cook – releasing the M4 chip in an iPad like this was a truly baffling move. I thought it was strange enough that Apple revealed the M3 chip in the new iMac M3 and MacBook Pro M3 models last year, but ditching Mac entirely to launch your new chip in a tablet? You totally lost me there.

Now, maybe it would be fair to say that the iPad Pro has earned a little time in the limelight. After all, revenue statistics from FourWeekMBA indicate that Apple makes roughly the same amount from its iPad sales as it does from Mac products. But the MacBook Air is a vital flagship device, and sidestepping it in favor of a tablet could undermine public reception of the M4 chip. After all, the M4 simply won’t perform as well in an ultra-thin tablet as it will in a proper laptop – albeit a passively cooled one like the Air. That was the case with the MacBook Air M2 and the iPad Pro (2022), which both use the same M2 chip.

Leaks from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and analysis from marketing firm Canalys previously suggested that we might not see an M4 MacBook until 2025 – in fact, Canalys projected that the M4 itself wouldn’t appear until next year, so the M4 iPad Pro was a total surprise.

More M4?

Apple calls the MacBook Air "the world’s bestselling laptop", so one could reasonably expect the Mac maker to want to push its flagship macOS product with a shiny new chip – but Apple has shot itself in the foot by announcing M4 so soon after the M3 MacBook Air landed late last year. As TechRadar writer Muskaan Saxena recently noted, the M4 could make M3 MacBooks outdated already.

Why should I buy an M3 MacBook, knowing that M4 models are already on the way? It’s a hard position to argue – and the M4 Air potentially not arriving until as late as 2025 may end up frustrating some Mac fans when the M4 chip is already out in the wild in the new iPad. Apple is in a catch-22 situation: no new M4 products at WWDC will lead to disappointment, but a shock reveal would likely ruin Apple’s chances of shifting its remaining M3 Mac stock.

If Apple turns around and reveals M4 MacBooks during the WWDC showcase later today, I’ll sit and eat my humble pie (you can shout at me on Twitter if you want). But I doubt it’ll happen; we’re probably going to be waiting for a while yet, and no amount of new macOS 15 features will get me hyped for this year’s event.

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Apple recently updated its MacBook line up with superb models like the M3 MacBook Air, notably improving performance. However, what didn't materialize in the latest models, was the introduction of a touchscreen. 

Will MacBooks ever feature a touchscreen? It remains one of the biggest questions for Mac fans, with rivals Lenovo and Samsung leading the way in the best touchscreen laptops on the market, unchallenged by Apple. 

We can speculate that one of the main reasons we haven’t seen a touchscreen MacBook is the fact that it may have a negative impact on iPad sales. The new iPad Pro models are geared towards providing the most ‘MacBook-like’ experience possible without buying an actual MacBook. 

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a reputable Apple leaker, noted in his Power On newsletter that: “Apple does plan to add OLED and touchscreen support to Macs in the next few years. But it seems more committed to distinguishing its tablets and computers from one another than serving customers who want something more.”

What would it take? 

While Gurman has a history of being pretty accurate with his predictions and timelines, we can only be certain of something once we hear it from Apple. That said, Gurman’s reasoning here does make sense. 

To introduce touchscreen capabilities to the MacBook line would require a revamp of Apple’s iPads to completely separate them from Macs so that even if consumers had a touchscreen MacBook, there would still be reason enough to buy an iPad (aside from its sheer portability).

Furthermore, to make such a drastic change as switching to a touchscreen, macOS would also need a massive update to accommodate the new functionality. As a fan of the Mac operating system, that excites me. 

macOS is due to receive some new AI-fueled improvements at Apple’s WWDC 2024 next week and is seemingly getting quite a facelift compared to Sonoma 14. The potential new interface might require tweaking mouse and keyboard support, and could potentially open the door to foldable MacBooks in the near future (where a touchscreen would be needed, though it might be implemented as a virtual keyboard).

However it might be realized, that the idea of a touchscreen MacBook is exciting, and the fact that Gurman is now commenting on the prospect of such a device brings more life to the rumor (which has been floating around for some time).

It’s hard to say where such a development would take future iPads, although they could skew towards becoming devices purely for entertainment and artistic pursuits (aside from the Pro models). We have quite a long while to wait, so all we can do is speculate and hope. 

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Apple recently launched a new Apple Pencil Pro alongside the updated OLED iPad Pro, and it’s fair to say that the accessory has been well received so far. But there’s one secret Apple Pencil Pro feature that Apple has never talked about – until now.

After the Apple Pencil Pro launched, users discovered that it casts a virtual shadow on the iPad’s OLED display, much like a real pencil would. For example, if you’re writing something by hand, the Apple Pencil Pro casts a shadow that resembles a fountain pen. If you’re painting, you’ll instead see the shadow of a paintbrush. It’s a neat feature for sure, but why exactly did Apple implement it?

Well, now we know. Speaking to French tech site Numerama (translated version), Apple user interface designer Steve Lemay described how the idea was to make the interaction between the Apple Pencil Pro and the iPad Pro feel as natural as possible.

“In the past, we had to rely on your own memory [of which tool you were using],” such as a pen or a paintbrush, Lemay explained. “We designed a digital shadow to make you feel like you’re holding a real pencil. This convinces you it’s a sheet of paper.”

In other words, the intention is to replicate the experience you would get from using a traditional, analog pencil on a piece of paper. If it feels natural, you’ll be better able to concentrate on the work you’re doing rather than being distracted by a digital tool, the thinking goes.

Attention to detail

It’s little touches like this that often earn Apple plaudits and has built the company’s reputation for attention to detail. And we've certainly been impressed with the Apple Pencil Pro during our time with it so far.

The souped-up stylus also has a handy new squeeze function for pulling up a 'palette tool', which lets you change the ink color or undo pen strokes. That's something we wish it had had years ago. 

There are also already apps, including Goodnotes 6 and Morpholio Trace, that take advantage of the Pencil Pro's new functionality. That's assuming you have an iPad Pro 13-inch (M4), iPad Pro 11-inch (M4), iPad Air 13-inch (M2) or iPad Air 11-inch (M2), which are currently the only tablets that support the new stylus.

But the new shadow feature is also definitely a nice touch that involved a surprising amount of engineering. Developer Nicolás Álvarez, for example, dug around in Xcode and found over ten different models that Apple used for its shadows, showcasing their incredibly detailed meshes.

Knowing Apple, this sort of attention to detail shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it’s a good example of how even small features can add up to make a big difference.

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Since the launch of the iPad Pro with M4 chip, I’ve been using the powerful tablet – with the new Magic Keyboard cover – for working on, rather than a laptop.

This is because, as I said in my review of the 13-inch iPad Pro, if you really want to justify the incredibly high price tag (it starts at $1,299 / £1,299 / $2,199 for the 13-inch model) and powerful components that would usually be overkill for a tablet device, you need to think of the iPad Pro as a laptop alternative – not a replacement for a cheap Kindle Fire.

So, I wanted to know if you really can use the iPad Pro instead of a laptop – and if it’s worth considering over any of the best laptops if you’re looking to buy a new device to work on.

After using it pretty much every day to write, edit, view documents, send emails, and browse the web (plus much more), I’ve been impressed by a lot of ways the iPad Pro can match a laptop as a productivity machine – but there were also other ways where it’s still lacking. Here’s what I found:

1. The hardware is pretty much there

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the iPad Pro was the fact that it is the first product to come with Apple’s new M4 chip.

Usually, M-class chips debut in Macs and MacBooks – with the chips specifically designed for computers, rather than the mobile focus of Apple’s A-class chips found in iPhones and iPads – so the fact that the new iPad Pro was the first device to get the M4 was a surprise – and not something every Mac owner was particularly happy with.

It led to a strange situation in which my 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro was arguably less powerful than an iPad – not something I ever expected to happen (at least, not for a long time).

Whilst reviewing the iPad Pro, I put the new M4 chip to the test with video editing and music creation (plus using some nifty AI-powered tools).

These are tasks I’d usually perform on my desktop PC or MacBook Pro – and generally, the iPad Pro did an excellent job of handling it all. I never felt I was being held back by the hardware, and it was genuinely impressive to work on complex projects in Logic for iPad on such a thin and light device.

The hardware was so good, in fact, that it began to feel like it was being held back by the software – more on that in a bit.

2. It proves a touchscreen MacBook could work

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was famously dismissive of the idea of a MacBook with a touchscreen, and despite a huge amount of touchscreen Windows laptops and convertible Chromebooks coming out and showing that the form factor can work, current CEO Tim Cook appears to be just as hesitant to greenlight such a device.

I continue to think this is a missed opportunity. When Steve Jobs dismissed the idea, touchscreen laptops were few and far between, and the technology was still quite new.

Since then, there have been some excellent touchscreen laptops from Apple rivals like HP and Lenovo – and having the ability to scroll up and down documents using a finger while also interacting with the laptop using the keyboard and trackpad gives much more flexibility. For some people a touch screen can be a really useful accessibility tool as well.

It's so intuitive that when I return to a MacBook, I miss the touchscreen – and sometimes even tap the screen anyway out of habit (leading to fingerprint marks and embarrassment).

When using the iPad Pro as a laptop with the Magic Keyboard accessory, you get a tantalizing glimpse at what a touchscreen MacBook would be like. Obviously, the iPad Pro is basically a touchscreen display with high-tech gubbins behind it, and when magnetically attached to the Magic Keyboard, you get a laptop-like experience with added touch controls.

As the iPad Pro runs apps designed for touchscreens, it feels a lot easier to control with a finger, thanks to larger and simpler interfaces, compared to operating systems such as Windows 11 that are designed to be used mainly by mouse and keyboard.

The iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard looks and feels like a MacBook, and with a few adjustments, iPadOS can get a macOS feel – proving that a touchscreen laptop from Apple would certainly work.

The fact that the company has created accessories like the Magic Keyboard to allow the iPad Pro to be used like a MacBook suggests that it has (belatedly) acknowledged that people like using touchscreen laptop form factors.

3. It's thinner and lighter than a MacBook Air

In the past, if you wanted a thin and light Apple computer, you’d go for the MacBook Air. However, while the dimensions of the 13-inch MacBook Air (M3) are relatively compact (11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches), and the weight is pretty light for a laptop (2.7 lbs), the iPad Pro’s dimensions and weight of 11.09 x 8.48 x 0.20 inches and 1.28lbs respectively lead to a much more portable device. Of course, this is without the Magic Keyboard attached, but it’s still noticeably lighter than the MacBook Air.

It means that when I’m thinking about taking a laptop with me somewhere, I’m now more likely to pick up the iPad Pro than my 13-inch MacBook Pro, as it’s so much more easy and comfortable to carry around.

4. You definitely need the Magic Keyboard (or similar)

While the iPad Pro is plenty powerful, if you’re going to use it as a laptop alternative, you’ll need a physical keyboard and touchpad, which will make writing and multitasking much easier.

Apple’s new Magic Keyboard (confusingly, Apple has several devices that are called this) is ideal for this – it quickly attaches to the iPad Pro via magnets and adds a backlit keyboard and touchpad that feels a lot like the included keyboard of modern MacBooks.

The iPad Pro’s angle can be adjusted, and it has allowed me to comfortably type up emails and documents (including a lot of this article) – something I’d not have been able to do if I was just using the onscreen keyboard that pops up when you use the iPad’s touchscreen.

Meanwhile, the touchpad makes some tasks, such as selecting text, dragging and dropping files, and switching between apps, much easier for people like me, who are more used to working on laptops and PCs. When done, the Magic Keyboard can be closed with the iPad Pro still attached and acts as a screen protector.

It’s a very nice bit of kit, but at $299 / £299 / AU$499 it’s an extremely expensive bit of kit as well, and bumps up the overall price of the iPad Pro significantly.

You can use other keyboards, of course, but they can’t compete with the build quality and convenience of Apple’s own accessory (you don’t need to plug anything in or even pair it with the iPad Pro – it just works).

I’d argue that the Magic Keyboard is essential if you want to use the iPad Pro as a laptop-like device, but that means that the price difference between this setup and a MacBook Air becomes even bigger.

5. The convenience of integrated cellular data makes going back to Wi-Fi hard

The iPad Pro comes with cellular data support on some models – though that adds $200 / £200 to the price tag, and you need a data subscription, which is yet more money. However, I did find it extremely useful, as it meant the iPad Pro was connected to the internet pretty much anywhere I went. I didn’t have to connect to public Wi-Fi networks and deal with all the faff and security implications that come with them.

All I had to do was open up the iPad Pro, and I was ready to go. While I don’t think it can quite justify the extra expense, it was incredibly useful and will be something I miss when I return to my MacBook Pro.

6. Sadly, iPadOS holds it back

The iPad Pro succeeded in many ways when it came to replacing my MacBook Pro, and the hardware powering it can certainly equal – and even surpass – many modern laptops.

However, while the hardware is great, the software is holding the iPad Pro back. This is because it runs the same iPadOS operating system that other iPads use – and it means you can only use apps designed for iPads, which are often quite basic.

While there are plenty of iPadOS versions of software you usually use in desktop operating systems like Windows 11 and macOS, the iPadOS versions are mainly pared-down versions with limited features and simplified interfaces.

Of course, this works great when using an iPad as a tablet – but if you’re going to be using the iPad Pro as a laptop-like device, the limitations of iPadOS apps start to frustrate.

For example, my main web browser is Google Chrome, and I have several extensions that I use to make my job easier.

However, on the iPad Pro I can only use the mobile version of Google Chrome, which doesn’t support extensions. And, while there’s an iPadOS version of Microsoft Word, another program I use daily, it doesn’t offer all the features of the desktop version.

Even iPadOS as a whole is clearly designed for touchscreen use first and foremost, so while using the Magic Keyboard works well, there are again a few niggles that build up to bigger frustrations.

It feels a bit unfair to complain that iPadOS and its apps are often simple with interfaces that are designed for touchscreen use – as that’s exactly why they work so well on iPads when used as tablets – and that’s how the vast majority of iPad owners will use their devices.

However, the iPad Pro's power (and price) means that only using it as a tablet feels like a waste – but when you’re looking to use it daily as a laptop replacement, iPadOS just can’t compete with macOS or Windows.

So, while I’ve really enjoyed my time with the iPad Pro and have been mightily impressed by it, it won’t be replacing my MacBook any time soon.

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Apple’s latest iPad Air and iPad Pro 2024 are versatile beasts, with ample headroom for everyday tasks, more creative ones and even a little AI-infused fun. The latter is partly made possible by the new Apple M4 chipset in the 11- and 13-inch iPad Pros, which boasts a wildly powerful neural processing unit. 

However, if you want to try out Apple's take on AI without needing to splash out on a new iPad, then look no further than the new Logic Pro for iPad 2 app.

This is the first major update to Apple's pro audio application, which arrived on tablets in 2023. For 2024, the '2.0' designation is all about AI-powered features that aim to be truly helpful – and that are available on any M-series iPad. 

These include an expansion to Drummer, a long-standing feature of Logic Pro on Mac and iPad, and new Session Players that act as a band you can call upon at any time. There is also a 'Chromaglow' effect to customize your sound and a stem splitter that is as useful as it is impressive.

I've spent over a week with Logic Pro 2 on the 13-inch iPad Pro with M4, a 13-inch iPad Air with M2, and even the previous-generation iPad Pro (2022), getting a feel for how these AI-powered features come to life. Many of them, for instance Session Players, are downright fun, reminiscent of time spent in Garageband, while others can be genuinely useful in speeding up workflows. Here's what I like and don't like about them.

Stem Splitter: seriously impressive track separation

Stem Splitter is seriously impressive, whether you’re a budding songwriter in a full-fledged band or just playing around with some friends. The idea is that it takes a single track, like a recording from a cafe or a live performance, or even a rehearsal, then splits in into four – drums, bass, vocals and other instruments. You can then easily customize, add plugins, and adjust each track element to your liking, all within the app. 

I found that Stem Splitter works as promised, making it much easier to examine the elements of a track. The key to this is that it doesn’t manipulate the track; it simply provides easy instrument separation across the four categories. It's also fast: it can also tackle a 2:30 track in just a handful of seconds. Theoretically, one could also use this to pull samples. A longer track – with a broader range of elements – took less than 30 seconds on the iPad Pro. It was maybe a second or two longer on the M2 iPad, but this wasn’t a huge dealbreaker.

Enabling this is an on-device algorithm that takes over the Logic Pro app while it completes the splitting. This means you can’t adjust tracks or record something fresh while it’s going. That's pretty common for processes in apps. What is handy is that right after the process is complete, you can start adjusting the elements of the track. So in this case, I could raise or lower drums and other grouped percussion, or even mute all tracks by vocals to focus on those instruments. I think folks using Logic Pro for iPad to record songs, spoken word tracks, or even podcasts will find this helpful, as it’s a simple way to expand the elements on a timeline. 

It also illuminates how Apple views AI-infused or AI-powered features – they’re not just there to be a buzzword, but rather to prove helpful and likely deliver a requested feature that Logic Pro users, and even those coming from Garageband, will delight in now having built-in.

You also don’t need the latest iPad Air or iPad Pro to use Stem Splitter, or for the Session Players feature (below). They'll all work with any Apple Silicon M-Series chip, meaning you're ready to go if you have an M1-, M2-, or M4-powered iPad. Not to mention, Logic Pro 2 for iPad is a free upgrade for folks who are already paying monthly at $5.99 / £4.99 / AU$7.99 or annually at $49.99 / £49.99 / AU$59.99, and there is no price increase for new subscribers. 

Session Players: your virtual band

Probably the most fun addition, and one that has kept me busy, is Session Players. It’s essentially a massive expansion on Drummer. For those unfamiliar, Drummer has been with Logic Pro for many generations and is a tool used to create percussion or drums for a track. You can pick a kit style and even genre, then adjust the complexity and give it direction. 

So if you only know how to sing and play the guitar, you can add a drummer into your band … err, at least a computer-created one, and customize the sound to make it fit within your track.  

Beyond just adding a drummer, you can now add a bass player and a piano player – both with the same level of playing style and genre and unique customizations. Furthermore, the players will pay attention to the tracks already down and try to match them style-wise. Apple notes that these Session Players are trained on real musician works, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, so they’ll play within their styles, but you will likely need to make some adjustments as you go with it. 

One thing for sure, though, is that whether you’re a classically trained musician or someone just playing around with Logic Pro, you'll find them a blast. You can have a lot of fun adjusting each portion that the 'Session Player' has created, and if you’re not feeling it, you can delete it and give it a go again. For folks coming from Garageband, where you can play a virtual keyboard or even an EDM board, I think you’ll find Session Players to be an excellent progression – one that novices and professionals can get something out of.

Some things just work better on an iPad

I have fond memories of attending Apple Camp at my local Apple Store, where free lessons in various creative apps were offered. I started with iLife during this time. Still, I remember at times using an iBook G4 or an early iMac and struggling to move around the cursor, jumping between playing a virtual on-screen piano in Garageband.

Flash forward to 2023, and Logic Pro drops for the iPad, a big moment as it’s a pro app for Apple’s tablet. The realization is that it’s so much more natural to play a digital set of keys. The same is true in 2024 – moving tracks around on the timeline, adjusting a fade in or fade out, playing with a virtual instrument, and even adjusting AI-powered Session Players with a finger or two is quite handy.

While Apple Pencil Pro was a big part of the “Let Loose” event, in which the iPads and Logic Pro for iPad 2 were unveiled, the new accessory does not have dedicated features for the app. It would be neat if a palette tool were employed here, but for now you'll have to be content with using it as a more exact control element.

Logic Pro for iPad 2 – the outlook

Logic Pro for iPad 2 keeps what was successful with the original Logic Pro for iPad and tries to employ its new AI capabilities in the areas that matter most to a potential user. For a budding songwriter, Session Players allows you to add in drums, piano, and even bass. For a starting band, you can easily split your recording session from a voice memo into separated tracks to adjust and customize. 

Folks with more advanced skills can use either of these new flagship-level features to supercharge their Logic Pro project. Chromaglow is a unique and fun plugin which brings "the texture of tubes, tape and other coveted analog hardware" to your music, for instance, but I have a feeling more avid musicians or artists will get more from it than I did. 

Most critically, though, it shows that Apple is still focused on the end user. As it’s done in the past, it doesn’t focus on speeds or feeds but rather aims to provide actually useful features. Logic Pro for iPad 2 succeeds with that and doesn’t increase the price, either.

Of course, if you want to simply play around with digital instruments, make a podcast, or take a crack at mixing jingles together, you could do that in Garageband for free.

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May has been a good month for fans of OLED displays. With Apple’s new iPad Pro and Microsoft’s upgraded Surface Pro being unveiled at almost the same time, there’s now plenty of choice when it comes to high-end tablets that boast top-notch screen tech.

Yet a recent comparison from display industry expert Ross Young shows some massive discrepancies between the two devices that you might not have been aware of if you’d just stuck to the two companies’ marketing materials. It follows a previous claim from Young that the iPad Pro would come with several industry firsts, and when you look a little closer, it becomes clear that the iPad Pro’s display is leaps ahead of the Surface Pro’s, on paper.

What’s immediately obvious is the benefit brought by the iPad Pro’s tandem OLED display. The Surface Pro uses a regular OLED panel, which means it tops out at 900 nits of peak brightness and 600 nits of full screen brightness. The iPad Pro, meanwhile, hits 1,600 nits and 1,000 nits in those two categories, respectively. That’s a huge disparity and one undoubtedly facilitated by the iPad’s more advanced tandem OLED technology.

The differences don’t end there. The iPad Pro has a wider refresh rate range (10Hz to 120Hz compared to the Surface Pro’s 60Hz to 120Hz), offers stronger login protection in the form of Face ID versus a fingerprint reader, is significantly thinner and lighter, and offers a chip with a more efficient and advanced 3nm manufacturing process. 

Despite all of that, it still comes in cheaper, starting at $1,299 / £1,299 / $2,199 compared to the $1,499 (around £1,180 / AU$2,250) Microsoft charges for the OLED version of the Surface Pro.

Which is better?

Of course, not everything is quantifiable by tech specs, and much comes down to how a device feels to hold and use. 

The Surface Pro is a 2-in-1 computer that can be used as either a tablet or a laptop, while the Apple requires you to shell out an extra $299 if you want its keyboard for the iPad Pro. That alone might make Microsoft’s device more attractive to you.

The Surface Pro also pulls ahead in a couple of important ways. For instance, it starts with more storage (512GB versus 256GB), supports Wi-Fi 7 instead of Wi-Fi 6E, offers more CPU cores and potentially more GPU cores (although the latter is uncertain right now), starts with more memory and offers a higher memory limit.

Yet it’s hard to avoid the fact that the iPad Pro is most likely the better choice if the display is your most important consideration. While there’s a lot to like about the Surface Pro, Apple has the display crown for the time being.

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You can read through our iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) review to find out just how impressed we are with Apple's latest premium-level tablet – and a newly published teardown video reveals some of the under-the-hood design changes in this model.

If you remember back to the launch of the device, Apple mentioned incorporating graphite sheets into its main housing, and using copper in the Apple logo to improve thermal performance over the previous 2022 model by nearly 20%.

The new teardown video from Phone Repair Guru (via MacRumors) includes a close up look at those alterations, as well as showing the internal shifts needed to get the front camera and Face ID components over to the right side (as you look at the screen of the iPad Pro in portrait mode).

We also see changes to the array of magnets built into the tablet: these have been moved around quite a bit to add support for the new Apple Pencil Pro and the new Magic Keyboard that were launched at the same time as the new iPad Pros.

Tear it down

The video runs to nearly nine minutes, and we get a close look at the display cables, the four stereo speakers, the front and rear camera modules, and the M4 chip responsible for running everything (complete with Apple logo).

There's also a look at the 10,209 mAh battery, which is split into two sections, and the Apple logo on the back of the tablet, with its added copper – this essentially acts as a heatsink for the M4 chip, ensuring it stays cool enough.

In the video, the tablet is described as having "pretty repairable" innards, and there's an acknowledgement of the "genius" way that Apple has packed everything in here. Remember, this is the thinnest iPad ever, at just 5.1 mm.

We'll no doubt see more teardowns like this appear as time goes on, but we're yet to see the same treatment given to the iPad Air 13-inch (2024). You'll see that both of these new models have jumped right into our best iPads guide.

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Apple’s brand-new iPad Pro 2024 now comes with an OLED display for the first time, and it’s earned plenty of high praise, with our reviewer declaring: “as far as tablets go, you won’t get a better viewing experience.” But it’s not been without its snags, and a new issue has just reared its head in the last few days. Yet as it turns out, it might not technically be a defect at all.

As reported by MacRumors, iPad Pro users have taken to Reddit and the MacRumors forums to document a problem with their new tablets whereby the screen produces a grainy appearance in certain situations. Right now, it’s hard to know how widespread the issue is and how Apple will respond to it, if at all.

According to the posts, the iPad occasionally exhibits a grainy effect that is most pronounced in dark environments. It seems to be more common when the iPad has its display brightness set at a low or medium level and when its on-screen content contains gray or muted colors.

That means it only seems to happen in a very specific set of circumstances. It’s reminiscent of another issue that made the rounds a few days ago, when iMore’s Gerald Lynch noticed a shimmering effect when viewing dark blue tones on his iPad Pro, something TechRadar’s own Lance Ulanoff was able to replicate. It’s all negative press that Apple would no doubt have wanted to avoid.

Defect or quirk?

Despite first appearances, it’s tough to know whether the grainy effect is actually a defect or simply a consequence of how OLED panels work. These displays are known to produce effects like this from time to time, and that could be what’s happening here.

For instance, an OLED display’s brightness is controlled on a per-pixel level, and this can lead to slight inconsistencies in screen brightness. As with this reported issue, this can manifest itself as graininess, especially in low-lighting conditions.

Similarly, the sub-pixels inside OLED screens can vary in their shapes and sizes. This can cause varied on-screen effects, including grainy textures.

Ultimately, it’s unclear what exactly is causing this issue, and a fault may well be to blame. Given the high-profile launch of the iPad Pro, we’re sure Apple is aware and investigating the issue. If it is a genuine defect, the company will likely announce something in due course. But if it’s just one of the quirks of owning an OLED display, iPad Pro users will most likely just have to live with it.

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Last week, Apple held its ‘Let Loose’ event where the firm presented several of its new innovations and products, which included an advert about the main attraction of the event, the new iPad Pro. As you may have seen, this ad stirred up a storm of controversy for reasons that Apple hadn't intended - and now, Samsung has taken the opportunity to put out an advert in response, taking a jab at Apple's ad. 

The advert that accompanied the presentation introducing the iPad Pro depicted a bunch of objects used to create and consume media in the past being crushed by a hydraulic press, which lifted to reveal the new iPad Pro - implying that you can distil all of those objects into the new tablet.

This went viral and was widely talked about because, despite Apple's best intentions and the merits of the new iPad Pro, it came across as Apple destroying all of these things that are so familiar to so many,  and represent many of the ways we currently enjoy making art - and that Apple had the solution to replace it all. 

Apple became aware of the controversy and the company's VP of Marketing Communications, Tor Myhren, issued a statement by way of apology, speaking to Ad Age after the backlash.

Myhren stated: “Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.” 

Samsung enters the conversation

Amid this whirlwind, Samsung clearly saw an opportunity and deployed its own advert via the Samsung Mobile US X (formerly Twitter) account, with the post reading: “We would never crush creativity. #UnCrush.”

Samsung's advert unsubtly references Apple's ad and depicts what appears to be the aftermath of the objects having been crushed by the press, where a woman walks up to it all, and picks up a guitar lying among the debris. She proceeds to sit on the edge of the press, playing the guitar, and humming along while looking at sheet music displayed on a Galaxy Tab S9 tablet (released in 2023).

The ad features a close-up shot of the back of the tablet, showing the Samsung logo, for a moment. Then, the sentence “Creativity cannot be crushed” is displayed, and it cuts to a black screen that reads: “Galaxy Tab S9 Series with Galaxy AI.” 

An opinion that many agree with - but is Samsung the one to champion it?

It's a shrewd move on Samsung's part and successfully captures the sentiment of some of the criticism directed at Apple, but many people aren't convinced of its sincerity.

First off, Samsung isn't known for being the first choice of many creatives when it comes to devices, and if the company would like that to change, there's much more work to be done than one sassy advert. Maybe Samsung can use this as an opportunity to distinguish itself as a different kind of tech company when it comes to human creativity. However, at the moment, that's not a feeling which is evoked in most people when they think of Samsung, not to mention its current tech industry position (mainly) as an Apple alternative manufacturer. 

Also, the top replies in response to Samsung Mobile US’s post say that the ad itself isn’t especially riveting or evocative, and doesn’t feel particularly creatively driven. 

Another criticism that I've seen from multiple people is Samsung's own mention of the AI it incorporates into its products. To some, the term 'AI' is quickly becoming the antithesis of the idea of raw human creativity. I'm sympathetic to this view, but I don't share it and I don't think AI and human creativity are mutually exclusive. Computing in general can be a medium like any other, and AI is a tool that can be developed and used by humans to help benefit, or destroy, creativity. Frankly, right now it's hard to tell which of those two forces is winning, but as someone who enjoys creative activities myself, I've found AI to be useful in helping me brainstorm. 

So, while I don't think Samsung looks like a paragon of creativity after this ad, I think it's a fun jab at Apple that strikes a chord (pardon the pun). Furthermore, I'm all for reminding technology companies that human creativity is one of our best attributes as a species. 

As we already touched on, though, Samsung needs to do more than just push out an advert - if it’s serious about going after Apple, the company needs to develop a tablet that can compete with the iPad Pro and tempt creative people into spending money on it.

As for Apple, I doubt the company will respond to Samsung here, as I'm sure it wants to move on from this misstep and continue to build on the fact that the iPad Pro is a legitimately impressive piece of technology. 

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