It’s looking increasingly likely that Apple’s most powerful chip will once again debut in the iPad Pro, this time in the form of Apple’s M5 chipset. 

iPad Gets M5 First!

Jump back to May 2024, Apple did something never seen before at Cupertino, they launched their latest most advanced chip, the “M4” on the new iPad Pro. It wasn’t until 6 months later that another Apple device received the flagship silicone and that product happened to be the MacBook Pro in October of that year. So could we be seeing a new pattern emerging?

16 Gigs Opens Whole New World for iPad Users. 

Apple uses the same chips in the MacBook Air as they do in the iPad Pro’s. This has been the case since the M1 arrived in the iPad Pro in November of 2020, though there is a slight difference in chip for the base model iPad Pro’s. To be more specific the base model iPad Pro’s (those under 1T storage) use a binned version of the M4 chip. Binned chips refer to semiconductors which do not meet the full performance standards of their intended design. As a result they are tested and sorted into bins or category’s which allow them to be sold for use in lower spec product lines. In this case, for the 256gb and 512gb iPad Pro’s, these are chips with 2 less CPU cores. Apple does this to minimize lost production and capitalize on production output and savings, by using the same SKU across 2 different product lines. 

The current M4 MacBook Air’s now come standard with 16gigs of ram, we should see this same standardization as the minimum base ram offered in the new iPad Pro’s. We can say this with near certainty, as the M5 will be almost undoubtably be used in the same fashion in the next generation M5 Macbook Air’s. 

24 Gigs of Ram Likely

For the 1T and 2T iPad Pro’s we may even see a 24g ram configuration, again this is hinted to us by the current offering on the Macbook Airs. This would attract developers of Pro Apps to bring their products across to the iPad, as developers would now have virtually all the hardware resources and software tools necessary, for their apps to make sense on iPadOS. A little clue to this fact is that iPadOS 26 has now interestingly changed the cursor to a “pointier pointer”, as Craig Federighi put it on stage at WWDC. You can read our full review of our top features announced at this past WWDC here. A sharper pointer (as on the mac) now will enable developers to offer features previously exclusive to the Mac, that required more precise inputs to now make sense on the iPad, such as full feature parity of Photoshop, Lightroom, AutoCAD, and even Xcode to a degree, there is now zero excuse for there to be any difference.        

As Mike pointed out in his previous article, this should encourage developers to bring games to the iPad that require a minimum of 16g of ram to run, such as the new CyberPunk 2077 now out on the Mac App Store. Another reason why game developers may start to finally port their titles across to iPadOS, is that their market would be larger, if 16gigs is the standard available ram offered, it will mean more people will be able to play their games, as apposed to a smaller piece of the iPad Pro pie – being just those who could afford the higher spec iPad Pro’s.

A Decent Speed Boost

Speed is a huge factor in the decision making of the Pro buyer. The M5 is expected to be manufactured on TSMC’s expanded N3P 3nm processes. If we look carefully at the trend of 3nm performance gains between M3 and M4, we should expect to see around a 20% boost in single core performance and approximately a 30% improvement in GPU performance This would put the M5 iPad Pro ahead of the M3 Pro chip! What does this look like, well if we look compare Geekbench scores for Apple chips and devices with comparable performance, the new M5 iPad Pro should be faster than the M4 Max in Single Core performance at around 4432 on Geekbench. See image below.

For multi core we should see a score of around 17846, ahead of the M3 Pro chip. As shown below.

A new Modem? 🤔

We doubt we will see Apple’s new C1 modem which was launched in the iPhone 16e. This new modem which would offer improved power consumption and better responsiveness in Safari, through clever data prioritization techniques, is ideal for congested networks. Currently the C1 doesn’t support 5G or WiFi 7 which one would expect to see in the latest generation of Apple’s Premier Tablet, particularly since new iPad Pro models typically appear on a 1.6 year cycle. Apple would need to do this for future proofing in a market where they are the leading tablet maker.

Dual Monitors 

Apple has been pushing the iPad Pro as a device aimed at content creators for years now. One such area in their sights is video editing. With full featured Pro video editing Apps like DaVinci Resolve and LumaFusion combined with Apples own Final Cut Pro available on the App Store, it’s easy to see this is a direction Apple is investing heavily in. Video editing ideally requires more screen real estate to spread out and view timelines, media and more.

Illustrators, Photographers, Digital artists and Graphic designers too, are some of Apples target market for the iPad Pro, creative professionals in these fields benefit greatly from more than one external monitor to avoid constant minimizing and tabbing between media, references, edit history and so on. Illustrators may use one screen for drawing in software like Procreate or Adobe Fresco and the other to reference brush libraries, images and layers. Similarly photographers require heavily on screen space during post-processing, one screen may run Lightroom while another shows adjustments, layers, presets etc.

For those in the Pro space who require dual external monitors in their profession, this would easily be possible on a 16/24gb M5 Chip. We can already see this as the current M4 MacBook Air can already output to two external displays. So in theory there is no reason why the new iPad Pro running a faster chip wouldn’t be able to. 

Thunderbolt 5 ⚡️

A likely update would be the move to from Thunderbolt 4 which supports up to 40Gbps, to Thunderbolt 5 offering upto 80Gbps or 120Gbps omnidirectional. Thunderbolt 5 would also hint at powering more displays as mentioned in the paragraph above. Thunderbolt 5 can run 3 x 4K displays at 144Hz or Two 8K displays at 60Hz.

Dual monitors supported byThunderbolt 5 would not only offer the high resolution displays used by creative pro’s but also enable the speeds required to work fluidly from external drives which are often used on set or in the field to capture and store media.

The Legendary “Clamshell” Mode 

For power users this is a coveted feature many have been asking for years. Why, because this feature would give another Mac like functionality to the iPad. This feature allows the simplicity of plugging in your iPad with Magic keyboard to an external monitor without opening your iPad. (As depicted in Satechi’s Dual Vertical Laptop Stand above) This feature also offers users a cleaner work aesthetic, more desk space and a very desktop-like feel to the way you work. The simplicity of just plugging in one cable to your device which could be stored closed in a stand, under your desk or to the side of your monitor is a very nice ability to have.

Slimmer Bezels

Rumours about Apple moving to LG enabling yet even slimmer bezels on the new iPad Pro, have been doing the rounds again. Though we suspect there is a “slim” chance of this (excuse the pun), because Apple almost certainly will not change the iPad chassis, which would mean a change in the Magic Keyboard and a redesign of the iPad Pro internals layout, when the the M4 iPad Pro was only released 1.6 years ago. This would also upset accessories suppliers who like Apple, need a longer sell cycle to recover costs from and maximize profits from iPad Pro accessories. 

Lastly Camera’s 

Latest Rumours from Bloomberg on Sunday 20th July, point towards Apple introducing a 2nd, portrait, front facing camera to the iPad Pro. This is so users can FaceTime or take selfies in any orientation they wish, since the main front facing camera was moved on the M4 iPad Pro to the landscape orientation. We believe this additional front facing camera may be a NEW camera altogether, likely a 4K front facing camera! The iPad Pro has always touted the best front facing cameras between the Mac and iPad, and the last time the front facing camera on the iPad Pro was updated was over 4 years ago. We think this would be a fantastic addition to the new iPad Pro and one that would cause more Pro’s to upgrade. Considering now that Apple is targeting Podcasting with the launch of a new feature in iPadOS 26 called “local capture”, (see our article for more info) and that video these days continues to accompany Podcasting, for use on YouTube and other streaming channels, it makes allot of sense and a very compelling feature.   

Summary

The new M5 iPad Pro is expected in October, we think it’s going to be a great update for Pro’s and those coming from an M2 iPad Pro or lower. Coupled with the launch of a more capable mac-like iPadOS 26 due in September, it is likely Apple are banking on converting more users by upselling them from less expensive product lines such as the Macbook Air and lower spec iPad models. Additionally, the temptation now for non-Apple users to migrate across the competitor line to Apple’s premier tablet, will be greater than ever when the new M5 iPad Pro Arrives on the scene.

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I’m Matt and thats all for now, catch you next week.

Cheers 👋