Apple's 2022 iPad Pro lineup could include a beastly 14.1-inch model with 16GB of 'base' memory
UPDATE: According to Ross Young's almost always reliable "supply chain sources", a 14.1-inch iPad Pro is definitely happening, but Apple might wait until "early 2023" to make it a commercial reality. Unsurprisingly, the M2-powered giant is expected to rock state-of-the-art mini-LED and ProMotion display technology, just like the 12.9-inch 2021 iPad Pro and presumably the next-gen 12.9-incher as well. Our original post follows below.
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- Apple iPad Pro 2022: everything we know
With a desktop-grade M1 processor under the hood (and a bunch of other super-premium features), last year's 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pros are arguably the overall best tablets money can buy in 2022... as long as money is no object.
But according to multiple generally reliable leakers, industry pundits, and insiders, that's set to change by the end of this year, with the vastly upgraded Apple M2 chip unveiled earlier this week widely expected to expand from MacBooks to iPads slightly quicker than its precursor.
A beastly SoC deserves all the storage and memory in the world
How could Apple possibly do justice to a chip advertised as containing an 18 percent faster CPU, 35 percent more powerful GPU, and 40 percent faster Neural Engine on the latest MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro editions than the already mind-blowing M1?
A 14.1-inch screen sounds like... an interesting start for the most advanced of three rumored iPad Pro (2022) variants, and a "base" combination of 512GB internal storage space and 16GB RAM may well help this colossus completely leave Samsung's 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra in the dust.
Although nowhere near as trustworthy or as prolific as the likes of Mark Gurman, Ming-Chi Kuo, Ross Young, or Jon Prosser... yet, the Twitter leaker behind this juicy new piece of speculation is not entirely unknown or unproven.
In fact, Majin Bu correctly predicted a little while ago that the newest version of iPadOS would drop support for the iPad Air 2. Perhaps even more impressively, the Stage Manager feature unveiled as part of iPadOS 16 was previewed by Bu (albeit under a different name) all the way back in March, suggesting this guy's sources are legit.
Of course, accurately anticipating the screen size and a couple of other key specs of a totally new iPad Pro model four or five months ahead of an official announcement requires a radically different level of inside knowledge, which is why Bu himself warns us against taking "this news too seriously."
An iPad Pro with up to 4TB storage?!?
This is an even sketchier theory (at least for the time being), but it kinda sorta makes sense for Apple to go all the way up to FOUR terabytes of local digital hoarding room if the jumbo-sized 14.1-inch iPad Pro (2022) will indeed start at 512 gigs.
In case you're wondering, the M1-powered iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) currently comes in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage configurations, the former three of which are limited to 8GB RAM, while the other two offer 16 gigs of the good stuff each.
Compared to that, the first-ever 14.1-inch iPad Pro could run on a whole different level in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB options, the latter of which we don't even want to imagine how much it might cost.
These are the latest 12.9 (left) and 11-inch (right) iPad Pros at the moment.
Unified memory, mind you, is apparently unlikely to exceed 32GB due to processing power limitations, but it goes without saying that the largest and most impressive iPad Pro ever doesn't need more to (easily) become the best tablet available in late 2022.
The other two members of the next-gen iPad Pro family, meanwhile, sound a lot less mind-blowing, with "no major changes" whatsoever tipped for the "compact" 11-inch model and the 12.9-inch version expected to sport "reduced bezels."
Of course, if Apple can keep the starting prices of these two M2 powerhouses unchanged compared to their M1 forerunners, the sky's the limit as far as global demand is concerned following an October or November launch alongside new AirPorts. By the way, that's not a typo, referring to a possible revival of a 2016-discontinued line of wireless routers and wireless cards rather than the AirPods Pro 2 likely to go official in September together with the iPhone 14 roster and Apple Watch Series 8.
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