Apple has held a spring launch event for the iPad Pro for the last few years. When does it happen again? Well, funny you asked – March 8! It came without a Pro version, but the iPad Air 5 sounds a lot like it.
The iPad Pro (2021) was our popular tablet last year. Apple’s Pro tablets have a lot of power and great-looking screens, so if the company keeps up its winning streak, the iPad Pro (2022) could be one of the best tablets of 2022.
We’ve heard a few rumors about the upcoming iPad Pro so far, and that’s because some people think the new ones could be a fresh start for the series after a few years of similar-looking slates.
Apple needs to ensure its iPad Pro (2022) is impressive because Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 family could steal the show, especially if the rumored Tab S8 Ultra is as big and powerful as leaks say it will be.
Before the Galaxy Tab S8 is officially shown off, we’ve gathered all the information we know about it from leaks and rumors. There is also a wish list for the tablet, which looks at what we require to perceive based on its predecessors and trends in the tablet market.
iPad Pro (2022) cost and availability
The iPad Pro (2021) was announced in April and came out in May, about a year after the iPad Pro (2020), so it would make sense for the 2022 model to follow the same schedule. We haven’t heard anything official or rumored about it, but it seemed likely. That is, until Apple’s March event on the 8th of the month when there was no sign of an iPad Pro.
Since that would have been a big way to launch it, we now think it might not be coming out for a while, and one leak says it will be out in the fall. Since the iPad Pros are Apple’s most expensive tablets, you can’t expect them to be inexpensive.
The iPad Pro 11 (2021) begin at $799/£749/AU$1,199 and gone up to £1,899/$2,099/AU$3,099, while the 12.9-inch model begin at $1,099/£999/AU$1,649 and went up to $2,399/£2,149/AU$3,549. We don’t know how much the new iPad Pro will cost, but it’s likely that these prices won’t change too much by 2022.
News and rumors
The first thing you should understand about the iPad Pro 2022 is that it will likely be similar to the iPad Pro 2021. This means you’d be able to get it in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes, even though there have been rumors that Apple is looking into bigger iPad Pro screen sizes for the future.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with a good track record for Apple news, thinks that will happen, but a smaller leaker believes that a 14.1-inch version will be released instead. Kuo said the iPad Pro 11 (2022) would have a Mini LED screen in the same report.
It looks like the iPad Pro 12.9 (2022) will too, but that won’t be an upgrade for the 12.9-inch model because the current model already uses Mini LED. It’s important to note that we had heard before that the iPad Pro 2022 might instead have an OLED screen, but newer reports say that switch is still a ways off.
The iPad Pro with an 11-inch screen could get mini-LED, a screen technology only used on the 12.9-inch model in 2021. In other news, a report says that the next iPad Pro will adopt MagSafe, just like the iPhone 12. This means that it can connect to magnetic accessories like magnetic chargers and cases.
We’ve heard more than once that the iPad Pro (2022) will have MagSafe, and one report says it will also have an M2 chipset, which will have the same CPU as the M1 but more GPU cores and faster speed.
We’ve also heard that future iPad Pros might be designed to be used in landscape mode, with the Apple logo and cameras on the side. This could also mean a different aspect ratio, but that’s just a guess for now. The source of this leak says they are not sure if this change will happen in time for the iPad Pro 2022, which is something to keep in mind.
A big name in Apple news said that the iPad Pro (2022) would be redesigned compared to its predecessors. The source is reliable, but there isn’t much information about what “redesign” means. One leaker said there could be versions of the tablet with 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and even 4TB of storage space.
Reduce the price
If you’ve already read the section above about pricing, we probably don’t need to explain why we want the iPad Pro to cost less (2022). iPad Pro tablets are costly, and if you buy extras like Apple Pencils, keyboard folios, carrying cases, apps, and other things, you could spend a lot to use them.
Even though the iPad Air 4 has a lot of the same specs as the Pro models at a lower price, it isn’t quite the same, so some people might want the power of the iPad Pro (2022) without having to pay so much.
Include the Apple Pencil
Let’s talk about the Apple Pencil, which is very expensive. Some might say it’s essential for the tablet, but unlike Huawei’s M Pen or Samsung’s S Pen, the tablet doesn’t come with a stylus.
This means that if you want to buy the tablet and the Apple Pencil, the price is even higher, which might make you want to buy one of the other high-end tablets instead. Also, including the Apple Pencil would help Apple stop people from creating fake Apple Pencils that don’t always work the way they’re supposed to.
Increase the battery life
The 2021 and 2020 iPad Pros could be used generally for about ten hours on a single charge. Sounds good. Well, no, because “normal use” includes watching Netflix and social media. As the name suggests, you can use your iPad Pro like a pro by editing video, music, or pictures, working on multiple documents at once, or even playing games.
Power needs to be improved, which could be done by adding software tweaks that use less energy or by just putting in a bigger battery. Oh, and it would be nice if it charged faster, too. In this day and age, 18W isn’t fast enough.
No limits on processing power
App developers say that the iPad Pro (2021) only lets each app use up to 5GB of RAM. Since the full version of the tablet has 16GB of RAM, this seems like an oddly low limit. This could be a problem for apps that need a lot of RAM to run, like augmented reality tools and editing software, and some developers have already complained about this.
A limit on RAM could also stop developers from making apps that need more power, which would have long-term effects on iPad software. We want this limit lifted for the iPad Pro in 2022 or all iPads before then.
iPadOS improvements
iPadOS is an excellent operating system for tablets, but even with the improvements in iPadOS 15, it still lacks some essential tools for getting work done. The problem with multitasking is that you can’t look at three apps at once or split the screen horizontally, two things that some users might find very useful.
