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M5 Chip Coming to iPad Pro This Fall

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Refreshed iPad Pro models will be the first device to get Apple's faster M5 chip, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple's high-end tablets could be refreshed as soon as October.

ipad-pro-orange.jpeg

Apple last updated the iPad Pro line with the M4 chip and OLED display technology in May 2024, so there will be about 17 months between the M4 launch and the M5 launch.

Since the iPad Pro got a major design overhaul with OLED in 2024, the 2025 models aren't expected to feature design changes. They'll have the same slimmed down chassis and OLED display, but will be equipped with the faster M5 chip. The M5 chip will be built on TSMC's improved 3-nanometer process, and it will bring performance and efficiency improvements.

Apple is working on new display technology that will slim down the iPad Pro's bezels, but it's not clear if that will be ready for the M5 models.

Article Link: M5 Chip Coming to iPad Pro This Fall
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/07/10/ipad-pro-m5-chip/
zedsdead said:
If they put thunderbolt 5 in it, and it can output to two displays in clamshell mode via a dock, I’ll buy right away even though I have an M4 model.
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Clamshell mode at all would be great; I'd use my iPad docked like a laptop more if I didn't have to keep it open. But unlock with Apple Watch (like the Mac) to go along with this would be even better, since Face ID obviously won't work in clamshell, and passcodes...can but feel like an ancient holdover at this point when pretty much all their other devices have some other method nowadays.

While we're wishing for things, those are mine!
 
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hieranonymous said:
Apple is surprisingly aggressive about keeping the iPad Pro spec’d up, considering it isn’t a high-volume seller for them, and they have a tendency to neglect Pro lines that aren’t big sellers (cough, Mac Pro, cough).
Click to expand...

Probably it is an opportunity for them to test production capacity of their new chips with a low-volume product.
 
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Apple will trim the bezels a few millimeters and market this M5 iPad as the best iPad we’ve ever made.

Not sure what’s left to do.
 
GMShadow said:
Should calm down a lot with iPadOS 26.

We'll see if they standardize on 16GB of RAM across the board or keep the 8/16 bifurcation.
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If only iPadOS Apps would be able to spawn the child processes, that would be a game changer. Right now we only got better window management, which is a huge step forward. But the quality and amount of apps is not going to change much.
 
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satchmo said:
Apple will trim the bezels a few millimeters and market this M5 iPad as the best iPad we’ve ever made.

Not sure what’s left to do.
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I used to think I want thinner bezels but after six months living with a 16, I fear the apps I might delete while carrying the device.
 
So the current rumors have the iPad Pro getting a chip upgrade this year but the MacBook Pros being pushed off of their usual October upgrade cycle to early 2026 instead. Which is a shame because I'm holding out for late 2026 to see what the M6 MacBook Pros and their supposed redesign bring and that might now get pushed to 2027.
 
hieranonymous said:
Apple is surprisingly aggressive about keeping the iPad Pro spec’d up, considering it isn’t a high-volume seller for them, and they have a tendency to neglect Pro lines that aren’t big sellers (cough, Mac Pro, cough).
Click to expand...



There's a couple big reasons

1. iPads are still a big money maker for Apple and sales from iPad Pros still dwarf something as niche as a Mac Pro or even a Mac Studio. From the '24 10-k iPads had 26.7 billion in sales and Macs had 30 billion. But the catch is vast majority of Mac sales are from the Macbooks(probably 80% or a bit more) which is why they get updated every year and desktops ignored sometimes for many years.

2. iPad Pro is using the same SOC that used in Macbooks, Mac Minis, iMacs which is just the base M4 chip. In otherwords from a production standpoint putting a M4 in a iPad Pro is effiecent since that is simply the same 3nm chip lines for mutiple other Apple products. Mac Pro on the other hand has a problem because no one is putting a base M chip in it. Since Apple sells so little of these computers they would rather have them sit for ages until they can produce a much higher end chip for the launch like they did with the Mac Studio. They let it sit and then did the M3 Ultra release with the M4 Max.
 
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I still use the first gen Pro and it's plenty fast. I don't know what people doing where more is needed. All I want is newer battery tech and the ability to boost screen brightness without overheating.
 
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The only reason I want to get a pro over an air is because of the OLED screen and lighter weight. I know the weight difference seems minuscule, but it’s definitely noticeable when you walk around holding it in one hand after a while, which is how I use it.

I don’t need the extra horsepower.
 
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hieranonymous said:
Apple is surprisingly aggressive about keeping the iPad Pro spec’d up, considering it isn’t a high-volume seller for them, and they have a tendency to neglect Pro lines that aren’t big sellers (cough, Mac Pro, cough).
Click to expand...
Hell yeah! And I love them for that. Have always bought the iPad Pro's. Amazing machines, happy to see the OS get some love.
 
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Do we have enough history now with Apple Silicon to better predict what sorta specific performance increases to expect in newer generations of the M chips? Or are the configurations still too much in flux between generations?

Newer generations are great, but it’s always just a few more cores here or there, or a faster Neural Engine.

I know we don’t have things like clock speeds to focus on anymore, but I’m still trying to better “reason about” these chips. At least between chips (base, pro, max, etc.) it’s a bit easier but between generations, it’s cloudy.

Seeing chips like an M4 and M5 in an iPad still feels like power overkill to me. My M2 and M3 Macs still feel incredibly speedy for their uses. (Which, great, nbd, but feels “odd” to have like an iPad with an M4 chip when my primary MacBook is an M2… so I’m still trying to better “reason about that” in the world of Apple Silicon.)
 
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