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Will the iPad 11 Support Apple Intelligence? New Leak Adds Uncertainty

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Earlier this month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the iPad 11 will support Apple Intelligence, but a new leak has added uncertainty to the rumor.

Apple-iPad-10th-gen-Magic-Keyboard-Folio-Apple-Pencil-Feature-Yellow.jpg

According to a private account on social media platform X, with a good track record of sharing iOS-related information, the iPad 11 will be equipped with a chip that has the identifier T8120. That identifier corresponds with the A16 chip, which does not support the Apple Intelligence suite of artificial intelligence features. Existing devices with the A16 chip include the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus.

We continue to respect the account owner's request to not link to its posts, as they wish to remain anonymous and maintain a low profile.

Gurman said to look for the iPad 11 to have the A17 Pro chip and 8GB of RAM, which are currently the minimum iPad specs for Apple Intelligence. The latest iPad mini also has the A17 Pro and 8GB of RAM. However, if the anonymous account is correct, the next entry-level iPad will actually use the A16 chip, which has 6GB of RAM. That means either no Apple Intelligence, or Apple curiously lowers the minimum iPad specs for it.

We don't know who is right here: Gurman, or the anonymous account. Both sources have good track records with Apple rumors, with the occasional miss.

Or, could both sources be right? We are purely speculating, but Apple could end up offering multiple iPad 11 configurations and price points.

Apple will likely announce the iPad 11 by March or April, and no major changes are expected for the device beyond the improved specs. According to Gurman, Apple is also planning to release an updated Magic Keyboard accessory for the iPad 11.

Article Link: Will the iPad 11 Support Apple Intelligence? New Leak Adds Uncertainty
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/22/ipad-11-with-a16-chip-identifier-leak/
Last edited:
Biro said:
On the other hand, the iPhone SE is expected to handle AI. I don’t see why the new iPad 11 wouldn’t.
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The SE4 is expected to see a bit of a price increase, plus it's using parts bin screens and other components. The cheap iPad doesn't get a lot of those economies of scale benefits.
 
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GMShadow said:
The SE4 is expected to see a bit of a price increase, plus it's using parts bin screens and other components. The cheap iPad doesn't get a lot of those economies of scale benefits.
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Doesn’t it? It looks like it’s going to be an iPad 10 with a newer processor and more RAM.
 
MacRumors said:
Or, could both sources be right? We are purely speculating, but Apple could end up offering multiple iPad 11 configurations and price points.
Click to expand...
Please no. I can understand if they put an A16+6GB with no support for Apple Intelligence, and it would be nice if Gurman was right and we had a powerful iPad 11 with an A17 Pro+8GB. But please don’t segment the lineup even more with two tiers for the base iPad
 
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It would be dead wrong if it doesn’t support apples latest software (and upcoming software)

It might be apples cheapest iPad but it isn’t real cheap.
 
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The RAM isn’t built into the SoC, just attached directly to it, so there’s no reason they couldn’t just use 8 GB instead. I wonder if they pair an A16 with 8 GB of RAM if that’ll be enough. Based on M1 chips getting it despite using older cores and neural engine than the A16, I’m guessing the limit was always around RAM and not much else.
 
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TheColtr said:
I bet Apple will bring AI to A16 devices. iOS 18 was a testbed and iOS 19 they will say they’ve figured out a way to shrink it for older devices.
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Maybe like the mini models of Gemini and OpenAI. Or maybe they just ramp up the ram and say that they balance out the underpowered A16 with 12gb of ram or something.
 
A *lack* of support for Apple Intelligence might actually make it a better seller. When 18.3 comes out, I'll upgrade my iPhone SE, but I'll hold off with my iPad Pro until they make AI opt-in. I don't ever want it, I haven't even had Siri turned on since that came out.
 
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GMShadow said:
It's felt unlikely for them to push the iPad 11 up that far on the tech tree, especially if they want to keep the price modest.
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Agreed. It's not a lock for the iPad to get 8 GB RAM and A17 Pro. I think it will likely get a RAM upgrade, and 6 GB seems like a reasonable amount, especially since 6 GB LPDDR5 chips are common now and relatively inexpensive. Also, the A16 is paired in the iPhone with exactly that, 6 GB LPDDR5, and in that context, A16 makes sense too.

ttyRazor said:
The RAM isn’t built into the SoC, just attached directly to it, so there’s no reason they couldn’t just use 8 GB instead. I wonder if they pair an A16 with 8 GB of RAM if that’ll be enough. Based on M1 chips getting it despite using older cores and neural engine than the A16, I’m guessing the limit was always around RAM and not much else.
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It's true that the RAM could be changed with A16, but A16 is likely the limitation* here for AI. And if it's a limitation, then there's no point in increasing the RAM to 8 GB. *The limitation doesn't have to be a technical one, but could be a marketing decision.

jdavid_rp said:
Maybe like the mini models of Gemini and OpenAI. Or maybe they just ramp up the ram and say that they balance out the underpowered A16 with 12gb of ram or something.
Click to expand...
There is no way in Hades the iPad 11th gen will get 12 GB RAM. Even 8 GB is a stretch. Remember even the flagship M4 iPad Pro only has 8 GB RAM. Actually it's 12 GB (in some units), but Apple chose to disable 4 GB of that.

cmason said:
A *lack* of support for Apple Intelligence might actually make it a better seller. When 18.3 comes out, I'll upgrade my iPhone SE, but I'll hold off with my iPad Pro until they make AI opt-in. I don't ever want it, I haven't even had Siri turned on since that came out.
Click to expand...
I think there is a toggle in iOS 18.3 to turn it off - an opt-out option. So you can just do that.
 
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cmason said:
A *lack* of support for Apple Intelligence might actually make it a better seller. When 18.3 comes out, I'll upgrade my iPhone SE, but I'll hold off with my iPad Pro until they make AI opt-in. I don't ever want it, I haven't even had Siri turned on since that came out.
Click to expand...

In fact, I *was* planning on buying the next iPhone SE immediately when it comes out, but now I will wait until Apple changes their policy with regard to AI. At this point AI is probably costing them more sales than they are gaining. Recent studies show new iPhone buyers don't care about it, and aren't buying it because of that. But if some people are *not* buying products because of it, that's not good for Apple.
 
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Perhaps Apple will break up AI features into device groupings... They definitely need to have some of the new ‘AI’ features on all devices going forward. For instance the old dumb Siri is absolutely useless and would be a good candidate for broad implementation whereas some features could be ‘pro only’.
 
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The 10th gen iPad may have some weird feature choices, but that article photo with the white magnetic kickstand and keyboard looks so good.
 
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