About iPad Pro (next generation)

Apple has not announced a next generation iPad Pro. It has not named one, dated one, or described one, and because Apple names iPad Pro models after the chip inside them, there is no correct name yet for whatever follows the current model. This page holds the place in the range rather than describing a machine. What follows is what the iPad Pro line is, where it sits, who it suits, and what a buyer should weigh while waiting, all of it drawn from the generation Apple is selling today and from reporting that is clearly labelled as reporting.

What Apple has actually confirmed

Apple introduced the iPad Pro with the M5 chip on 15 October 2025 and put it on sale on 22 October 2025. Apple lists the line in 11 inch and 13 inch sizes, both with an Ultra Retina XDR display built on tandem OLED technology, Wi-Fi 7 through Apple's N1 wireless chip, Bluetooth 6, and Thunderbolt with USB 4. Cellular models carry Apple's second generation C1X modem and are eSIM only. Apple's own store currently lists the 11 inch model from 1,199 dollars and the 13 inch from 1,499 dollars, both at 256GB with Wi-Fi, and cellular adds 200 dollars. Those prices are higher than the ones this generation launched at. Beyond this, Apple has confirmed nothing about a successor.

Where the iPad Pro sits in Apple's tablet range

Apple sells four tablet lines and compares them directly. The iPad runs an A16 chip and is the entry point. The iPad mini runs an A17 Pro and is the small one. The iPad Air runs an M4 and holds the middle. The iPad Pro sits at the top with the M5, and it is the only line with an OLED panel, the thinnest of the four, and the only one Apple positions as a replacement for a laptop. The distance between the Air and the Pro is not chip generation alone. It is the display technology, the chassis, the Thunderbolt port, and the accessory support. A buyer comparing on chip number alone will either overpay or underbuy.

Who the line is actually for

Reviewers who tested the M5 generation placed it with people who export large video files, work in colour, or draw professionally. The tandem OLED panel is the strongest single reason to choose it, with deep blacks, high full screen brightness, and a contrast ratio Apple states as 2,000,000 to 1. Thunderbolt matters to anyone pulling footage off a fast external drive rather than waiting on a slower port. Apple Pencil Pro support, with squeeze, barrel roll, haptic feedback and hover, matters to illustrators who use those inputs daily. If none of those three descriptions fit the work, the panel and the port are a luxury rather than a tool, and the money is better spent elsewhere in the range.

What to weigh against the nearest rival

The nearest rival is not another maker's tablet. It is Apple's own iPad Air, and after that a MacBook Air. Against the iPad Air, the Pro costs several hundred dollars more before a single accessory, and the Air is thicker, heavier and uses an LCD rather than OLED while running a chip one generation behind. Whether that gap is worth the money depends entirely on the display and the port, not on benchmark figures. Against a MacBook Air, the question is whether the work needs touch and a pen, or a desktop operating system with unrestricted file handling and window management. Accessories change the arithmetic more than most buyers expect, because the Magic Keyboard and the Apple Pencil Pro are both sold separately and a fully equipped Pro lands well past the price of a laptop.

Who should buy something else

Most people. Someone who reads, watches and browses should buy the entry iPad and stop there, because nothing about the Pro improves that use. Someone who wants a capable tablet at a fair price should buy the iPad Air, which reviewers repeatedly name as the better value for buyers who are not doing professional media work. Anyone whose real problem is that they need a computer should buy a laptop, since a tablet stops being the cheaper option once the keyboard is counted. And anyone waiting specifically for the next iPad Pro should understand that there is currently nothing announced to wait for, so the choice is between the model on sale now and no purchase at all.

When a successor might arrive

Apple has published nothing. Reporting from Bloomberg, relayed by AppleInsider in July 2026, places the next iPad Pro in spring 2027, alongside an iPad Air refresh in the same window, an iPad mini in October 2026 and a base iPad in the first quarter of 2027. That is a report, not an announcement, and it should be read as one. The line's own history does not support a predictable window either. The M4 model arrived in May 2024 and the M5 followed in October 2025, roughly a year and a half later and in a different month. Gaps of that length, landing in different seasons, do not add up to a schedule anyone can forecast from. This page will carry a date when Apple publishes one.

iPad Pro (next generation)