Apple just unveiled fresh iPhones, AirPods and Watches for the season, and updates for its other devices could follow soon.
Rumors are swirling of new MacBooks, a new iPad Pro and even an update to the nearly two-year-old Apple Vision Pro. All these upcoming products could share one thing that hasn’t yet been announced: an M5 chip. Mark Gurman, an accurate source of Apple’s future roadmap, has been reporting about these being in the works for months.
Apple tends to release its M-series processors on a yearly cadence. The M4 debuted along with the last version of the iPad Pro in May 2024. While products with new-generation chips tend to get staggered releases over time, including variations with extra processing cores or RAM, this year we may see a number of updates across the board with the M5 chip all at once.
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I’m most interested in Apple’s “future computers,” the iPad Pro and Apple Vision Pro, which have both been crowned as the next wave beyond Mac at various points in the last five years.
While the Vision Pro is still an extremely niche device, iPads are steadily becoming more Mac-like with OS changes under the hood. There are an increasing number of hints and possible leaks, from an FCC filing for what looks like Vision Pro 2 to what looks like a full unboxing of the M5 iPad Pro in Russia.
If you’re considering buying either, wait. Here is a mix of what we expect and what I hope gets announced.
iPad Pro M5: Focusing on pure power
A year ago, the iPad Pro M4 saw a big redesign: It got thinner, introduced a new Pencil Pro and added a tandem OLED display that still hasn’t appeared anywhere else in the line. This fall, I expect Apple to keep that design and swap in a better chip, with some possible camera boosts.
The biggest possible feature is dual front-facing cameras that allow for both landscape and portrait video chats, something I don’t need but some Pro users might.
Right now, and for the last few years, I haven’t found iPad hardware to be the limiting factor. It’s the software and OS that feel like they’re being held back, particularly since iPads now have the same processing power as Macs. Apple isn’t turning iPads into literal Macs yet, but iPadOS 26 now has an app windowing multitasking system that’s more Mac-like than ever. A larger display and a better processor could pay off in new ways.
I still would like a Magic Keyboard redesign that allows for truly flat convertible transformations like a folio case, but otherwise, the only thing I don’t like about the current iPad Pro line is its price. The M4 chip wasn’t a notable boost in performance over the M3, though, so maybe this year, the M5 could finally show a leap.
