The Apple M4, the new batch processor developed internally by the Cupertino firm, it would be the main hardware engine of the new iPad Pro, they assure from Bloomberg.
Apple will celebrate its ‘spring event’ on May 7th. Everything indicates that it will serve as an official presentation of the new generations of iPad electronic tabletsboth the Pro and Air models, and to advance some outline of the new artificial intelligence capabilities that we will learn about in depth at the WWDC 2024 developer conference.
iPad Pro OLED with Apple M4?
For months we have been talking about the launch of the iPad Pro OLED in what will be the biggest renewal of Apple’s line of electronic tablets since 2018. Although we thought that its OLED screen (an absolute novelty on the iPad) would be the big star of the device, the Bloomberg editor points to another component.
And all the rumors pointed to the M3 as the engine of the iPad Pro and the lighter iPad Air whose renewal we also expect for next month. But now they are pointing to a new Apple M4 chipset that, keeping the manufacturing node at 3 nm, would improve both performance and energy efficiency.
However, they would not be the most notable points of the SoC, but rather its new neural processing engine that “would pave the way for new AI capabilities”says Gurman, since he would be in charge of accelerating via hardware the artificial intelligence functions that Apple is developing for the next version of its operating system, iOS 18.
Taking into account that the current iPad Pro has the M2 as its main engine, if the arrival of the Apple M4 ends up materializing, it would mean two intergenerational leaps, something unusual. Bad tongues say that Apple’s “delay” in everything that smacks of AI, and we quote it because all this AI stuff today is more marketing than real benefits for ordinary users, would force the Cupertino firm to launch the new chip now, positioning the iPad Pro as “the first truly AI-powered device” from Apple.
In addition to the M4 chip and OLED displays, the new iPad Pro could enable machine learning tools for content creators, designers, and more. The upgraded tablets are also expected to support the next-generation Apple Pencil, which could introduce haptic feedback to simulate the feeling of writing on paper for the first time on these styluses.
If expectations for Apple’s new tablets were already high, and knowing the company’s great ability to design the best ARM engines on the market, the Apple M4 increases the interest in the firm’s next event. The SoC is not officially confirmed, we will see it on May 7.
