Claims Apple's OLED iPad Pro will use a new M4 chip given weight by a new iPadOS code discovery

Over the last few months, there have been almost never-ending rumors that Apple is getting ready to launch an all-new OLED iPad Pro with both 11-inch and 12.9-inch screen sizes expected. We'd been told to expect the tablets to upgrade the current M2 chips to the latest M3 silicon, as would make the most sense. But a report over the weekend suggested that Apple had chosen to skip the M3 entirely and usher in a new wave of chips with the arrival of the new 2024 iPad Pro.

That was according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman with the chip in question being the unconfirmed M4. We already knew that Apple was working on Macs that would use the M4 series of chips and that it intended to launch them towards the end of this year and the beginning of next. But now it appears that Apple could give the new chip to the iPad Pro first.

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Following Gurman's claims 9to5Mac now reports that code found in the iPadOS 17.5 beta suggests that the M4 chip might actually be used despite reservations among those following along with Gurman's report. The code was found to reference new display firmware for the OLED iPad Pros, as expected, but it's the model identifiers that are most notable; iPad16,3, iPad16,4, iPad16,5, and iPad16,6.

As 9to5Mac notes, the first part of the identifier normally signals the chip that will be used. For example, the M1 devices begin iPad13 while the M2 devices begin with iPad14. From there, the M3 devices have 15 labels, suggesting that iPad16 could well mean that these new tablets have the M4 beating at their heart.

If the new iPad Pro was indeed going to run the M3 we'd potentially expect it to be called iPad15, but that isn't the case at all. This could all be little more than tea leaf reading of course, but it all makes just enough sense for us to think there might be something to it.

Alongside the new OLED iPad Pro Apple is expected to announce a refreshed iPad Air lineup with an updated 11-inch model and an all-new 12,9-inch version. That'll give buyers of large tablets an additional option over the 12.9-inch iPad Pro at a lower starting price point.

The new tablets are expected to be joined by the Apple Pencil 3 with a new squeeze gesture while a sturdier Apple Magic Keyboard accessory is also thought to be in the works. All of the tablets and accessories are expected to be announced at Apple's May 7 event.