The 11th-Generation iPad

Apple is also expected to finally refresh its entry-level iPad this spring. That one is long overdue, so it would be more surprising if it didn’t release a new model.

From the resurrection of the standard iPad lineup in early 2017 until the current 10th-generation iPad debuted in September 2022, Apple has settled into a nearly annual release cycle. The 2017 and 2018 iPads came in March, but from 2019–2022 a new iPad arrived every September like clockwork. However, 2023 became the first year in iPad history that Apple didn’t release a single new tablet.

That dry spell ended with the M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air in May 2024. However, while it got a drop in price, Apple’s most affordable iPad ran another full calendar year without an update.

The 11th-generation iPad will hopefully end that, but reports say we shouldn’t expect too many hardware changes. Apple already redesigned the tablet in 2022 to move it to USB-C and go with an iPar Air-style edge-to-edge screen. This year’s model should be more of the same, with the most significant upgrade being a new chip that will bring Apple Intelligence support.

As with the iPad Air, there’s some debate on what that chip will be. Possibilities range from an M1 to an A17 Pro. Some reports have even suggested an A16 Bionic chip. That’s the same chip used in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15, leading to speculation that the iPad might be left out of Apple’s AI features. However, as we explained in January, there seems to be no reason the A16 silicon can’t handle Apple Intelligence as it has a Neural Engine that’s more powerful than Apple’s M2 chip. The constraint on the iPhone models is insufficient RAM, but Apple could easily package a version of the A16 with the 8 GB of memory required for Apple Intelligence.