Rumor | Apple M3 chips, OLED screens may come to iPad Pro next year

Apple's iPad Pro is one of best tablets available on the market, if not the best. It boasts Apple's M2 SoC, which offers outstanding performance in an efficient package. According to recent rumors, the next iPad Pro may get a significant jump in processing power thanks to Apple's upcoming silicon.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the next iteration of the iPad Pro (with model number J717, J718, J720, and J721) will pack Apple's M3 chip, which is expected to debut in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro later this year. 

The M3 SoC will likely have an 8-core CPU (4 performance + 4 efficiency) and a 10-core GPU, those these cores will probably offer noticeable improvements over the current M2 chips. Apple is also expected to switch to a 3 nm process for the M3, which should improve efficiency and reduce heat output. While any performance improvements are purely speculative at this point, it's likely that M3 will put out some impressive numbers.

Slotting an M3 chip into the iPad Pro would be in line with Apple's current vision for its flagship tablet line. After all, the 2022 iPad Pro comes with a base model M2, and the 2021 iPad Pro shipped with an M1 chip. 

Perhaps a bigger change to the iPad Pro line, according to Gurman, will be a shift to OLED panels in lieu of the current models' mini-LED screens. OLED screens have some advantages over mini-LED, specifically less backlight bleeding (or "bloom"), one of many problems that plagued the displays of the initial run of mini-LED iPad Pros. 

These upgrades, coupled with the rumored design changes for the iPad's Magic Keyboard, could breath new life into a market segment that has waned over the past few years. 

Keep in mind that all these rumors are just that: rumors. Take them with a grain of salt, but it is likely we will see major upgrades to the iPad Pro next year. 

Buy an 11-inch iPad Pro (2022, M2) at Amazon.