Apple is reportedly going jumbo-sized for the iPad Pro next year. According to display supply chain analyst Ross Young, an iPad Pro with a 14.1-inch screen is in the pipeline and will likely hit store shelves in 2023. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also reports that “a larger version of the iPad Pro” is slated to launch next year.
Last year, Gurman speculated that Apple was experimenting with 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes for its supersized iPad Pro. Aside from upping the screen real estate from 12.9-inch to 14-inch, Apple may bring its LED tech to its upcoming tablet along with ProMotion tech for 120Hz fast refresh rates.
Confirmed the 14.1" iPad Pro is being developed with our supply chain sources. It will have MiniLEDs and ProMotion. Not sure of the timing, but early 2023 may be more likely.
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) June 9, 2022
It appears that Apple is going straight after Samsung’s own giant slab, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, which comes armed with a massive 14.6-inch screen flanked by slim bezels. Samsung’s premise of offering a high-resolution OLED screen sounds appealing, especially for creative tasks. But it’s held back by the Android’s sub-par tablet experience, which keeps it from replacing a computer or becoming a powerful companion device.
A 14-inch iPad finally makes sense
That’s not the case with Apple and its iPadOS 16 operating system, which now appears ready for an even larger screen. The best example is the new Stage Manager tech. It’s exclusive to iPads powered by the M-series silicon and takes the multitasking experience on Apple’s tablets to the next level.
Thanks to Stage Manager, you can finally resize windows and adjust them to your liking on the iPad’s screen. The centered foreground app lets you focus without hitting the full-screen mode. The active window is in the middle of the screen, while background apps are neatly arranged in a vertical preview on the side. The whole setup allows users to quickly shuffle through apps with a single tap — making iPad multitasking more intuitive than ever.
Another neat trick is the ability to stack multiple windows of the same app in an overlapping view. Additionally, users can create app groups that they can run side by side, all from the app dock using a drag-and-drop gesture. All these features are tailor-made for a large screen device, and a 14-inch iPad Pro would help them shine as bright as possible.
Support for external monitors — with full access to apps extending to the secondary screen — further sweetens the deal. Plus, iPadOS 16 also allows the larger iPad Pro to be set up as a secondary reference display for a Mac. With Universal Control’s multitasking and sharing tricks already in place, there’s hardly any reason for Apple not to experiment with an enthusiast-class 14-inch iPad Pro that doesn’t cut any corners. Sure, it’d still look a bit ridiculous, but iPadOS is now in a place so that an enlarged iPad doesn’t sound totally insane.
The M-series chips already offer plenty of power to blaze past even the most demanding workflows with ease, and Apple’s screen expertise is already on full display for the current-gen iPad Pro. With polished software and a rich ecosystem of Pro-grade apps filling the last pieces of the puzzle, an even larger iPad Pro makes a lot of sense for the right audience.
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