Macworld
Apple went big on iPads in 2024, announcing new iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini tablets. But one model missed out: the standard, basic iPad. Other than getting even cheaper (it got an aggressive price cut to $349/£329 last year) Apple’s cheapest tablet is still exactly the same 10th-gen model that came out way back in 2022, and it’s looking overdue for an update.
Fortunately we won’t have to wait much longer before that happens. From likely release date to new features, design changes and tech specs, here’s what we know so far about the 11th-gen iPad for 2025.
UPDATE: February 19 2025: Apple didn’t launch a new iPad alongside the iPhone 16E on Wednesday February 19, but we could still see a new iPad really soon.
When will the 11th-gen iPad be released?
- Spring launch, March or April (expected)
It’s been a long time coming, how much longer will we have to wait for Apple to update the standard iPad?
There has been an expectation that Apple will unveil the new iPad at a spring event in March or April 2025. However, with Apple launching the iPhone 16E via a press release on February 19, it is unlikely that Apple will deem the 11th gen iPad and also-rumored iPad Air refresh worthy of an event. More likely Apple will announce the news via a press release.
When will the new iPad arrive? It’s possible we will see this new iPad in February. A DigiTimes report back in December 2024 suggested that the supply chain was preparing for the launch, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicated that the iPad and other new products would be “coming soon”. However, it is possible that Apple will hold the iPad back for a later spring launch. Apple’s second financial quarter of 2025 ends on March 28, so the company may wish to get the news out before that date.
The company is also likely to wait until after March 15 because Apple is running its Higher Education Offer 2025 in Australia until March 15. For that student targeted deal they are offering an Apple Pencil with iPad Air and iPad Pro. Apple is unlikely to change the specs of a device currently in a promotion.
Apple used to have a steady release schedule for its cheapest iPad, launching a new one each year alongside the latest iPhones at a September event. In 2022, the 10th-gen revamp saw a slight adjustment to October… but since then the yearly pattern has been abandoned completely.
Here’s when the past five iPad models have launched:
- iPad (10th gen): October 2022
- iPad (9th gen): September 2021
- iPad (8th gen): September 2020
- iPad (7th gen): September 2019
- iPad (6th gen): March 2018
Apple is keen to launch an affordable tablet that supports its Apple Intelligence AI platform as soon as possible, and in any case two and a half years is a long time to wait since the last update. We can’t see the company holding back the 11th-gen iPad until the summer or fall of 2025.
How much will the 11th-gen iPad cost?
- The new 11th-gen iPad is likely to start at $449/£449, depending on whether Apple chooses to address currency fluctuations.
This is Apple’s cheapest tablet, so pricing is important. For a long time Apple kept its entry-level iPad in the $300-$350 ballpark, but that all changed in 2022: following the 10th-gen redesign, Apple upped the price from $329 to $449 (and from £319 to £449 in the U.K.). At the time we complained about this putting it out of the reach of budget buyers, and it affected our review quite significantly.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. In May 2024, Apple dropped the price of the 10th-gen iPad to $349/£349. It then dropped the price again in the U.K. to £329. And we were happy, once again, to recommend the device to potential customers.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that we’re less confident than we usually would be in predicting the pricing of the 11th-gen iPad. Has Apple learned its lesson about pushing the price too high, and will it go back to the budget prices of the past? Sadly this seems unlikely. Between the company’s recent drive towards higher margins and the major increase in processing power we expect for this generation (discussed in the next section) the 11th-gen iPad is very unlikely to cost less than $400. Our guess would be $449 at launch, with a price cut to follow at a later date. And the 10th-gen model will remain in the lineup as a true budget option for those who don’t need Apple Intelligence.
What tech specs and new features will we see in the 11th-gen iPad?
- The new 11th-gen iPad will get an A17 Pro chip and 8GB of RAM, plus support for Apple Intelligence.
The 10th-gen iPad delivered a major redesign, so we don’t expect too much to change externally. However, there will be some notable upgrades on the inside of the 11th-gen iPad:
Processor and RAM
The most obvious update to the 11th-gen iPad will be the chipset. The current model runs on an A14 chipset, which debuted in 2020 with the 4th-gen iPad Air and iPhone 12, but we expect that to jump to an A17 Pro with 8GB of RAM so it can run Apple Intelligence. That’s a serious increase in processing muscle (and likely rules out a sub-$400 price tag), but the 10th-gen iPad is the only currently available Apple tablet that doesn’t support Apple Intelligence and it’s crucial to get as many users as possible on the platform.
Display
As the display was increased from 10.2 inches to 10.9 inches as part of the 10th-gen revamp, we don’t expect any changes to the screen size this time around. The only possible change in this area is the use of a laminated display, which would make the device slightly thinner and offer better clarity. It would also make the tablet feel nicer in use, as unlaminated screens (as used on the 10th-gen iPad, among many other budget Apple tablets) have a tendency to yield downwards very slightly when you press on them.
Apple
Cameras
Since the 10th-gen iPad was Apple’s first tablet to change the placement of the front camera from portrait to landscape mode and already has Center Stage, we don’t expect Apple to change the front camera. It’s possible Apple will upgrade the rear camera slightly, but since the M2 iPad Air released in 2024 has the same 12MP wide camera, it’s likely any improvements will come in the form of software updates.
Storage
If there’s one obvious area where a simple upgrade could make life easier for people, it’s storage. The cheapest configuration of the 10th-gen iPad still comes with just 64GB of storage, which isn’t going to be enough for a lot of customers; whereas the rest of the range starts with at least 128GB. As with the iPhone SE, we expect Apple to bump the base storage of its entry-level tablet up to 128GB when the 11th-gen iPad arrives, while simultaneously increasing the top offering to 512GB.
- iPad (10th gen): 64GB, 256GB
- iPad (11th gen, expected): 128GB, 512GB
We’ll keep updating this article as more information becomes available. Until then, you should check out our best 10th-gen iPad deals and best iPad deals roundups to see if you can bag yourself a bargain on the current range.
Source : Macworld
