Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad Pro Do we suspect an A13X iPad Pro refresh in Fall? Or is Apple done with iPads for 2019? [Merged]

When will iPad Pros get any kind of upgrades?

  • By the end of 2019, like last year’s October announcment

    Votes: 102 29.1%

  • Early 2020

    Votes: 128 36.6%

  • Mid 2020

    Votes: 71 20.3%

  • Late 2020

    Votes: 49 14.0%
  • Total voters
    350
JPack said:
https://twitter.com/never_released/status/1168934759877292034

"Alright, so about the iPads after lots of thinking (and talking...) about it: There is an Apple A12X refresh called Tinos (t8028/T0), with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency ones. It might be the part for this year's iPads."​

According to him, there is no A13X.

How will the A12X refresh be marketed? Perhaps A12X Pro?
Click to expand...
He’s giving us conflicting information:

https://mobile.twitter.com/never_released/status/1170088856751943682

Tinos is an oddball with 8 *big* CPU cores across 2 clusters. Its platform name is T0 (starts at zero, very unusual!) and its generation is H11 (the Apple A12(X)) one and it's named t8028. That's all I know. What would it be for? iPad? Mac? I'm stuck there.
 
EugW said:
He’s giving us conflicting information:

https://mobile.twitter.com/never_released/status/1170088856751943682

Tinos is an oddball with 8 *big* CPU cores across 2 clusters. Its platform name is T0 (starts at zero, very unusual!) and its generation is H11 (the Apple A12(X)) one and it's named t8028. That's all I know. What would it be for? iPad? Mac? I'm stuck there.
Click to expand...

Why is that conflicting? That’s saying he has no idea what it might be used for, the fact there isn’t any sign of an A13X still remains though.
 
007p said:
Why is that conflicting? That’s saying he has no idea what it might be used for, the fact there isn’t any sign of an A13X still remains though.
Click to expand...
He told us the A12X Tinos revision to which he apparently discovered references was 4 big + 4 small, which would make sense for an iPad. The current A12X is 4 + 4.

But then later in another tweet I quoted, he told us Tinos t8028/To was 4 big + another 4 big, which wouldn't really make sense for an iPad. Could it be for an Apple ARM Mac? However, even then it would be somewhat perplexing to me, since my predicted first ARM Mac would be a MacBook non-Pro, which could benefit from a combo of big and small cores.

Perhaps this 4 big + 4 big part actually does indeed exist, and will be the one more thing coming Tuesday that CoinX mentioned, in the form of either a 16" MacBook Pro or a Mac desktop. Such a 8 big core beast would probably compete well against the Core i9 in current MacBook Pros.
 
EugW said:
He’s giving us conflicting information:

https://mobile.twitter.com/never_released/status/1170088856751943682

Tinos is an oddball with 8 *big* CPU cores across 2 clusters. Its platform name is T0 (starts at zero, very unusual!) and its generation is H11 (the Apple A12(X)) one and it's named t8028. That's all I know. What would it be for? iPad? Mac? I'm stuck there.
Click to expand...
I noticed that too. He did also say recently that at least some of what he has deciphered will likely end up being wrong.

Still, super curious what this A12 variant could be for. I heard / read one imaginative suggestion that Apple could reconfigure the AppleTV a bit, along with an A12 chip, and turn it into a tiny Mac. That would be kind of rad :p

I wouldn’t dream of that happening, but they could do something like that down the road after they start a MacOS to ARM transition. OR, once they’ve greatly refined their mouse / Magic Trackpad input for iOS, it could be the first headless, stationary iOS device. Think about it— Bluetooth keyboards can already be connected, no? I doubt it would be marketed as a PC, but it could definitely do more than stream video / audio / play games. (Thinking HomeKit hubs, etc).
 
rumz said:
I noticed that too. He did also say recently that at least some of what he has deciphered will likely end up being wrong.

Still, super curious what this A12 variant could be for. I heard / read one imaginative suggestion that Apple could reconfigure the AppleTV a bit, along with an A12 chip, and turn it into a tiny Mac. That would be kind of rad :p

I wouldn’t dream of that happening, but they could do something like that down the road after they start a MacOS to ARM transition. OR, once they’ve greatly refined their mouse / Magic Trackpad input for iOS, it could be the first headless, stationary iOS device. Think about it— Bluetooth keyboards can already be connected, no? I doubt it would be marketed as a PC, but it could definitely do more than stream video / audio / play games. (Thinking HomeKit hubs, etc).
Click to expand...
8 big cores would turn the Apple TV into a monster Mac in terms of general CPU performance. Not gonna happen. If anything, it needs more GPU performance.

As mentioned, if it were real, it'd be for something else, possibly a new ARM MacBook Pro or iMac or Mac mini.
 
EugW said:
8 big cores would turn the Apple TV into a monster Mac in terms of general CPU performance. Not gonna happen. If anything, it needs more GPU performance.

As mentioned, if it were real, it'd be for something else, possibly a new ARM MacBook Pro or iMac or Mac mini.
Click to expand...
That’s basically what I described ;) I don’t think they’d put that in an AppleTV or call it an AppleTV. Just saying that form factor is not far from being able to be a powerful little computing device.

Im keeping my expectations low for “one more thing” On Tuesday, if it happens at all.
 
EugW said:
Perhaps this 4 big + 4 big part actually does indeed exist, and will be the one more thing coming Tuesday that CoinX mentioned, in the form of either a 16" MacBook Pro or a Mac desktop. Such a 8 big core beast would probably compete well against the Core i9 in current MacBook Pros.
Click to expand...

My guess is this is an internal development part, not likely for release any time soon.

Introducing any Mac product with ARM would immediately Osborne their current lineup. I don’t think they’ll make any kind of announcement until they have an entire hardware lineup ready.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rumz
JPack said:
Introducing any Mac product with ARM would immediately Osborne their current lineup. I don’t think they’ll make any kind of announcement until they have an entire hardware lineup ready.
Click to expand...
No it wouldn't necessarily.

I've always said that if I needed a new Mac when the new Macs were released, I'd probably buy the last Intel Mac instead of the newest ARM Mac, for software compatibility. And then three years later I'd buy the ARM Mac.

I think the only way it would make sense to have an entire model line ready for ARM is if they had some sort of translator in the OS ready as well, like Rosetta. The good news is that Rosetta on ARM would actually perform acceptably well on an 8-big-core A12 era chip. We couldn't say the same back in the A10X days.

Mind you, at this point, I have no desire to upgrade from my MacBook for the foreseeable future. My 16 GB Core m3 is absolutely fine, and unless it dies, it will be fine for the next several years.
 
EugW said:
No it wouldn't necessarily.

I've always said that if I needed a new Mac when the new Macs were released, I'd probably buy the last Intel Mac instead of the newest ARM Mac, for software compatibility. And then three years later I'd buy the ARM Mac.

I think the only way it would make sense to have an entire model line ready for ARM is if they had some sort of translator in the OS ready as well, like Rosetta. The good news is that Rosetta on ARM would actually perform acceptably well on an 8-big-core A12 era chip. We couldn't say the same back in the A10X days.

Mind you, at this point, I have no desire to upgrade from my MacBook for the foreseeable future. My 16 GB Core m3 is absolutely fine, and unless it dies, it will be fine for the next several years.
Click to expand...

I agree there would be a Rosetta-like software for the upcoming transition. But for this transition, Apple has the luxury of waiting until they have a good stack of Mac products ready before an announcement is made. Unlike the PPC to x86 exercise, they’re under no pressure to do this quickly. Apple is not falling behind with Intel hardware. In short, I would expect developers to find references to a whole bunch of Ax chips for high and low designs before Apple makes a public move.
 
The only reason i can see Apple updating the iPad Pro this year, with a processor update is because of Apple Arcade. If some of the games that are coming need more power, Apple may feel they need to update the iPad Pro along with other devices. Other than that i don't see a reason for them to update the iPad Pro this soon.

IF they do update them, i will be tempted to upgrade from my current 2017 model. I not i will wait until the next update (probably early 2020).
 
I can see them bringing out new Pros (to keep the axe sharp), or also taking a 6 month extension and waiting until WWDC 2020 for a bigger Pro update. Seems more likely the 10.2" will be updated Sep/Oct based on rumours.
 
Refurb 3rd gen iPad Pros are now FINALLY available for sale from Apple in some countries.

I wonder how many of these are actually true refurbs and how many are clearout of old stock. Hmm...
 
EugW said:
Refurb 3rd gen iPad Pros are now FINALLY available for sale from Apple in some countries.

I wonder how many of these are actually true refurbs and how many are clearout of old stock. Hmm...
Click to expand...

I wonder if that means updates tomorrow? Maybe to bump the processor for the Apple Arcade games.
 
EugW said:
Did anyone ever post this tweet from Longhorn?

https://twitter.com/never_released/status/1168835639749595137

"According to what I know from multiple different sources, Apple A13X doesn't exist."

Then later he started posting about the Tinos A12X refresh.
Click to expand...

I saw that post last Tuesday which is when I posted to this thread (#67) and then we speculated about the naming of A12X Pro/Max.

Today, the lead time for an engraved iPad Pro remains at 1 business day. So the chance of an iPad Pro announcement for tomorrow is IMO, nil.

Photoshop for iPad is expected to launch November 2 during Adobe MAX. My guess is, iPad Pro will launch before this date.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EugW
rumz said:
From Longhorn earlier today:

"Turns out: there is an H12/A13 CPU with 8 cores."

Curious to see how this shakes out.
Click to expand...

Is that for an iPad or could it be the rumoured 16” MacBook Pro.
 
rumz said:
From Longhorn earlier today:

"Turns out: there is an H12/A13 CPU with 8 cores."

Curious to see how this shakes out.
Click to expand...
What is H12? I wonder how many of these references are for development products that will never see the light of day.
 
Assuming Apple strengths the new pro body as well as fixes the white spot issues, would they make note of that? I'd assume not, since it would basically be admitting the older models were "faulty", and that could hurt their image from the consumers who think Apple can do no wrong.
 
Hey there

Weren't iPad's always introduced at iOS events? Or will it be October when we see a new iPad Pro.

Also why does the iPad pro only have 4-6GB of Ram. Shouldn't it have at least 8GB? My smartphone has 8GB of Ram.

Or is the iPad OS really that efficient that even heavier design & video tasks are done without hiccups with only 4GB?
 
rumz said:
From Longhorn earlier today:

"Turns out: there is an H12/A13 CPU with 8 cores."

Curious to see how this shakes out.
Click to expand...

At this rate such an Apple ARM chip would be more powerful than the best Intel Laptop CPU-config.

I hope we see a refresh of iPad Pro with more power today.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dave245
MBX said:
Hey there

Weren't iPad's always introduced at iOS events? Or will it be October when we see a new iPad Pro.

Also why does the iPad pro only have 4-6GB of Ram. Shouldn't it have at least 8GB? My smartphone has 8GB of Ram.

Or is the iPad OS really that efficient that even heavier design & video tasks are done without hiccups with only 4GB?
Click to expand...
Nope. With one exception— the original 12.9” iPad Pro was announced at the same September event as the iPhone 6S in 2015. Otherwise, when an iPad has been announced in the fall, it has been at an October event separate from the iPhone event.

Anything could happen— an update is possible at this event— but mostly it seems unlikely. If we see one this fall, it’ll *most likely* be in October.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AutomaticApple, Freakonomics101, willmtaylor and 1 other person
MBX said:
At this rate such an Apple ARM chip would be more powerful than the best Intel Laptop CPU-config.

I hope we see a refresh of iPad Pro with more power today.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it will be at todays keynote, however they are rumoured to be updating the iPad Pro with new processors and camera. I wonder why the update so soon after last years BIG design change? normally the Pro is on a more than 12 month update cycle.
 
Dave245 said:
I don't know if it will be at todays keynote, however they are rumoured to be updating the iPad Pro with new processors and camera. I wonder why the update so soon after last years BIG design change? normally the Pro is on a more than 12 month update cycle.
Click to expand...
My personal opinion: a hardware revision can help bump sales, and Apple is looking for untapped potential in other product lineups (in addition to ramping up services) to keep growing. IPads have been an area that have seen growth in recently months. Keep the momentum going.

Also: by recent accounts, an update this fall would be relatively minor. Perhaps it’s also a stop-gap so that they don’t go 24+ months between updates, as many expect some substantial updates in late 2020 / early 2021. They’ve been updating their Mac lineup a little more frequently in recent months. Maybe they see similar value in keeping performance topped off on the iPad Pro lineup as well. We’ll see.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dave245
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back