3 more iPads could be coming in early 2027 — here's what we know
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The iPad mini 8 is releasing later this week, and we're excited to see what this new pint-sized Apple tablet can do. However, some of you may be wondering what happened to all the other iPads that are due for refreshes. Well, it turns out they may be arriving in early 2027.
This comes from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg , who claims that Apple will release three new iPads in the first half of 2027. The lineup includes an upgraded low-end tablet, the iPad 12 , an OLED iPad Air, and a more powerful version of the iPad Pro.
The release of the iPad Air is not a huge surprise, considering new versions of that particular tablet tend to arrive in the first half of the year anyway. The iPad Air M4 landed in March of this year, while the iPad Air M3 was released 12 months earlier. Presumably this new version will come running an M5 chipset, alongside the long-overdue OLED screen upgrade.
If the iPad mini can have an OLED screen, then so should the iPad Air. This would leave the entry-level iPad 12 as the sole Apple tablet with an LCD display.
As for that iPad 12, Gurman doesn't go into a lot of detail, other than the fact an upgrade is long overdue on account of Apple's recent price hikes. The entry-level tablet isn't nearly as affordable as it was, and that means cheaper rivals have a notable price advantage.
The iPad 12 has been long-rumored to come with an A19 or A18 chipset, alongside an increased 8GB of RAM . This means it'll be able to run Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, though some of the more advanced on-device features will still be out of reach. They include Siri's expressive voices and advanced dictation.
It's still going to be an entry-level device, though, so we shouldn't expect any significant upgrades like an OLED display, or possibly even 256GB of base storage. But as long as the screen is brighter and less reflective, I'll be happy. The glare is easily the worst part about owning an iPad 10. Better battery life would be nice as well.
As for the iPad Pro, it's either going to arrive running the M6 chip or the upcoming M7 — it'll likely depend on whether the M7 is ready in the first half of next year or not . Rumors also suggest that it'll come with vapor chamber cooling , just like recent iPhones, to help aid gaming and AI performance. That's going to be especially helpful considering the iPad Pro is known for thermal throttling already. So the faster the tablet can dissipate heat, the better.
We don't know exactly when these new tablets will launch, but experience tells us that late winter or early spring is a likely window. As for the rest of the year. Gurman notes that unless things get delayed or pushed back, there isn't likely to be another iPad refresh. Which makes sense, considering Apple doesn't have any extra iPads to refresh.