For better or worse, when I think of the best tablets, my mind immediately goes to the iPad. With every new innovation, this tablet continues to leap ahead of the competition before they can even catch up, so what can we expect from the iPad 2023 (11th Gen)?
There are only a handful of rumors surrounding the 11th Gen iPad so far, and with nothing official yet, it’s hard to say which to believe. Last year saw a price hike and a full redesign, so what could Apple have in store for the next iPad update? Listen, I just recently spent a week using the iPad Pro as a laptop and there are some things Apple needs to improve upon.
Here’s everything we know so far about iPad 2023 (11th Gen), from the rumored release date and price to the specs and features.
iPad 2023 (11th Gen) release date
Early rumors and speculations suggested we should have already seen the iPad 2023 (11th Gen) by now, unveiled at Apple's spring event. Welp, no spring event, so we're left empty-handed, folks. So what does that mean for us?
Following Apple's typical event cycle, we're expecting a September event for the iPhone and Apple Watch and an October showcase for a myriad of highly anticipated iDevices.
However, the iPad upgrade schedule isn't as reliable as the iPhone, so it's entirely possible it is pushed into spring 2024.
iPad 2023 (11th Gen) pricing
As of this writing, there’s no official pricing for the iPad 2023 (11th Gen), but we can piece together a reasonable estimate based on what we know so far. The 10th Gen iPad starts at $449, a $120 price bump from its predecessor, which Apple is still selling now. So will the 11th Gen just replace the 10th, while Apple keeps the 9th Gen around at $329? We’ve seen them do it before with the Apple Watch 3 hanging on for years as the affordable option, so it’s certainly possible.
As we’ll address in the next section, most rumors suggest relatively minor spec upgrades for the 11th Gen iPad, so that would hopefully indicate that pricing will remain static at $449. Moving any higher would cause a lot of confusion for buyers with the iPad Air starting at $599 and the iPad Pro at $799, so unless we see those prices shift up, the iPad should remain where it is.
iPad 2023 (11th Gen) specs
Back in January Mark Gurman of Bloomberg indicated in his Power On newsletter that an update for the entry-level iPad this year “won’t be anything more than a spec bump — if they arrive at all.“
Majin Bu, an Apple tipster with a mixed track record, claimed that the iPad would start with an M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. That’s pretty wild, considering that the base configurations for the iPad Pro offer 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It seems far more likely that the iPad 11th Gen would move to an A15 Bionic from the A14 of the current model, again Apple is walking a fine line trying not to confuse the extensive iPad lineup.
iPad 2023 (11th Gen) features
A lot of the news around iPad 2023 (11th Gen) is up in the air, especially when it comes to iPadOS 17, which might be what will launch with the new iPad.
iPadOS 17 will likely introduce third-party app stores in accordance with a new European Union mandate (via Bloomberg). However, the rules won’t be enforced until 2024, so technically Apple has some time.
“Software engineering and service employees are engaged in a major push to open up key elements of Apple’s platforms, according to people familiar with the efforts,” Bloomberg journalist and Apple insider Mark Gurman said.
There have also been rumors that, according to Analyst941 on Twitter (who previously leaked info about iOS 17 and watchOS 10), suggest there is a “special version of iPadOS 17, being developed specifically for larger iPad Pro/Ultra/Studio model(s).” They state that there’s a slight change that would give the 14.1-inch model support for up to two 6K displays at 60hz. If that’s true, it’s possible that the iPad 14-inch might end up with a M2 Pro, since that chip supports two 6K displays over Thunderbolt.
Outlook
There is so much speculation and so much we don’t really know about the iPad 2023 (11th Gen). While we are seeing signs of life from Android with the OnePlus Pad and soon the Pixel Tablet, Apple retains such a dominant lead in the tablet space that it may not feel the pressure to update the iPad in 2023, despite the fact that it has maintained a yearly cadence for the iPad since 2017. For more news and rumors about the iPad 2023 (11th Gen), stay tuned to this page right here.
