Get ready for a ‘massively more expensive’ OLED iPad Pro

The iPad Pro isn’t exactly known as a budget option for tablet buyers. But the latest report suggests that we will soon look back on the last five years as the golden age of affordability.

A leaker who goes by “yeux1122” (via AppleInsider), who has a somewhat spotty track record, has dropped an info dump about the next generation of iPad Pros, based on supply-chain sources. There are various intriguing tidbits, such as the contrast and brightness of the new OLED screens being more than double what current models offer, and an apparent design change resulting in these being the thinnest and lightest tablets, possibly in history. But the biggest bombshell concerns the price.

In what the leaker describes (translated to English) as a “minimum price departure,” the starting point for the 11-inch iPad Pro is predicted to jump to “around $1500.” That’s an astonishing 88 percent leap from the current entry-level $799 offering.

Similarly, yeux1122 thinks the minimum price for the larger Pro will increase to between $1,800 and $2,000, which means a jump of somewhere from 64 percent to 82 percent.

One silver lining to this particular cloud is that we’ll be getting a lot more for our money. The current minimum prices above are for 128GB of storage, but the leaker expects Apple to “increase the default capacity” as it did with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple currently charges an extra $100 for 256GB of storage

And of course, the new iPad Pro models will be better than the existing ones in other ways. There will be new processors–likely M3 chips–and the aforementioned OLED screens. We think those screens will be a game-changer, but it’s debatable whether they’re worth an extra $700.

While we certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see a price hike for the OLED iPad Pro models, this rumor seems a bridge too far. When the 12.9-inch iPad Pro got a mini-LED display in 2021, Apple only upped the price by $100, so a $500-plus jump seems excessive, even for Apple.

You can catch all the latest news and rumors with our regularly updated new iPad Pro superguide.

iPad Pro prices (Apple Store, as of 9 Jan 2024)

11-inch

• 128GB: $799 ($999 with cellular)
• 256GB: $899 ($1,099 with cellular)
• 512GB: $1,099 ($1,299 with cellular)
• 1TB: $1,499 ($1,699 with cellular)
• 2TB: $1,899 ($2,099 with cellular)

12.9-inch

• 128GB: $1,099 ($1,299 with cellular)
• 256GB: $1,199 ($1,399 with cellular)
• 512GB: $1,399 ($1,599 with cellular)
• 1TB: $1,799 ($1,999 with cellular)
• 2TB: $2,199 ($2,399 with cellular)