iPad Pro might be getting a vapor chamber in 2027 as per a new report. The company has been putting powerful M-series chips under the hood, which can heat up under heavy workload such as gaming or video editing. The vapor chamber could help keep it cool and avoid throttling in such situations.
As per a report from Bloomberg, as part of Apple’s 18-month upgrade cycle for the iPad Pro, the company is working on a vapor chamber to help with heat dissipation in the next model. This vapor chamber will be thinner than the
Apple recently added a vapor chamber to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models to ensure that the liquid cooling helps the smartphones provide sustained performance over longer periods of time, even when they are used in direct sunlight or warmer weather conditions. This has resulted in actual improvements as per users as the displays can stay at their peak brightness for longer and games provide stable fps for longer durations, compared to older iPhone models. However, this has come at the cost of the Pro models returning to aluminum bodies instead of titanium.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg believes that after the Vapor Chamber addition to the iPad Pro, the MacBook Air could be less as it doesn’t use a fan for cooling just like the iPhone and iPad.
Interestingly, Gurman says that the inclusion of Vapor Chamber in the iPad Pro could help distinguish between the pricier and standard models such as the iPad Air, however, this means that the MacBook Air is unlikely to get it considering there are more expensive MacBook Pro models that are better candidates.
Our take is that iPad Pro definitely needs improved cooling due to its extremely thin profile. It can heat up very easily even on the M4 chip model when playing games like Fortnite, and other AAA titles. This results in throttled performance which is not what users want.
The report also talks about an 18-inch foldable iPad, planned for 2028 launch, which has run into some technical challenges. Apple is not happy with the weight of the existing prototypes as well as the folding OLED panels. The price is also expected to be above $3,000 as per the report. The product has been postponed to at least 2029 as per Gurman. This means that we may never see such a product and it is likely going to cost astronomically high.
Apple is not stranger to selling expensive products. Just look at the $3,500 Vision Pro. But as we have all seen, such products have a niche audience and do not sell enough to justify investing long term in the lineup. This is the reason that the first iPad was aggressively priced at $500, rather than the rumored $1,000 cost.
If Apple kills off this foldable iPad, it will be another casualty in a long list of rumored products such as the AirPower, Apple Car, Vision Air, and so on.
