Apple's iPad Pro 2018 might have a faster processor than iPhone XS

Apple’s long-rumored iPad Pro for 2018 has been assumed to contain an A11X processor, thought to be an iterative improvement on last year’s A11 Bionic inside the iPhone X, but that may not be the case.

A new 9to5Mac report now pegs this supposedly imminent iPad Pro with a newer A12X processor that builds upon the latest A12 Bionic chip inside the iPhone XS.

The outlet cites ‘sources familiar with the development’ of the product, further detailing this faster processor than we expected. Particularly, this version of Apple’s mobile chip will house a more powerful graphics processor, codenamed Vortex.

Of course, this processor would be built on Apple and ARM’s 7-nanometer manufacturing process, which debuted with the iPhone XS line this year.

This would see the iPad Pro line skipping a generation of processors entirely, with the most recent iPad Pro 10.5-inch using an A10X Fusion chip. Naturally, this would line up neatly with the fact that the only Apple device with the A11 Bionic processor inside is now the iPhone 8.

The rest of 9to5Mac’s report echoes rumors we’ve heard previously, noting the edge-to-edge display, landscape-oriented Face ID, Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) support and a new Apple Pencil.

So, in order to maintain the normal cadence of iPad processors iterating on existing iPhone processors for higher performance, it looks like Apple’s next iPad Pro will skip a generation of its processors outright. It may well be time to get excited for Apple’s most powerful mobile device yet.