The iPhone X's new chipset makes it the most powerful handset to date, but the 2018 iPad Pro may dethrone it when it hits the shelves next year.
Recent rumors from Chinese website MyDrivers suggest that the upcoming tablet will use an octa-core A11X Bionic chipset. That is a 2-core jump from the premium iPhone's hexa-core A11 Bionic chipset and iPad Pro 10.5's hexa-core A10X Fusion chipset. Three of the cores are said to be high-performance ones dubbed "Monsoon," while the five remaining energy-efficient cores are branded "Mistral."
In another potential enhancement from the standard A11 Bionic, the chipset will also feature a 7-nanometer manufacturing process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which is a first for Apple. This makes the chip smaller than the 10 nm A11 in the iPhone X. With two more cores (eight versus six), the 2018 iPad Pro will have more processing power and be more energy efficient at the same time.
Additionally, the beefed-up A11X will come with an M11 motion co-processor and a neural processing unit (NPU) for artificial intelligence (AI) related tasks, fuelling rumors that Apple will incorporate the AI-powered Face ID to the 2018 iPad Pro.
The next-generation tablet has no release date at the moment, but MyDrivers claims the chipset will likely launch either at the end of the first quarter of 2018 or at the beginning of the second quarter. If the chipset lands then, the iPad Pro 3 presumably will follow soon after.
Then again, these are mere speculations. Before patrons get excited, 9to5Mac notes that the source of the rumors has a less than stellar track record. Last year, MyDrivers inaccurately predicted the name of the yet-to-be-unveiled iPhone SE, saying it would be called iPhone 5E. It has also missed on some specs including the RAM and processor. Thus, it is best to take the latest report with a grain of salt.
