The next iPad Pro could feature an upgraded A14 Bionic chip, which the iPhone 12 is expected to have, giving it the power to compete with a full-fledged laptop.

A reasonably reputable technology leaker on Twitter under the name Fudge has indicated that the next iPad Pro tablet will have an A14X chip Fudge has no idea where this information came from or the expected specs of the A14X chip. Fudge did not mention where this information came from or the expected specs of the A14X chip, but it is likely a souped-up version of Apple's next-generation A-series chipset that will be used in the next generation of iPhones.

The upgraded A14 Bionic may promise laptop-beating performance in the upcoming iPad Pro. This is because the A14 Bionic is expected to be Apple's first 5-nanometer chip. Leaked iPhone 12 benchmarks show that it could not only beat rival Android phones in terms of performance, but also challenge the power of Apple's own MacBook Pro laptop.

The benchmark leak comes courtesy of a Geekbench 5 scorecard that appears to feature an A14 Bionic running at 3.1 GHz. If we are to believe this benchmark, the chip's processor has a single-core score of 1,658 and a multi-core score of 4,612. Comparatively, the MacBook Pro 13-inch 2020 produced a single-core score of 4,399 in our review.

This means that an A14 Bionic upgrade in the form of the A14X could well transform the iPad Pro into a tablet of absolute power. This would be great, given the poor performance of the current iPad Pro.

In our tests, the iPad Pro 2020's A12Z Bionic chip scored 4,720 points in the Geekbench 5 multi-core benchmark and 1,126 points in the single-core test, beating the Surface Pro 7's 4,443 points in the multi-core test. The iPad Pro's performance is especially noteworthy given that the Surface Pro 7 uses Intel's latest CPU, the 10th generation Core i5.

In other words, if the A14 Bionic can beat the A12Z Bionic, then the iPad Pro with the A14X could have the performance to beat even our best laptops. And it would be able to mock the performance of Android and Windows 10 tablets.

Of course, raw performance in benchmarks is not necessarily indicative of the actual performance of a laptop or tablet; many apps and tools that work well on macOS laptops do not translate well to iPadOS, and the iPad Pro's full performance Despite being able to do so, they may not work as well.

And even if the 2021 iPad Pro could outperform the MacBook Pro in raw performance, it would still need to be as easy to use and as good at getting things done as Apple's sleek laptops. iPad Pro Magic Keyboard and A lot has been done with the iPadOS, including adding mouse cursor support to make it feel more like a laptop when used in conjunction.

However, there are still some apps that do not work well when trying to use the cursor with the iPadOS. In other words, Apple still has some work to do before the iPadOS can serve as both a tablet and a pseudo-laptop experience.

The new iPad Pro is not likely to arrive until 2021. This means that Apple has plenty of time to refine the iPad OS into a more laptop-like experience without compromising the core mobile OS. If Apple can do this, the iPad Pro could truly be a laptop replacement.

Even if Apple fails, the potential performance of the A14x bodes well for the idea of a MacBook SE running on an ARM-based chip. Such a machine could be a powerful reworking of the now-defunct 12-inch MacBook and could serve as a new competitor to Chromebooks and low-cost Windows 10 laptops.