After being teased by Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday, the company announced two new iPad models on Tuesday. While the latest iPad Air is now powered by the M3 chip, iPad 11 (the base model in the lineup) features the A16 chip. And because of this, it lacks support for Apple Intelligence features.
No Apple Intelligence for the new iPad 11
There was no special event to announce the new iPads. Instead, the company simply put the new products on its online store. In a press release, Apple points out that the A16 chip is 50% faster than the A13 chip in the previous entry-level iPad. And although the company says the iPad 11 has “powerful and intelligent features,” there’s one big feature missing.
The comparison page for all iPad models on Apple’s website confirms that the iPad 11 with the A16 chip has no support for Apple Intelligence features. This means that customers who buy the new iPad won’t benefit from things like Writing Tools, Genmoji, and enhanced Siri.
The A16 chip was first introduced in the iPhone 14 Pro lineup and then brought to the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. The chip has only 6GB of RAM, which is less than the minimum 8GB required by Apple Intelligence. Although this isn’t the first time Apple has cut software features (such as Stage Manager) from the entry-level iPad, the decision is somewhat surprising given that the company has been pushing Apple Intelligence a lot recently.
The A16 chip that powers the new iPad 11 has a 5-core CPU and 4-core GPU. For comparison, the same chip in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 has an additional CPU and GPU core.
Back to Apple Intelligence, the feature requires devices with the A17 Pro chip (such as the iPhone 15 Pro and iPad mini 7) or later, and M1 or later.
iPad 11 starts at $349 in the US, now with 128GB of storage (double the previous version). Pre-orders are now available with the official launch set for March 12.
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