iPad
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iPad
Touch, draw, and type on one magical device.
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| Official iPad site — Apple |
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The iPad is Apple's tablet line, introduced by Steve Jobs in 2010 as "a third category of device" between phone and laptop. It made the tablet a real product category where a decade of predecessors had failed, and it remains the category: the iPad has outsold every rival tablet line combined for most of its life.
Today the family spans four tiers — iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro — running iPadOS with Apple Pencil and keyboard support throughout, with the Pro models carrying the same M-series silicon as the Mac.
1 History✎
The original iPad (2010) sold faster than the iPhone had; the mini (2012) and Air (2013) split the line by size, and the iPad Pro (2015) added the Apple Pencil and a keyboard — the productivity turn. The 2018 Pro redesign (all-screen, USB-C, Face ID) set the modern template, and iPadOS forked from iOS in 2019 to give the bigger canvas its own software.
The M1 iPad Pro (2021) brought Mac-class silicon; 2024's Pro debuted the Apple M4 and Tandem OLED in Apple's thinnest device ever; and the current generation runs from the A16 entry iPad to the M5 iPad Pro (2025). iPadOS 26's windowed multitasking finally answered the line's oldest criticism — hardware years ahead of its software.
2 Current lineup✎
| Model | Chip | Role |
|---|---|---|
| iPad Pro 11"/13" | M5 (2025) | Flagship: Tandem OLED, thinnest Apple device |
| iPad Air 11"/13" | M4 (2026) | Most iPad for most people — first with the C1X and N1 |
| iPad (11th gen) | A16 (2025) | The volume entry model |
| iPad mini | A17 Pro (2024) | The small one |
3 Position✎
The iPad owns the space between phone and Mac: the default classroom, cockpit, point-of-sale, and sketchbook computer. Its perennial tension — Mac-class hardware against a touch-first OS — has driven a decade of iPadOS evolution, and its Pro tier now serves as the launch vehicle for Apple's newest silicon, debuting both the Apple M4 and the Apple M5.