an iPad Pro with Thunderbolt 3 is a whole new world of possibilities

The morning began with an article by Mark Gurman in Bloomberg in which he dotted the i’s for upcoming news: he says it will appear in April, not the rest of March. Yes would be chaired by the new iPad Pro.

About them, Gurman revealed a new detail: the USB-C connection they would keep would be fully compatible with Thunderbolt interface. And that can mean a lot more possibilities for the Apple tablet that increasingly wants to look like a Mac.

iPad Pro + 6K screen + Final Cut Pro on iPadOS = Paradise

The current USB-C connection of the iPad Pro is limited to this connection protocol, especially in version 3.1 which allows speeds of up to 5 Gbps. Thunderbolt 3 allows transfer speeds of 20 or up to 40 Gbps in both directions simultaneouslyAlthough Apple may have to adapt to these speeds, as they may need more power than an iPad Pro can handle.

But even with this limitation, we could see great progress. The current iPad Pro can support an external display at 4K resolution, but without being able to change its appearance and without offering additional functions. Only the tablet screen is cloned, nothing more. With Thunderbolt 3 we could see a much more complex support for external monitors

, even being able to connect more accessories (a second monitor or another accessory) with the chain connections. Last year I noticed that Apple had stopped showing this feature on its website, in what I believe is a preparation to offer something much better in the future.

Moreover, Gurman insisted that the power of the chip that will bring this new iPad Pro would be on the same level as the M1 chip. That is to say, we could see an iPad Pro working at 6K resolutions with no issues. And if we get more optimistic, on that 6K display we could see a full interface of Final Cut Pro.

Finally, we could also see advantages in professional storage devices. Many professionals dream of being able to use an iPad by transferring AV material to or from it at Thunderbolt 3 port speeds.

Of course, that would all require a software update, which could well be iPadOS 14.5. OR maybe we have to wait for iPadOS 15 at WWDC21 to see all the capabilities of these new iPad Pros. It all looks like Apple’s new professional tablet is going to take a significant power leap, which in turn will open up a whole new range of possibilities for iPadOS.