iPad Pro M5 tipped for big dual-camera upgrade — but not where you'd think

Apple's next iPad Pro with an M5 chip is a surefire bet to be one of the best iPads you can buy, and it looks to already be in production for a late-2025 launch. Now we hear it may arrive with another camera — and it's a throwback to the tech giant's earlier tablets.

The iPad Pro M5 is set to deliver dual front-facing cameras, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Now, the upcoming tablet is tipped to have both a landscape and portrait camera, meaning it can be positioned to use FaceID, go on video calls or take selfies in both ways.

The current iPad Pro M4 ditched the portrait camera for a 12MP front landscape camera that sits along the edge of the tablet, which is much more in tune with how it's generally used when placed on a Magic Keyboard. But Apple now seems to want to bring the portrait camera from the iPad Pro M2 back, possibly delivering the best of both orientations.

Whether both cameras will offer 12MP resolution (or higher) and allow for FaceID is still in question, although it's worth noting that FaceID on the M4-equipped iPad Pro already works in both portrait and landscape orientation anyway.

Both the 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro M5 models are looking to get the dual-camera upgrade, but we'll have to wait and see what the advantages are of having both lenses on the front. After all, Apple's Center Stage already keeps you centered in frame.

Smaller upgrades

While the next iPad Pro is now expected to deliver an upgraded dual-camera system and M5 performance boost, there's not much in the way of other major changes.

The 2024 iPad Pro already jumped the M3 chip to offer speedy M4 performance, a gorgeous OLED panel (the Ultra Retina XDR display, as Apple calls it) and an even thinner, lighter design — one that even beats the iPad Air M3.

This year's slated model isn't expected to deliver any other major improvements, aside from possibly being the first Apple product to feature an M5 chip and now having a dual front-camera system. That said, there may be other surprises up Apple's sleeve, and iPadOS 26 will bring plenty of updates.

The iPad Pro with M5 is expected to be announced during Apple's usual fall event, with the tablet likely to be released sometime in September or October. The last iPad Pro launched in May 2024, and now it may not be much longer until we see what the next Pro-level tablet has to offer.

That's not the only M5-equipped machine Apple appears to have coming up this year, as a leaked Mac lineup shows MacBook Pro M5 and more are on the way, too.

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