Source: Rene Ritchie / iMore
What you need to know
- The 2020 iPad Pro does not have a U1 UWB chip.
- That's according to John Gruber, who says a little birdie told him.
- There have been weeks of speculation regarding whether the new iPad does or does not have this chip inside it.
A report from John Gruber over at Daring Fireball seems to confirm that the new 2020 iPad Pro models do not have a U1 UWB chip.
In his post, Gruber notes MacRumors own speculation regarding the device, published last week:
While it was previously reported that all 2020 iPad Pro models feature the same Apple-designed U1 chip as the iPhone 11 lineup, enabling Ultra Wideband support, we have compiled evidence to suggest that this may not be the case...
Earlier this week, the teardown experts at iFixit informed us that they had yet to find physical evidence of the U1 chip in the new iPad Pro. However, iFixit did note that it had yet to remove RF shielding from the logic board to confirm this.
The biggest clue of all is that FCC filings for all iPhone 11 models list operating frequencies in the 6GHz range and the 7-8GHz range, and the rules for these frequencies points to "Subpart F — Ultra-Wideband Operation." TechInsights last year reported that the U1 chip in iPhone 11 models transmits on two different frequencies, 6.24GHz, and 8.23GHz.
Now, Gruber claims that an inside source has confirmed this to him:
There's no reason to think the iPad Pros have a secret U1 chip other than this March 18 post at 9to5Mac that stated it does, "based on code from the latest iOS 13.4 build". "Based on code" is a pretty dumb way to source this as true.
I confirmed with a little birdie who would certainly know the answer: there is no U1 chip in the new iPad Pro, and if there were one, Apple would have told us so.
The U1 chip in Apple's iPhone 11 and 11 Pro is used for spacial awareness and close-quarters locating of other U1 devices. Apple describes it as GPS at the scale of your living room. Gruber is of course right in that if the chip was included in Apple's latest iPad Pro models, Apple would certainly have told us!

New MacBook Air may arrive this year, huge MacBook Pro feature returning
A new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that Apple's New MacBook Air could debut in the second half of 2021. Gurman also states that the new MacBook Pro will feature an SD slot.

iPhone 12 mini demand squashed by pandemic, 12 Pro thrives
New reports from Digitimes note that suppliers have seen a slowdown in orders for the iPhone 12 mini due to struggling sales during the pandemic. Foxconn has reportedly obtained extra iPhone 12 Pro orders thanks to more demand, however.

iOS 15 will reportedly ditch the original iPhone SE and iPhone 6S
Apple's iOS 15 launch, expected in September, will reportedly kill off a number of iPhones and iPads.

Defend your new 11-inch iPad Pro with one of these screen protectors
The 11-inch iPad Pro (2020) would be even better when paired with one of these screen protectors, available at various price points. Here are our favorite so far, but more will surely be on the way.