Apple is reportedly planning to lay the foundation for 5G on the iPad Pro by using Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) soft boards for the first time ever.
According to one of the most reliable Apple analysts in the game, the new LCP soft boards will allow for better wireless connectivity in the iPad Pro, but 5G modems probably won’t make it into the iPad Pro until 2021.
In a note to investors today, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the revised iPad Pros with LCP Soft Boards will go into mass production either in the 4th quarter of 2019 or the first quarter of 2020.
The new iPad Pro models will still come with 11-inch and 12.9-inch displays. There will be some internal changes but the LCP soft boards might be the biggest change because the flexibility of the boards will allow Apple to connect more components to it than the inflexible PCBs currently used in the iPad Pro.
LCP soft boards will supposedly be used to connect the antenna to the motherboard. This will allegedly help reduce signal loss and increase networking performance when 5G is finally ready. Apple is reportedly planning to bring 5G to the iPhone in 2020 now that it has settled its legal battle with Qualcomm.
Adding 5G to the iPad Pro would make it an even better PC replacement. We haven’t heard any rumors of Apple adding 5G to MacBooks, so being able to get 1Gbps data speeds on the iPad could be another big draw.
