Last week, Apple introduced both the iPad Air (M3) and the base 11th-generation iPad (A16). Although the latter’s update was pretty much a spec bump, it’s now at a better value with double the starting storage at the same $349 price point, and you get the faster A16 chip, more RAM, and improved Bluetooth 5.3 support. You may be wondering: will the new iPad (A16) also support Final Cut Pro? When Apple updated the iPad mini in October, it features the A17 Pro chip, and the spec boost to 8GB of memory allows that iPad mini to support Final Cut Pro, so Apple has extended compatibility beyond the M-series iPad Air/Pro. So we assumed that the minimum requirement to run Final Cut Pro on iPad is to have at least 8GB of RAM as both the M-series chips and the A17 Pro chip have that much memory. However, if we take a look at the App Store listing for the Pro App, despite the improperly formatted listing, it looks like Final Cut Pro for iPad will support the 11th-generation iPad as it now states that it “requires iPadOS 17.6 or later and a device with an M-series or A16 or later chip.”
Despite having less RAM at 6GB (vs. at least 8GB on the other iPads that support Final Cut Pro), the latest and most affordable iPad will finally support Final Cut Pro for the very first time. Even though this iPad doesn’t support Apple Intelligence as that requires at least 8GB of RAM, this will be a huge win for those who don’t need all the bell and whistles that the iPad Air/Pro offer, but who’s just looking for a full-size iPad that can run Final Cut Pro at a much affordable price.
It hasn’t been confirmed whether the iPad (A16) will support Stage Manager as the other M-series iPads and 2018/2020 iPad Pros, but I don’t expect that’ll be the case since the iPad (A16) has fewer cores (5-core CPU/4-core GPU) than the aforementioned iPads, but we’ll keep you posted upon confirmation.
The iPad (A16) starts at $349 at 128GB of storage, and it’s also available in 256GB/512GB storage tiers in both Wi-Fi and Cellular models.
