A fresh entitlement on Apple’s website shows that on iPadOS 15, apps can request permission to use twice as much RAM as was previously allowed. Apple limits the amount of RAM the app can use to prevent core system functions from being impacted. Now, apps could use up to 12GB of RAM on the 2021 iPad Pro, up from the previous limit of 5GB.

Until today, Apple has restricted the amount of RAM or system memory installed applications could use. This is to prevent single apps from hogging the RAM, thereby impacting core system functions. Developers are allowed to program their apps such that apps could request for allocation of up to 5GB of RAM.

With iPadOS 15 set to debut on September 20, the new entitlement allows developers to let the OS know that some application functions could perform better with access to more system memory. This means that apps running on the highest-end M1-powered iPad Pro can use the entitlement to request allocation of 12GB out of the 16GB of installed RAM. On other M1-powered iPad Pro variants that have 8GB of total installed memory, apps will be allowed to request up to 6GB.

This new change could benefit graphic-intensive apps such as those for drawing, 3D modeling, photo editing, and video editing. Additional RAM can also help improve the multitasking user experience and make switching between apps easier. According to Apple, the new entitlement would be available on “supported devices,” and at this point, devices beyond the iPad Pro that could support this are unknown. In the case of the new iPad mini launched earlier this week, Apple is unlikely to allow apps to request more RAM since it has just 4GB RAM.

Do you think this improvement from Apple will further help make the iPad Pro a proper laptop replacement?