Stage Manager is coming to older iPad Pro models

The most significant upgrade Apple revealed earlier this year with iPadOS 16 was Stage Manager, a whole new multitasking system that adds overlapping and resizable windows to the iPad.

However, it was only available for M1-powered iPad Pros.

This has changed with the most recent iPadOS 16 developer beta. Apple is now making Stage Manager compatible with a handful of older iPad Pros equipped with the A12X and A12Z SoCs.

The A12X and A12Z are still fairly strong, so the experience should be similar to that of an M1 iPad. The earlier iPad Pro devices, however, are missing one major feature: Stage Manager will only function on the iPad's own display. You will not be able to expand your display to a second monitor.

Although the lack of external display capability is disappointing, this should come as great news to those who purchased Apple's most costly iPads in recent years.

Apple also claims that developer beta 5 of iPadOS 16 would remove Stage Manager's external display functionality for M1 iPads, which has been present since the first iPadOS 16 beta was published a few months ago. It will be restored in a software upgrade later this year.

Given that certain members of the iPad community have been vocal about Stage Manager concerns, particularly when using it with an external display, it's understandable that Apple is spending some additional time to work on it.

Also watch: Apple to reportedly cancel its October 2022 event