Apple is expected to introduce new iPad Pro models during a hardware-focused event later this year. The 10.5- and 12.9-inch displays should remain, but each model’s overall measurements are reportedly shrinking in an effort to give users a more immersive experience.
While you’ll still get plenty of screen real estate from these two tablets, Mac Otakara reports that Apple figured out how to reduce the size of the bezels. For the revamped 10.5-inch model, we see 247.5 x 178.7 x 6mm. The existing model, meanwhile, measures 250.6 x 174.1 x 6.1mm. So you’re definitely getting a slimmer tablet.
As for the 12.9-inch model, Apple should take it down to 270 x 215 x 6.4mm. Its diet seems more serious as the existing model in this size is 305.7 x 220.6 x 6.9mm. The Cupertino-based company really wants its tablets to be thinner than ever.
The new iPad Pro models might also leave behind the 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple removed it from the iPhone a few years ago, but we haven’t seen the company drop it from the iPad yet. Based on this latest report, it sounds like Apple will ditch the headphone jack on the iPad Pro and not even include an adapter to use with the Lightning port. That’s courageous, Apple.
It should, however, include Apple’s facial recognition software. The technology necessary for Face ID and Animoji seems to have appeared in iOS 12 for the iPad already, so now the appropriate hardware just needs to be released.
Apple could be releasing Face ID on the iPad Pro with limitations, though. Despite tablets often being used in landscape mode, the facial recognition software will only work in portrait mode here.
Because of the complex array of cameras and sensors, Apple may be forced to relocate the Smart Connector to “the lower rear side” of the iPad Pro. The Lightning port could also be on the move. Frankly, the report makes it a little unclear where these components would go; therefore, we’ll have to be patient and see what Apple does unless another leak reveals it all.
