New iPad Air with in-screen Touch ID, slim bezels coming September; budget iPad too
Apple reintroduced the iPad Air in early 2019 as a powerful tablet designed to bridge the gap between the budget iPad and the premium iPad Pro series. It was met with generally positive reviews and now an anonymous tipster believes a new version is on the way.
Is the new anonymous tipster reliable?
The leaker in question has never been reported on before yet seems to have an impressively accurate track record when it comes to Apple leaks. A quick look through his Twitter account shows that he correctly predicted Apple’s plans to announced the new 2020 iPad Pro series and MacBook Air in the third week of March.
More importantly, however, most of this information was published before anybody else. That would suggest the anonymous tipster has access to several accurate sources and leads us to believe the other information he has shared previously could be accurate.
11-inch iPad Air with in-screen Touch ID
YouTuber and leaker Jon Prosser said recently that Apple is planning to release a 5G iPad Pro complete with the next-gen A14X Bionic later this year, potentially alongside the iPhone 12. The new tipster, who goes by the handle L0veToDream, disagrees saying Apple instead has plans to unveil an all-new iPad Air in September.
The key differentiating factor between the iPad Air and iPad Pro, aside from the updated camera system and LiDAR Scanner on the latter, will be Apple’s biometric recognition system. Whereas the iPad Pro relies on Face ID, the new iPad Air apparently uses a new in-screen Touch ID implementation.
There is no word just yet on the included chipset, but the existing iPad Air integrates the A12 Bionic. That was the newest option at the time of launch, which means the next-gen tablet could integrate the upcoming A14 Bionic that’s set to be used inside the iPhone 12 Pro.
A much more powerful budget iPad is coming
As previously reported by Bloomberg, launching alongside the new iPad Air could be an updated entry-level iPad to replace the one introduced last September. Ming-Chi Kuo says a Mini-LED display is expected on this product too and now an important hardware bump is reportedly on the cards.
The 2019 10.2-inch iPad