If you’ve been thinking of buying a new iPad, STOP! Don’t click the add to cart
button on that iPad Air on Amazon because Apple is about to release some newly updated
iPads, and this time, they’re not simple spec updates.. Apple’s about to completely
redesign most of their iPad lineup..
And I personally have a very good idea of what each redesigned iPad is gonna look like,
so before I get into explaining each redesigned iPad, I want to show you guys all of the evidence
for these new releases in terms of recent leaks and rumors.
The most important one is the fact that Apple has filed 7 new iPad models with the EEC,
or the Eurasian Economic Commision.
Basically, if Apple wants to sell a device that uses encryption technology in certain
European, they are REQUIRED to make EEC filings for each device before it gets released.
This happens for basically every Apple device, like back in June when Apple made filings
for all of the upcoming iPhone 12 models.
And in the past, Apple has almost always announced the newly filed devices within a couple of
months after making the filing, so these new iPads will probably be announced before the
end of November.
Now you might be a little confused about Apple making 7 filings for iPads, so let me explain
that number.
Apple’s iPads come in either WiFi Models or LTE Cellular models, and each of those
counts as its own EEC filing, and sometimes, Apple makes two separate filings for the LTE
models, for a total of 3 filings for just one specific iPad, like they did with the
iPad Pro last year.
So I’ve been studying the model numbers for each iPad for the past couple of years
and I think I’ve figured out which iPads we should be expecting thanks to new rumors
and leaks.
Here’s the list of the newly filed 7 model numbers, so let’s start with these 3 in
the center, which I think are actually for the iPad Air 4.
Last year’s iPad Air 3 had 4 model numbers, one of which was for China, so it doesn’t
show up in the European filings, but these other 3 numbers seem to closely resemble the
pattern that I’m seeing in the newly filed numbers.
Rumors for the iPad Air 4 started earlier this year, and I made a video in May which
contained all of those rumors of a low-cost 11-inch iPad, which is of course, the iPad
Air 4.
And even back in March, leakers like Lovetodream claimed that the new iPad Air will come with
a full Mini-LED screen with no notch, and no Face ID, but Touch ID under the display.
Now we did have rumors of Mini-LED being delayed until next year, so I wouldn’t expect the
Mini-LED display, but the rest of it could actually be true.
I am almost 100% confident that the iPad Air 4 will take on the same body and display size
as the current 11” iPad Pro.
This actually makes a lot of sense because when the iPad Pro ditched the old 10.5”
display for the new modern 11” one, the iPad Air took on that 10.5” display.
In Fact, it was almost identical to the old 10.5” iPad Pro, with the only physical difference
being the lack of speaker grills on the top.
So the iPad Air 4 could very well likely take on the 11” body.
But there was a whole lot of jazz about a new 10.8” iPad being released, which could
be this iPad Air having a slightly smaller display within the same 11” body, or it
could be a budget iPad which I’ll get into in a minute.
Very recently, there was an iPad Air 4 manual that was leaked, basically showing off the
new design which looks basically identical to the 11” iPad Pro, and in that manual,
it mentioned a USB-C port and a smart connector.
This means that we should 100% expect support for the 2nd gen Apple Pencil.
There was also no reference to Face ID, rather pointing to Touch ID being integrated into
the power button, but I personally think the rumors of an in-display fingerprint reader
make more sense.
And because this is the iPad Air, don’t expect the same great features as the Pro.
So that means no 120hz display, no quad speakers, and no crazy A14X chip.
Instead, I’m expecting the A13 chip from the iPhone 11 on this iPad Air, which means
that Apple is likely to release this iPad before their iPhone 12’s get announced because
they’ll be packing the even better A14 chip.
And according to Jon Prosser, the Apple Watch and the iPad should be released via a press
release on September 7th, so I think there’s a chance that Apple will also release the
iPad Air through the same press release.
And you might ask, why would Apple give the iPad Air the same 11” body as the iPad Pro?
Well, I believe that Apple wants to sell more of their Magic Keyboard case, and since we
saw rumors of the Magic Keyboard supporting not only the iPad Pro, but more iPad models,
this makes me almost 100% sure that the current Magic Keyboard will fit the iPad Air 4 perfectly,
and that’s exactly what that leaked manual mentioned as well.
Now moving onto the second set of model numbers on the bottom, I believe these are for the
upcoming 2020 budget iPad, thanks to a tweet from Jon Prosser who expects a new budget
iPad alongside the iPad Air this year.
The rumors for this device started in March, with the reliable analyst Ming-chi Kuo claiming
that Apple would release a new 10.2” iPad this year.
And then the leaker Lovetodream also claimed that the 2020 iPad would come with the A12
chip, which makes sense since the budget iPad currently has a pretty old A10 chip, so it
always gets the leftovers.
A couple of months later, Kuo updated his expectations and said that there would be
a new 10.8” iPad this year.
So based on those rumors, we’ll likely see a new iPad being released via a press release
alongside the Apple Watch on September 7th.
And as for that rumored 10.8” display size, there’s a chance that if the iPad Air gets
updated with the current iPad Pros design, then the new budget iPad could take on the
current iPad Air’s 10.5” body, and then it could ditch the home button for an extra
bit of display to get it up to that 10.8” display size.
In that case, it could get the same under display fingerprint sensor, or it could with
Touch ID built into the power button instead.
But on the other hand, Apple could very well just leave it with the same 10.2” display
and simply update the specs.
And if you think about it, a full redesign with a 10.8” display is big enough news
to warrant the iPad being released at an event, not through a simple press release.
But as for the features, expect the same old Lightning port with support for the 1st gen
Apple pencil. Expect the A12 chip, and probably the same display technology as the current
iPad Air, but that’s about all that might change.
Now finally getting to those last two iPad model numbers, I actually think it’s for
a new version of the iPad Pro, but before I get into that, let me explain why I don’t
think it’ll be the iPad Mini.
Ming-chi kuo mentioned back in June that Apple would release a redesigned 8.5” iPad Mini
in 2021, and basically every other leak and rumor I’ve seen points to it being released
next year, so don’t expect it to come in 2020.
And with that, let’s get into the iPad Pro.
This one is a bit surprising because for the past few months, all the rumors were pointing
to a new 5G Mini-LED display iPad Pro coming early next year.
But if we take a look back to December of 2019, Ming-chi kuo predicted that in the 3rd
quarter of 2020, Apple would release a 12.9” iPad Pro with an A14X chip.
This prediction is a bit weird since Apple usually updates both sizes of the iPad Pro,
but he exclusively mentioned the 12.9” model.
Now if we take a look at those last two ECC filing model numbers and compare them to the
previous 12.9” iPad Pro model, you can definitely see a pattern there.
And we all know that the upcoming Apple Silicon Macs are coming later this year, and most
likely being announced in late October or some time in November, and those Macs will
come with new chips that are gonna be built on the A14X chip, which is expected to come
on the new iPad Pro.
So it would make sense for Apple to host an event and show off the capabilities of the
A14X chip being packed into the 12.9” iPad Pro, before showing off the new Apple Silicon
SoC family that’s gonna be going into the first Apple Silicon Macs.
Now as for the other features of that 12.9” iPad Pro, I don’t think we’ll be seeing
any major changes. We’ll likely just get the A14X chip and possibly 5G LTE support,
we’ll probably get the new 20W charger, and some camera updates.
So definitely keep an eye out for that Event which will likely be online only at either
the end of October or some time in November.
And there you guys have it, that is why you shouldn’t be buying an iPad right now, and
instead waiting at least a couple of weeks for the budget iPad and iPad Air, and probably
a few months for a new 12.9” iPad Pro.
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