With all of the latest leaks and rumors that have been coming out, I am now basically 100%
sure that Apple will be revealing the next budget iPad 9 at their September event alongside
the new iPhones!
So in this video, I’m gonna go through the history of leaks for the iPad 9 and explain
why I’m so confident in that date, and then I’m gonna go through the list of specs that
should be coming on the iPad and explain why they also make the most sense, so without
further ado, let’s get right into it!
First up, just by looking at Apple’s iPad release timeline, you can see that for the
last 4 years, Apple’s released a new budget iPad every year, without missing a single
year, and they’re expected to continue that trend this time again.
And if you take a closer look, Apple’s budget iPads usually get released in either March
or September alongside the iPhone, and since we’re already into the summer without a
new iPad 9, it’s gonna have to be released in September, no matter what.
In fact, the last two budget iPad models were revealed at Apple’s iPhone event.
And in terms of the date of the event itself, it almost always happens on a Tuesday, and
usually the 2nd Tuesday of the month, like they did the last couple of years, so that
points to September 14th for this year’s event, and that’s when we’re expecting
the iPad 9 reveal.
But now getting back to the iPad 9 leaks and the actual specs themselves, the most important
thing to understand is that the budget iPad usually gets updated on a tick-tock cycle,
so let me explain how that has worked in the past.
In 2017, Apple released the iPad 5 with a 9.7” display and the Apple A9 chip, and
then the following year, they released the iPad 6 with the same exact 9.7” display,
but they upgraded the chip to the A10.
The year after that, in 2019, they updated the design and gave it a 10.2” display size,
but kept the chip the same A10 as it was before.
Now that was definitely a bit of a disappointing upgrade because the new iPhone 11 released
alongside the iPad, but with an A13 chip, 3 generations newer, but Apple still went
with the A10 for the budget iPad!
And just last year, they gave us the iPad 8 with the same 10.2” display design, but
bumped up the chip to the A12, which means that they skipped the A11.
So as you can see, the tick tock cycle works by upgrading the design and display one year,
and then upgrading the chip the next.
So if Apple were to continue this cycle this year, we should actually expect Apple to update
the design, but keep the same A12 chip as it currently has, which would definitely be
disappointing like it was in 2019, but it shouldn’t really be that surprising if it
ends up happening.
But going back to the oldest leaks we have on the iPad 9, the twitter leaker named 000leaker
mentioned that Ming-chi Kuo expects a new low-priced iPad in the second half of 2021
with one of the prototypes being the same design as the iPad Air 3.
Now I totally agree with this because Apple tends to reuse their higher-end iPad designs
for their lower-end iPads.
For example, the 2017 iPad Pro came with a 10.5” display and the older chamfered-edge
design.
And then in 2018, the iPad Pro was upgraded to the new modern flat edge design with rounded
corners on the display.
And then in 2019, the iPad Air 3 adopted basically the same identical 10.5” design that the
iPad Pro used to have.
And then in late 2020, the iPad Air 4 ended up adopting the 2018 iPad Pro design with
the modern flat edges and new display.
So because of that, it would totally make sense for the iPad 9 to adopt that old 10.5”
display design as well, since it’ll be very easy for Apple to manufacture.
However, there are some new leaks and rumors that came out that might point to it keeping
the same 10.2” display again for the 3rd year in a row, which would be a bit weird,
but I’ll get into those reports in just a minute.
Now some people are hoping for the iPad to also get a full redesign to match up with
the modern iPads, complete with flat edges, no home button and a rounded corner display,
but I honestly don’t think that will happen because the iPad is always behind in terms
of the feature-set, obviously because of the very cheap $329 base price.
For example, the current budget iPad still doesn’t have a laminated display, it still
doesn’t support PCI-3 wide-color gamut, it still only has a 1.2MP selfie camera, it
still only has Bluetooth 4.2, and it still only comes with 32GB of storage at the base
price.
So I expect the budget iPad to be the very last iPad to adapt the modern full-screen
design, probably at least a full year after the iPad Mini gets the new design, which is
rumored to be happening this Fall.
Now getting back to the iPad 9 leaks, in December, CnBeta reported that the new iPad would be
coming in Spring of 2021, which was obviously wrong, but they mentioned that it would get
a 10.5” display, which I can see happening, and an A13 chip with 4GB of RAM.
So what they’re saying is that Apple is gonna break the tik-tok cycle by updating
both the design and the chip at the same time, which I think is definitely a possibility,
but in reality, the A12 chip is already very fast for what you’re paying for.
The current iPad was the A12 was the first budget iPad that was actually quite good at
gaming, playing all of the best iOS games out there with ease, so Apple could easily
keep the A12 again.
And for this new iPad, I’m totally expecting it to get a fully laminated display and support
for DCI-P3 color gamut, which is actually gonna be a huge deal and it’ll make this
iPad a much better value.
On top of that, I’m expecting some of the other specs to get bumped up as well like
Bluetooth 5.0 and a 7MP selfie camera.
So even if Apple keeps the same A12 chip, it’ll still be a pretty decent upgrade in
terms of the larger, thinner design and display quality.
And in that case, the following iPad update next year could skip the A13 and go straight
for the A14 chip without a design change, like they did in 2019.
And then 2 years from now, they could finally give the budget iPad the full modern redesign
with uniform bezels, but keep the same A14 chip.
Now that might seem like a ridiculously long time to wait for the full modern redesign,
but it would perfectly match up to Apple’s tik-tok cycle, and you also have to keep in
mind that this is the budget iPad we’re talking about.
So in the case that this ends up happening, here is my full feature and spec-list that
I’m predicting, with a $329 base price just like the current model has, with 32GB of storage
and 3GB of RAM with the A12 chip.
However, the only problem I have with going this route is that a couple of new reports
were recently released that point to the iPad 9 actually not getting upgraded to a 10.5”
display!
Mark Gurman, the most reliable leaker out there, said last month that the iPad 9 would
be a thinner version of the current base iPad, which will continue to be targeted to students.
On top of that, Mac Otakara released a report yesterday saying that the iPad 9 does not
seem to be any different than the existing model.
So what if the iPad 9 actually sticks to the same 10.2” Display but becomes thinner than
the current model?
Well, that could actually make a ton of sense because the current iPad’s non-laminated
display actually increases the thickness by a lot, so simply swapping it out for a new
laminated 10.2” display would make it quite a bit thinner and it would match up to Mark
Gurmans report.
And if this does happen, that would also break the tik-tok cycle of not giving it a new design,
and that would mean that we should expect this iPad 9 to actually get the A13 chip like
others have been reporting, and I’d much rather have that, than a 10.5” display.
And then that would also mean that the full modern redesign with rounded corners on the
display could actually come next year, which would actually make sense since it’s gonna
be the 10th-generation iPad, which is perfect for a redesign.
And if this second scenario plays out, here is my alternative list of specs and features,
complete with a 10.2” display, the A13 chip with 4GB of RAM, but probably still a $329
starting price with 32GB of base storage.
But anyway, those are the latest leaks and rumors on the iPad 9 including what I’m
personally expecting in terms of the features and specs. If you totally disagree with me,
go ahead and comment your thoughts below, but if you enjoyed the video, Tap Like & Subscribe
for more videos like this one. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one!