Rumor: next version cheapest Apple iPad has 10.5 “screen

The next version of the cheapest version of the Apple iPad will be released next spring and will have a 10.5 “screen. It involves the design and chassis of the iPad Air 3 from 2019, Chinese site CNBeta reports.

That choice will keep it an iPad with a physical Home button containing a Touch ID fingerprint scanner, CNBeta reports. In addition, charging is again via a Lightning port. The latest version of the iPad Air and the iPad Pros from recent years has a USB-C port. There is also a 3.5 mm jack, which is missing on the more expensive iPads.

The soc would be an Apple A13, the same as from the iPhone 11 phones of 2019. Apple would add 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage. That’s double the storage of the current cheapest version, which has 32GB of storage. The price would also be slightly lower than the current cheapest iPad. The release should take place next spring. CNBeta is a well-known and reliable site with technology news from China. The site doesn’t post a lot of rumors, so it doesn’t really have a track record in this area.

Apple regularly releases a new version of the cheapest iPad. The latest is the eighth generation iPad. Reusing an existing chassis is something that Apple does more often. The iPad Air 4 resembles the iPad Pro 2017, while the iPad 5 was a new version of the first iPad Air.

iPad Air 3 from 2019 in addition to iPad mini 4 from 2019