Apple will release a new iPad with a screen size of 10.9” this fall, what we called iPad 10.9. What’s the release time and what's the configuration? Let's reveal some mystery around it.

The following topics are:

The release date of the new iPad 10.9

The configurations and specs of the new iPad 10.9

1. The release date of the new iPad 10.9

The current iPad Air was launched in March 2019, about one and a half years ago. Thus some might suspect that the iPad Air will be the next to update, but when exactly?

According to the "Electronic Times" report in June, the 10.9-inch iPad Air will be available this fall (as well as a new iPad mini).

This is largely consistent with the prediction of the well-connected industry analyst Guo back in May 2020. He also believes that the new Air with a 10.9-inch screen will be available in the second half of 2020, although the 8.5-9-inch iPad mini will not come out until the spring of 2021.

Looking back, Twitter user @L0vetodream tweeted in March 2020 that the new iPad Air will be released soon. It will use "full screen without notch" and Touch ID at the top of the screen.

Apple’s leaker Jon Proser predicted that the new iPad will be released along with the new Apple Watch on September 8. Although the iPad didn’t launched that day, it is confirmed that the Apple's press conference will be held in Mid-October. Therefore, the new iPad is expected to be released on or before that press conference. However, the new generation iPad Air will more likely to be released together with the iPhone 12 in the next conference.

2. The configurations and specs of the new iPad 10.9

In addition to the Home button being under the glass and the related Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and re-positioning Touch ID to the on/off switch, what new features and might 2020 Air have?

We don’t expect it to get any new features Apple purchased for the iPad Pro in March 2020. Apple is walking a tightrope in the mid-market and cheap tablets: it hopes to appeal to the mass market, but not to drive down customer willingness to pay for a professional edition with higher price. Therefore, whenever you predict the features of the non-professional iPad, you should based it on those of the equivalent professional version and shrink it by 25%.

Our opinion is that if the feature has not yet appeared on the Pro lineup, it is highly unlikely for it to be on iPad Air 10.9 . This is why we assert that the next generation of iPad Air, iPad Air 10.9 , will be equipped with a mini as some reports suggested. Mini LEDs have many advantages―thinner and lighter devices without sacrificing color accuracy, contrast or dynamic range. All are related to the efficiency of OLED.

Many reports mention the Mini LED function of the iPad, but the general consensus is that this function will first appear on the iPad Pro, which will not be released until 2021.

However, it is very likely that the new generation of iPad Air will have some of the features of the 2018 iPad Pro, as proposed by the Japanese blog Macotakara, which hints that the new generation of iPad Air will be based on the 2018 11-inch iPad Pro. 

For example, it will use the iPad Pro camera. This 12-megapixel wide-angle camera (f/ 1,8 aperture) will be a major improvement of the 8-megapixel wide-angle camera (f/ 2.4 aperture). There is no flash in the current air.

Macotakara and others also said that the 11-inch iPad Pro will provide a USB-C interface instead of the Lightning interface, which is another feature adopted by the 11-inch iPad Pro. In addition, Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2 seem to be supported by the new iPad Air.

As for the processor, it’s much harder to predict. iPad Air currently uses the A12 processor, while the 2018 11-inch iPad Pro uses the A12X bionic processor, and the 2020 iPad Pro uses the A12Z processor. Obviously, the A12Z has an additional processor core. These are all different versions of the same processor. Perhaps the new generation of iPad Air will be equipped with the A12X, which is a small improvement based on the previous version. Before, iPad Pro is equipped with the A13 processor, so the iPad Air is certainly unlikely to match with A13 processor.

Another possibility is that the memory allocation of the iPad Air may increase (the 9.7-inch has 2 GB memory in 2018 and 3GB in 2019, but it pales in comparison with 4GB/6GB in 2018).

Now, have you learn more about the new iPad 10.9 ? We also provide 2020 iPad Pro 11 Case, 2020 iPad Pro 12.9 Case.

―