It shouldn’t be too much longer until we see the sixth-generation iPad Air, and another detail about the tablet has leaked: it’s rumored to be getting a landscape front-facing camera, in line with the 10th-gen entry-level iPad launched in 2022.
In other words, the selfie cam is on the top of the tablet when you’re using it in landscape mode, not down the side. This comes from seasoned tipster Instant Digital (via MacRumors), and will apparently apply to both sizes of the new iPad Air.
It certainly makes a lot of sense for video calls, because you can look at the top of the tablet when it’s set up in landscape mode. It’s also something that’s been rumored for the next iPad Pros, so every iPad should soon have the same front-facing camera placement.
As MacRumors points out, this is going to take a bit of engineering know-how: unlike the basic iPad, the iPad Air and iPad Pro have an inductive magnetic charger along the same edge for the Apple Pencil. Presumably Apple has found a way to handle this.
A bigger display, a faster chip
In our 10.9-inch iPad 2022 review, we called the new camera placement “much more natural” for video calling, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the change is coming – and we should be getting official confirmation before too long.
New iPad Air and iPad Pro models could be announced as early as this week, according to sources. We thought it might happen last week too, but Apple decided to unveil the new M3-powered MacBook Air instead.
As well as a repositioned camera, the iPad Air 6 could well come in a larger 12.9-inch size, alongside the current 10.9-inch one. That means it would match the iPad Pro series in terms of giving consumers a choice of two screen sizes to pick from.
Under the hood, an upgrade to the latest M3 chip from Apple has been talked about as well, and we’ve also seen leaked schematics showing what the next iPad Air might look like. As soon as it’s official, we’ll let you know.