It won’t be long before we see the sixth-generation iPad Air, and another detail about the tablet has been leaked: it’s rumored to have a landscape front-facing camera, in line with the entry-level 10th-generation iPad . launched in 2022.
In other words, the selfie camera is on the top of the tablet when you use it in landscape mode, and not on the side. This comes from seasoned tipster Directly digital (through MacRumors), and will apparently apply to both sizes of the new iPad Air.
This certainly makes a lot of sense for video calls, as you can look at the top of the tablet when it’s set up in landscape mode. It’s also something rumored for the next iPad Pros, so every iPad should have the same front camera placement soon.
As MacRumors notes, this requires some technical know-how: unlike the base 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 deal with this.
A bigger screen, 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 get official confirmation soon.
According to sources, new iPad Air and iPad Pro models could be announced as soon as this week. We also thought this would happen last week, but Apple decided to unveil the new M3-powered MacBook Air instead.
In addition to a relocated camera, the iPad Air 6 could very well be available in a larger 12.9-inch size, in addition to the current 10.9-inch size. That means it would match the iPad Pro range in terms of giving consumers the choice of two screen sizes to choose from.
Under the hood, there’s also been talk of an upgrade to Apple’s latest M3 chip, and we’ve also seen leaked schematics showing what the next iPad Air could look like. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s official.