Apple is reportedly working on a redesign of the iPad Pro that would realign the iPad’s camera placement from the current portrait placement to a landscape one. The redesign would make the iPad more laptop-like in design than it currently is. This rumor comes from a leaker with a mixed record, Dylandkt, via his Twitter account.
“Future iPad Pros will feature a horizontal camera placement and a horizontally placed Apple logo on the back. Apple will make landscape mode the default for iPad Pro usage. I have not confirmed whether the next-generation model will have this feature, but it is in the works,” the leaker tweeted.
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The iPad Pro’s camera placement has long been a black mark on an otherwise excellent device. That the Pro has been pitched as a tablet that could replace your laptop, with power that rivals the MacBook and a slew of accessories, makes the placement of the camera even more baffling. Laptops are after all used in landscape mode, and even rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and Surface Pro 8 place their cameras in that way.
If this rumor proves true, it would also allow iPad users to take full advantage of the Center Stage feature introduced in iPadOS 15. Center Stage works with the FaceTime app to keep the focus on the speaker or speakers. Another FaceTime-related feature that Apple introduced in iPad OS 15 is Portrait Mode, which allows you to blur the background just as you would in a photo. With so much focus on FaceTime’s software, it only makes sense that the hardware be improved to match.
Apple has also been also rumored by analyst Ming-Cho Kuo to be bringing a Mini LED display to the 11-inch iPad Pro in 2022. It’s also said to be exploring a potential redesign that adds a glass back for reverse wireless charging to allow the iPad Pro to charge AirPods, or even iPhones, as well as provide regular wireless charging.
Of course, this is all still early days, with the iPad Mini 6 and new iPad 10.2 having only just been announced, so there’s much that’s still unknown and likely to change before we get the comprehensive scoop on the new iPad Pro.