While it’s still unclear if the next-gen iPad mini will sport a Retina display, it seems that it will feature a Touch ID Home button and gold color option. That is, if this pair of leaked photos showing the alleged tablet are to be believed.
The above image, and one we’ve posted right after the break, surfaced on Chinese site DoNews this morning. And as you can see, they show what appears to be a 7.9-inch iPad with a gold-colored shell and Apple’s new fingerprint sensor…
Apple first introduced the gold, or ‘champagne,’ colorway with the iPhone 5s, and it has thus far proven to be very popular. 5s configurations including the gold color option were the first to sell out during the handset’s launch weekend.
So while it’s not surprising that Apple would want to bring the gold color over to its iPad mini line, it is interesting that it would bring over Touch ID. The last we heard, the hard-to-make sensor was the main factor in the 5s’ limited availability.
Perhaps more significant is that if the mini has Touch ID, the larger iPad 5 would likely have it to. And as we discussed on this week’s Let’s Talk Jailbreak podcast, that could open the door for some interesting things like multi-user profiles.
Of course, this is all speculation on our part, and there’s obviously no way to verify the legitimacy of these photos. But we should find out soon enough. Apple is expected to unveil its new iPads during a media event at some point during October.
What do you make of this? Will the new iPad mini feature Touch ID/a gold color option?
Update: frequent tipster and Apple product-leaker Sonny Dickson has posted a series of tweets regarding what he’s heard about iPad mini 2 specs.
iPad Mini 2 – A7 chip with 64-bit architecture – M7 motion coprocessor
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) September 27, 2013
Sources told me that the iPad Mini 2 will only have 1GB of Ram and the iPad 5 will have 2GB.
— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) September 27, 2013