New iPad Air 3 design drawing reaffirms quad speaker and Smart Keyboard rumor

iPad Air 3 design drawing leak Engadget 001

Another iPad Air 3 design drawing, published Monday by Engadget, seems to support the thesis that the forthcoming device refresh will be outfitted with four speakers and include support for the Smart Connector. As you know, both of these features have made their debut with last fall’s release of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

The alleged design drawing follows a similar image which the French blog NowhereElse.fr posted a week ago. That drawing gave us our first glimpse into the Smart Connector and four speakers, both of which are now believed to be in tow for the iPad Air 3.

“While we’d usually dismiss such leaks, we’re siding with our reliable source on this one,” said Engadget. The extra hole below the camera likely indicates support for an LED flash, which would be a first for the iPad. As for the dimensions, the drawing suggests that the device might sport a marginally thicker and a tad wider body.

These features have been seemingly corroborated by the first iPad Air 3 case which surfaced yesterday on Chinese site Alibaba’s 1688.com business portal, as relayed by Nowhereelse.fr (Google Translate).

iPad Air 3 case NowhereElse leak 001

In addition to improved audio and support for its own “smart” accessories via the Smart Connector, the iPad Air 3 is speculated to add Apple Pencil support.

Apple is rumored to be unveiling the iPad Air 3 alongside a new four-inch ‘iPhone 5se’ at a media event in March 2016, with the notoriously hit-and-miss DigiTimes claiming that the tablet will have an ultra-sharp 4K  Retina screen, four gigabytes of RAM (like the iPad Pro) and longer battery life to drive the new screen.

Source: Engadget