Don’t expect perks beyond better cameras and chips for the next iPad Pro and budget iPad

11 inch iPad Pro with Pencil snapped

The next iPad Pro and the low-end iPad model are both expected to pick up better cameras and upgraded Apple processors, but that’s pretty much it when it comes to hardware upgrades. The new tablets will look virtually indistinguishable from the current models.

Mark Gurman and Debby Wu, writing for Bloomberg:

The 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros will get similar upgrades to the iPhones, gaining upgraded cameras and faster processors. Otherwise, the new iPads will look like the current versions. The low-end iPad’s screen will be 10.2-inches.

I find it rather peculiar that the company will increase the screen size of the low-end iPad from 9.7 to 10.2 inches. Wouldn’t it be better if the screen size went from 9.7 to 10.5 inches, like with the discontinued 10.5-inch iPad Pro model? It’s worth remembering that the 10.5-inch iPad Pro brought out a slightly higher display resolution at 2,224 x 1,558 pixels versus a 2,048 x 1,536 pixel resolution of the 9.7-inch iPad, but pixel density stayed unchanged at 326ppi.

Will the resolution of the budget iPad change or will it stay unchanged?

Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: if the budget iPad adopts a 10.2-inch panel, Apple will no longer carry 9.7-inch tablets in the lineup, discontinuing the original display size after using it for nearly a decade. The upgraded tablets will be arriving about six months after Apple put out the new mid-tier third-generation iPad Air along with the fifth-generation iPad mini.

It’s unclear whether or not the improved camera system on the next iPad Pro will bring some of the premium features that we’re expecting to see in the upcoming iPhone Pro models, namely something Gurman previously described as “an auto-correction feature to fit people back into a photo who may have been accidentally cut out.”

I don’t actually expect that to be the case because that feature is thought to be made possible by a third lens that the tentatively named “iPhone 11 Pro” and “iPhone 11 Max Pro” models are said to gain this year. And besides, iPads have never provided all the camera features found on their iPhone counterparts, and that goes for the latest TrueDepth-camera enabled iPad Pro models with Face ID and a single-lens twelve-megapixel shooter out the back.

Thoughts on the looming iPad Pro and budget iPad refreshes? Were you expecting more substantial upgrades than just a camera/CPU bump?

Let us know in the comments down below.