The 10th. generation iPad is the first to have a landscape selfie camera - even though it should not

On Tuesday, Apple quietly announced a couple of new devices - mostly iPads - via a series of dedicated press releases on its official Newsroom website.

Without making any fuss, the Cupertino company stealthily gave the entry-level iPad its biggest makeover in almost a decade. The 10th-generation vanilla iPad now sports a modern new look that brings its exterior in line with Apple’s current design philosophy.

Apple has also officially put an end to the lightning port and the headphone jack on its iPads with this generation of its entry-level model. There are, however, a couple of questionable decisions that somewhat squander what is otherwise, at least on paper, an excellent device.

For some reason, Apple’s cheapest iPad is the only one to feature a landscape front-facing camera. Over the past couple of years, the company has made an effort to push consumers to use their iPads in landscape mode, especially with the advent of more sophisticated multitasking features like Stage Manager. The caveat - the latter is exclusive to high-end iPads. 

Now, the only iPad that fully supports landscape mode hardware-wise is the cheapest, most underpowered model - the one least likely to make use of advanced productivity features. Additionally, the reason why Apple has managed to incorporate a landscape camera in the first place is because the new vanilla iPad is not compatible with the 2nd gen. Apple Pencil.

It is precisely the omission of the hardware that facilitates the direct magnetic attachment of the 2nd gen. Apple Pencil to the iPad enables the implementation of the landscape camera. The reason why this decision is exceedingly short-sighted is simple - the only proprietary option that users now have for a stylus is the 1st gen. Apple Pencil… which needs a Lightning port to charge from.

This means that users now have to buy a USB-C to Lighting port dongle in order to charge their Apple Pencil. All for the sake of a landscape front-facing camera.