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Leaked image adds fuel to the iPad Pro (2019) triple camera gossip fire

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Sep 17, 2019, 7:49 AM

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Leaked image adds fuel to the iPad Pro (2019) triple camera gossip fire

Apple was a little late to the multi-lens smartphone party, equipping the iPhone 7 Plus with a dual rear-facing camera system several years after HTC experimented with a rudimentary arrangement of that sort and several months after the likes of Huawei and LG helped bring the technology into the mainstream.

Similarly, the Cupertino-based tech giant took its sweet time joining the triple-lens club with the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, leaving the pioneering honor to the Huawei P20 Pro that saw daylight a full year and a half ago. But surprise, surprise, it looks like Apple wants to be a trailblazer for a change with the upcoming 2019 iPad Pro upgrade.

That's right, even though the company's iPad lineup is already pretty jam-packed and rather messy, rumor has it another two variants will be released by the end of the year. According to some older gossip and a freshly leaked image, these bad boys are likely to share a triple camera setup borrowed from the aforementioned iPhone 11 Pro duo.

The first "physical leak" is here

Before you start screaming fake, you might want to keep in mind the picture obtained by Sonny Dickson from a purported source that has "repeatedly been reliable about previous iPad hardware" is merely a mockup of an unspecified iPad Pro (2019) model, which explains the lack of attention to detail.

Apple's 2018 iPad Pro comes with a single rear camera

That being said, this is supposed to be a "final design" mockup, so there's a pretty good chance the backplate of the commercial product will look exactly as it's depicted here. Namely, clean as a whistle, save for a centered Apple logo, a smaller "iPad" engraving and a three-dot Smart Connector down below, and of course, the top left-positioned triple-lens system we're most interested in right now.

This may or may not come with the same glass cover as the three cameras found on the back of the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, as even "final mockups" can lack certain small visual details. What's almost etched in stone is that the actual imaging hardware will be identical to what the new high-end iPhones have to offer.

Different arrangement, similar features

Apple is interestingly trying something a little bit different for its second three-camera array, but unfortunately for people hating on the square-shaped module of the iPhone 11 Pro, that's not changing. Instead, Apple will simply display the three shooters and LED flash differently on the iPad Pro (2019), approaching the design in a more symmetrical way.

At the end of the day, we're sure you want to know first and foremost what benefits, features, and specs to expect. "Creative video professionals" should look forward to an extremely versatile content recording experience powered by an ultra wide camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 120-degree field of view, a wide shooter with f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization, and a telephoto lens combining OIS with f/2.0 aperture and 2x optical zoom.

The square-shaped camera arrangement of the iPhone 11 Pro is not the same as the 2019 iPad Pro module

All three iPhone 11 Pro snappers are equipped with 12-megapixel sensors, and at least for the time being, we expect the same from the upgraded iPad Pros widely rumored to go official sometime next month. In lack of speculation to the contrary, refreshed 11 and 12.9-inch variants are to be expected, with similar (if not identical) camera and processing power improvements as the new iPhone flagships.

It's worth highlighting that the 2018-released iPad Pro 11 and 12.9 came with single 12MP rear camera systems, so if Apple indeed decides to switch to no less than three 12MP sensors, the performance and versatility upgrade should be quite substantial. By the way, there aren't even a lot of dual camera tablets available today, which makes this prospective jump that much more notable and surprising. But the age-old question remains - is the camera that important for tablet buyers?

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.