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iPad Pro 2018 leaks with slim bezels, no notch in sight!

By Milen Yanachkov

Updated: Oct 11, 2018, 4:38 AM

28comments

iOS Apple

iPad Pro 2018 leaks with slim bezels, no notch in sight!

Rumors of a new iPad pro with extremely thin bezels and Face ID have been floating around for a while now. Back in June, we tried to envision what a "bezel-less" iPad could look like — with and without a notch — and we discussed why the notchless design with slightly thicker bezels would actually make more sense for a tablet. Now, a couple of months later, we've got on our hands what could be the first legitimate leak of the iPad Pro 2018 and it looks remarkably similar to what we envisioned earlier in the year.

A handful of newly-leaked images showcase a supposed 3D CAD model of a new iPad Pro. One of the photos even reveals the thickness of the device, which measures in at just 5.86mm. Now that's thin.

Aside from the CAD models, we also have a couple of full-fledged renders of the iPad Pro 2018, coming from screen protector manufacturer Benks. The renders show the new iPad from the front, in all its bezel-less glory. We're not sure yet whether these images are 100 percent the real deal, but they are the closest we've gotten yet and are in line with everything we've heard thus far and expect from the new iPad Pro.

No Face ID?

3D CAD model of the iPad Pro 2018

Another interesting detail that these images potentially reveal is the omission of Face ID on the iPad Pro. This is in the realm of speculation, but if Benks' leaked screen protector is the real thing, it has a single opening above the screen for a single front-facing camera. This could potentially mean that Face ID isn't coming to the iPad Pro 2018 after all, as Apple's TrueDepth 3D face scanning system requires a second, infrared camera and other sensors to work.

There's a headphone jack

Apple may have discontinued the headphone jack on the iPhone, all iPad models still sport the beloved 3.5mm jack, including the 9.7 2018 model. If the new leak is any indication, the iPad Pro 2018 may also have it. The jack is clearly visible in one of the renders leaked by Benks, though it's hard to tell whether it's there on the CAD models, due to the relatively low quality of some of the photos.

What about the specs?

Although we have no confirmation yet, we expect Apple's latest and best mobile chip to be in the new iPad Pros. The new iPhones are powered by the A12 Bionic, built on a 7 nm process — it's not only more powerful but also more energy-efficient than last year's model. Supposedly, the processor in the new iPads would be called the A12X (chips in the iPads always have that X in them to denote they are slightly more powerful than the iPhone variant).

There has been no word on whether the RAM would be updated and we'd have to say chances are slim. Last time around, the iPad Pros had 4 GB of RAM. That's plenty enough for contemporary mobile devices, and especially for iOS, which loves to freeze anything and everything in the background, leaving a lot of free resources for whatever you are doing right now. However, since the current iPhone XS models have 4 GB of RAM themselves, it's possible that the iPad Pro gets bumped up to something like 6 GB. Still, that's just us guessing.

As for the display, if you were hoping for an OLED panel, there's no evidence that Apple will be switching away from LCD screens on its tablets and we kind of find it hard to believe that the company would do so at this stage. Why? For one, the 120 Hz LCD panels Apple uses for the iPad Pros right now are pretty awesome as they are. Then, there's the fact that a ton of AMOLED resources are going towards the new iPhones.

Here's all of the leaked iPad Pro 2018 images, courtesy of SlashLeaks: