iPad Pro (2018)Source: Rene Ritchie / iMore

What you need to know

  • A new report says that Apple will announce an 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro in March.
  • There will be small design changes, mostly to the speaker setup.

As reported by the Japanese Apple site Macotakara, Apple is expected to announce an 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro in March of this year. The outlet says that the general design of the new iPads will remain mostly unchanged.

It does report, however, that Apple is potentially making changes to the internal speaker system and may reduce the number of speaker holes and change their position on the new devices.

The iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation), rumored to be announced in March 2021, will have their iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation)、iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) and housing design unchanged, but the sound has been reviewed and the number of speaker holes on the sides has been reduced by two-thirds. Sources say the speaker's hole position is also new.

The report also states that the anticipated shift to mini-LED may only be available as an option on the 12.9-inch iPad at first.

As for the rear camera, the overall outs of the camera unit remains the same, but the lens cover portion is no longer stretched. As for the rumored mini LED display, sources say it may be an option for the 12.9-inch model as only the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation) will increase in thickness by 0.5mm.

Today's report brings to light more details about the new iPads, as the outlet originally reported about both devices seeing a first half of 2021 release yesterday. That report also stated that the 9th generation iPad would take the form of the 3rd generation iPad Air.