The first physical leak of a new iPad Pro model has allegedly surfaced, with the back of a mock-up tablet shown with a square triple-lens camera bump in the corner, supposedly showing Apple is bringing the iPhone 11 Pro cameras to its top-of-the-line tablets.
Seemingly confirming Chinese rumors from early August, the photographed model is equipped with three camera lenses in the top corner, arranged in a square. Rather than taking the arrangement shown in the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, where a third lens is off to the side and positioned at a heigh halfway between the two others, the version pictured instead opts to include the flash as one of the four points of interest, putting one element in each quadrant.
The image released by Sonny Dickson is said to be of a mock-up, and not a production-ready model, so elements are subject to change if it is genuine. The camera bump also seemingly lacks glass elements for covering the entire bump surface, the lenses, and the flash.
The omission of glass and the camera lens positioning casts doubt on whether this truly is an Apple mockup, however the publication claims it received the final design mockup from a "source that has repeatedly been reliable about previous iPad hardware."
(via Sonny Dickson)
Further study of the photograph offers few extra clues about the upcoming iPad Pro, with it using a relatively bare back, save for the Apple logo, the "iPad" branding, the camera bump, and the Smart Connector towards the base.
Current speculation has Apple rumored to be holding a launch event in October for the new models. The timing of the event would mark one year since Apple last refreshed the lineup, with October 2018's launch introducing a full-face display and Face ID.
Apple just launched a new 10.2-inch 7th-generation iPad, the first to feature Apple's Smart Connector. Using a larger Retina display and including support for the Apple Pencil and the full-size Smart Keyboard, the latest iteration is shipping at the end of September, starting from $329.