Apple's iPad Pro is getting an update this year, and rumor has it the new version will be so much like the iPhone X.
Felipe Esposito of iHelp shared on Twitter strings of code he discovered from the iOS 11.3 beta that mention a device simply referred to as "modern iPad." According to 9To5Mac, the pre-release version of the iOS 11 betas also referenced the iPhone X as "modern iPhone" to differentiate its hardware from the iPhone 8. Apart from the design and its display, the obvious difference between the two is that the premium device features a Face ID, while the base model only has a Touch ID. This suggests that the "modern iPad" in question would come with the new biometric feature.
Yep, there’s definitely some references to a “Modern iPad” inside iOS 11.3. pic.twitter.com/JHHone2R1D
— Filipe Espósito (@filipekids) January 25, 2018 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">This is unprecedented as KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted back in October that Apple is bringing the Face ID to its iPad Pro 2018, alongside the TrueDepth Camera system. That was followed by talks of redesigning the tablet to give it the same edge-to-edge display found in the iPhone X.
As reported previously, the tech giant is supposedly removing the Touch ID home button as it did with the 10<sup>th-anniversary iPhone. That way, the ever-shrinking iPad bezels could shrink even more. The iPad Pro 10.5 already sports slightly thinner bezels -- a 2018 iPad Pro could take it several steps further.
This, however, would only be exclusive to the Pro line for now, according to Kuo. Still, if Touch ID is any indication, it should eventually make its way to cheaper devices, too.
Apart from the Face ID and bezel-less display, the 2018 iPad Pro is also expected to come with an all-new 8-core A11X Bionic processor, designed to improve on the shortcomings of the A11 Bionic chip housed by the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus. The tablet has no official launch date yet, but it is tipped to hit the shelves by the end of 2018.
