iPad 10th Gen leak means it might have the first landscape FaceTime camera

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It's on the side for once.

iPad 10 Render
(Image credit: MySmartPrice)

Apple is now expected to announce a brand new 10th-gen iPad today and a late leak might have confirmed a big FaceTime camera change.

If this leak is legit, it looks like this will be the first iPad to move the FaceTime camera to the side rather than have it at the top.

Screen, protected

While we don't know whether that FaceTime camera is going to get an internal upgrade or not - though it seems likely - a newly leaked screen protector appears to show that the whole thing will actually move from its normal position. For the first time, it looks like Apple is ready to move the FaceTime camera to the long side of the tablet, making it appear central when used in landscape mode.

All current iPads have their FaceTime camera on the short edge, giving the tablet a definite top and bottom. It's something that was carried over from the iPhone, but a screen protector shared to Twitter by leaker Majin Bu shows a change - a FaceTime camera cutout on the side. You can see the image in the tweet below.

Moving the camera to the side would make for a better angle when making FaceTime and other video calls, especially when the iPad is placed in a dock or attached to a keyboard.

We won't have to wait too long to find out whether that's actually happening, thankfully. The Apple Store is already down and we expect Apple to announce new tablets within hours. If the rumors are true, a new 10th-gen 10.2-inch iPad will be announced alongside updated M2-powered iPad Pro tablets in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes.

Sticking with the iPad 10th Gen, we're expecting a flat-edged design similar to the iPad Pro as well as magnetic support for the Apple Pencil 2, again like the iPad Pro. Internally, an A14 Bionic chip will provide more processing power than the current generation's A13 Bionic. We're also expecting this to be the first entry-level iPad to support 5G connectivity, too.

Will this leak turn out to be accurate? We shouldn't have too much longer to wait to find out. We expect Apple to announce these new products via press release imminently.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.