The iPad Pro 2024 could get a new camera to fix its wonky video calls

Eyes straight ahead

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It’s been a while sinceApplehas launched a new iPad, with thelatest modelgoing back as far as October 2022. That situation has provided plenty of fodder for the rumor mill, and the latest idea is that the upcoming iPad Pro will move its front-facing camera to the side of the device.

That information comes from a leaker known asInstant Digitalon the Chinese social media platform Weibo (viaMacRumors). According to Instant Digital, the iPad Pro’s TrueDepth camera system will move to the right-hand side of the tablet. The microphone array, meanwhile, will be centered at the top of the device.

Why is Apple apparently going to make this move? It all comes down tovideo calls. Past iPads have put the front-facing camera on the top edge of the tablet. When you use the iPad like a laptop in landscape mode and join a video call, it means you have to awkwardly look at the side of your device (rather than the top, where your eyes would naturally go) in order to look into the camera. It’s a clumsy situation that could be easily avoided by Apple moving the camera’s position.

Now, it looks like that’s exactly what the company is planning on doing. And if we’re being honest, it’s a long-overdue move on Apple’s part – but better late than never.

Mounting evidence

Instant Digital’s claim isn’t the only instance of a rumor asserting that this change is imminent. Earlier in March 2024, Instant Digital announced that the iPad Air would also get aside-mounted camera.

As well as that,code discovered in iOS 17.4revealed that the change could indeed be coming to the iPad Pro. Among the code snippets was this tidbit: “During Face ID setup, iPad needs to be in landscape with the camera at the top of the screen.” The latest entry-level iPad isthe only one with a landscape camera, but it doesn’t have Face ID – that’s reserved for the iPad Pro, suggesting this code was referencing one of Apple’s unreleased top-end tablets.

A landscape camera is not the only thing we’re expecting in thenew iPad Pro. Other rumors suggest it might come with a larger display, anOLEDpanel, an upgraded chip and more. That could make it a sizeable improvement over thecurrent model.

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When it finally arrives, it will put an end to an excruciatingly long wait for updates. The latest iPad upgrades came in October 2022, and 2023 was thefirst year without new iPadssince the product launched in 2010. Here’s hoping Apple puts that drought behind it by launching new models as soon as possible.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he’s learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That’s all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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