Apple’s upcoming iPad Air 2 — likely to be unveiled next week — is thinner and features a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, according to prototype model photos leaked by Vietnamese tech blog Tinhte.vn.
Tinhte — which also accurately leaked the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus before they were announced — claims the next iPad will measure just 7 millimeters, or about a quarter of an inch. That’s about the same as Apple’s new iPhone 6 (6.9 millimeters) and iPhone 6 Plus (7.1 millimeters). In contrast, the original iPad Air is 7.9 millimeters, or .29 inches thick.
The home button in the photos displays the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which has been an expected addition based on previous reports. The sensor looks like glass, so it might be the same sapphire glass used in the iPhone.
Like the iPhone 6, the iPad Air 2 also has a recessed volume button. The tablet’s speaker grille is also slightly changed, with a single row of holes instead of a double row on the current iPad Air. Strangely, there’s no mute switch anywhere to be seen; this could be to save space, or because it’s an incomplete prototype.
Besides being a non-working unit, you can tell that the model is a prototype because of its poor finish on the back. Bloomberg previously reported that the iPad Air 2 will have an anti-reflective screen, but this claim is still unproven, because the Tinhte blogger could not turn the device on.
You can see all of the photos here.
iPad Air 2 event next week
The iPad Air 2 — or whatever Apple calls it — will be unveiled October 16, along with possibly a gold-color iPad Air, a new Retina-display iMac, new Mac Mini, and possibly an updated Apple TV, according to speculation around the web.
Unlike with Apple’s recent larger events, the company is holding this event in a smaller auditorium at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. Apple today sent out official invitations with the words “It’s been way too long.” Although we aren’t big enough for Apple’s invite list, we’ll certainly post all of the event news as it happens. Stay tuned.
