iPad Air 3 Rumored, Or Hoped, To Get 4 Speakers, Camera Flash

Now that word of the iPad Air 3 arriving in March has once again surfaced, speculation, and sometimes wishful thinking, about the tablet's upcoming features. Not much is known about it, which makes the iPad Air 3 the perfect blank slate for the rumor mill. Two such features, which perhaps need a good amount of salt, revolve around the tablet's speakers and camera. For one, some are saying that the iPad Air 3 will have four speakers like the iPad Pro. And, quite amusingly, it will also have a flash for the rear camera.

The speakers might be a bit easier to believe. Apple revealed this rather novel idea of four speakers, two on each side, dynamically switching on or off depending on how the tablet is oriented, which not only improves the audio experience, it also solves the problem of muffling sounds when the hands cover one or two of the four speakers.

Such a quad speaker setup was absent in the iPad mini 4, which took the place of the iPad Air in last year's stage. That was, however, probably a necessity given the tablet's small size. On a 9.7-inch tablet, there might be room for more. That said, given how those speakers take up a lot of space as revealed by iFixit's teardown, Apple might have to sacrifice even more battery life to accommodate that feature.

More perplexing is the rumor that there will be a camera flash on the iPad Air 3's backside, which would make it the first iPad to have that hardware. Apple's tablet cameras aren't exactly dismal, but Apple is no fool. It doesn't really want you to rely on your iPad to take decent photos. You'll want to buy an iPhone for that. If ever, the iPad mini 4 might have been a better candidate for a camera flash. One other potential use for a flash is for a really bright torch. But then again, a 9.7-inch screen might be an even better alternative.

Of course, neither of these two details might even come to pass, though a dynamic four-speaker setup is, at least, the more plausible scenario. If the rumored March date is true, we need only survive MWC 2016 next month to see the iPad Air 3 for real, once and for all.

VIA: Nowhereelse.fr