The latest iPad Mini 5 news are in and they’re half positive, half bad. Turns out that the device will indeed support the Apple Pencil, but it’ll lack Face ID. This means that it’ll keep using Touch ID and the antiquated form factor.
The iPad Mini 5 was leaked over the past weeks together with details about the iPad (2019), the affordable slate for educational purposes. The new iPad Mini is said to also offer support for the Apple Smart Keyboard. The info comes from reliable developer Steve Troughton-Smith. He delivered reliable info in the past, extracted from the source code of apps.
He now claims that new iPad sizes both come with Smart Keyboard and Pencil support. Touch ID could also be lacking, not only Face ID, which seems like a rather bizarre decision. It’s been 7 years since the first iPad Mini, and 4 years since the last model was unveiled. Some are talking about porting some features from the iPad Pro to the Mini, like the USB Type-C port or the OLED display, but we have yet to see proof about that.
There’s also talk about a WiFi only version, no love for LTE. A Smart Keyboard compatibility also means a Smart Connector embedded into one of the sides of the frame. It’s also possible that Apple will give up Touch ID to increase diagonal size and make the bezels narrower.
