We are talking about the iPad mini here. So yeah, could be. The iPad mini is always the forgotten step child of the iPad family. Lol.
A9? A new tablet in 2019 with a processor in 2015?
Well the HomePod has the A8 chip so it wouldn’t surprise me IF Apple put at the A9 chip in the iPad Mini, more so for battery life than anything else.
Apple will not provide the headphone jack.
It actually requires a DAC, power amplification circuit, the jack itself and all the other cabling.
It is so much easier to provide the digital output via lightning or USB-C.
That has to be old... This guy reporting it'll have an A9? That seems.... wildly outdated for a brand new product.
If the processor can perform adequately and is priced appropriately then I see no issue. The A9 is still a solid performing chip. I don’t think many people will be trying to run photoshop for their job using an iPad mini. The mini, even more than the iPad and iPad Pro is a media consumption device. The A9 can handle these types of tasks just fine. I’d like to see it get an A10 but I don’t see much issue using the A9 (again assuming price is below $250).
Would it actually surprise anyone if this new iPad many was just thrown together with old leftover iPhone 6/7 parts inventory?
I guess it just depends on the price point. For $199 I think thats fair, but even $249 is only $80 cheaper than the current iPad offering. Best Buy even had the current gen iPad on sale for $250 over the Christmas period. I wasn't really thinking about it being entry level, I was thinking more on par spec wise with the current iPad. Your idea of it being more entry level makes more sense though.It makes sense as this is supposed to slot below the $329 iPad.
Also, it would be the new gateway iOS product, replacing the iPod. At $249, it would be tough from a marketing standpoint to slot in anything newer than A9.
It better have Face ID you hear me Apple
A9 is such a joke. Apple is crawling into a hole to die if they think they are going sell a 3.5 year old processor in a new product.
that detail there is enough to say this is an old prototype, not an actual leak of a 2019 product. ...at least I hope so.