Featured iPad Air 4 manual shows all-screen display with touch ID built-in on / off button

Photos of a supposedly leaky manual for a non-releasing iPad Air were posted this morning on social media, suggesting that Apple’s next mid-range iPad option could display a full screen instead of a Home button, with Touch ID instead integrated into the Power button.

Originating from Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu and shared on Twitter by leaker DuanRui, the photos depict a Spanish-language manual for an iPad Air with an edge-to-edge screen like the iPad Pro.

However, the manual does not mention Face ID, and instead instructs users to “activate Touch ID with the top button to unlock the iPad Air”, above an image of an iPad with a strikingly longer button.

On other sites, the manual refers to USB-C connectivity instead of Lightning, and shows a Smart Connector on the back of the device to connect a Magic Keyboard and other compatible accessories.

Several rumors suggest that Apple will release a new iPad in the near future, but there has been some confusion about the model of the device as well as the display size.

Anonymous Twitter account L0vetodream has claimed that Apple is working on an 11-inch iPad Air with a screen on all screens that uses a sub-display version of Touch ID instead of Face ID like the iPad Pro.

Meanwhile, DigiTimes has suggested that a 10.8-inch iPad Air will arrive in the second half of 2020, while Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also expects Apple to release a 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of 2020. However, Kuo has not indicated whether the 10.8-inch iPad is an Air as a low-cost standard iPad.

It’s not impossible that these rumors refer to the same device shown here, and that the confusion over the details comes from Apple’s novel implementation of Touch ID, which allows it to offer a completely mid-tier device without the inconvenient cost of the TrueDepth camera system required for Face ID.

It is worth noting that the only previous report we saw of Touch ID integrated into an on / off button was in a January 2020 research note from Kuo, who said that Apple intends to use an LCD -iPhone unlocked with a Touch ID touch button on the side of the device in the first half of 2021.

iPad Air 4
Touch ID
fia 小红 书 pic.twitter.com/2jc09uAKUY
– DuanRui (@ duanrui1205) August 27, 2020

The next generation version of the iPad Air has already been rumored to have a USB-C port like the iPad Pro, instead of a Lightning port, and that’s what we’re seeing here.

Apple registered seven new iPads with the Eurasian Economic Commission at the end of August, some of which may be a new iPad Air. Leaker Jon Prosser has also claimed that Apple will release an unspecified new iPad in September, with an announcement made via press release. It is not clear if this refers to the iPad Air, but it is possible given previous rumors about a release of iPad Air in the second half of 2020.

Note that these photos have not yet been verified and Twitter leaker DuanRui does not have much of a track record, but has previously leaked photos of a new Lightning to USB-C cable, presumably sending with upcoming iPhone 12 models.