iPad 3 ‘Frankenslate’ Assembled Ahead of Apple Media Event

Apple’s media event, during which the company is expected to unveil the iPad 3, is only a few days away but some people just can’t wait to add to the feverish speculation of what the device will look like.

The website M.I.C. Gadget has gotten its hands on what it says is a pile of iPad 3 components and put them together in what SlashGear is calling “Frankenslate.”

In the video, you’ll notice the bloggers didn’t actually put together a working tablet but merely assembled the outer shell of what they say will be the iPad 3. Even so, they came to a few conclusions.

It will Have a Physical Home Button

Much speculation to the contrary has been flying around since Apple sent its invitation to the media. The invitation showed a small section of an iPad with no home button on the bezel, but it could be that Apple included a weird angle in the invitation to mess with rumormongers. PCWorld’s Jared Newman has already said he bets the home button is sticking around. He may very well be right — at least it appears so if the components M.I.C. Gadget used are legit.

LTE Connectivity will Not be on Board

Last week 9to5Mac reported that a reliable source said iPad 3 pricing would be the same as iPad 2 and that the next-gen configurations would remain at 16/32/64GB. Interestingly, 9to5Mac also said its report had no bearing on LTE. Even so, M.I.C. believes LTE won’t be on board the iPad 3 for two reasons: There’s currently a limited market for LTE and including the chip set would add an extra cost to each unit.

M.I.C. could very likely be wrong on this. As PCWorld’s Tony Bradley aptly pointed out, “Apple is sitting on a mountain of cash. It has money to burn and could easily cut into the iPad profit margin, or even sell the devices at a loss just to squash the competition and dominate the market.”

iPad 2 Covers are Tight on the iPad 3

M.I.C played around with a few new iPad 3 cases and said thousands of them have been sent to the U.S. That’s hardly a revelation, although they did say people who want to use their iPad 2 cases on the iPad 3 will find it a tight fit because of the iPad 3’s tapered edges which may make it feel thinner even though the iPad 3 looks to be thicker than the current model.

“Frankenslate” rumors aside, the leading theory is that the iPad 3 will sport an amazing Retina display, doubling the resolution over the previous models. Many Apple watchers believe the new tablet should get an updated camera and either a quad-core A6 processor or a dual-core A5X.

Check back on March 7 when PCWorld will lay all the conjecture to rest and bring you the news from Apple’s media event.

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