Image credit – MySmartPrice
If you’re planning on getting a new iPad, you might want to hold off because it’s starting to sound like the 2018 iPad refreshes could be a major one. Not only have we heard and seen potential signs that Face ID could be coming to the iPad, but now a tweet from developer Steve Troughton-Smith has suggested support for 4K external displays as well.
According to his findings, which is based on the iOS 12.1 beta, it seems that the latest beta of iOS 12 seems to be hinting at support for 4K external displays. As Troughton-Smith notes, this isn’t possible on any iOS device at the moment even with a Lightning-to-HDMI adapter, which he then speculates could be hinting at the use of USB-C.
New in iOS 12.1: the iOS Simulator supports virtualized 4K external displays. This is not possible on any existing iOS device via the Lightning HDMI adapter — lends credence to iPad perhaps getting a USB-C port for 4K video-out? pic.twitter.com/WfNBerHIrb
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) September 19, 2018
This seems to corroborate an earlier rumor which said that the new iPads might ditch Lightning for USB-C, and so this tweet actually makes sense. If this is true, then this could be great news for iPad users as it means that they could potentially attach USB-C accessories such as external hard drives to the iPad natively, as opposed to current setups which require an adapter.
Like we said, all of this seems to hint that the new iPads could represent a major upgrade over the current models, not just in terms of performance but also features. Take it with a grain of salt for now, but we expect that Apple should have more details for us next month.