iPad Air 2 Specifications Tipped Ahead of Expected October 16 Launch

Apple's much-anticipated next-generation iPad Air, expected to be called the iPad Air 2 and unveiled on October 16, has once again made it to the news with design and specification leaks that corroborate a number of ongoing rumours.

A report states that the new iPad Air tablet would flaunt a body that's thinner by 0.5mm due to a 'fully-laminated display ' which fuses both the cover glass and Retina LCD in 1 layer, a technique that Apple already uses in its iPhone models.

The Michael Report, which leaked the details, lists companies that are supposedly manufacturing the displays for the iPad Air 2 - TPK, GIS, Sharp, Samsung and LG.

Besides including the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, the report claims the iPad Air 2 would also feature bigger speaker grills merging two rows of grills seen in current models, into one. Notably, these features were already rumoured since July. The report corroborates the anticipated inclusion of 2GB of RAM, which is supposedly required for the new split-screen multitasking feature that's been rumoured for a while now.

In addition, the report mentioned that the rumoured iPad Air 2 would be missing out on the mute/vibration buttons to get thinner profile.

Like the Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the proposed iPad Air 2 is also being tipped to ditch a previously offered storage variant, 16GB, and only come in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB options. In addition, the report claims the rear camera might be bumped to 8-megapixels from 5-megapixels and the FaceTime HD front-facing camera is likely to arrive with 720p resolution video recording. Apple Pay functionality might also arrive with the tablet, hinting at the inclusion of NFC feature. The tablet also might come powered by the Apple A8 processor, the same used in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models.

As for the rumoured 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the report claims it might launch sometime in the second quarter of 2015, probably after the anticipated Apple Watch launch, once again corroborating previous rumours. The third-generation iPad mini is also expected to launch in the same time frame.

Apple is also likely to release its recently introduced OS X Yosemite operating system alongside the Mac Mini. New Apple iMac models with 5K resolution Retina display are also hinted to get introduced at the October 16 event.