iPad 3 May Be Getting The iPhone 4S’s Cameras + FaceTime HD, But Won’t Be Total Redesign [Rumor]

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iPad-2-Facetime

What do we know about the iPad 3? It seems almost definite at this point that it will be slightly thicker than its predecessor, feature an A6 chip and a Retina Display when it is released in late March or April, but if iLounge‘s Jeremy Horwitz’s Twitter account is anything to go on, it might also be packing much better cameras.

While affirming earlier reports that the iPad 3 will be 1MM thicker than the iPad 2 to accommodate the Retina Display, Horowitz says you’ll hardly be able to tell, because the “curve radiuses on the body will change only a little to accommodate the added thickness, not dramatically. Think iPad 2 Pro, not a redesign.”

In addition, Horowitz says the front camera will become a FaceTime HD camera, and the back camera will be the same 8MP affair in the iPhone 4S. I personally doubt the latter: iPad’s don’t need great rear cameras, the tablet form factor is just too unwieldy to benefit from anything but a good-enough sensor. However, given how popular the iPad is for video chat, a FaceTime HD camera makes a lot of sense.

Last but not least, Horowitz says that while the iPad 2 will stick around next-generation, its price will drop to $399, not the $299 we’d previously heard rumored. Again, that seems a lot more in-keeping with Apple’s M.O. of having only $100 separate the price of the various models in the iPhone family.

[via 9to5Mac]

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