iOS 12 Reveals 2018 iPad Pro Icon Hinting At Thin Bezels, No Notch

The fifth beta for iOS 12 was released this past week and it may have already confirmed the design of Apple’s 2018 iPad Pro. Developers have discovered what appears to be the icon of the new iPad Pro and it looks like it will have very slim bezels.

The icon for the new iPad Pro was first spotted by 9To5Mac. The icon shows a tablet with very thin bezels and the device doesn’t have a notch on top of its display like the iPhone X. The icon also depicts the tablet as having no physical home button up front, which is a design that’s been highly rumored for the new 2018 iPad Pro models for some time now.

9To5Mac says that the icon is part of the user interface of a device’s battery usage. The icon is also named specifically as “iPad” and it is new in the iOS 12 beta 5. There are currently no references in the system yet, which suggests that this icon is strongly related to a future product and not one of Apple’s existing devices.

This isn’t the first time evidence has popped up in one of Apple’s new software. Last year, an icon for the iPhone X was discovered buried deep within the first build of the HomePod’s firmware. The firmware also hinted at Apple’s Face ID facial recognition feature in the BiometricKit, the framework that makes Touch ID work.

The new icon discovered in the iOS 12 beta 5 is now being taken as a confirmation that Apple will be releasing new models for the iPad Pro later this year. Previous rumors claim that the 2018 iPad Pro will have support for Face ID. If that’s truly the case, then it’s also safe to assume that the new models will have the iPhone X’s True Depth camera module on the top bezel.

Developer Guilherme Rambo discovered last week that Apple is preparing Face ID to work in horizontal orientation. This heavily suggests that the feature will be available on the new iPad Pro models since iPads are commonly used in that orientation.

Last month, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Apple will introduce new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models this year. The screen sizes are new since the current iPad Pro lineup is only available in 9.7-inch and 10.5-inch. It’s likely that Apple made the screen sizes larger by slimming down the bezels.

There’s no word yet on when exactly the 2018 iPad Pro will be released, but it’s being speculated that it might make its first official appearance during Apple’s iPhone event this September.