Apple just quietly rolled out the 11th generation of its base iPad earlier this month. After a sprawling two-year hiatus following the major design overhaul of the 10th-generation model in the fall of 2022, the unveiling of the iPad (A16) brings a very familiar package.
If the previous release was a massive leap forward that finally gave the entry-level tablet a modern facelift, this latest iteration is strictly a maintenance update. The upgrades here are minimal enough to count on one hand. Still, being the “vanilla ice cream” of tablets isn’t exactly a flaw. The base iPad has consistently remained one of the best values in Apple’s hardware ecosystem, and the A16 model absolutely maintains that reputation. Buyers get double the base storage and a solid bump in processing power, all wrapped up in a tried-and-true chassis.
A Familiar Blueprint
If you blink, you might actually miss what has changed. The design language is identical to its predecessor, sporting the same all-aluminum body, flat edges, and uniform, somewhat thick bezels. It aligns perfectly with the industrial aesthetic of the current iPhone, iPad Pro, and Air lineups. While it sacrifices a bit of handheld ergonomics compared to the older, tapered designs of the past, the modernized look is still miles ahead of the ancient 9th-generation relic.
Hardware placement remains completely untouched. You will find the Touch ID sensor baked into the top power button, volume rockers on the right side, and a landscape-oriented FaceTime camera neatly tucked into the bezel—sparing us the eyesore of a display notch. Oddly enough, there are still only two actual speakers despite the tablet featuring four speaker grilles. One surprisingly nice aesthetic tweak, however, is the complete removal of the “iPad” text and regulatory labels from the back panel. It leaves a remarkably clean, minimalist slate. Color choices remain predictably playful, offering the exact same Silver, Blue, Pink, and Yellow options as before, which is a fun contrast to the painfully serious tones of the Pro lineup.
Display Compromises
The front of the device houses the exact same 10.9-inch IPS LCD Liquid Retina screen we saw in 2022. Pushing a resolution of 2360 x 1640 pixels at 264 ppi, the display already felt slightly behind the curve a couple of years ago. Today, its age is definitely showing.
You are still capped at a basic 60Hz refresh rate and a peak SDR brightness of 500 nits. This is perfectly fine for reading on the couch, but it struggles under direct sunlight. Unsurprisingly, there is no XDR support for HDR content, nor will you find the premium anti-reflective coatings or nano-texture glass reserved for higher-tier models.
The biggest compromise is that the display remains non-laminated. Because there is a physical air gap between the outer glass and the actual display panel beneath it, the screen feels a bit hollow. Tapping away with an Apple Pencil generates a noticeably loud, clacky sound that you simply do not get on a fully laminated iPad. That said, it is worth pointing out that this air gap makes the glass significantly cheaper to replace if you accidentally shatter it.
The Factory Fortress
You might wonder how thousands of these unreleased tablets go through months of rigorous quality assurance on the assembly line without their internal software leaking to the public. While hardware schematics often find their way onto the internet, glimpses of unreleased iOS interfaces or new app designs are incredibly rare.
Apple runs its manufacturing testing like a black-ops site. Any pre-release device running new software is physically locked down in a heavily shielded room. These secured zones feature a single entry point regulated by badge scanners and guarded by physical security personnel. Privacy screens are plastered everywhere to block wandering eyes from catching a glimpse of early iOS builds.
External contractors operating in these areas face an intense level of scrutiny. Beyond signing strict non-disclosure agreements, workers are patted down and banned from carrying smartphones, cameras, or any personal recording devices. High-resolution security cameras watch over the workstations and storage racks, funneling footage directly to segregated, heavily restricted internal servers.
Testing in the Dark
The digital lockdown is just as severe. The testing computers on the factory floor, typically standard Mac minis, are essentially lobotomized. Apple disables their Wi-Fi, shuts off email access, and physically blocks the USB ports. Furthermore, the network infrastructure in these testing rooms is entirely air-gapped from the broader corporate network.
To test components like the iPad’s Touch ID sensor or speakers without exposing the full operating system, workers use a specialized diagnostic software build known as “VendorUI.” This stripped-down version of the OS includes basic utilities but entirely removes applications containing sensitive, unannounced features.
Quality control staff rely on this heavily restricted software to ensure the hardware functions properly. They use the Animoji feature to calibrate facial recognition, and leverage basic apps like Compass and Notes to verify that motion sensors correctly rotate the display. Every single prototype is obsessively tracked by serial number, and wireless connectivity on the test units is either totally disabled or hardcoded to only access a handful of whitelisted diagnostic websites.