MacRumors points out a new report from RepairLabs claiming that they’ve received photos of the rear panel from an iPad 3, which apparently has a number of interesting differences compared to the current iPad 2, such as a slightly narrower logic board that could allow for a larger battery.
The list of differences is as follows (iPad 2 pictured left, iPad 3 pictured right):
A. You can see here that the mounts for the logic board are very different, which means the logic board shape will be different allowing for . . . .
B. More battery. The width of where the logic board sits on the iPad 2 appears much larger than that of the iPad 3. We have long heard that the iPad 3 was going to provide longer battery life, and this back housing seems to support that.
C. The camera is different. It is hard to make a judgment just by looking at the casing, but what we can expect is a different camera on the iPad 3 than what we had on the 2.
D. LCD will be different than what we have had before. Whether or not it will be the super screen we have seen reported will have to wait. But the different mounting does mean that the LCD has been redesigned at the very least.
Also noted in the report is that the casing doesn’t seem to be any thicker than that of the iPad 2, countering prior claims that it would be slightly thicker due to the backlighting required for a Retina display.
It’s hard to say whether or not this casing could be authentic, but the changes do seem likely, and seem to mesh with many of the rumors that have circulated about the iPad 3. Other rumored features of the iPad 3 are a quad-core A6 processor, improved cameras, and more, all of which we have noted and contrasted in our iPad 3 rumor roundup.
