Apple to Begin Producing Significantly Lighter Fifth Generation iPad Model

Apple is said to be finalizing the design of its 5th generation 9.7-inch iPad tablet and will begin trial production within the coming weeks, if not days. Assuming all goes well with the trial run, Apple's manufacturing partners will kick things into high gear and begin volume production in July, according to chatter bugs within Taiwan's supply chain.

Digitimes has its finger on the pulse of Apple's iPad production and says that the next iteration will feature the same 2048x1536 Retina-class display as the 4th generation iPad. However, the 5th generation model is built on a glass substrate of 0.22mm, a little thinner than the 0.25mm glass substrate found on the current model.


The touch panel on the iPad 5 will consist of a single layer of glass and two layers of ITO film rather than the G/G bonding technique used on the iPad 4. It will have a narrower bezel, a single LED light bar for backlight chores versus the dual LED light bars used in the 4th generation iPad, and is expected to be anywhere from 25 percent to 33 percent lighter than its predecessor, which weighs 1.44 pounds (652 grams) for the Wi-Fi version and 1.46 pounds (662 grams) for the 4G LTE model.