It’s Touch ID Biometrics for the New iPad

“…the iPad features a home button with a built-in Touch ID fingerprint sensor.”

Apple has brought its A12 Bionic chip to the iPad, but the device’s biometric capabilities remain more or less unchanged.

The new tablet device was announced in Apple’s big annual media event this week, alongside a new iPad Air and other device and software offerings.

Apple’s key pitch for the new, standard-issue iPad is the A12 Bionic chip and its Neural Engine. The processor technology was earlier seen in the iPhone Xs launched in 2018, which was notable for carrying forward the new Face ID 3D facial recognition system that debuted in the iPhone X in 2017.

Despite the chip’s presence in the new iPad, however, there is no Face ID system. Instead, the iPad features a home button with a built-in Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

That distinguishes the iPad from the new iPad Air that also launched this week, which ditches the home button in favor of a larger screen, and places the Touch ID system in the power button mounted on its top side. That device also lacks Face ID.

While Apple’s iPad Pro devices have so far been the only Apple tablets to feature Face ID, its continuing absence from the standard iPad may come as a surprise to many given the growing prominence of face-based authentication. Likewise, with so many of Apple’s rivals embracing under-display fingerprint scanning technology on their mobile devices, Apple’s placement of Touch ID in the new iPad’s home button may also be perceived as somewhat old-fashioned.

In any case, the device’s inclusion of the A12 Bionic chip could prove to be an enticing selling point for some consumers. Apple says that the chip delivers a 40 percent improvement in CPU performance compared to the previous generation iPad, as well as twice the graphics capability.

Meanwhile, as Apple noted in a press release announcing the new device, Touch ID makes unlocking the iPad “simple and secure”.

(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)