Unlikely photos of claimed ‘12.9-inch iPad Pro 2’ prototype doing the rounds

We’ve been sent a couple of photos of what are claimed to be from a 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2 under development by Apple. The pair of photos, said to be from a Chinese supply-chain source, just show the settings screen.

One immediate red-flag is that the storage capacity is shown as just 12GB. While AI, which was also sent the photos, suggests that this could be just sufficient to test a prototype devices, the idea makes little sense …

Why would Apple fit a flash storage chip capacity that would never be used in any version of the production model? What would be the benefit?

The device identifier is consistent with Apple’s numbering conventions, but that too means nothing: if you were going to fake a device, you’d of course make it look consistent with existing devices.

Apple will of course be working on a next-generation model of its largest iPad, but there is nothing here to suggest that this is the real thing – and the photos in any case reveal nothing about the alleged device. We’re only even mentioning it because the photos are being presented as something significant when, really, they’re not.

Apple has been working on boosting the usefulness of the larger screen on the 12.9-inch model, iOS 10 adding a three-pane view for both Mail and Notes. We’re also seeing more accessories for the device, including TwelveSouth’s BookBook case ($100) and a Razer mechanical keyboard ($170).