Apple drops Lightning and home button from the base iPad, announces M2 iPad Pro

• The new base iPad in silver. [credit: Apple ]

Today, Apple surprise-announced several new products without much fanfare beyond a store page update and a press release, and three of them are iPads: two new iPad Pro models and a redesigned entry-level iPad.

Since the iPad Pro is mainly getting a spec bump, the big story today is the redesigned base iPad. Apple's entry-level iPad has maintained the same basic, home-button-equipped design for years, but that changes today.

The redesigned iPad has a 10.9-inch, 2360×1640-pixel LCD display that maxes out at 500 nits of brightness. Like the iPad Air and iPad Pro, it lacks a home button, as the screen extends somewhat close to the edges of the device on all sides. Touch ID is now housed in the top button on the edge of the tablet.