The rumor mill has been churning all sorts of speculations around Apple's lauded iPad lineup for a long time and it looks like one of the speculations has even proved to be true.

Apple has ousted the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 2 in favor of a new entry-level iPad. This coincides with predictions made by Apple industry watchers.

Dubbed simply as iPad 9.7-Inch, this new iPad is a major deviation from usual for Apple since it is not actually a heritor of the iPad Air 2. Moreover, taking features as the frame of reference, the new tablet is merely a kitbash of various Apple products.

On the brighter side, the iPad 9.7-Inch comes bearing an economical price tag of $329 (US). In fact, this is the lowest the Cupertino tech titan has ever priced an iPad with a 9.7-inch display. It's worth noting that Apple has not sold this size under $399 until now. Thus, the new 9.7-inch iPad is expected to stir things up in the fading tablets segment, according to AnandTech.

iPad 9.7-Inch Specifications

The new 9.7-inch tablet boasts an LED-backlit IPS Retina display with 2048x1536 pixel resolution making up for a pixel density of 264 PPI (pixel per inch). This is protected by a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.

The new iPad packs Apple's A9 chip (640bit), which debuted in iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Furthermore, the device will have over 1.3 million apps designed exclusively for the A9 chip, according to a press release for the new 9.7-inch iPad.

On the photography front, the 9.7-inch iPad features an 8MP camera equipped with f/2.4 aperture, panorama, HDR and a slew of other controls including tap to focus, exposure control, and burst mode to name a few. The new tablet's camera can record 1080p video at 30fps (frames per second) as well as slow motion video at 120fps. The device features a 1.2MP front snapper capable of recording videos up to 720p resolution.

In terms of connectivity, both the WiFi and the LTE models of the new tablet support Wi‑Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) along with Bluetooth 4.2. The WiFi + LTE, on the other hand, support all leading LTE bands, Apple SIM (Nano) and Data calling.

As far as dimensions are concerned, the 9.7-inch iPad is 9.4 x 6.6 x 0.29 mm and weighs in at 469g for Wi-Fi model and 478g for the WiFi and LTE model. Details regarding the device's battery capacity are scarce; however, Apple claims with a single charge cycle, the device's battery would last up to 10 hours.

The 9.7-inch iPad runs on Apple's latest iOS 10 and features a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Watch this space for more Apple iPad 2017 news and updates.