Enlarge / The iPad Pro, Smart Keyboard, and Apple Pencil. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

For some time now, the ever-churning Apple rumor mill has been telling us to expect some kind of hardware event in the spring. And as the spring draws nearer, reports about both the timing and the content of that spring event are going to get more accurate. The latest news to that end comes from the Japanese site Mac Otakara (via MacRumors), one of the more reliable sources for early news about this sort of thing.

Mac Otakara reports that Apple will be having a hardware event in March with the iPad acting as the star of the show. The tablet lineup is said to be getting a top-to-bottom refresh—there will reportedly be new tablets at the current 7.9, 9.7, and 12.9-inch screen sizes, as well as a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro that combines the approximate size of the 9.7-inch version with the screen resolution of the 12.9-inch version.

The new “mini” version of the iPad Pro will reportedly have a Smart Connector, four speakers, a True Tone display, and a 12MP rear camera with an LED flash just like the current 9.7-inch version; it’s also safe to assume Apple Pencil support, though the report doesn’t mention it specifically. The improved camera and True Tone display feature will presumably also make their way to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which shipped without those features (and without the DCI-P3 “wide color” display panel that the 9.7-inch Pro uses). The 10.5-inch model, which could ship later than the rest of them, is said to use a much thinner display bezel to make more room for the screen without increasing the tablet’s overall size.