Whispers surrounding Apple's next iPad have been viral for some time now, despite the fact that the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 just came out. Rumor mills won't stop churning even for the holidays, so we've decided to take a peek at how the dubbed iPad Air Plus fares against the iPad Air 2 -- and interestingly, the results we found are more than surprising.

First, the iPad Air Plus has been suggested to launch early next year, according to reports cited by the Daily Mail. The outlet mentioned a particular report which claimed that the Cupertino giant had to push the device's mass production from December 2014, following suppliers' struggle to catch up with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus demands.

Note that the Apple Watch reportedly arrives early in 2015 -- which could mean a simultaneous event for the debut of the iPad Air Plus. International Business Times reported that the device's first set could ship between the months of April and June.

Design & Display

The iPad Air Plus could pack a 12.2-inch LCD display, wrote MacRumors. The source cited schematics coming from Japanese magazine Mac Fan, revealing that the device may come in dimensions of 305.31mm x 220.8mm x 7mm.

On the other hand, the iPad Air 2 features a 9.7-inch Retina Display, running a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. Weighing 437 g, the tablet comes in dimensions of 240 mm x 169.5 mm x 6.1 mm.

Processor

As we have previously noted, the iPad Air Plus allegedly runs an A9 processor. At present, we know that the iPad Air 2 packs an A8X chip and M8 motion coprocessor, so the former appears to be in advantage over this spec.

Photography & Touch ID

Citing information from Japanese website Macotakara, TechRadar said the iPad Air Plus might feature an iSight camera, Touch ID sensor and Lightning connector.

The iPad Air 2 houses an 8 MP iSight camera, armed with auto-focus, five-element lens, improved face detection, panorama (up to 43 MP) and exposure control, among other features. The device makes use of Touch ID as well.

Speakers

BGR also took note of the leak which claimed that iPad Air Plus builds four speakers on each edge of its case -- permitting sounds from all sides. The iPad Air 2 owns two built-in speakers on the side of its Home / Touch ID sensor, Lightning connector in between.

Operating System

Also from our last report, the iPad Air Plus has been suggested to run iOS 8, which is probably the straight similarity the device will be sharing with iPad Air 2. But we can't just forget about iOS 9, rumored to launch at the next Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) -- allegedly happening in the week of June 8, 2015, said iMore.

In the meantime, see DetroitBORG's review of the iPad Air 2 below.