The new iPad Air
Apple unveiled a new iPad Air today that looks very similar to the company’s iPad Pro, a major design change from the current iPad Air, which was brought back to life last year to replace the iPad and iPad Pro.
Last year’s iPad Air had thick top and bottom bezels and a Touch ID button, but this new iPad Air has thinner bezels all around the screen.
Apple’s new iPad Air looks like a design update to the iPad Pro, and will be available next month for a starting price of $599.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VSll0WLZE
Apple is using a larger 10.9-inch (2360 x 1640) Liquid Retina display on this new iPad Air, which is fully coated with True Tone support and anti-reflective coating. Apple has moved the Touch ID fingerprint sensor to the power button at the top. This makes it the first iPad with biometrics built into the power button.
Inside the new iPad Air, Apple has made some big changes to the chips that power this tablet and it will be powered by the Apple-made A14 Bionic chip, a 5nm chip with a six-core CPU (two high and four low) and 11.8 billion transistors.
Apple is promising a 40 percent performance improvement over the last iPad Air and improved graphics support, thanks to a new quad-core GPU.
Apple said it’s the “most advanced chip” it’s ever made, and it also includes specific machine learning accelerators that apps can use. Apple displayed a variety of applications during its press event today, and promised that application developers will be able to benefit from the power of this new chip for their applications.
Apple has also switched to USB-C on the iPad Air, just like the iPad Pro, and it will support 20W charging and 5Gbps data transfer. Wi-Fi 6 is also included, and optional LTE models will be available, with Apple promising 60 percent faster LTE connectivity.
On the camera side, Apple borrows the 12-megapixel rear camera from the iPad Pro and upgrades it with improved over-the-air video stabilization. As for the 7-megapixel front camera, FaceTime HD, with smart HDR and support for 1080p 60fps video recording.
This iPad Air will also support the (new) $129 Apple Pencil, which attaches magnetically to the tablet. Apple’s $299 Magic Keyboard accessory will be included, making it more similar to the iPad Pro.
The new iPad Air will also support Apple’s $179 Smart Keyboard Folio and new $79 Smart Folio covers.
Apple has clearly updated the iPad Air to offer most of the features of the iPad Pro at a reasonable price.
The iPad Air still lacks the iPad Pro’s 120Hz high-refresh display and Face ID support.
Apple announced that the new iPad Air will be available next month in five colors: silver, space gray, rose gold, green, and sky blue, with a starting price of $599.
