It was no surprise that Apple would announce new iPads and iPad minis at the Apple Special Event in San Francisco, but few knew it would be called the “iPad Air”. The iPad Air is as its namesake, a thinner, lighter iPad, still sporting a 9.7-inch Retina Display and packing the latest 64-bit Apple A7 processor.
The iPad Air is 20% thinner at 7.5mm thick, and weighs just 469g (Wi-Fi), 28% lighter than the previous generation iPad.
The 9.7-inch IPS LCD is the highly-touted Retina Display (2048×1536 @ 264PPI).
Apple has packed most of the underpinning hardware in the new iPhone 5s into the iPad Air. This includes the 64-bit A7 processor and M7 motion coprocessor. Apple claims the A7 gives 8x faster processing and 72x better graphics than the old.
Disappointingly, iPad Air only comes with a 5MP iSight main camera and a FaceTime HD front-facing camera.
The iPad Air battery will last up to 10 hours.
The iPad Air comes in silver, white, space gray and black options. Prices start at US$499 (approx. RM1,749) and will start shipping in dozens of countries on 1 November 2013.
The LTE-enabled iPad Air will ship at US$629 (approx. RM2,199).
Strangely, Apple is retaining the iPad 2 in the line-up for US$399 (means mine still holds some value. For sale, anyone?).
All new iPads will come with iOS 7.
New iPad Air, what say you?
