Apple today announced the successor to the most popular iPad model, the iPad Air. The new iPad Air comes with an ultra-thin (6.1mm) 10.5-inch design and weighs just 1 point. It also now supports Apple Pencil, but sadly no support for 2nd gen Apple Pencil. Apple has included the latest A12 Bionic chip with Apple’s Neural Engine to offer improved performance and twice the graphics. You will have a 8-megapixel rear camera and 7-megapixel front camera. The new iPad Air will offer up to 10 hours of battery life. The iPad Air will also support Apple Smart Keyboard. The new iPad Air comes in silver, space gray and gold finishes in 64GB and 256GB configurations. The 10.5-inch iPad Air starts at $499 for the Wi-Fi model and $629 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The new iPad Air is available to order starting today in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, UK and US. Starting next week, the new iPad Air will be available in those countries and regions, as well as in China (Wi-Fi models only), Macau (Wi-Fi models only) and Mexico with more countries and regions to follow soon, including Colombia, Greece, India, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand (Wi-Fi models only) and Turkey. Source: Apple<doc-sep>Apple's getting rather good at recycling and re-issuing its top products, isn't it? The new iPad Air has launched, with the tagline 'Power isn't just for the pros'. Another line could be 'Power ripped from the Pros'... as the new iPad Air is almost identical to the iPad Pro 10.5, the device launched in 2017, but updated with a couple of internal tweaks and an all-new name - while removing nearly all reference to the iPad Pro 10.5 from its site. Crucially, it's been given a huge price drop as well - meaning Apple has essentially just slashed the price of one of its Pro models and found a way to make it a 'headline' iPad sale for the next couple of years at least. It's an interesting move, and shows the shift in how Apple is approaching the creation of new products. Let's take a quick look at what's actually the same here though. The chassis, screen and Smart Connector are all identical. The Touch ID sensor is there, the Pencil support is for the older model (not the wirelessly charging one), the Lightning connector remains and the stereo speakers are the same. There are a few differences though: the camera on the older iPad Pro 10.5 is 12MP with an f/1.8 aperture, where the new Air is just 8MP with f/2.4, as the 'non-pro' users wouldn't need it as much presumably. Image 1 of 2 The new iPad Air (image credit: Apple) (Image credit: Apple) Image 2 of 2 The iPad Pro 10.5 (image credit: TechRadar) The weight is a touch lighter on the iPad Air (we're talking a few grams), the screen possibly doesn't support 120Hz refresh on the newer model, and battery capacity is slightly lower. That latter spec won't be noticeable though, as Apple has packed in the far more powerful and efficient A12 chipset, over the A10X Fusion seen in the iPad Pro 10.5, so the 10-hour battery life is apparently preserved. That's key: the new iPad is around 33% cheaper but is far more powerful. In just using the same manufacturing techniques it's developed already, the cost of production is reduced and means less wastage too, as it can maintain many of the same parts. In an era where the 'big new thing' is often massively different for the sake of it, having something that just rebadges the older tech and boosts it where needed is a neat move - both from a cost perspective and environmentally. By shifting the 'Pro' moniker from the iPad Air, it also makes it feel more accessible - the distance between the base-level iPad and the next most-powerful model has closed significantly and could incite more people to spend a little more, especially as there's now the option of the Smart Keyboard too. The quiet shift However, it's worth remembering the overall cost of this iPad is still a fair bit higher than the $499 / £479 / AU$779 base price if you want to kit it out with all the accessories. The Smart Keyboard is an extra $159 / £159 / AU$235, and the Pencil an extra $99 / £89 / AU$145. It's, of course, entirely up to you if you want to go for these options, and if you're just after a spot of extra power then it's your choice on whether you want to spend a little more cash. It feels a little bit tired to draw on this trope though: like most things Apple, you can spin the line of 'it's too expensive!' when you write about the headline price. The whole point of Apple's multi-choice line up is that you pick the flavor you want / need. The new iPad Air lacks the 512GB option, but that was always an expensive, but useful, option for those wanting to use the Pro 10.5 in a professional capacity. With the question of whether you go for the basic iPad from last year or the new iPad Air, you're also getting a lot more screen and (possibly, as we've not had this confirmed) the powerful four speakers that bring an extra dimension to multimedia playback. The larger, more powerful iPad Pro range still exists for those that want to be all professional in their tablet-ing. (Image credit: TechRadar) The iPad Air is Apple's statement that the needs of the 'pro' have moved on, and the spec list it was offering with the Pro 10.5 simply wasn't enough - although still would be desirable for some consumers, so it shaved off a few small specs that the more casual user wouldn't use (because if the iPad is your main weekend camera, you've got a problem) and brought the price down. It's also kept the Lightning connector, as well as the 3.5mm headphone jack... the loss of both of these on the new iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 is one of the most irritating parts of the tablet, and would be sorely missed by the non-pro users. So with the iPad Air, you're now getting almost everything the impressive iPad Pro 10.5 offered for a lot less - and if you need the raw power as well as a top-end screen then the higher-end iPad Pro range still exists for you to sample. However, there were very few rumors that pegged these new iPads to launch today, so spare a thought for anyone that spent hundreds more on a Pro 10.5 in the last month... they're going to be using that superior camera as hard as they can.<doc-sep>Android tablets being crummy and Microsoft ones being dismembered laptops, it's nice that Apple's unexpectedly announced new models of its aging iPad Mini and iPad Air. The 10.5" iPad Air weighs one pound and starts at $499, while the 7.9" iPad Mini has pencil support, an ultra-high DPI and starts at $399. Both use Apple's latest A12 chips and have optional LTE. The new Air effectively replaces last-gen iPads with something a little smaller and much more powerful, while the Mini should be especially interesting to artists and designers who don't want to hoik around a ~$800+ iPad Pro just to get dirty. From the press release it appears to be the last-gen pencil with the standard 60hz refresh rate, but even then the latency is in a league of its own.<doc-sep>
Apple is bringing back the iPad Air today with a bigger model. Alongside a new iPad mini, Apple is launching a 10.5-inch version of the iPad Air with support for the original Apple Pencil (not the modern second-generation Apple Pencil). This new model will be powered by Apple’s A12 Bionic chip, and it will slot into the iPad lineup between the larger iPad and iPad Pro models. Apple is making the iPad Air available starting at $499 for the Wi-Fi model and $629 for the Wi-Fi and cellular version. Apple originally replaced its iPad Air 2 with a device simply called the iPad nearly two years ago, but the company has bumped the screen size from 9.7 inches to 10.5 inches for this new model. The move to support the older generation of Apple Pencil ($99) seems particularly odd, but it does mean every iPad that Apple now sells includes stylus support. Apple’s updated iPad Air will also support the company’s Smart Keyboard, which is available separately for $159. Apple’s new iPad Air fits in between the iPad and iPad Pro Apple hasn’t picked its latest A12X processor for the iPad Air that it uses in the iPad Pro, but it will instead use the A12. Apple is positioning this as bringing “more of our most powerful technologies to more people than ever” by offering a bigger iPad that’s not quite at the “Pro” level but still more powerful than the smaller 9.7-inch iPad. This iPad Air also has a similar design and display bezels to the smaller iPad, rather than the narrow bezels found on Apple’s latest iPad Pro. Apple is also using its Lightning connector and Touch ID system for the iPad Air instead of the USB-C port or Face ID like the iPad Pro models have. Apple’s new 10.5-inch iPad Air will be available to order online today from $499, and it will be in stores next week.