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Apple just announced its latest offering, the iPad Air. And while the new tablet may not come in gold or have a fingerprint sensor, its superpower lies in its near negligible weight.
While Apple’s tablet got its annual upgrade last year, it was nothing compared to the near complete re-haul that is the iPad Air. The iPad is now super skinny, with a batch of significant improvements that'll carry it through the next year. Here's what you need to know.
Design
Design has always been Apple’s forte and this latest offering doesn’t fall short. At first glance, there isn’t too much different about the Air. There's a brushed metal backing, a power switch and volume buttons on one side and that lighting port and speaker grilles on the bottom. A new addition comes in the form of the new dual-mics at the top.
The Air is about 20% thinner than its predecessor but the most noticeable difference is the weight. As its name implies, the iPad Air is impressively light, clocking in at only about one pound (as compared to the previous 1.4).
Naturally, iOS 7 looks great on that Retina display. And with a new A7 processor chip, apps and the like all boot up in an instant.
The Inside
Inside, the iPad Air runs a new A7 system chip. For reference, this is the same 64-bit chip populating the iPhone 5S. According to Apple, the new chip means that, when compared to the original, the Air offers eight times faster CPU performance and 72 times faster graphics.
The new chip also introduces support for 64-bit architecture. Additionally, the CPU features an underlying improvement in architecture.
So what’s the takeaway here? The Air is noticeably faster and, despite the major cuts in width and weight, boasts the same 10 hours of battery life as before.
Last but not least, the iPad Air has Wi-Fi with MIMO that's twice as fast as before and those dual built-in microphones we mentioned earlier that will help improve audio quality.
Camera
The iPad, even in this new light avatar, is nevertheless unwieldy when it comes to taking photographs.
The Air’s camera is still the same 5 megapixels. However, the 1.2 megapixel 720p FaceTime camera has been upgraded to a camera that can shoot in Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution.
On the software front, free and redesigned versions of core Apple apps, iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, GarageBand etc., have been reworked for iOS 7 and the iPad. Apple also announced that the software updates it releases on a regular cycle will now be free.
The Air is set to be released in a number of countries starting November 1 and will be available in space gray and black, and silver and white. Prices start at $499 (that’s about 30613 rupees at the current exchange rate) for a 16GB Wi-Fi version, with the cellular model coming in at $629 (about 38589 rupees).
