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Apple surprised everyone on Monday after the company took down the App Store briefly and launched two new devices. The company updated its iPad Air and also revived the Mini lineup by launching the iPad mini 5.
It was speculated that iPads would be launched during Apple’s ‘It’s Show Time’ event on March 25. There were quite a few rumours on the specifications and availability of the new tablets. Several experts and analysts had said that Apple has been working on the $329 entry-level iPad and its mini counterpart. However, only the latter was updated and released with the latest specs.
What is different on the iPad Air is the screen size. It sits right in between the budget 9.7-inch iPad and iPad Pro. The iPad Air features a 10.5-inch LED-backlit display with a resolution of 2224x1668 at 264 PPI. The True-tone display has thick bezels on all four sides. The iPad mini 5, on the other hand, has a smaller 7.9-inch LED-backlit, True-tone display with a resolution of 2048x1536 at 326 PPI.
As per previous reports based the iOS 12.2 beta code, the new iPads have TouchID, unlike FaceID on the Pro variants.
Apple has made sure that ‘Power isn’t just for the pros’. The iPad Air and Mini 5 both share the same processor that is found on the latest iPhone. Both are powered by the A12 Bionic chipset with a neural engine and an embedded M12 coprocessor for graphics support.
In terms of camera, both iPads get an 8MP f/2.4 rear camera with no flash. It is capable of shooting videos at 1080p and 720p slow-mo videos at 120fps. The front camera is a 7MP sensor for FaceTime and has Retina Flash for better lit selfies.
Apple did not mention the battery capacity on either iPad models but stated that both the iPads would function for 10 straight hours on a single charge. For connectivity, the new iPads still have the lightning port. They support Wi-Fi 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS and GLONASS and an optional LTE. The devices come in two variants — WiFi and WiFi + Cellular and three colours — Silver, Space Grey, and Gold. iPad mini 5 has support for Bluetooth keyboard whereas the Air supports Smart Keyboard as well. Both tablets are compatible with Apple Pencil Generation 1.
In India, the WiFi variant of iPad Air is priced at Rs 44,900 whereas the WiFi + Cellular variant is priced at Rs 55,900. The iPad mini 5 would be available at Rs 34,900 for the base WiFi model, and the WiFi + Cellular is at Rs 45,900. The new iPads have storage options of 64GB and 256GB. Apple Pencil and the smart keyboard would be sold separately at Rs 8,500 and Rs 13,900 respectively. Apple has not revealed the date of availability of the new iPads but are expected to be launched soon.
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