Apple just announced iPad Air, the fifth in its line of (nearly) 10-inch tablets. Last year, Apple's big-boy got a perfunctory upgrade, but this year the iPad's getting a new super skinny design—and a new name—with batch of significant improvements that'll carry it through the next year.
The rumors
about an iPad redesign were true, but it's even slicker than we thought.
The iPad Air features the first really significant update to the
tablet's hardware since the iPad 3, which added a retina display and an
increase in heft due to a hulking battery.
At 7.5mm thick, the iPad Air is 20 percent thinner than its 9.5mm predecessor, with a flat-backed design resembling the iPad mini.
Very handsome. It's also way lighter, just one pound, compared to 1.44
pounds before. Apple says it's the lightest full-size tablet in the
world. That should help it stand out from the pack. Early accounts suggest the new tablet is a delight.
GUTS
Inside, the iPad Air runs the burly new A7 system
chip the powers the iPhone 5s. According to Apple, the new chip doubles
the iPad Air's graphics and computational performance compared to the
4th gen model. Compared to the original, that's eight times faster CPU performance and 72 times faster graphics.
The new
chip, as we noted before, introduces support for 64-bit architecture.
Basically, Apple's future proofing its ecosystem for devices with more
than 4GB of RAM. Additionally, the CPU features an underlying
improvement in architecture (ARMv8 from ARMv7, if you must know), which
should greatly improve battery life.
The A7's new M7 Motion Coprocessor,
which manages inputs from the iPads built-in sensors. Although, we're
less sure what we'd use this extra power for given that you're less
likely to go for a run with iPad in tow.
And last
but not least, the iPad Air has Wi-Fi with MIMO that's two times faster
than before and dual built-in microphones that'll help improve the audio
quality.
Camera
The iPad
camera has always lagged behind the camera on the iPhone, and it won't
catch up with the iPad Air—not in resolution at least; it's still just 5
megapixels. The 1.2 megapixel 720p FaceTime camera has been upgraded to
a camera that can shoot in FullHD 1920 x 1080 resolution, though.
Battery Life
As we noted
before, the iPad 3 was big 'un because it needed a big battery to power
that beautiful retina display. Now that the iPad is a a skinny slate,
the concern would be that battery life might suffer if Apple used a
smaller battery. According to Phil Schiller the iPad Air will get 10
hours, just like before. Impressive.
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