Lets talk iPad. Apple has just revealed two new iPads. The Air and the standard iPad. Now, regarding the new iPad Air… can we just ignore Apple’s claim of the new iPad Air as the “most powerful iPad Air ever” because, isn’t it supposed to be the case with new products?
Anyways…. at a glance, you will immediately noticed that the new 2020 iPad Air has adopted a new design. Gone is the rounded edge design and in is the iPad Pro-style blocky design. I kind of dig the new look.
With the new blocky design comes a new (almost) all-screen design featuring a larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, a new 12 MP rear-facing camera capable of 4K videoing, next-generation integrated Touch ID sensor, and a powerful A14 Bionic chip.
Around the front, there is a 7 MP front-facing FaceTime HD camera and it further boosts stereo speakers in landscape mode for a more immersive audio experience when watching video.
Did we mention that it now has a USB-C port? Yep. It sure does and I like that too. And then there’s Wi-Fi 6 and of course, iPadOS 14 to complete your iPad experience.
The new iPad Air will arrive next month with a starting price of US$599 and US$729 for the Wi-Fi and WiFi + Cellular models, respectively.
Next up is the bread-and-butter of Apple’s tablet business, the 8th-generation iPad. Like the Apple Watch Series 6 we seen earlier, Apple has chose not to update the aesthetic. Rightly so because, why would drop any more resources than necessary for a non-premium tablet (by Apple’s standard)?
That said, there’s nothing particularly remarkable under the hood, but I guess an A12 Bionic chip with Neural Engine – the first for an iPad – will do the job just fine (maybe?).
We noted that Apple has gone back to Steve Job’s era of comparing its hardware against its competitions. In this case, Apple said that its A12 is up to 2X faster than the top-selling Windows laptop, up to 3X faster than the top-selling Android tablet and up to a whopping 6X faster than the top-selling Chromebook. TBH, I have no doubt about it. The secret sauce in its architecture. Anyways, that a story for another day.
With the new iPad, it is also imbued with the goodness of the latest iPadOS 14. The new iPad (8th generation) can be ordered as we speak and it is expected to go on sale beginning September 18, with a starting price of US$329 (or US$459 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model).
All images courtesy of Apple, Inc..
