During Apple’s online event, the Cupertino tech giant, Apple launched its new iPad Air (5th Gen) and brings identical specs and features compared to the iPad Pro, the same screen display, placement of Touch ID, but the chipset has been improved.
In comparison to both the cheap iPad and the expensive iPad Pro models, the new Apple’s mid-end tablet, iPad Air (5th Gen) fits nicely in-between tho. Instead of the 4G in the predecessor, the latter brings the 5G option.
On the front is the same 10.9-inch 2360×1640 pixels Retina True Tone display with P3 Color Gamut, 500 nits brightness, 264 PPI, an anti-reflective coating, and the iconic Touch ID is built into the home button.
The company mentioned that the iPad Air (5th Gen) tablet has a 100% recycled aluminum enclosure, 100% recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board, and 100% recycled rare earth elements in the enclosure and audio magnets.
It comes in “a stunning new blue” and four other colors – Space Gray, Starlight, pink, and purple. It is 6.1mm thick, Wi-Fi/5G options weigh 461g/462g respectively. It features stereo speakers in landscape mode and Dual microphones for calls.
However, one of the major highlights of the iPad Air (5th Gen) is Apple’s M1 chip 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores, bringing 4 efficiency cores, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. Aligning the performance to the same level with the iPad Pro.
As always, Apple also introduced an optional 5G support (with eSIM), and the base model is Wi-Fi-only as usual. There’s supports Apple Pencil (2nd generation), Magic Keyboard, Smart Keyboard Folio, and the Smart Folio covers. These come in black, white, Electric Orange, Dark Cherry, English Lavender, and Marine Blue.
The connectivity options include the 5G, Wi-Fi 6, which supports Bluetooth 5.0, with built‑in GPS/GNSS, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 with transfer up to 10Gbps. It runs iPad OS 15 and comes in two memory configurations – 64GB, and 256GB variants.
The new iPad Air brings a 12-megapixels front-facing Ultra-Wide TrueDepth camera with Center Stage that automatically pans to keep users in view as they move around. This camera feature is now available on all iPad tablets.
It also comes with a 12-megapixels rear camera, it’s an f/1.8 sensor with a 5P lens, and Smart HDR 3. It comes with the Universal Control feature that allows it to work with a single mouse and keyboard across multiple Macs and iPads in a seamless fashion.
The Universal Control feature can easily work with no setup required, and you can even drag and drop content back and forth between devices. The Apple iPad Air (5th Gen) packs a 28.6-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery.
Apple mentioned that the new iPad Air (5th Gen) supports up to 10 hours or 9 hours of surfing the web, alongside watching a video or listening to music on either the Wi-Fi or 5G respectively.
Apple iPad Air (5th Gen) Pricing
The Apple iPad Air (5th Gen) starts at $599 for the 64GB model, and more for the bigger 256GB storage. The Wi-Fi + 5G model starts at $749. There’s $129 2nd gen Apple Pencil, $299 Magic Keyboard, the $179 Smart Keyboard Folio, and the $79 Smart Folio covers.
During the online event, Apple also mentioned that the new iPad Air will be up for pre-order in 29 countries and regions this Friday, March 11th, and will be released officially on March 18.