At the Apples (virtual) hardware event today, the company announced a significantly redesigned iPad Air with a new look and tiny frame. In an important move for other Apple products, Touch ID has returned – within the power button on top of the tablet.
For the 10th anniversary of the iPad, the new fourth generation Air is the biggest change to the device in some time. “This is a big year for the iPad,” said CEO Tim Cook before introducing changes to the non-pro tablets in the lineup. “And today we’re excited to introduce a brand new, completely redesigned iPad Air.”
The biggest change has to be the next generation Touch ID sensor integrated in the power switch. Time will tell if this is really more convenient than the Home button, but it’s now clear that Apple has found that the demand for the fingerprint-based unlock method has not waned.
Credit: Apple
Could the new Touch ID power button show up on the iPhone 12, or at least later on the iPad Pro? It’s likely that Face ID has become more reliable over time, but sometimes people just prefer the hands-on approach.
The look is new to the iPad Air series but is mostly similar to the Pro, with flat sides, rounded corners on the screen, and a distinctive camera bump. There’s a ton of hot new colors out there too.
Credit: Apple
There is a new display with a resolution of 2360 × 1640, which is a bit higher than the previous generation. You probably won’t notice the difference if they’re not side by side, but Apple has always made sure its devices are among the highest quality displays, and the new Air is no exception.
The connection has been switched from Lightning to USB-C, like its big brother, the iPad Pro. On the one hand, you may have to throw away your cables … again … the new cables aren’t special Apple cables sprinkled with fairy dust, you can use $ 5 Monoprice instead.
There’s an improved front camera and the rear camera has the iPad Pro’s 4K-capable 12-megapixel shooter. But unfortunately no lidar. Speakers also get a boost, with stereo audio in landscape mode.
You can pick up the new iPad Air starting next month for $ 599 for the cheapest version (only Wi-Fi with the least amount of storage and the exact TBD amount). It can be difficult to justify the extra cash for the pro at this point.
The vanilla iPad, now in its eighth generation, has also received a computing power boost for the A12 chips, but no major design changes. With 500 million iPad devices sold, the traditional design has proven to be good. Get $ 329 back.
