During its October event, Apple announced the new refreshes to the iPad lineup: the iPad Air and the new iPad Mini.
Starting with the iPad Air, Apple slapped it with the “Air” moniker since it now weighs 1 pound, compared to the previous generation iPad, which weighed 1.4 pounds. The iPad Air also got thinner, now at 7.5 millimeters versus the previous generation’s 9.4 millimeter thinness. It contains the A7 chip found in the iPhone 5S, which adds support for 64-bit applications. The iPad Air has a 5-megapixel iSight rear camera and a FaceTime HD front-facing camera, while also packing 10 hours of battery life. The iPad Air goes on sale November 1st, with the 16GB Wi-Fi model retailing for $499.
The iPad Mini, meanwhile, received a major upgrade in the form of its screen – packing a 2048 x 1536 7.9-inch Retina display, the same display found on the iPad Air. It, too, contains the A7 processor and the M7 co-processor, while also packing a 5-megapixel iSight rear camera and a FaceTime HD front-facing camera. It will be available “later in November,” with the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model going for $399 and the base LTE model going for $529. If you have a limited data plan, you may should use Wi-Fi instead of LTE whenever possible to save on data usage.
Not everyone needs a Retina display, though, which is why Apple decided to lower the price of the 1st-generation iPad Mini, from $339 to $299. Strangely enough, the iPad 2 is still sticking around at that same $399 price point.