At today's Apple event, the company announced the new retina iPad mini as many of us had expected, but even more notably, the new iPad Air.
iPad Air features a 9.7 inch Retina display while coming in at 20% thinner than the previous generation full size iPad and features a 43% thinner bezel. Weighing in at only 1 pound, it is the "lightest full size tablet in the world" Apple's Phil Schiller said at today's event.
It will house the 64 bit, A7 chip Apple just launched for the iPhone 5s, along with the M7 motion coprocessor. It doubles the graphics performance of the previous generation model, which Apple noted during the event as being 72x faster than the original iPad. It will also come with a 5MP camera that shoots HD video, an improved front facing FaceTime camera, Siri and dual microphones, all while maintaining the same 10 hour battery life as the previous model.
It will come in silver/white and black/space gray at $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $629 with cellular technology. The iPad Air will be available in a large number of countries including China on November 1st.
As many of us expected, Apple unveiled the 7.9 inch iPad mini with Retina display today as well. It will also run in 64 bit with Apple's A7 chip, while boasting 4x faster CPU performace and 8x faster graphics, according to Apple. Like the newly introduced iPad Air, the new retina mini will feature a 5MP camera, improved front facing FaceTime camera, 10 hours of battery life and a similiar expansion to its LTE support.
The iPad mini with Retina Display will start at $399 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model and $529 for the cellular version. There will also be a 128GB configuration for the first time, priced at $699 for the Wi-Fi model. The retina mini also comes in silver/white and black/space gray, but won't be available until late November.
Apple has sold 170 million iPads making it "one of the most successful products in Apple's history," said CEO Tim cook at today's event before inviting Phil Schiller to the stage to introduce the new iPad lineup.