Apple's M1-powered iPad Air boasts 60 percent faster CPU performance, up to 2x faster...

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Highly anticipated: Apple's latest marketing event kicked off today, and it's already led to a plethora of new product announcements. Revealed devices include an updated entry-level iPhone SE, a new Mac Studio workstation product, and -- of course --the all-new iPad Air. The latest tablet from Apple features improved data transfer speeds via USB-C, an improved camera, and better performance courtesy of its new M1 chip.

The newest iPad Air comes in five distinct colors: space grey, pink, purple, starlight, and even blue -- a color you don't commonly see in Apple products these days. In terms of size, the Air 5's Liquid Retina display still comes in at 10.9-inches, so there's no screen space upgrade this time around. If you want a bigger iPad, the M1-equipped Pro is your best bet.

As previously noted, the latest iPad Air has finally made the leap to the M1 era, like the MacBook before it. As such, Apple promises a 60 percent boost to CPU speeds and up to 2x faster graphics rendering for the Air; with both components containing 8 processing cores. Furthermore, machine learning workloads ought to benefit from the Air's new 16-core Neural Engine.

The new iPad Air's screen also boasts support for the DCI-P3 wide-gamut color space and Apple's True Tone color technology; an optional function that can alter your display's white balance in real-time based on ambient lighting conditions. Ideally, this should lead to a more vibrant and accurate image no matter what your environment is like.

Notably, if you decide to snag a cellular version of the iPad Air, you'll be pleased to hear that the latest model has 5G connectivity, as well as Wi-Fi 6 and eSIMs. For direct device-to-device connections, Apple promises USB-C port speeds "up to 2x" faster than the last-gen Air model, allowing for data transfers "up to 10Gbps."

For any shutterbugs and camera enthusiasts out there, Apple has included a 12MP front camera, capable of document scanning, 4K video capture, and Center Stage-powered video conferencing.

Pre-orders for the new iPad Air start at 5AM PST on March 11, with deliveries scheduled to begin a week later on March 18. The base iPad Air model will run you $599 and comes with standard Wi-Fi connectivity and 64GB of onboard storage. Upgrading the storage to 256GB increases the final cost to $749, and slapping on Cellular support boosts it further to $899.

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So what does this not have that the iPad Pro has then? I’m guessing no 120hz pro-motion and one less camera lens? At the prices advertised you may aswell just get the pro.
 
One of the very few good things about Apple is that they're very reliable at just re-using tech as a lower level tier fairly consistently: Like the look of the ipad pro but think it's too much money? wait 2 or 3 generations and it will be the new ipad air at significantly less money, if you wait even longer it will very likely be the regular 300 usd ipad model eventually.

It's still a bit expensive but the M1 and usb c makes this tablet almost worth considering.
 
One of the very few good things about Apple is that they're very reliable at just re-using tech as a lower level tier fairly consistently: Like the look of the ipad pro but think it's too much money? wait 2 or 3 generations and it will be the new ipad air at significantly less money, if you wait even longer it will very likely be the regular 300 usd ipad model eventually.

It's still a bit expensive but the M1 and usb c makes this tablet almost worth considering.
And if you wait 10 years , you get an even better deal, and dont even get me started on 20 years
 
And if you wait 10 years , you get an even better deal, and dont even get me started on 20 years

Point taken, but I don't need it - not sure about the future - Doesn't do anything I can't do at the moment - ( note - not a tablet gamer , or content creator ) - saying that most of us have tech lying around unused - food uneaten ( try no to do this - harder if buying for family ) , games unplayed etc
 
So what does this not have that the iPad Pro has then? I’m guessing no 120hz pro-motion and one less camera lens? At the prices advertised you may aswell just get the pro.

Does the air support the stylus pen? If so I'm very tempted. If not I'll wait for second hand iPad pro with the M1 chip.
 
The iPad ecosystem confuses me with iPad, iPad Airs and iPad Pros?

Do you need so many branded models?
 
It is nice, but as long as I can't run my own programs on it without spending extra money I will stay with android. Might get one if they ever decide to not do walled garden, but tbh they do not offer anything I couldn't get done on other tablets (for the workload I'm going through).
 
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