Apple has launched its latest fifth-generation iPad Air at the company’s official Peek Performance event, held on Tuesday. The newly debuted iPad Air houses Apple’s M1 chipset at the helm, with support for 5G connectivity and an array of additional colors. It also has a USB-C port and a 12MP ultrawide front camera for video calls.
While there are visible design similarities between the new iPad Air and the previously launched iPad Pro, the latter comes equipped with a faster M1 processor, formerly seen in Apple’s MacBooks. It also supports 5G, with the USB-C port up to twice as fast with 10Gbps of data transfer speeds.
Design & Display
In terms of display, the screen is still a 10.9″ Liquid Retina display with 500 nits of brightness and 2360 x 1640 resolution, TrueTone and HDR support, as well as an anti-reflective coating. Additionally, the device has landscape stereo speakers and a Touch ID built right into the power button for biometrics.
Note that iPad Air 5 offers a 60Hz refresh rate vs a smoother 120Hz on the iPad Pro.
This latest tablet comes with 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.
Storage & Hardware
Under the hood, the new iPad Air houses the company’s own M1 chipset, which allows it to match the iPad Pro in terms of performance.
Like its predecessor, the new iPad Air is compatible with the Apple Pencil, which magnetically attaches to its side, as well as the Magic Keyboard. Additionally, it’s also compatible with the Smart Keyboard Folio and Smart Folio covers.
On the software front, iPad Air 5 boots iPadOS 15.4 preinstalled. Owing to the Universal Control feature it comes with, the user will be able to work with a single mouse and keyboard across multiple Macs and iPads in a seamless fashion, with no additional setup required.
Cameras
For photography, iPad Air includes a 12MP ultrawide front camera with Apple’s Center Stage feature, which is designed to automatically keep you in the frame during video calls and notices when others join in, smoothly zooming out to include them too. All iPads now include this feature.
On the back, there’s a 12MP camera, similar to the one found in the previous-gen iPad Air.
Availability
The new iPad Air comes in Space Gray, Starlight, pink, purple, and a stunning new blue. It will start at $599 for 64GB of storage, although a 256GB model will be offered too. The new iPad Air will be available for pre-order in 29 countries starting this Friday, and will officially be released on March 18th. The Wi-Fi+5G model starts at $749.
