Apple held a major press event on Tuesday where it unveiled its latest lineup of fall iPad tablet devices coming to users in time for the holiday season. The fifth generation iPad, now renamed the iPad Air, was the first to take the stage at the event followed closely by the Retina display enabled iPad mini 2.
Philip Schiller took to the stage to introduce the lightest full-sized tablet in the world at Apple's Oct. 22 event with the device weighing in at just 1 pound. The new iPad Air is 20 percent thinner across the entire device with a 40 percent smaller bezel around the outside. All of these design trimmings meant a new name for the iPad device - the iPad Air.
As expected the device comes with the same 64-bit A7 processing chip found in the iPhone 5S, which gives the device two times faster CPU and graphics performance, making it 72 times faster than the original iPad. This means opening files, rendering video and games and connecting to WiFi will all be twice as fast. In fact, the new device comes with mimo WiFi technology for the first time. This tech provides multiple antennas to enhance WiFi connectivity and performance.
In addition to the inner hardware, some immediately noticeable features include a 5MP iSight camera, 1080P HD video, a new FaceTime HD camera with larger pixels, dual microphones and improved backside illumination. Al of these features will be offered at no expense to the device's very popular 10-hour battery life.
The device will take a page out of the new iPhone 5S color book and be featured in silver, white and space gray, the gold "champagne" color will not be available on the iPad Air. It launches on Nov. 1 starting at $499. It's worth noting that, for the first time, China is on the list of countries the product will be debuting to on day one. Meanwhile, the full-sized iPad 2 will still be available for $399 for those who want to opt for a cheaper, albeit out of date, full-sized iPad model.
