Apple Store was temporarily pulled down this morning with the message “Be Right Back,” which hinted at a possible launch of hardware. Now, the Store is back, and the company has announced a new iPad Air and iPad Mini just a week before its big event, where Apple is expected to showcase its original content service.
Let’s check out what’s new in the two recently announced iPads —
iPad Mini With Apple Pencil Support
New iPad Mini, while retaining the 7.9-inches display, has been refreshed with A12 Bionic chip which is found in iPhone XS and XR. The company has claimed that the iPad Mini now delivers “three times the performance and nine times faster graphics.” True Tone technology has been added to the Retina Display, and the new iPad Mini has the highest pixel density of any iPad.
The latest iPad Mini now supports the First Generation Apple Pencil.
The iPad Mini starts at $399 for the Wi-Fi model and $529 for Wi-Fi+cellular model. For sketching and jotting down thoughts on the go, you need to purchase the First Generation Apple Pencil for an additional $99.
New iPad Air With 70% Performance Boost
The iPad Air has a 10.5-inches display and features a thinner design. Not much has been changed in the design as it still has the Touch ID home button, lightning port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple has bumped the specs by adding A12 Bionic chip which is touted to bring 70% performance boost and twice the graphics capabilities. The new iPad Air comes with a fully-laminated True Tone display having 2224×1668 resolution.
Apple has also added Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support in the new iPad Air. The company is selling the Smart Keyboard for an additional $159.
The iPad Air (64GB) can be purchased for $499 from the Apple Store.
By quietly releasing new iPads, Apple has hinted that its event scheduled for March 25th will focus on services and not on hardware.
