Apple updates iPad Air with M1 chip, 5G; calls it ultra-portable mobile studio

Along with the new iPhone SE, Apple has the iPad Air. Powered by the M1 Chip, it features a new front camera with Center Stage and will be 5G enabled. The new iPad Air will be available in Wi-Fi and WiFi + Cellular models in 64GB and 256GB configurations.

To be available in space grey, starlight, pink, purple, and blue finishes starting March 18,  the WiFi variant starts at Rs 54,900 and Wi-Fi + Cellular for Rs 68,900.
 
“Whether it’s a college student taking elaborate notes, a content creator working on their latest project, or a gamer playing graphics-intensive titles, users love iPad Air for its amazing performance and versatility in such a portable design,” says Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“With the breakthrough M1 chip, ultra-wide front camera with Center Stage, and ultra-fast 5G, iPad Air is now more powerful, more capable, and simply more fun than ever," he adds.
 
Featuring a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with 3.8 million pixels, it features advanced technologies including 500 nits of brightness, full lamination, a P3 wide colour gamut, True Tone, and an anti-reflective screen coating.

iPad Air houses landscape stereo speakers for wide stereo sound. Touch ID is built into its top button and it supports Apple Pencil (2nd generation) for sketching, taking notes and more. The Pencil supports wireless charging and pairing. Lastly, the iPad Air is compatible with Magic Keyboard with a floating design and built-in trackpad.

Apple says to deliver the massive leap in performance, the new Air is powered by the Apple-designed M1 chip. The 8-core CPU delivers up to 60 per cent faster performance, and the 8-core GPU delivers up to 2x faster graphics performance compared to the previous iPad Air.

It is combined with CPU and GPU, a 16-core Neural and should be able to edit multiple streams of 4K video, to playing graphics-intensive games, redesigning a room in 3D, and more realistic augmented reality (AR).

The iPad Air also gets the ultra-wide 12MP front camera with Center Stage that automatically pans to keep users in view as they move around during video calls.

And when more people join in, the camera detects them too, and smoothly zooms out to include them in the conversation. There is also a 12MP Wide camera on the back of iPad Air for capturing images and 4K video, scan documents, and AR experiences and Apple bets it to be an incredibly versatile and ultra-portable mobile studio.
 
While the iPad is available in the WiFi-only variant, the WiFi+Cellular will be 5G enabled which can reach the peak speeds of up to 3.5Gbps in ideal conditions.

With eSIM and Wi-Fi 6 support, iPad Air will offer greater flexibility when users need to get connected — from accessing files to backing up data, communicating with colleagues, or enjoying a movie with family and friends using SharePlay.

Even the USB-C port onboard will be 2x faster than the previous generation, with data transfers up to 10Gbps and it will be able to connect iPad Air to a vast ecosystem of USB-C accessories, including cameras, external storage, and displays with up to 6K resolution.

With next week’s release of iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3, Universal Control will enable users to work with a single mouse and keyboard and move between Mac and iPad for a seamless experience, with no setup required.

Also read: Apple event 2022: iPad Air 5 unveiled with M1 chip, 5G support, and more