Skip to main content

Apple announces the iPad Air: 20% thinner, 1-pound

Apple-iPad-event-2013 2013-10-22 at 2.07.02 PM

Apple has announced the iPad Air, the successor to the full-sized iPad. It has a 43% thinner bezel and a 9.7-inch Retina display…

Apple-iPad-event-2013 2013-10-22 at 2.08.06 PM

It is 7.5mm thin, 20% thinner across the entire device. iPad Air weighs 1 pound. It has an A7 64-bit processor. Much improved performance overall and graphics. It has 2x rendering.

New WiFi technology with new antennas. Twice as fast. Also, expanded LTE coverage with more carriers across the globe. 5 Megapixel camera with HD video. Improved FaceTime camera on the front. Dual-microphones for improved audio-capture and Siri.

ipad-event-bad-photoshop

iPad Air still has 10 hours of battery life. Comes in Silver/White and Black/Space Gray. Starts at $499 for WiFi/$629 Cellular. iPad 2 remains.

Apple Announces iPad Air—Dramatically Thinner, Lighter & More Powerful iPad

iPad mini Features Stunning Retina Display & 64-bit Apple-designed A7 Chip

SAN FRANCISCO—October 22, 2013—Apple® today announced iPad Air™, the latest generation of its category defining device, featuring a stunning 9.7-inch Retina® display in a new thinner and lighter design. Precision-engineered to weigh just one pound, iPad Air is 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth generation iPad®, and with a narrower bezel the borders of iPad Air are dramatically thinner—making content even more immersive. Apple today also announced iPad mini with Retina display, bringing all the pixels from the 9.7-inch iPad to its 7.9-inch screen, delivering razor sharp text and detail in the same amazingly thin and light design. The new iPads feature the powerful and power-efficient Apple-designed A7 chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, ultrafast wireless with faster built-in Wi-Fi and expanded LTE cellular connectivity, and the newly-designed iOS 7 featuring hundreds of great new features.

“iPad created an entirely new mobile computing experience, and the new iPad Air is another big leap ahead. It is so thin, light and powerful, once you hold one in your hand you will understand what a tremendous advancement this is,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPad Air with its 9.7-inch Retina display weighs just one pound and packs the incredible performance of iOS 7 running on a 64-bit desktop-class Apple A7 chip, and delivers all-day battery life in the lightest full-sized tablet in the world.”

Precision-engineered to weigh just one pound, iPad Air is 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth generation iPad, and with a 43 percent narrower bezel the borders of iPad Air are dramatically thinner. iPad Air’s Retina display makes web pages, text, images and video look incredibly sharp and realistic, and the new power-efficient A7 chip allows the battery to be even smaller, helping reduce the overall volume by 24 percent from the previous generation while doubling its performance and maintaining its up to 10-hour battery life.¹

The new iPad mini with Retina display packs all the 3.1 million pixels (2048-by-1536 resolution) of iPad Air into its 7.9-inch Multi-Touch™ display, for a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. The 7.9-inch Retina display of iPad mini is 35 percent larger than screens on 7-inch tablets, and is the only small tablet to deliver the full iPad experience, now with razor sharp Retina quality. Images are crisp, text is crystal clear, movies play at full 1080p HD-resolution and the 475,000 apps designed specifically for iPad work automatically.

The A7 chip in iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display offers 64-bit desktop-class architecture, advanced graphics and improved image signal processing from previous generations. With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance on iPad Air, and up to four times the CPU and eight times the graphics performance on iPad mini with Retina display, almost everything you do is faster and better than ever, from launching apps and editing photos to playing graphic-intensive games—all while delivering all-day battery life. The A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture and support for OpenGL ES version 3.0 unlocks game console-like visual effects. The new iPads also feature the M7 motion coprocessor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency.

Both new iPads feature two antennas to support Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology, bringing twice the Wi-Fi performance to iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display at a blazingly fast data rate up to 300 Mbps.² Cellular models also come with expanded LTE coverage to accommodate even more LTE networks worldwide, while continuing to deliver comprehensive support for other fast cellular technology around the world (DC-HSDPA, HSPA+), all in a single model.³

iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display now have a next generation FaceTime® HD camera with improved backside illumination sensors featuring larger pixels for better low-light performance. The iSight® camera with 5MP sensor and advanced optics, combined with iOS 7 and the image signal processing of A7, further improves still image and video capture on iPad bringing faster auto-focus, up to three times video zoom, five times still zoom, better dynamic range and automatic image and video stabilization.

The new iPads come with iOS 7, featuring a stunning new user interface, completely redesigned with an elegant color palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop®, enhanced Photos, Safari®, Siri® and introduces iTunes Radio℠, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes®.⁴

iPad customers have access to the revolutionary App Store℠, which now offers more than one million apps to iPhone®, iPad and iPod touch® users in 155 countries around the world, and more than 475,000 apps are designed specifically for iPad. More than 60 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, which offers customers an incredible range of apps in 24 categories, including newspapers and magazines in Newsstand, games and entertainment, kids, education, business, news, sports, health and fitness and travel.

The iLife® suite of creative apps, including iPhoto®, iMovie® and GarageBand®, and the iWork® suite of productivity apps, including Pages®, Numbers® and Keynote® are essential to the Apple experience and are now free with every new iOS device running iOS 7, and are also available as free updates for existing users, so more iPad users now have access to these great apps. All apps have been redesigned to match the look and feel of iOS 7, have been optimized to support 64-bit technology and include hundreds of new features.

Pricing & Availability
iPad Air with Wi-Fi models will be available in silver or space gray starting on Friday, November 1, for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model and $799 (US) for the 128GB model. iPad Air with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be available starting on Friday, November 1 for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model, $829 (US) for the 64GB model and $929 (US) for the 128GB model. iPad 2 is available at $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model for either AT&T or Verizon.

iPad mini with Retina display will be available later in November in silver or space gray. iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi models will be available for a suggested retail price of $399 (US) for the 16GB model, $499 (US) for the 32GB model, $599 (US) for the 64GB model and $699 (US) for the 128GB model. iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi + Cellular models will be available for a suggested retail price of $529 (US) for the 16GB model, $629 (US) for the 32GB model, $729 (US) for the 64GB model and $829 (US) for the 128GB model. Additionally, the original iPad mini is now offered at a more affordable price of $299 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $429 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model for either AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.

New custom-designed polyurethane Smart Covers for iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display will be available for $39 (US) in a range of vibrant colors, including blue, green, pink, yellow, black and (RED). iPad Air Smart Cases and iPad mini Smart Cases are completely redesigned in a beautiful aniline-dyed leather available in six rich colors, including beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED) for a suggested retail price of $69 (US). Smart Covers and Smart Cases are available through the Apple Online Store(www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers.

iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display will be sold through the Apple Online Store(www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Starting on November 1, iPad Air will be available in the US, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao (Wi-Fi models only), Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. At Apple retail stores in these countries, iPad Air will be available beginning at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, November 1.

¹Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
²Based on theoretical speeds, actual speeds may vary.
³LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks. Check with your carrier for details.
⁴iTunes Radio is available with iOS 7 in the US.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. Pierre Calixte - 10 years ago

    I wonder if the change in the name means that they are creating room for that rumored larger display ipad. It doesn’t make sense otherwise. matter of fact, previously, they went out of their way to stop adding a number to the ipad name and just called it the “new ipad.” Now they want to call it air.

  2. Jim Phong - 10 years ago

    And another mess by Tim Cook goes on.. how to ruin the iPad…
    Where the heck is the A7X ?? Nowhere!
    iPad Air only ?? Where is the standard iPad 5 with the faster A7X ??
    A7 only on both iPad Air and iPad Mini Retina.
    Having a thinner iPad Air with A7 would have been ok if there was an iPad 5 with the A7X too!
    This way? IT’S A MESS !
    Why waste the Air name for an iPhone 5S with an iPad display then ?
    The iPad Mini Retina it’s too expensive too.
    And.. both iPad Air and iPad Mini Retina don’t have TouchID … WHY ??
    Tim Cook must be fired NOW !
    He is ruining everything Apple does !

    • joel betances - 10 years ago

      are you serious dude
      tim cook is doing a great job
      nothing different that Steve would have done
      remember under Steve we had iphone, iphone 2g, iphone 3g, iphone 3gs, ipad, ipad 2 each with minor updates and people were satisfied
      why do you want a A7X so bad if its not needed. ios is not a memory hug like the competition. Specs isnt everything .

      • Jim Phong - 10 years ago

        A7X and RAM means nothing here. Do you work for Tim Cook perhaps, uh? Trying to justify all the mess he is doing.
        And you think that the iPhone 5C crap plastic mess it’s a wonderful product too, uh ?
        A5X as well A6X are faster higher clocked SoC versions with additional GPU units of the A5 and A6 respectively.
        The standard A7 on iPhone 5S it’s not fast enough for an iPad.
        The iPad Air is not an iPad 5. And without the iPad 5 with A7X right now there is no full real iPad.
        The iPad Air is just too slow. There is not performance increase with the same SoC same specs as the iPhone 5S. And now the iPad Mini Retina (iPad Mini 2) with the same A7 SoC makes no sense at all without a true full iPad with A7X.
        Also Apple still selling the very old now slow iPad 2 at such an high price it’s just plain dumb!

    • Edward Cline - 10 years ago

      Nope

    • verizon2828 - 10 years ago

      It’s too soon for an A7X processor. If they had a 6 month gap since the A7 came out, I could see that. But the A7 just came out in the iPhone 5S LITERALLY one month ago. To simply name it A7X just because it’s in the iPad is ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with the A7. It’s brand freakin new!

      • Jim Phong - 10 years ago

        That’s nonsense! The iPad4 with A6X was released on November 2012, iPhone 5 with A6 was released on September 2012.
        So no, it’s not too soon for an A7X.
        It’s just Tim Cook being a marketeer with no respect for Apple customers thinking to be so smart.. he is not.
        He is damaging Apple badly.

    • Dude .. relax .. this is not Samsung, they just put a lot of hardware sh!t to their products like the Galaxy S’ versions to appear to be strong and powerful gadgets just to satisfy customers like you… but the sad true is that they are still laggy and crappy.

      What really matters is the correct equilibrium between hardware and software – It is stupid to put a lot of great hardware specs when the software will not use all of its resources. That’s it! and if you don’t like it it’s okay! Apple doesn’t care! LOL.

      Btw, sorry for my bad english .. it is not my main lang. Peace!

      • verizon2828 - 10 years ago

        Amen, brotha! Apple has talked about the user experience for years and that’s what matters most to me. I’m sure they could load up an iPhone or iPad with killer guts if they wanted to and crush whatever Samcopy is releasing. But with quad-core processors and mega memory comes lower battery life which is the main complaint of every mobile user. Since that would kill the user experience, Apple chooses not to do that.

      • Jim Phong - 10 years ago

        That’s just nonsense!
        So Apple customers should buy an iPad with the same SoC of an iPhone 5S now ?
        And the A6X and A5X became a mistake now ? WHAT ?

    • Pascalau Razvan Viorel - 10 years ago

      Why don’t you read the post

      “The A7 chip in iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display offers 64-bit desktop-class architecture, advanced graphics and improved image signal processing from previous generations. With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance on iPad Air, and up to four times the CPU and eight times the graphics performance on iPad mini with Retina display, almost everything you do is faster and better than ever…”

      This means the chip is twice as fast as A6X and they didn’t wan’t to name it A7X, read more and troll less

  3. NQZ (@surgesoda) - 10 years ago

    No A7X, no touch ID. No thanks.

    • NQZ (@surgesoda) - 10 years ago

      Also no Gigabit wifi (802.11ac) even though they have that in the MacBook Airs that came out last summer, and Samsung has had it in the GS4 even further back.

  4. Gary B - 10 years ago

    To call their biggest and heaviest iPad model the iPad Air suggests that a larger, presumably superior model will be added to the lineup before the next 9.7-inch refresh. If Apple really thought no one would figure this out (before committing to an iPad Air, mistakenly thinking they were getting the top-of-the-line iPad) it’s pretty insulting.

  5. Nino Toscano - 10 years ago

    Did they call this iPad Air so they can bring out an iPad Pro later (which should have been iPad 5) and bump the price up? Not enough features on this to warrant upgrading my existing iPad.

    Another problem: Memory prices are dropping & they ‘still’ charge $100 per 16GB upgrade. 16GB upgrades are like 4 years ago. You can get mSATA III 64GB drives for $70.
    Get with the times Apple, 32GB or even 64GB should be a standard model.
    Get some balls, up your status & set the standard instead of following the low cost market.

  6. i-Adapters.com - 10 years ago

    It seems like an interesting direction they are heading in, in terms of diversifying their product offerings. Not just one iPhone and one iPad, but a whole spectrum of products. Definitely sounds like they’re leaving the door open for a ‘Pro’ version. No Touch ID is a surprise though.