Apple Outs New iPad Air and iPad Mini

Apple rolled out the rumored new iPad models yesterday including a new 10.5-inch iPad Air and a new 7.9-inch iPad mini. The new iPad Air has support for the Apple Pencil and packs an Apple A12 bionic chip with the Apple Neural Engine inside. Apple says the tablet has a 70% boost in performance and twice the graphics capability.

The tablet uses a Retina display with True Tone technology that is 20% larger with over half a million more pixels. Apple also unveiled a new 7.9-inch iPad mini using the A12 Bionic chip, offering three times the graphics performance, and a Retina screen 25% brighter than before. The new iPad mini also supports the Apple Pencil.

Both new iPad models will land in stores in the US next week, and orders are open now. Both the new tablets come in silver, space gray, and gold with 64GB or 256GB configurations. iPad mini starts at $399 for the WiFi version and $529 for the cellular version. The 10.5-inch iPad Air starts at $499 for the WiFi version and $629 for the cellular version.

iPad continues to provide magical new experiences for a growing range of uses where it is the absolute best device, from playing games in augmented reality to note-taking and drawing with Apple Pencil, from streaming HD movies and editing 4K films to learning to develop apps with Swift Playgrounds, said Phil Schiller, Apples senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. Today the iPad family takes two big leaps forward with an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Air that brings high-end size, features and performance at a breakthrough price, and a major upgrade to the 7.9-inch iPad mini, which also brings Apple Pencil, Retina display and the A12 Bionic chip to the many customers that love its compact size.