“Apple has launched a new 10.5-inch iPad Air that can be viewed as a lower-priced successor to the second-generation 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which has been discontinued,” Joe Rossignol writes for MacRumors.
“Pricing is key, with the new iPad Air starting at $499 with Wi-Fi only and $629 with LTE connectivity in the United States,” Rossignol writes. “The 10.5-inch iPad Pro started at $649 with Wi-Fi and $779 with LTE connectivity until it was discontinued. Both have 64GB or 256GB of storage, but the new iPad Air lacks a 512GB option.”
“Both iPads feature a fully laminated Retina display with a resolution of 2224×1668 pixels and 264 PPI, True Tone, and support for the P3 wide color space, but the new 10.5-inch iPad Air has a 60Hz refresh rate while the 10.5-inch iPad Pro has a so-called ProMotion display with up to a 120Hz refresh rate,” Rossignol writes. “Processor-wise, the new iPad Air sports Apple’s A12 Bionic chip compared to a slower A10X Fusion chip in the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. The new iPad Air also has dedicated hardware called the “Neural Engine” that handles artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks, while the 10.5-inch iPad Pro does not. ”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The new 10.5-inch iPad Air is a copmpelling upgrade for the many millions of iPad Air and iPad Air 2 owners. Apple’s new lineup could really spur a nice upgrade cycle. We know more iPad Air 2 owners than we can count!
SEE ALSO:
Apple launches all-new, A12 Bionic-powered 10.5-inch iPad Air and 7.9-inch iPad mini – March 18, 2019
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
This is a worthy successor the the iPad Air 2… which was quite possibly one of the longest lasting iPads out there. It still is no slouch.
I’m strongly considering an upgrade. Pity about the ProMotion display, that buttery-smooth display is drool-worthy… but I suppose that’s all about creating a reason to upgrade to the iPad Pro.
Unless you want 11 or 12.9 or need Bluetooth 5, I recommend to get an Pro 10.5″ while they are on sale. They are $499 right now if you shop around (hint: major electronics re-seller). The difference between A10X and A12X is not noticeable in standard everyday use, let alone the regular A12. If you need it for certain CPU intensive tasks the A12 is faster. A10X is faster for Metal rendering than A12.
A big bonus is the Pro has 4GB RAM. I think RAM is important for heavy web browsing and other tasks.
For me the 4 speaker audio is a big deal. If I wasn’t about to get either Pro 11 or 12.9 (I still can’t decide – HELP!) I would have purchased the Pro 10.5 for 499 on my last visit to US without question. It was on-sale then too. The A10X is still a beast of a CPU and I think the 10.5 Pro will be supported for several years and iOS updates. My 2013 Air still is. Also consider the iPad 2018 has an A10… therefore A10 series still has lots of support lifetime left if that is anyone’s concern.
Plus the old 10.5 inch iPad Pro has an analogue line out / headphone jack so that you can use it in pro applications.
The word Pro should never have been applied to any ios device.
MDN, its more like an expensive successor. The iPad 9.7 is far superior to Air and Air 2 and 1/2 the price of the new Air when its on sale for $249. THAT is a worthy successor.
If a $329 superior device didn’t spur an upgrade cycle (or maybe it did) then why would something almost $200 more ?