The most powerful, versatile, and colorful iPad Air ever is here. Starting today, alongside the new iPhone 12, customers can order the all-new iPad Air, with availability beginning Friday, October 23. Offered in five gorgeous finishes, iPad Air features an all-screen design with a larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, camera and audio upgrades, a new integrated Touch ID sensor in the top button, and the powerful A14 Bionic for a massive boost in performance, making this by far the most powerful and capable iPad Air ever made.
New All-Screen Design and New Colorful Finishes
iPad Air features a completely new thin and light design in five gorgeous finishes: silver, space gray, rose gold, green, and sky blue. The new all-screen design brings a larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display for a stunning visual experience, with 3.8 million pixels and advanced technologies, including full lamination, P3 wide color support, True Tone, and an anti-reflective coating. To allow the display to extend on all sides, a next-generation Touch ID sensor is integrated into the top button, providing the same fast, easy, and secure way to unlock iPad Air, log in to apps, or use Apple Pay, which customers know and love. iPad Air is compatible with Magic Keyboard and its floating design with built-in trackpad, the Smart Keyboard Folio, and new Smart Folio covers, as well as Apple Pencil (2nd generation), which attaches magnetically to the side of iPad for easy pairing, charging, and storing.
The Power of A14 Bionic
iPad Air delivers a massive boost in performance with Apple’s most advanced chip ever made, A14 Bionic. Handling even the most demanding apps, A14 Bionic makes iPad Air even better for editing 4K video, creating gorgeous works of art, playing immersive games, and more. Using breakthrough 5-nanometer process technology, A14 Bionic is packed with 11.8 billion transistors for increased performance and power efficiency in nearly every part of the chip. This latest-generation A-series chip features a new 6-core design for a 40 percent boost in CPU performance, and a new 4-core graphics architecture for a 30 percent improvement in graphics.2 To deliver breakthrough machine learning capabilities, A14 Bionic includes a new 16-core Neural Engine that is twice as fast, and capable of performing up to 11 trillion operations per second, taking machine learning apps to a whole new level. A14 Bionic also includes second-generation machine learning accelerators in the CPU for 10 times faster machine learning calculations. This combination of the new Neural Engine, CPU machine learning accelerators, and high-performance GPU enables powerful on-device experiences for image recognition, natural language learning, analyzing motion, and more.
More Upgrades in the Air
iPad Air includes a 7MP front-facing FaceTime HD camera and now features the same 12MP rear camera used in iPad Pro for higher resolution photos and 4K video capture. The new design of iPad Air features stereo speakers in landscape mode, elevating the audio experience so users can enjoy wider stereo sound while watching video. A USB-C port comes to iPad Air for up to 5Gbps data transfer, which is 10 times faster,2 for connecting to cameras, hard drives, and external monitors up to 4K. With Wi-Fi 6 performance and 60 percent faster LTE connectivity,3 along with A14 Bionic, this is by far the most powerful iPad Air ever.
More Possibilities with iPadOS 14
The new iPad Air ships with iPadOS 14, which brings new features and designs that take advantage of the unique capabilities of iPad, such as its large Multi-Touch display, and versatile accessories. iPadOS 14 further integrates Apple Pencil into the iPad experience for better note-taking capabilities, and new ways to work with handwritten notes. When taking notes on iPad, Smart Selection uses on-device machine learning to distinguish handwriting from drawings, so handwritten text can easily be selected, cut, and pasted into another document as typed text using the same familiar gestures. Shape recognition allows users to draw shapes that are made geometrically perfect and snap right into place when adding diagrams and illustrations in Notes. Data detectors work seamlessly with handwritten text, recognizing phone numbers, dates, addresses, and links, making it easy for users to perform actions like tapping a handwritten number to make a call.
iPadOS 14 also brings Scribble to iPad, allowing Apple Pencil users to handwrite directly in any text field, making actions like replying to a quick iMessage or searching in Safari fast and easy — all without ever needing to put Apple Pencil away. Scribble uses on-device machine learning to convert handwriting into typed text in real time, so writing is always kept private and secure.
iPadOS 14 makes the iPad experience even more distinctive and powerful in other ways, including:
• New compact designs for incoming FaceTime and phone calls, Siri interactions, and Search to help users stay focused on the task at hand.
• Universal Search to quickly find practically anything, from locating and launching apps, to accessing contacts, files, and information, to getting answers to common questions about people or places.
• New sidebars for many apps including Photos and Files, and streamlined toolbars that consolidate controls into a single place, making them more useful than ever.
• Beautifully redesigned widgets that present timely information at a glance right on the Home Screen.
Pricing and Availability
• The new iPad Air is available to order starting today on apple.com and in the Apple Store app in over 30 countries and regions, including the US, and begins arriving Friday, October 23. Wi-Fi models of iPad Air are available with a starting price of $599 (US) and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at $729 (US). The new iPad Air, in 64GB and 256GB configurations, is available to order in five beautiful finishes including silver, space gray, rose gold, green, and sky blue.
• iPadOS 14, the powerful operating system designed specifically for iPad, ships for free with the new iPad Air, and is available as a free software update for all iPad Pro models, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 4 and later.
• Apple Pencil (2nd generation), available for purchase separately for $129 (US), is compatible with iPad Air.
• Magic Keyboard and the Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Air are available for purchase separately for $299 (US) and $179 (US), respectively, both with layouts for over 30 languages, including simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.
• Smart Folios are available for iPad Air for $79 (US) in black, white, and three new seasonal colors including deep navy, cyprus green, and pink citrus.
Education pricing for individuals, including current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels, is available for $549 (US) for the new iPad Air. The second-generation Apple Pencil is available for $119 (US), the Smart Keyboard Folio for $159 (US), and Magic Keyboard for $279 (US). For more information, visit apple.com/us-hed/shop.
• For a limited time, eligible customers who purchase a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac can enjoy one year of Apple TV+ for free and three months of Apple Arcade for free.
• Apple One is the easiest way to get many Apple subscription services at a great value, so customers can choose the one plan that is right for them or their whole family. Customers can sign up for Apple One starting this fall.
• Customers are able to find the same great shopping and support services at apple.com and at Apple Store locations. Customers can get shopping help from Apple Specialists, choose monthly financing options, trade in eligible devices, and get Support services and no-contact delivery or Apple Store pickup options. Customers are encouraged to check apple.com/retail for more information on the health and safety measures in place, and the services available, at their local store.
• Customers in the US can trade in their eligible device for an Apple Gift Card or credit toward their purchase. If the device isn’t eligible for credit, Apple will recycle it for free.
• When customers buy online from Apple, they can make iPad Air and Apple Pencil (2nd generation) their own with free engraving.
• Customers in the US who buy directly from Apple can choose Apple Card Monthly Installments to pay for their iPad over 12 months, interest-free, and get 3 percent Daily Cash back all upfront. Customers who choose to pay in full with their Apple Card also get 3 percent Daily Cash back.
• Customers can extend their limited warranty with AppleCare+ and get accidental damage protection, or AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss, and get 24/7 priority access to technical support.
• Every customer who buys iPad from Apple can enjoy a free Online Personal Session with an Apple Specialist to help them explore and discover all of the amazing things they can do with their new iPad.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote earlier this week, this model is like the iPad Air 2, released on October 22, 2014, which was so spec’ed up that users found it remained useful for years. Millions of them are still in use today! So, the long and the short of it is that if you get a new iPad Air (2020), you’ll have a future-proofed iPad for many years to come. Do the math and it’ll cost you pennies per day when all is said and done.
If you spent $600 on an iPad Air 2 and used it until today, along with millions of users, it cost you $100 per year or 27-cents per day.
TCO. Period.DOT. End of Story? iPonder Knot. AAPL a Tinker Toy Company 😉 .!..
NOT!
What part of iPhone Super Cycle Don’t You People Understand?
Some PEOPLE You Just Can’t Reach. Have A Grateful Day.
I assume you meant ‘I come in peace Earthling, take me to your leader’ no other excuse for the grasp of English taken from the back of a Chinese soap box.
So a non Pro product has a faster chip than the Pro line? Thanks Apple, just bought my iPad Pro a few months ago and now the Air has a better and faster processor. Dumb
Right, because they should deliberately handicap new products to accommodate folks who bought the previous model near the end of a product cycle.
Oh come in now… they constantly cripple new products to force you to change to what they want you to do.
HomePod-Aux in? Bluetooth?
This model here… no headphone jack?
How long did it take to get a stylus?
How long did it take you to get a brain? Oh, you’re still waiting? Got it.
Unworthy of further answer.
I heard that old iOS devices will explode and take out a 4 mile radius. They do that so you have to upgrade. Its a fact I saw it on CNNMSNBCABCCBS.com
So you are also dumb to not know the A12Z has more cores and is actually a FASTER device than the iPad Air. Hey, pack your iPad Pro up and demand a refund, you’re too dumb to own an iPad
Conform or get out! Well done! Full Apple cred.
So you openly admin to being really dumb, too, AC? At least you’re consistent. Can’t say much else about you though.
I’ll stick with my old one. I’m reading iBooks as fast as I can, Anything faster is just a blurr.
I can almost type 18 words per minute, I need an A15. The A14 is too slow.
I’m still rocking my original iPad Air 16GB, 7 years! It’s been a struggle but still tolerable to use for basics with patience, useless for any kind of productivity. Often times there’s a delay when I type in a website, rotating in landscape, going into full screen. Many little things and I’d say it’s been that way since iOS 12. Surprisingly the battery life still isn’t too terrible and it’s never let me down. Heck I didn’t even think I’d be using it this long but It’s definitely time to upgrade.
I was close to going with a 128GB iPad 10.2 with the A12 which likely would serve my needs and beyond. But I think when it comes to longevity, I should spend the extra cash and get the new Air 4 256GB where it will comfortably suffice my needs for another 5-7 years, perhaps longer. I’ll snatch one once they hit the apple refurbished store.