Today Apple, in its annual September event announced its latest generation of iPad Air models for 2020. The new iPad Air boasts an iPad Pro like design language with an All-New 10.9-inch with a resolution of 2360×1640.
The Liquid Retina Display which covers almost the entirety of the front of the iPad Air. The new display has even thinner bezels when compared to the previous generation of the iPad Air. The cameras have been updated as well with an 8MP rear camera and a 7MP TrueDepth camera with Portrait Mode. The edges of the iPad Air have been squared-off to match the iPad Pro lineup. The Air has been made even thinner, measuring in at just 6.1 millimetres. Internally, the iPad Air gets an upgrade as well, it now ships with Apple’s A14 Bionic Chipset. According to Apple it is based on a 5nm process with 11 trillion operations per second. A14 Bionic is the chipset which will debut in the iPhone 12 series later this fall. Other technical specifications of the Apple A14 Bionic consist of a new Hexa-Core CPU and a Quad-Core GPU. Neural Engine has been updated to include 16 cores now. It ships with iPadOS 14 out of the box and weighs 1 Pound (456 grams).
This year, Apple has ditched Home Button for the iPad Air making it an all-gesture controlled iPad. This move also leaves behind the traditional placement for the Touch ID sensor in the Home Button. Due to this, the Touch ID button now resides in the Power Button of the iPad Air located at the top right section of the tablet. Apple has also opted out from bringing its top tier tech which consists of the buttery-smooth 120Hz ProMotion to the Air. It is, for now stuck with the standard 60Hz display. Stereo Speakers setup which consisted of four speakers on the four corners of the iPad have also been axed in favour of traditional two-speaker setup found in the previous generation of the iPad Air. The new design also leaves out the 3.5 Millimetre headphone jack. So long, jack.
Lightning port on the iPad Air has been replaced by the USB-C port found on the iPad Pro. This new port now supports all the iPad Pro features. The wireless charger for the Apple Pencil has also been added to the Air. This new generation of the Air is now compatible with the $299 Magic Keyboard Case and the $129 Apple Pencil (2nd Generation).
In the end, the new iPad Air is a slight cut down version of the 2018 iPad Pro adjusted to be aptly named the Air. The 2020 iPad Air starts at $599 with 64GB as its base storage. iPad Air is available in Silver, Gold, Blue, Pink and Space Grey variants with Wi-Fi or Cellular versions in each configuration and will be available in October.