Apple unveils new iPad Air M2, iPad Pro M4 with Pencil Pro; India price, availability details
Apple on Tuesday (May 7) launched new line of the iPad Air and iPad Pro series tablets along with premium accessories.
For the first time, Apple is offering iPad Air in two big screen sizes— 11-inch and 13-inch. Previous 5th gen model was available only in one 10.9-inch size.
They feature LCD-based Liquid Retina display with 2732x2048p resolution, support pixel density of 264 ppi (pixels per inch) and peak brightness of 600 nits. It also features stereo quad-speakers, Type-C port and TouchID fingerprint sensor.
Another notable change we see in the new iPad Air is that the 12MP FaceTime front camera is now placed in landscape orientation for better video calling experience. Also, with centerstage feature, the camera will focus on the subject and keeps it in the centre of the frame even if the presenter moves around the room.
On the back, it also features 12MP wide camera. Both the front and the back camera supports 4K video recording.
With the 34-core M2 silicon (8-core CPU + 10-core GPU + 16-core NPU), the new iPad Air is nearly 50 percent faster than the previous iPad Air with M1. It is powerful enough to perform wide-range of activities such as digital art work and video editing.
Combined with ML accelerators in the CPU and a powerful GPU to boost on-device machine learning, along with Apple silicon’s unified memory architecture, iPad Air promises to deliver exceptional AI performance.
Like most Apple devices, the latest iPad is eco-friendly. It boasts 100 percent recycled aluminium in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled gold plating and tin soldering in multiple printed circuit boards.
The 11-inch iPad Air starts at Rs 59,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 74,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Air starts at Rs 79,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 94,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
Key features of Apple iPad Air M2.
Photo Credit: Apple
The new iPad Air will be available in four colours— blue, purple, starlight, and space grey,— with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage configurations.
The top-end iPad Pro is also come with two sizes— 11-inch and 13-inch. The latter is a first for Pro series. Also, the new Apple device is slimmest iPad to date. It measures just 5.1mm, thinner than iPod nano.
It also boasts all-new Ultra Retina XDR display. It features cutting-edge tandem OLED technology that uses two OLED panels and combines the light from both to provide high full-screen brightness. The new iPad Pro supports an 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, and 1600 nits peak for HDR content.
Apple iPad Pro M4.
Photo Credit: Apple
Another notable aspect of the latest iPad Pro is that It boasts M4 silicon, the most powerful Apple silicon to date. It is 2nd gen 3nm class chipset.
The M4 processor comes with four performance CPU cores and now six efficiency CPU cores. It also features next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators, to deliver up to 1.5x faster CPU performance over M2 in the previous-generation iPad Pro. The M4 houses 10-core GPU and supports Dynamic Caching, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, which come to iPad for the first time.
Key features of Apple M4 silicon.
Photo Credit: Apple
With Dynamic Caching, the GPU will be able to allocate the use of local memory in hardware in real-time so only the exact amount of memory needed is used for each task.
Compared to M2, M4 can deliver the same performance using just half the power, and compared to the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a quarter of the power.
Key features of Apple iPad Pro M4.
Photo Credit: Apple
The new M4 is touted to be the Apple’s most powerful Neural Engine ever. It is capable of performing 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine in the A11 Bionic chip.
The iPad Pro also boasts USB-C connector with support for Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 and support fast wired data transfer speed up to 40Gb/s.
Like the new iPad Air, the latest iPad Pro to boasts ultra-wide 12MP FaceTime camera on the front. On the back, it has better 12MP and is capable of capturing vibrant Smart HDR images and video with even better colour, improved textures, and detail in low light. It also now features a new adaptive True Tone flash and LiDAR sensor too.
The iPad Pro M4’s enclosure is made of 100-per cent recycled aluminium.
The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space black finishes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations.
The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at Rs 99,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 1,19,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at Rs 1,29,900 for the Wi-Fi model, and Rs 1,49,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
Apple Pencil Pro
It comes with big improvements over the Pencil (2nd gen). It comes with a new sensor that can sense a user’s squeeze, bringing up a tool palette to quickly switch tools, line weights, and colours.
It house a new custom haptic engine that can detect finger squeeze and tap gestures to perform functions. A light tap or squeeze registers as confirmation of an operation. A gyroscope sensor allows users to roll Apple Pencil Pro for precise control of the tool they’re using. Rotating the barrel changes the orientation of shaped pen and brush tools, just like pen and paper. And with Apple Pencil hover, users can visualise the exact orientation of a tool before making a mark. It costs Rs 11,900.
Apple Pencil Pro.
Photo Credit: Apple
New Apple Magic Keyboard
It features all-new design and function row for access to features like screen brightness and volume controls. It also has a premium aluminium palm rest and larger trackpad that’s even more responsive with haptic feedback, on par with the MacBook. The new Magic Keyboard can attach magnetically, and the Smart Connector immediately connects power and data without the need for Bluetooth. The machined aluminium hinge also includes a USB-C connector for charging. The new Magic Keyboard comes in two colours that perfectly complement the new iPad Pro: black with a space black aluminium palm rest, and white with a silver aluminium palm rest.
Apple's new Magic Keyboard.
Photo Credit: Apple
The new 11-inch Magic Keyboard is available for Rs 29900 and the new 13-inch Magic Keyboard is available for Rs 33,900, with layouts for over 30 languages.
All the new iPad Air, iPad Pro and accessories will be available for pre-booking on May 7 and will hit stores next week on May 15.
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