Yes, Apple’s got a new iPad: the Apple Air 2. The Cupertino boys announced this morning the new iPad with a video showing a pencil being laser shaved down almost in half an guess what? It still can hide the new iPad Air 2. Looking from the right angle of course. But all jokes aside, the new iPad is really thin at only 6.1mm. Phil Schiller told the attendees it’s the world’s thinnest tablet and it’s “18% thinner than the first iPad Air.
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL But is it just a thinner version of the iPad Air? No, Apple also updated the A8 processor and M8 coprocessor which is 12x more powerful than the original iPad. The iPad Air 2 also got a brand new rear camera, an 8MP iSight camera ( f/2.4 aperture ) that is able to shoot 1080p videos, burst mode, panoramic shots and auto HDR. The display is “a new Retina display”, comes with Touch ID and support for Apple Pay.
The iPad Air 2 also comes with an improved front facing camera, now knows as “FaceTime HD camera”, with an all-new sensor and larger f/2.2 aperture.
The iPad Air 2 has WiFi standards (802.11a/c) and MIMO. The screen remains the same size at 9.7-inches and has an”optically-bonded display” (the same tech used in Microsoft’s Surface) — this means there’s no gap between the screen and the body. It also reduces glare (there’s an anti-reflective coating).
The iPad Air 2 comes in three flavors: silver, space grey and gold. It also comes in three prices: 16GB ($499), 64GB ($599) and 128GB ($699) — add $130 to any of those models for LTE instead of WiFi-only. Pre-orders apparently go live tomorrow, and they’ll “begin shipping by the end of next week.”