iPad Air & iPad Mini with Retina Display

iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display were officially announced two days ago by Apple after almost one year the previous generations of iPad were launched.

The 5th generation iPad is called iPad Air as it is redesigned to be much lighter and thinner than the previous generation. iPad Air looks exactly like iPad mini and the only difference is the screen size. On the other hand, the new iPad mini now comes in Retina Display just as its model name tells. Both iPads come in two colours, space gray (black) and silver (white).

Both iPads are powered by 64-bit architecture A7 chip and M7 motion coprocessor. The A7 chip makes iPad Air up to 2x faster than the previous generation in both CPU and graphics performance. M7's function is to measure the motion of iPad by collecting data from the gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass. It offloads work from the A7 chip and uses lesser power than A7.

Just like the previous generations, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display let you enjoy up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi‑Fi, watching video, or listening to music and up to 9 hours of surfing the web using cellular data network. There is no upgrade on the front and back cameras. For 1080p HD video recording, both iPads can have up to 3x video zoom.

Let's a have quick comparison on the spec and selling price of new iPads with iPad 4th gen:

Category	iPad Air	iPad 4th Gen	iPad mini with Retina Display
Processor	A7 chip	A6X chip	A7 chip
Dimension	Height: 240 mm Width: 169.5 mm Depth: 7.5 mm	Height: 241.2 mm Width: 185.7 mm Depth: 9.4 mm	Height: 200.0 mm Width: 134.7 mm Depth: 7.5 mm
Weight	469g (Wi-Fi)	652g (Wi-Fi)	331g
Display	9.7” Retina display	9.7” Retina display	7.9” Retina display
Resolution	2048 * 1536	2048 * 1536	2048 * 1536
Price	Wi-Fi (est) 16GB: RM 1499 32GB: RM 1799 64GB: RM 2099 128GB: RM 2399	Wi-Fi 16GB: RM 1449 32GB: RM 1699 64GB: RM 2029 128GB: RM 2349	Wi-Fi (est) 16GB: RM 1199 32GB: RM 1499 64GB: RM 1799 128GB: RM 2099

The iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display will be on sale from November onwards in the US. Not sure when the new iPads will be available in Malaysia. Could be next year?