Apple revealed new versions of its popular iPad tablets on Tuesday as part of the iPhone-maker’s live-streamed September event, “Time Flies.”
The new standard iPad will cost $329 (or $299 for education customers) and it will be available this Friday, said Apple product marketing manager Ted Merendino. This eight-generation iPad will come with a 10.2-inch display and is powered by the company’s A12 bionic processor.
The new iPad isn’t much of a departure from the last generation, and it still has a home button that contains the Touch ID feature that lets people unlock their device using their fingers.
Coupled with the new iPadOS 14 and the Apple Pencil, people can do tasks like scribble notes on their iPad. The device, in turn, can convert the handwritten text into more standard computer fonts.
Apple gave more attention to the more powerful iPad Air tablet, which will cost $599 and will be available next month, said Apple vice president of hardware engineering Laura Legros.
The new iPad Air comes with a 10.9-inch “liquid retina display” and contains the company’s latest A14 bionic chip, she explained. It contains a 7-megapixel camera on the front and a 12-megapixel camera on the back and is capable of taking 4K videos, which are better quality than high-definition.
Unlike the previous iPad Air, the new tablet contains a button on the top of the device that contains the company’s Touch ID technology. Apple chose to put the button on top so that the iPad Air’s display could “extend to all sides,” Legros said.
Additionally, the iPad Air, which also includes a USB-C jack, will come in five different colors, including rose gold, green, and sky blue.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company has sold more than 500 million iPads over the past 10 years since the first iPad debuted.
Apple also debuted its Apple Watch Series 6 smartwatch, which starts at $400, and the Apple Watch SE, which starts at $279, during its online event.