Apple announces iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display

The fifth generation of Apple’s iPad is out and if you hated what naming convention Apple used twice last year then you can be at peace now. It is now called the iPad Air. Inspired by the Macbook Airs maybe? Also, its successful mini-tablet, the 8 inch iPad Mini got a refresh. The second generation iPad Mini has been upgraded and is all out to take war to the current 8 inchers from LG, Samsung and Google.

Here’s a quick look at the two tablets:

iPad Mini

The second generation iPad Mini got a huge spec bump in the display with the old LCD panel being dumped for the retina display. Otherwise save for the usual under the hood improvements like a new processor and the like, it is the same Mini tablet that Apple announced for the first time last year. Being an 8 incher (7.9″) it has competition from all the 7 and 8 inch slates running Android or Windows 8. The iPad Mini, just like its predecessor, falls prey to Apple’s steep pricing too.

Measures 200 x 134.7 x 7.5mm
Weighs in at around 0.70-0.73 pounds. It varies with models (i.e cellular+Wi-Fir or Wi-Fi only or LTE specific…)
A 7.9 inch retina display with 326 ppi (2,048 x 1,536)
64-bit Apple A7 with M7 motion coprocessor
Internal storage of 16GB/32GB/64GB/128GB
1.2-megapixel front facing camera accompanied by a 5-megapixel iSight camera
GSM or CDMA, HSPA+ / LTE
Dual-Band 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
23.8-watt-hour lithium polymer
The standard Apple Lightning port
3.5mm headphone

iPad Air

Many expected the new iPad model to have a fingerprint sensor like was the case with Apple’s flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5s but this is not the case. It is just the iPad as we know it with much more slimmer bezels, thinner and more under the hood additions like a 64-bit A7 processor with an M7 motion coprocessor and the usual bumps in camera optics etc