To get all the news and hands-on reviews from last night's event, see our Apple October event news hub
The new iPad follows in the footsteps of the company's MacBook line up with the latest model being named the iPad Air. The new design looks to be worthy of the name change too, with the iPad Air weighing just 454g and measuring just 7.5mm thick - compared to 652g and 9.4mm for the outgoing iPad 4, which it replaces.
The new iPad Air uses the same A7 chip as the new iPhone 5s, with that device's motion co-processor too. That gives it some of the fastest application performance we've seen in a mobile device with a Sunspider Java benchmark score of just 416ms - twice the speed of even the fastest competing devices. The motion co-processor helps maintain battery life, by stopping the device from hunting for a 3G or Wi-Fi signal when its stationary and can't find one - say if left in a locker while you work out.
Speaking of battery life that reduction in size and weight has come at some cost to battery capacity. The battery on the iPad 4 was 42.5 watt hours, while the iPad Air's is just 32.4 watt hours. Now Apple is claiming that the more efficient A7 processor will balance this out and you'll still get a 10-hour battery life, but obviously keeping the bigger battery could of then extended the battery life significantly. Personally, we've never complained about our iPad's battery life, but if you use yours heavily on the go, you might be less than happy. We can't wait to get it in and get it tested.
Other improvements include MIMO support with multiple antennas for better reception and speeds of up to 300Mbit/s; expanded LTE support, so no problems with 4G networks; and dual-microphones for clearer voice chat. The speaker has moved to the bottom, and should be stereo though this isn't stated in the specs.
As is always the case with a new iPad, the iPad Air will sell for the same price as the outgoing model, painful if you bought an iPad 4 in the last few months It starts at £399 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model in either Silver/White or Space Grey/Black. it certainly looks like a big step forward over both the previous models in terms of design and we'll bring you our hands-on impressions shortly.
Andoid Games
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