Apple has unwrapped a thinner iPad with a speedier processor, better battery life and improved camera as it tries to drive excitement for tablets amid slackening demand.
Rumour has it that its way to Aussie shores with a release tipped for next Friday, October 25th.
The ultrathin iPad Air 2, which Apple claims is the world’s thinnest tablet at just 6.1mm is a KarryOn luggage busting 18 per cent thinner than the first iPad Air released 12 months ago.
Yet despite it’s slimmer figure, it boasts the new A8x processor – the same as the new iPhone 6 – for infinitely-fast processing (reported to be as much as 250% faster than the iPad Air V1) and gaming and comes in three storage variants: 16GB, 64GB and the new 128GB.
Other features include fingerprint security to align with Apple Pay, the company’s new system for using iPhones to make credit and debit card payments at retail stores, will launch on Monday in the US. Itself a game changer for travel.
And perhaps best of all travel wise – a huge bump up to an 8-megapixel camera, including an improved rear-facing iSight camera for video conferencing which represents a vast upgrade over the 5MP camera in the original iPad Air.
The iPad Air 2 also has a ten-hour battery life (Slightly better than the already great iPad Air V1), and a laminated screen with an anti-reflective coating, which reduces reflections by 56 per cent.
The ultrathin iPad Air 2, which Apple claims is the world’s thinnest tablet at just 6.1mm
Very handy for longer flight sectors where USB’s aren’t installed and even better for those sun filled epic bus or car journeys to help kill some time and entertain the little and big ones.
The iPad Air 2’s 16GB Wi-Fi version will cost you $619 or $739 for the 64GB and $859 for 128GB.
For a 4G or 3G mobile device, a 16GB costs $779, $899 for 64GB and $1,019 for 128GB.
Interestingly, sales of Apple’s iPads have dipped this year with a 13 percent drop in sales from the same time last year as the market has seen an overall slowdown in tablet demand. Apple has also been facing competition from cheaper tablets coming into the scene including many on Google’s Android operating system.
Despite all this, Apple still managed to ship 29.6 million iPads in the first half of this year so the numbers are not exactly alarmingly bad. No doubt the launch of the iPad Air 2 will help lift figures.
Al up, it looks like a much-improved device for leisure and business travelling and a great gift for that special someone (or indeed yourself) for Christmas.
The question now is: