Apple Releases New iPad Air and iPad mini: Pencil Support, A12 Bionic Chips

Apple Releases New iPad Air and iPad mini: Pencil Support, A12 Bionic Chips

Today, Apple announced updated tablets in the iPad Air and iPad mini lines. Both new iPads feature improvements to speed, multi-tasking, display technology, Pencil support, and more.

The 10.5-inch iPad Air includes the A12 Bionic chip with Apple's Neural Engine, a Retina display with True Tone, and Apple Pencil support. Apple claims as 70 percent boost in performance as well as two times the graphics capability. The previous iPad Air 2 was a 9.7-inch tablet, therefor the new 10.5-inch iPad Air is also 20 percent larger and has over half a million more pixels.

The 7.9-inch iPad mini also has the A12 Bionic chip that boosts its performance and Apple claims it's three times better than the previous generation, which was stuck back on the A8 chip. It also has nine times faster graphics. It features a Retina display with True Tone, and has a higher higher pixel density than all other iPads. The new iPad mini is now Apple Pencil compatible.

Pricing for the iPad Air starts at $499 for the Wi-Fi only model, and $629 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The iPad mini is set at $399 for the Wi-Fi only version, and $529 for Wi-Fi + Cellular. Both new tablets come in 64 GB and 256 GB configurations and can be ordered starting today from Apple, with shipments starting next week.

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Ryan Mense is a wildlife cameraperson specializing in birds. Alongside gear reviews and news, Ryan heads selection for the Fstoppers Photo of the Day.

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10 Comments

Apparently only compatible with pencil version1. No idea if that's a great limitation or not.

you can use the Logitech pencil ....

The only question on my mind is, can I shoot tethered with the iPad(s) and Sony a7iii. We already know Adobe Photoshop and lightroom will run nicely but tethering will be a no brainier.

You can of course shoot wirelessly. And the images will transfer. But you’re right. A proper tether would be the money.

Have you tried camfi pro ? Also heard camranger is coming up with Sony and Fuji support later this year.

Pays $500. "Hey we made it faster." Pays another $500. "Hey we made it faster." Repeat. They really miss Steve Jobs over there with their lack of innovation.

Another great device which you cannot use due to Apple's shitty file managment.

Looks as usual, but fast!

Can't wait to see the next multimillion dollar movie and latest fashion shoot "shot on an i-Pad"...

Remember when people cared about what apple releases?

pepperidge farm remembers