Apple Launches iPad Air 10.5 & 5th Gen iPad Mini
Launched
Apple
iPad Air (2019)
18 March 2019
64 GB Wi-Fi - $ 399
64 GB Wi-Fi +Celluar - $ 529
256 GB Wi-Fi - $ 549
256 GB Wi-Fi +Celluar - $ 679
250.6 x 174.1 x 6.1 mm
456 g Wi-Fi
464 g Wi-FI + LTE
Front Glass
Rear Aluminium
Space Gray
Silver
Gold
LED
10.5 inch
2224 x 1668 px
264 ppi
4:3 Ratio
Scratch Resistant Glass
Oleophobic Coating
Apple A12 Bionic
7 nm
Hexa-core
2x2.5 GHz Vortex
4x1.6 GHz Tempest
Quad Core Graphics
64 GB
256 GB
2 GB
N/A
iOS 12
8 MP
f/2.4
HDR
Panorama
1080p @ 30fps
7 MP
f/2.2
1080p@30fps
30.2 Wh
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100
LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 11(1500), 12(700), 13(700), 14(700), 17(700), 18(800), 19(800), 20(800), 21(1500), 25(1900), 26(850), 29(700), 30(2300), 34(2000), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500), 46, 66(1700/2100), 71(600)
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS
Lightning Port
Nano SIM
Touch ID
Stereo Speakers
Apple has silently launched the iPad Air and the iPad Mini 5th Gen tablets. The company has sent out a press release that details about the newly launched tablet duo.
Features
Both the iPad Air and iPad Mini have an aluminium clad design with curved edges which are similar to previous iPad models. The bottom side of both the tablets is occupied by the lightning port which is flanked by dual stereo speakers while the top side houses the power button and the 3.5 mm audio jack. The right side of the devices house the volume rockers and the SIM card slot on the LTE variants. The front of the tablets has thin left and right bezels while the top and bottom bezels are quite prominent. The bezel above the display on both devices house the selfie camera while the bottom below the display houses the home button which also doubles as the TouchID fingerprint sensor.
The iPad Mini sports a 7.9 inch display while the elder iPad Air sports a 10.5 inch display. The display panel on the former has a pixel density of 326 ppi whereas the display panel on the latter has a pixel density of 264 ppi. The display on both the devices have a brightness level of 500 nits and are covered with an oleophobic coating which minimises the appearance of fingerprint marks and smudges on them.
Both the tablets run on the Apple A12 Bionic chipset which was introduced with the current iPhone models including the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR. The chipset is manufactured using 7 nm architecture which helps in boosting the battery backup of the device. The chipset also consists of a neural engine and an M12 coprocessor. The neural engine helps in boosting AI operations on the tablet while the coprocessor collects data from the sensors including the accelerometer, compass and gyroscope which are further sent to the CPU for additional calculation. 
The iPad Air and the iPad Mini also share the common camera sensors on both the front and the back. The front camera on both tablets has an f/2.2 aperture equipped 7 MP sensor while the rear camera sensor is an f/2.4 aperture equipped 8 MP sensor. The tablet duo can also capture 1080 HD videos from both the front and rear facing camera. Noteworthy, the rear cameras can also capture slo-mo videos at 120 fps and time-lapse video. Additional camera features on the devices include Live Photos, HDR for photos, burst mode and auto image stabilisation.
The iPad Mini is powered by a 19.1 watt hour battery while the elder iPad Air is powered by a 30.2 watt hour battery. Apple claims a battery backup upwards of 10 hours on both the tablets. The tablets run on the latest iOS 12 and have a host of sensors which include three axis gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer and ambient light sensor. Exceptionally, the new devices also support the Apple pencil (sold separately). Therefore, taking notes and drawing masterpieces is now possible on the smaller iPad models other than the iPad Pro. The iPad Air 10.5 inch also supports the folio-style Bluetooth keyboard which is again sold separately.
Price, Colour, Storage Options and Connectivity Variants
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Both the iPad Mini 5th generation and the iPad Air 10.5 are available in three colour options which include Gold, Silver and Space Gray. The price for different variants of the newly launched tablets are as follows:
| iPad Air 10.5 | iPad Mini 5th Generation |
| 64 GB Wi-Fi – $ 499 (Rs 44,900) | 64 GB Wi-Fi – $ 399 (Rs 34,900) |
| 64 GB Wi-Fi +Cellular – $ 629 (Rs 55,900) | 64 GB Wi-Fi +Cellular – $ 529 (Rs 45,900) |
| 256 GB Wi-Fi – $ 649 (Rs 58,900) | 256 GB Wi-Fi – $ 549 (Rs 48,900) |
| 256 GB Wi-Fi +Cellular – $ 779 (Rs 69,900) | 256 GB Wi-Fi +Cellular – $ 679 (Rs 59,900) |
Apple Pencil (1st generation) is available for purchase separately for INR 8500. The Smart Keyboard for the 10.5-inch iPad Air is available for purchase separately for INR 13900 with layouts for over 30 languages, including simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
iPad Mini 5th Gen Specifications
- Display: 7.9-inch Retina LED, 2048 × 1536 pixels, 326 ppi
- Operating System: iOS 12
- Processor: Apple A12 Bionic
- RAM: 2 GB
- Storage: 64 GB/256 GB
- Rear Cameras: 8 MP, f/2.4
- Selfie Camera: 7 MP, f/2.2
- Security: TouchID, Screen Lock
- Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, Lightning Connector
- Battery: 19.1 Wh
- Dimensions: 203.2 × 134.8 × 6.1 mm
- Weight: 300 G (Wi-FI), 308 G (WiFi + LTE)
