Apple is set to unveil their latest offering of tablets, the iPad Air 2. Here is all there is to know about the new iPad.
Apple has made all the necessary arrangements to take the wraps off of its iPad Air 2 which is the latest addition to its famous tablet line. Along with this we will also get sight of the iPad mini 3 which hasn’t been on the front too often and hence we haven’t gotten any name for this one. According to Recode, both the tablets will be unveiled at an event which is schedule for next week, October 16th in Town Hall on Apple’s own campus. We will also welcome a new line of iMacs which are finally coming with updated Retina displays, the latest version of Mac OS X, Yosemite and a bunch of updated software such as iMovie, FCP X, etc.
We can judge from all these announcements that this Apple event is going to be a huge one but we aren’t expecting anything as big as the iPhone 6’s launch event. Now keeping everything aside, we are coming back to the point which ignited your interest in this article in the first place. Everyone has been going crazy for the iPad Air 2 and now that it is finally going to be here in a matter of a few days, we all are yearning to learn more about it. Some researchers from The Michael Report have managed to get their hands on the specs and pictures of the new iPad from sources inside Apple and as it turns out they appear to be authentic. You can expect some changes to be made till the final product is out there on the shelves to be sold but we doubt Apple will make any changes at this moment.
Internals
The new iPad Air 2 is going to be equipped with an upgraded A8 chip manufactured by TMSC and a 1GB bump in RAM, to 2GB. This new processor is supposedly going to run faster and will be more efficient as compared to the current A7 chips. We have also been hearing that iPad Air 2 customers might not have the option of 16 GB and will instead have to choose from 32, 64 and 128GB variants.
According to a recent leak from Chinese site Weibo, the iPad is going to feature a 2GB Elpida RAM chip as shown from the leaked image. The potential of a full-sized iPad with upgraded memory will likely be something that consumers in the tablet space have been anxiously waiting for. Apple originally included 1GB of RAM with the third-generation iPad, and made the internal decision to stick with that setup for the iPad 4 and original iPad Air, more than likely in an effort to keep manufacturing costs to a minimum. However, with the launch of iOS 8 and the powerful features contained within, the time /4/be right to increase the memory offered with any new iPad.
iPad Air 2 fully-laminated display
The displays for the iPad Airs come from various sources including TPK, GIS, Sharp, Samsung and LG and the lamination means that the cover glass and Retina LCD are manufactured as a single unit. This technique has been used for iPhone since years and this means that the iPad Air 2 will be thinner than the existing iPad Air. This new manufacturing technique isn’t there just to decrease the thickness of the device but we are also expecting to see some enhancements in the quality of the display. With Apple having simply sent welcomes out for an assumed ipad declaration one week from now, consideration is really on what the following wave of tablets will look like. Under the hood, because of Sood’s most recent find, it would seem that we can put a sensible lump of cash on no less than one of the new ipads having a Retina HD display, an era of Retina showcase which made its introduction with the dispatch of the iphone 6 and iphone 6 Plus simply a month ago.
Design
We are quite sure that you wont be able to put your finger on the exact exterior changes on the iPad Air 2 because they are so minor but still this is where things start to get pretty interesting. As far as the form factor and the size of the bezels are concerned, there are no changes made to this model; at least not ones which can be spotted with the naked eye. With the new manufacturing technique of the display, the iPad Air 2 is around 0.5 mm thinner than the current iPad Air. The speakers have also seen some changes as they have now been re-engineered to take up a single row grill instead of the current two, and the holes are drilled to be slightly larger as a result. And to keep things slimmer than ever, the mute/vibration switch had to be completely removed. Apart from this, the volume controls in the new iPad Airs are also slightly more recessed than the one on the current iPad Airs.
The addition of gold has made things all the more interesting. Bloomberg has reported that “New versions of the company’s 9.7-inch iPads, anticipated to be unveiled this month, will include gold as a choice of color for the rear metal cover, adding to the silver and gray available for the lighter iPad Air, the people said, asking not to be identified ahead of an announcement.”
Camera
The ambient light sensor and the camera appear to be in the same place however there have been rumors that Apple is going to upgrade the front-facing camera on the new iPad to FaceTime HD. The camera setup is also enhanced with the back camera being upgraded to 8 MP from the 5 MP of the existing model.
Touch ID and Apple Pay
Finding Touch ID on the iPad Air 2 is no big surprise as it was quite evident since the beginning that it would finally land on the home button of the tablet. Apart from this, the iPad Air 2 is also going to support Apple’s new payment system, Apple Pay.
Some Apple frameworks on iOS 8.1 contain @3x iPad assets. Bring on the Retina HD iPads! pic.twitter.com/QY3rX0SLVy— Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) October 9, 2014
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