Apple quietly launches 10.5in iPad Air and new iPad Mini

APPLE HAS QUIETLY LAUNCHED a duo of new tablets; a 10.5in iPad Air and a long-awaited replacement for its four-year-old iPad Mini. 

As expected, the new iPad Air (above) and Mini stick with Touch ID rather than Face ID and both pack the same A12 Bionic chip as the iPhone XS. Apple claims this'll CPU will give the new iPad Air a 70 per cent performance boost, while the iPad Mini will benefit from three times the performance and nine times faster graphics; hardly surprising given the iPad Mini 4's A8 CPU. 

The new iPad Air packs a 10.5in Retina screen, 20 per cent larger than the 9.7in panel on the last-gen model, which sees it replacing the now-defunct 10.5in iPad Pro. While it loses the 120Hz ProMotion feature of the Pro, the iPad Air offers smaller bezels and continues to support the Lightning-based original Apple Pencil. 

The iPad Mini has also seen an upgrade in the screen department; while it packs the same 7.9in 2048x1536 screen as the last-gen model, it now supports True Tone and offers Apple Pencil support for the first time.  

Elsewhere, both new iPads offer a Lightning connector rather than USB-C, offer the same WiFi and Gigabit‑class LTE hardware as the iPad Pro lineup, and feature single-lens cameras capable of shooting in 1080p. 

The iPad Air and iPad Mini are being offered in silver, space grey and gold with 64GB or 256GB built-in storage. Pricing for the new iPad Air starts at £479 for the WiFi model and from £509 with added LTE, while the iPad Mini starts at £399 and £519, respectively. 

Today's launch comes just days ahead of Apple's 25 March "show time" event, where it's expected to launch its long-awaited video and news subscription services. µ

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