Apple Reveals Two New iPads

Apple has two new iPads available to purchase now after a quiet reveal of the updated devices that took place on Monday. The iPad Air and the iPad mini were the two lines of devices that welcomed new models to their collections by way of a 10.5-inch iPad Air and a 7.9-inch iPad mini, both of those announced with new features and prices. Apple’s announcement comes just a week before its big event is scheduled to take place on March 25th.

Announced in a press release on Monday, the iPad Air and iPad mini are available now for a few different prices, depending on which model you’re after. The iPad Air starts at $499 and the iPad mini starts at $399, both of those devices having options such as 64GB or 256GB storage and wi-fi-only vs. wi-fi and cellular. Both devices were detailed in Apple’s announcement with descriptions of the products like the one below highlighting the various features and improvements made over the previous models, Apple Pencil support and boosts in performance being some of the most notable changes.

“Apple today introduced the all-new iPad Air in an ultra-thin 10.5-inch design, offering the latest innovations including Apple Pencil1 support and high-end performance at a breakthrough price,” Apple said. “With the A12 Bionic chip with Apple’s Neural Engine, the new iPad Air delivers a 70 percent boost in performance and twice the graphics capability, and the advanced Retina display with True Tone technology is nearly 20 percent larger with over half a million more pixels.”

The new iPad Air can be seen above with the Apple Pencil shown next to it, though no improvements for that Apple peripheral were announced alongside the new iPad devices. Apple CEO tweeted Monday morning with an image of the new iPad mini to show off the new product.

Apple’s quiet reveal of the new iPads notably comes just a week before the company’s March 25th event that was announced recently. The fact that these devices were revealed without much fanfare ahead of the event could mean Apple’s making room for even bigger announcements on that day such as a new streaming service that’s rumored to be revealed.