Apple launches new iPad line-up, including redesigned Air

(Apple)

Apple has launched a new line-up of iPads, including a redesigned version of the Air.

It borrows from the look of the newer iPad Pro, which have square sides and no home button on the front.

The Touch ID fingerprint sensor that was in that home button has been moved into the power button, Apple said. On the Pro, that problem was overcome with the addition of Face ID facial recognition, but that will not be present in the new iPad Air.

But otherwise the Air now includes almost every feature from the Pro line-up. The more expensive iPad also includes Apple’s LiDAR sensor – a depth-sensing technology rumoured to be coming to the iPhone 12 – as well as an extra normal camera and a slightly larger and faster display.

The new tablet makes use of new Apple chips that allow it to be 40 per cent faster than the previous model, the company says. That A14 Bionic chip is the first of Apple’s processors to use the 5nm process, which Apple said allowed for the chips to be made in ways that “challenge the law of physics”.

It also has an upgraded camera in the front, and the same 12 megapixel rear camera as the iPad Pro.  And, just like the iPad Pro, it has switched away from the Lightning cable made famous by the iPhone and uses USB-C instead, which allows for faster data transfer.

Aside from the increased performance, the new Air will include new colours such as a green and blue. And it will now work with other devices, such as Apple’s own Magic Keyboard.

Apple also updated the cheapest iPad – just called the iPad – with new Apple Pencil features and faster chips.

It stressed that it had now updated all of its full-size iPads this year, leaving out the iPad Mini. That smaller tablet has not been updated since March 2019, and so now includes much older components than all of its bigger siblings, though its previous revision was the first since 2015.