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Apple Unveils New iPad Air With M1 Chip, Optional 5G, and Faster USB-C, Starting at $599

For UK customers we also got a £10 price drop so it’s £569 for the 64GB base model. Apple are gonna sell these like hotcakes thats for sure. The same performance as the MacBook Air and Pro for just £569!

Its gonna cannibalise the Pro 11 sales even further thats for sure, as many people will buy the Air 5 and MK for the price of Pro 11.
 
Would have been so much nicer with 128GB, but still not a bad upgrade at all. I will probably trade in my Air 4 for the 5, that blue looks niiice!
 
I'm confused. The new Air has USB-C, the M1, Center Stage, Apple Pencil compatibility ... it's basically a lower priced iPad Pro, minus the fancier camera. It's as if Apple wants to cannibalize their own devices.
 
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snipr125 said:
For UK customers we also got a £10 price drop so it’s £569 for the 64GB base model. Apple are gonna sell these like hotcakes thats for sure. The same performance as the MacBook Air and Pro for just £569!

Its gonna cannibalise the Pro 11 sales even further thats for sure, as many people will buy the Air 5 and MK for the price of Pro 11.
Click to expand...
Canada got a $30 reduction in price as well. $749 for the base model.
 
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Does anyone know if the magic keyboard is updated? Or is it the same one that has been around...? I don't recall it being available in white before...? I have the magic keyboard with the Air 4 and need to understand if I need to update the keyboard when upgrading from Air 4 --> 5. Thanks!
 
jayducharme said:
I'm confused. The new Air has USB-C, the M1, Center Stage, Apple Pencil compatibility ... it's basically a lower priced iPad Pro, minus the fancier camera. It's as if Apple wants to cannibalize their own devices.
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They do, Phil Schiller has said as much. Each iPad pushes on the next to make it better. Still I think I’d get an 11” pro over this because higher base storage, promotion, access to MM Wave 5G on the cellular models, and LiDAR. i do really like the colours though.
 
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ufgatorvet said:
Does anyone know if the magic keyboard is updated? Or is it the same one that has been around...? I don't recall it being available in white before...? I have the magic keyboard with the Air 4 and need to understand if I need to update the keyboard when upgrading from Air 4 --> 5. Thanks!
Click to expand...
No it uses the same MK so you don’t have to do anything, just attach your new Air 5 to your current MK and away you go. Ill be doing the same thing.

They introduced the White coloured version last year, but its just the colour, everything else is the same.
 
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While I wasn't expecting M1 in the refresh. I am still sitting here with my 6th gen iPad, and not really interested in spending money on a new iPad until Apple can prove it is worth it with iPadOS 16. I refuse to purchase these massively overpowered tablets that are crippled by the OS. Once they prove the software is worthy of the hardware I am a customer day one. Until then, I am going to continue to do the exact same thing you can do, but on a tablet that was released 4 years ago.

There is literally nothing the new iPads can do, that my 6th gen iPad can't do. (And no, I am not taking LIDAR pictures with my iPad at home...).

Apple has put itself into a position where they better be planning a helluva iPadOS 16 release come WWDC. Otherwise, I think there will be a lot of Buyer's Remorse. It's simply overkill right now and you can't tell me otherwise. I am really hoping Apple has something up its sleeve in June.
 
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I’m somewhat disappointed with the color options. They’re nowhere near as vibrant as the last generation’s options.
I have the mini in purple and that’s a very tame purple.

The only color I like here is the blue. Was hoping for a proper green like the iPad Air 4…
 
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Ok its faster, but why do I need any iPadOS apps to be faster? Its mostly light work apps , I mean some people use it to jot notes.

Overall its a nice incremental upgrade from the Air 4 but is there a reason I should be upgrading from Air 4 that I am missing?

metalsiren said:
and base is still 64?????? GTFO, base should be 128 give me a break lol
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if they made 128GB base no one will buy the 256gb , so they make the base unusable 64GB.
 
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I just bought the old version in December. Honestly I am not really sad about the M1, but I wish I waited for the brighter screen. The screen on my 2020 Air is extremely dull, and running it at max brightness gives it terrible battery life.
 
snipr125 said:
Its gonna cannibalise the Pro 11 sales even further thats for sure, as many people will buy the Air 5 and MK for the price of Pro 11.
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Not really. Most iPad Pro users have the 256gb variant so Air 256gb for $100 less has no 120hz so no go for artists and gamers.
What else would someone need M1 and 8gb Ram for?
 
DFZD said:
Yeah but doesn’t mean they have to put up with such lower specs even after paying so much.
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I am one of these people. I likened it earlier to the Mini 4 situation. We were buying a slightly less powerful device at launch and knew that, but it was a price worth paying for the form factor (A8 instead of an A8x with the Mini 4, and the Mini 6 having the A15 downclocked slightly and being very similar to the Air 4 performance wise.) There was a £100 difference between the two to compensate, which might represent a premium for the Mini depending on how you see the value of the two. Perhaps there’s something of the iPad 3 about it too, in that I and others never expected the Mini 6 to be completely blown out of the water so soon after its launch.

My jaw dropped when I heard M1, and as they were announcing it, I thought this is another £100 so the Mini would start at £479 as now and the Air would be £679 (and I’d add another £50 to that by Apple’s usual standards for the extra RAM.) At those prices I’d have still bought the Mini as the price difference plus my preference for the form factor justify it. I was expecting the Air to receive a full speed A15 or an A16 (as the A14 first launched in the Air 4) at the same price as the Air 4, and wouldn’t have cared as that was what I priced in when I got the Mini 6 close to launch. But M1 and a price decrease of £10 in the UK changes the equation and my preference for the Mini form factor and £90 doesn’t outweigh the incredible value of the Air and its much more futureproof specs. Hearing the 8GB RAM is the bit that really does it, as the M1 is a Pro chip that isn’t needed for me but would be nice to have at the price they are offering, where the RAM very likely will be based on history. What we thought would be a minor update now looks as though it will be supported for much longer. I don’t see how it can’t be with double the RAM, and I now worry about future updates becoming considerably more RAM hungry.
 
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Probably never going to happen, but it seems like such a waste that they don't at least give the option to run Mac apps on these iPads with M1. Still not regretting my move from an iPad Pro to a M1 MacBook Air. iPad would be great if it wasn't limited to running baby apps.
 
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jayducharme said:
I'm confused. The new Air has USB-C, the M1, Center Stage, Apple Pencil compatibility ... it's basically a lower priced iPad Pro, minus the fancier camera. It's as if Apple wants to cannibalize their own devices.
Click to expand...
The new iPad Air and 11” iPad Pro are nowhere near identical. Yes, they share the same chip and screen size, but guess what? The iphone 13/13pro do too and they are very different devices. The 11” iPad Pro has 120hz promotion, thunderbolt, quad speakers, 600 nits brightness, faceID, 128GB base storage and a nicer camera. Assuming you can find one on sale like I did ($699 at Best Buy for 128GB wifi) I’d argue that it’s more difficult to justify the puchase of an Air over a Pro.
 
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