American technology major Apple on Tuesday (September 14) pull the wraps off the new line of tablets-- iPad (9th gen) and iPad mini (6th gen).
The iPad (9th gen) features pretty much the same design as the predecessor but houses an upgraded processor and better camera hardware.
It features a 10.2-inch Retina display with True Tone technology to ensure the images and videos appear more natural. This helps users to have a more comfortable viewing experience.
Inside, it houses a powerful A13 Bionic chip, which promises to deliver up to 20 percent performance boost over the previous generation. Also, it is touted to be 3x faster than the best-selling Chromebook, and up to a whopping 6x faster than the best-selling Android tablet.
"The added performance will allow users to seamlessly run advanced apps and games on the most affordable iPad. The Neural Engine in A13 Bionic also powers next-level machine learning capabilities, including Live Text coming in iPadOS 15, which uses on-device intelligence to recognise text in a photo that users can take action on," the company said.
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Another big upgrade is the photography hardware. The new iPad features an ultra-wide-angle 12MP front camera with a powerful Neural Engine. It now supports the Centre Stage feature, which ensures the users are placed at the center of the frame, even while moving during a video conference even on third-party apps such as Zoom and Webex.
Apple iPad mini (6th Gen)
As far as the new iPad mini is concerned, it is more modern in terms of looks. It has a flat edge design on the lines of the latest iPhone 13 series and the iPad Pro series.
Also, it comes with an all-new array of colours--pink, starlight, purple, and space grey.
It features a compact form factor with an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display with narrow borders. It offers a peak brightness of 500 nits, P3 wide colour gamut, and comes with an anti-reflective screen coating, True Tone, and full lamination. It also boasts new landscape stereo speakers.
To keep the slim bezels, Apple has moved the Touch ID to the top button of the iPad mini.
Under-the-hood, the new iPad mini ships with the new and powerful Apple A15 Bionic chipset. It features a 6-core CPU, which promises a 40 percent jump in performance, and the 5-core GPU to deliver an 80 percent leap in graphics performance compared to the previous generation of iPad mini.
"A15 Bionic on iPad mini handles even the most demanding tasks — from graphically rich games to pro apps used by designers, pilots, doctors, and more. With its powerful performance and compact design, iPad mini is the ultimate tool users can take anywhere.," the company said.
Like the iPad 9th gen, the mini model too, comes with 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera on the front. It will also support the Centre Stage feature for video calling.
On the back too, it houses a 12MP sensor with Focus Pixels and a larger aperture to capture sharp, vivid photos. It supports True Tone flash, for capturing images in low light. With a new ISP in A15 Bionic, it promises to capture natural-looking photos with Smart HDR, which improves image quality by recovering details in shadows and highlights.
Apple iPad mini 6th gen also supports 5G and whenever the infrastructure gets ready in India, it will be able to support peak Internet speeds of up to 3.5Gbps in ideal conditions.
After iPad Pro series, Apple has incorporated a Type-C port in the new iPad mini. This will immensely help professionals to connect cameras and external storage and displays up to 4K. It will support up to 5Gbps data transfer.
And, the new iPad mini supports Apple Pencil (2nd Gen). This will help users to utilise the accessory for creative works such as caricatures, cartoons in addition to taking notes.
An interesting aspect of the iPad 9th gen and iPad mini 6th gen is that they are made of features 100 per cent recycled aluminium in the enclosure. The new iPads also use 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board, and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in the magnets in the enclosure.
Price and availability details
The base model of the iPad 9th gen will be available with 64GB, double the previous model, which by the way starts at 32GB.
The Wi-Fi models of the iPad are available with a starting price of Rs 30,900, and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at Rs 42,900, in silver and space grey finishes. A 256GB option is also available.
As far as the accessories are concerned, Apple Pencil (1st Gen) is compatible with iPad (9th generation) and is available for Rs 8,500.
Smart Keyboard for iPad is available for Rs 13,900 with layouts for over 30 languages, including simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Smart Cover for iPad is available for Rs 3500 in black, white, and English lavender.
The Wi-Fi models of iPad mini are available with a starting price of Rs 46900 and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at Rs 60,900. The new iPad mini, in 64GB and 256GB configurations, comes in pink, starlight, purple, and space grey finishes.
Apple Pencil (2nd Gen), available for purchase separately, is compatible with iPad mini for Rs 10,900.
The new Smart Folio for iPad mini is available for Rs 5500 in black, white, dark cherry, English lavender, and electric orange.
Both the new iPad and the iPad mini are available to order beginning today on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the US, with availability beginning September 24.
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