New Delhi: Apple’s latest tablets, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, are finally making their way to the Indian market. According to sources, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 sales will begin on November 29 in India.
E-commerce websites Infibeam and Flipkart have started taking pre-orders for the two Apple tablets, which were unveiled globally in late October.
iPad Air 2 is 18% thinner than its predecessor and measures just 6.1mm. The screen size remains constant at 9.7-inch, but now boasts of anti-reflective laminated coating that reduces glare by over half.
Weighing less than half a kilogram, iPad Air 2 features an improved Retina display for enhanced contrast. iPad Air 2 also has a Touch ID fingerprint sensor button and gold colour option, which were introduced in iPhone 5S last year.
The world’s thinnest tablet, iPad Air 2 is powered by a specially-designed A8X chip with second-generation 64-bit architecture and 40% faster CPU. It is an improved variation of the A8 chip used in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus by Apple. iPad Air 2 also has an M8 motion co-processor, just like the iPhone 6.
The camera too has got an upgrade. The new iPad Air 2 sports an 8MP iSight camera (instead of 5MP in earlier version) with f/2.4 aperture and an improved front-facing 1.2MP Facetime HD camera. The rear camera can shoot 1080p and slow motion video. The new iSight camera’s image signal processor has been designed by Apple itself.
Despite the upgraded microprocessor, faster Wi-Fi (with 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology) and broader LTE wireless support, iPad Air 2 will have a 10-hour battery life, same as in the earlier iPad Air.
While iPad Air 2 comes with such improvements over its predecessor, the new iPad mini 3 has not seen many upgrades. In fact, it is essentially the same as iPad mini 2 barring the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and gold colour option.
With the launch of iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, the prices of last year’s two Apple tablets have come down in India.
