iPad

Announced at a March 2018 Apple event so heavily focused on education it was held in an actual school, the iPad is nonetheless, iPad 9.7-inch 2018. Far from being scaled down to make it cheaper for schools, it actually adds some features previously found only in its ‘Pro’ big brothers.

Yes, it’s being pushed at launch as an inexpensive platform for school kids, students and teachers to access the “200,000” education-focussed iOS apps available. But it is actually this year’s new iPad for grown-ups, too.

The new iPad has a 9.7-inch Retina Screen that is compatible with Apple Pencil thanks to a higher-resolution touch sensor. Apple’s own productivity apps – Pages, Numbers, and Keynote – have been updated accordingly. Annotations made with Pencil are stored specifically as an addition to the paragraph they’re annotating. So that’s nice.

Another former iPad Pro-only feature carried over is its advanced tilt and pressure sensing.

More standard spec details: 10 hours battery, 9.7-inch, 2048×1536-pixel, 264 ppi screen. 8-megapixel/1080p front camera, 1.2-meg/720p front ‘FaceTime’ camera.

The new iPad runs on Apple’s 64-bit, quadcore, A10 Fusion chip. This is a slightly more powerful version of the A10 that powered the last iPad. You can have either 32GB or 128GB and either Wi-Fi connectivity only, or 4G and Wi-Fi.

Unlocking is via Touch ID fingerprint reading, rather than facial recognition. Weight is about 450g, so young arms may lift it.

A lot of the focus at launch, education and creativity aside, was on augmented reality, which the A10 Fusion chip is supposedly engineered to be especially adept with.

iPad 2018 is the 6th generation of the iPad fam, and comes in silver, space grey or a ‘new’ gold finish that looks rather like the old gold finish.

The base model with Wi-Fi is priced at ₹28,000 whereas the Wi-Fi+Cellular model is priced at ₹38,600. The Apple Pencil can be purchased separately for ₹7,600.

Say goodbye to bezels and home buttons where all Apple devices are concerned as the company looks set to release a new iPad X, much like the iPhone X.

The new iPads, according to Bloomberg, are being worked on by Apple now with a plan to unleash them in 2018. So what will this new generation of iPad be like and will it reinvigorate iPad love once more?

The new iPad will apparently come with the bezel-free style screen that the iPhone X offers. Will it have that top notch though? We’ll have to wait and see. However it sounds like Apple won’t be able to make the jump to OLED and will stick with LCD, for the first new iPad models at least due to manufacturing constraints.

The iPad for 2018 should have a 10.5-inch screen size and do away with Touch ID in favour of the new Face ID security system. The could suggest better front-facing selfie cameras too.

Will the new iPad have a glass back and charge wirelessly? And will it also be water resistant like the iPhone X? Both seem likely if Apple wants to offer a device that sits at the level the iPhone X is on. The wireless charging feature would also be a nice way to offer a complete range of Apple devices that can all be charged on a single surface at night, avoiding plugging in more devices.

Apple is also allegedly working on an improved version of the Apple Pencil which will get unveiled alongside this new iPad.

While the report says the new iPad X style tablets won’t be released for around a year we’re hoping these arrive sooner in 2018 than later.

Apple has replaced the iPad Air 2 with a new iPad, referred to simply as ‘new 9.7-inch iPad’ or, ‘new iPad’, as we’re sure it will be more commonly known!

Apparently the new iPad features a ‘brighter’ retina display as well as the Apple A9 chip (plus the M9 co-processor) from the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus and iPhone SE.

iPad comes in silver, gold and space grey (the same as before) and starts at Rs. 28,900 for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and Rs. 39,900 for the 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 32GB and 128GB storage options remain the same as do the 8 megapixel and 1.2 megapixel cameras.

It is a bit shallower in depth at 6.1mm versus the 7.5mm of the older model but the height and width remain the same.

Also announced today was a new red version of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus as well as the new iPad mini 4, available in silver, gold and space grey, now offers more capacity for the same price starting at Rs. 34,900 for the 128GB Wi-Fi model and Rs. 45,900 for the 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Yep, you read that right, the mini 4 now appears to be only available in a 128GB variant now.

The new iPad is available to order beginning Friday (March 24) in the US and more than 20 countries and regions including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Turkey and other countries and regions will follow in April. Brazil, Taiwan and other countries and regions will follow in May.

Polyurethane Smart Covers for iPad are available for Rs. 3,700 in charcoal grey, white, midnight blue, pink sand and (RED).