Apple Completely Redesigns iPad Air With A14 Bionic Chip

MakeUseOf

By Dave LeClair

Published Sep 15, 2020

The iPad Air is getting a huge overhaul, and it looks to be a must-own tablet.

Apple led off its iPad presentation with the announcement of the eighth-generation entry-level iPad. However, that was just the warmup, as the main event was the reveal of a completely redesigned iPad Air.

The company is calling the new iPad Air the "most powerful, versatile, and colorful iPad Air ever," and based on the details revealed during Apple's big event, those claims definitely sound accurate.

What's New With the Latest iPad Air Model?

The first thing coming to the new iPad Air is a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, which looks like it'll show off all sorts of apps and media absolutely beautifully. That screen will boast 3.8 million pixels, full lamination, P3 wide color support, True Tone, and an anti-reflective coating.

Powering that new display is the main big upgrade coming to the iPad Air---the new A14 Bionic chip. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said that this is "Apple’s most powerful chip ever made."

Apple cites the power of this chip making it easier to edit 4K videos, create works of art, and play immersive games on the upcoming tablet.

The beastly A14 Bionic will provide a 40-percent boost in CPU performance, and a new 4-core graphics architecture brings a 30-percent improvement in graphics.

To make unlocking the iPad Air easier, Apple is integrating the Touch ID sensor into the top button (a feature that isn't new in the world of tablets but is new to Apple devices).

For the cameras, Apple is including a 7MP front-facing camera and the same 12MP rear camera used in iPad Pro for photos and 4K video capture. Neither of these is rewriting the book on tablet cameras, but they sound solid enough.

Perhaps the most shocking change coming to the iPad Air is the including of USB-C. Hopefully, this opens the door to using USB-C on future Apple devices (such as the next iPhone, which we hope to learn more about soon).