Last month Apple revealed the new iPad Air. And from today it’s available in Australia. It had been rumoured for awhile now, but I’m not sure how many of us expected it to be so robust. My initial hot take is that it’s going to be difficult to recommend the iPad Pro now.
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iPad Air 4 Australian Price
Here in Australia the new iPad Air 4 starts at $899 for the 64GB version. The 256GB model starts at $1,129. As always, the cellular models will cost extra.
This is more expensive than the iPad Air 3, but the newer models have gotten some significant upgrades.
Comparatively, the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,329 for the 128GB model. Now to be fair, that is double the storage and the Pro has quite a bit going on under the hood. But considering what the new iPad Air 4 does offer, spending $430 less will be a no brainer for some people.
iPad Air 4 features
So this is what the new iPad Air 4 is packing.
It comes with a 10.9-inch liquid retina all-screen display and Apple’s flagship A14 bionic chip. This is said to be 40 per cent faster than the previous 7nm chipset and have 3o per cent faster graphics.
Touch ID is also back! It has been baked into the power button at the top of the Air so it can have an almost-bezel-free display.
While its guts aren’t as powerful as the iPad Pro, it comes in swinging when it comes to the peripherals.
The new iPad Air works with the second generation Apple Pencil, and even has a magnetic charging zone on-device, just like the iPad Pro. It’s also compatible with the brand news, and truly excellent, Magic Keyboard that Apple launched earlier this year.
And similar to the Pro once again, the iPad Air now has USB-C charging.
If you’re looking for a laptop alternative, it’s hard to say whether the iPad Air 4 will be able to do the same job as the Pro. However, if you’re more interested in the conclusions than beefier internal specs, it’s really hard to go past the Air.
I’ll reserve my final judgement for after actually using it myself, but this thing looks good. I just can’t see myself recommending something so much more expensive if there’s more value in a far cheaper option.
Availability
The new iPad Air 4 is available from today in Australia.
Disclosure: the author owns 12 shares in Apple.