Apple announced a new iPad at its ‘California Streaming’ event on Tuesday. It comes with the A13 Bionic chip, a 10.2-inch Retina display with True Tone, and a 12MP Ultra Wide front camera. Apple says that despite the upgrades, the new iPad continues to boast one-day battery life.
Ninth-Generation iPad Offers More Memory and Additional Features Like Center Stage
The latest iPad starts at US$329. Online orders open today, with the device in stores from Friday, September 24.
Apple says the A13 Bionic chip delivers 20 percent better performance compared to the previous generation. It also contains the Neural Engine, which facilitates machine learning features like live text, which recongnizes text in photos and will be available in iPadOS 15.
The new camera offers the Center Stage feature, and there is also support for Apple Pencil (1st generation) and Smart Keyboard. There is also twice the storage of the previous generation, starting at 64GB. The enclosure is made of 100 percent recycled aluminum.
Commenting, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said:
iPad has never been more essential for working, learning, and communicating, and we’re excited to bring one of the biggest updates ever to our most popular iPad. With the powerful A13 Bionic, more engaging video calls with Center Stage, and double the storage, the new iPad delivers advanced capabilities, versatility, and simplicity at an incredible value.
Charlotte:
I ordered one of these puppies for my son, who, two nights before the announcement, dropped his older first gen iPad Pro face down onto our kitchen tile floor. Rather than trying to deal with that train wreck, I got him one of these as a place holder. He’s still holding out for my current iPad Pro, which I had planned to upgrade this year, but did not like the 12.9” form factor, that alone had the Liquid Retina XDR display. Holding out for that display on the 11” model, then it’s his.
I tried to get him to take a look at the new iPad mini, for which the lad maintains an outright disdain (calls it Apple’s most useless product). The upgrade, and the fact that it comes in purple (his favourite colour and the colour for his favourite American football team – the Ravens), momentarily stifled his outright dismissiveness – he at least read through the specs. I almost had him with, ‘This is the iPad that Geordi La Forge used on STNG’. Almost. There was a time…
And while tempted to get a mini for myself, with my readily portable 11”, it would be overkill. If I’m going to splash money around, I’d rather splurge for a pair of Airpods Max.
With a USB-C connector. Apple needs a program where we can turn in our Lightning cables for free USB-C ones, Charger blocks too.