Hands-on with Apple’s new 10.5-inch iPad Air and 7.9-inch iPad mini

“Apple last week surprised us with a brand new iPad in the iPad Air family and a new iPad mini 5, both of which are outfitted with Apple’s latest chip technology,” Juli Clover writes for MacRumors.
“Priced at $399 for the iPad mini and $499 for the iPad Air, Apple’s refreshed iPads are not as expensive as the iPad Pro (starts at $799) nor as affordable as the 6th-generation 2018 iPad (starts at $329), and the hardware and design match up with a middle-of-the-road tablet,” Clover writes. “The iPad Air is using the same design as the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, while the iPad mini 5 uses the same design as the previous-generation iPad mini 4. Both tablets feature thick top and bottom bezels, with the bottom bezel housing a Touch ID Home button for biometric authentication purposes.”
The new iPad Air with support for Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard introduces high-end features and performance at a breakthrough price.
 
“Functionally, both the iPad Air 3 and the iPad mini 5 are the same tablet with the same specs, with the only difference between the two being screen size and Smart Keyboard compatibility,” Clover writes. “The iPad Air has a Smart Connector that can be used with a Smart Keyboard, which costs $159. There’s no Smart Keyboard for iPad mini because it lacks a Smart Connector.”
Apple’s new iPad mini brings Apple Pencil support, Retina display and the A12 Bionic chip.
 
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That 10.5-inch iPad Air, in particular, is going to be an iPad that many people will own and love for many, many years.
We still have multiple iPad Air 2 units kicking around, which we got in October 2014, doing daily work and play today!