Apple event 2022: iPad Air 5 unveiled with M1 chip, 5G support, and more

Apple event 2022: The company today launched its latest iPad Air 5 with its most powerful M1 processor, which is also powering the iPad Pro.

Apple today showed off a bunch of new products and one of them is the iPad Air 5. The company updated this tablet back in 2020 and a new version was due for an upgrade. This year, Apple chose to use its most powerful M1 processor for the fifth generation of the iPad Air, instead of the A15 Bionic chip powering the iPhone 13 series. Apple is blurring the lines between its mid-range iPad Air tablet and its flagship iPad Pro model with the addition of a powerful M1 chip to offer users flagship-level performance at a reasonable price.

The iPad Pro still remains the top-end model with features like a ProMotion display with XDR technology. For your reference, the iPad Air 4 packs an A14 Bionic processor. Apple claims that its M1 chip is about 60 per cent faster than the A14 Bionic SoC, which is powering the older generation of iPad Air. It features an 8-core CPU and 7-core GPU.

There are no changes in the design department and the iPad Air 5 comes with the same display with squared-off edges. It is equipped with a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with 3.8 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness, a P3 wide colour gamut, True Tone, and an anti-reflective screen coating. A Touch ID-based fingerprint sensor is built-in into the power button for additional security. The device has support for eSIM, stereo speakers, and Wi-Fi 6 too.

Apple has also included a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera on the front for a better video call experience. The device also gets support for Apple’s Centre Stage feature as well. This basically helps detect the subject during a video call and puts it on the front. So, when others join in, the camera detects them too, and smoothly zooms out to include them in the conversation. There is a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera on the back of iPad Air that allows users to capture 4K videos as well.

The new iPad Air 5 will be available to order starting March 11. As for the pricing, the Wi-Fi models of iPad Air 5 are available with a starting price of Rs 54,900 in India and Wi-Fi + Cellular models will cost Rs 68,900. The new tablet will be up for sale with up to 256GB configurations and be sold in space grey, starlight, pink, purple, and blue colours.