The iPad Air is the fifth in Apple's line of 10 inch tablets. This time, the Air is getting a new super skinny design.



The redesign rumors were true but its even slicker than imagined. It features the first significant update to the hardware since the iPad 3, which added a retina display and an increase in heft due to a hulking battery.

The iPad Air measures 7.5mm thick and is 20 percent thinner than its 9.5mm predecessor. It has a flat backed design and is also lighter, weighing just one pound compared to the 1.44 pounds before.

The iPad's 9.7-inch screen size and 2,048 × 1,536 resolution remain unchanged. It'll be available in silver and space gray.

What's inside?

The iPad Air runs the same A7 system chip powering the iPhone 5S. The new chip doubles the iPad Air's graphics and computational performance compared to the 4th gen model. It is eight times faster with CPU performance and 72 times faster in graphics compared to the original.

The chip also supports 64 bit architecture and is Apple's proofing its ecosystem for devices with more than 4GB of RAM. The CPU features an underlying improvement in architecture too.

The A7's new M7 Motion Coprocessor manages inputs from the iPads built-in sensors. It has Wi-Fi with MIMO which is two times faster than before and dual built-in microphones that will help improve audio quality.

Camera

The iPad Air's camera is still just 5 megapixels. The 1.2 megapixel 720p FaceTime camera has been upgraded to shoot in full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Battery Life

The iPad 3 was big because it needed more power to display some beautiful retina graphics. According to Phil Schiller the iPad Air will get 10 hours, just like before. Pretty impressive even though its lost some weight from previous designs.

Smart Cases

Apple will offer colorful Smart Cases that enclose the whole iPad. They'll cost $80.

Availability

iPad Air will hit stores on November 1st in 16/32/64/128 GB Wi-Fi models and LTE models.