The iPad Air 2020 is more like the iPad Pro and starts at USD 599
At today’s livestreamed event, Apple unveiled a new iPad Air. Notable improvements include a design overhaul, new colors, upgraded hardware, and USB-C connectivity – all that at an attractive USD 599 starting price.
Apple iPad Air 2020
Positioned between the regular iPad and the more upscale iPad Pro, the new iPad Air’s look and feel is now in-line with the Pro model. The screen bezels have been thinned out and the “Liquid Retina” screen itself has grown to 10.9 inches diagonal, with a resolution of 2360 x 1640.
There are two things which will be of interest for musicians and producers. First off, Apple is switching the iPad Air to USB-C with support for 20W charging and 5Gbps data transfer speeds. That’s a sound decision, but any of your Lighting-connected peripherals are immediately rendered obsolete.
Second, the new A14 Bionic chipset is not only about a 40% performance increase over the old iPad Air. A new 16-core Neural Engine is in place to boost machine learning, enabling new possibilities for machine learning music apps like DJ Pro AI. With up to 11 trillion operations per second, it’s safe to say apps like this one will work a lot more smoothly. Meanwhile, developers have a whole new engine to rely on in exploring machine learning opportunities. Lots of great stuff could be thrown at music producers – think automated mastering, song construction, generative synths and so on.
Additionally, the iPad Air 2020 has stereo speakers in landscape mode to let you enjoy wider, truer sound while watching video or working in landscape. Perhaps these speakers will be more usable for makeshift monitoring when you want to record or compose, but don’t have headphones or external speakers at your disposal.
Just so you know, the iPad Air 2020 is also fully compatible with the Magic Keyboard cover and trackpad, the Smart Keyboard Folio, and the latest Apple Pencil. All in all, that’s quite the creative potential built into this svelte tablet.
Source: Apple
Price and release date
Starting at USD 599 for a 64GB Wi-Fi model and available in five colors, the iPad Air 2020 will ship in October running iPad OS 14.
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