iPad Pro, MacBook Air & Mac mini : Apple's October Event
Apple finally upgraded it's iPad Pro, MacBook Air & Mac mini with the latest in technology and design. All the products are announced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House in New York in a special Event that is held on October 30th.
iPad Pro 2018
The new iPad Pro comes with an all-new "Liquid Retina" super hi-res edge to edge 11" true-tone display with a resolution of 1668 x 2388 giving it a pixel density of ~265 pixels per inch. The interesting thing to note here is that the new displays have a refresh rate of 120hz. These new iPad's ditch the home button just like it's iPhone series in favour of Face recognition through Infrared & depth sensors.
Technical Specifications
These tablets come packed with Apple's A12X bionic chip that is based on a 7nm process which means that it will be more powerful than it's predecessors and also less power hungry. The device sports 4GB of RAM and comes in various storage configurations. The maximum storage option goes up to 1Terabyte which is pretty insane but also increases the price by a huge margin.
There's a single 12MP camera on the back with f1.8 aperture and incorporates Phase Detection Auto Focus technology. The back camera sensor can record 4K videos at 60 frames per second and slow-motion videos at 240fps at HD resolution. Now talking about the front-facing camera for face cam and selfies, we have a 7MP sensor with an f2.2 aperture and supports face detection technology and is capable of recording 1080p videos at 30FPS.
These new iPads will be available in two different Screen sizes. One with an 11" display and another with a 12.9" display. The later has its footprint reduced by a substantial margin thanks to the edge to edge display, and it comes with a resolution of 2048 x 2732. Rest of the specifications remain the same in both the variants. There are two colours to choose from either Silver or Space grey.
It might be the first time it has ever happened; Apple ditched its proprietary lightning USB Port in favour of USB Type-C, which became the pretty standard for phones nowadays.
Price & Availability
These models will be up for sale from 7th of November in both online and offline Apple Stores starting with a base price of $799 for 11" WiFi only model and $999 for the base variant of iPad Pro with Wi-Fi Only.
The Pencil 2 from Apple will also be up for grabs alongside the new iPads. It features an entirely new design and attaches to the side via a magnet. It does come with wireless induction charging, so you don't need to worry about cables ! However, you will have to shell some extra cash for this one as this is priced at a whopping $129.
MacBook Air 2018
Apple's MacBook Air, it's somewhat affordable variant of it's MacBook series received an upgrade too, finally after waiting for three years. It's made from recycled aluminium and comes in 3 Colors Gold, Silver & Space Grey. It is the first MacBook Air to sport a Retina Display.
Technical Specifications
This new laptop from Apple comes with 13.3" IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 2560x1600 which give it's a pixel density of 227 pixels per inch and 16:10 aspect ratio. It has Touch ID built in for added protection and data security. Coming to the processor we have a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 series CPU which can Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz, & comes with a 4MB L3 cache. This CPU comes with Intel Ultra HD Graphics 617 which can handle most day to day graphic intensive tasks.
There's 8GB of LPDDR3 Random Access Memory running at 2133Mhz on the base model but can be increased up to 16GBs if you choose to do so. Similar is the case with onboard storage as the base model comes with 128GB of PCIe based SSD but can be maxed out to 1.5TB if you can shell out extra cash. The "Butterfly" keyboard has also been worked upon, and the trackpad size has been increased by 20%. It now comes with Force touch and pressure sensing capabilities just like it's elder siblings. Multi-touch is also supported. There are onboard WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2 for connectivity.
Ports
Following ports are present on the device
- Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports
- One 3.5 mm Audio Jack
The Thunderbolt 3 ports can be used to either connect to an External monitor with support for resolution up to 5K at 60hz, or they can be used to add an external GPU enclosure. An HD Webcam is also present for facetime and other cameras related work.
Price
MacBook Air 13.3" ( Retina Display 8GB RAM & 128GB SSD) - $1119 US
Mac Mini 2018
Mac mini is the compact PC from Apple with a minimal footprint and is catered towards creators & professionals. The new Mac mini announced at the keynote now comes in space grey and can be maxed out with up to 64GB of RAM, unlike the previous version which maxed out at 16GB. There are no major design changes when compared with the previous model, but the under the hood components have seen a big upgrade.
Technical Specifications
Here are the specs for the Entry Model of the Mac Mini: - 3.6 GHz Quad Core i3 8th Gen Processor
- 8GB of DDR4 (SO-DIMM ) RAM
- 128GB SSD Storage
This one retails for about $799 US. There are also two other models one with an i5 Processor and another one with i7.
For the i5 variant: 3.0 GHz Hexacore i5 Processor with Turbo Boost - 8GB of DDR4 (SO-DIMM ) RAM - 256GB SSD Storage. The i5 version will be available for a price of $1099 US. The Mini can further be upgraded with top of the line hardware, and the price can go up to a point where it competes with Surface Studio 2. All the variants come with Intel's Ultra HD 630 Integrated Graphics to handle various graphics-intensive tasks. Like all the Apple products released this year, the Mac mini to comes with Apple's T2 Chip for added security. Coming to the availability of ports we have,
- 1 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port
- 1 x HDMI Port
- 4 x Thunderbolt 3
- 2 x USB Type A
- 3.5 mm Audio Jack
The new Mac mini runs on MacOS Mojave and incorporates all the features that come with it.
That's all I have for you guys. Keep checking our website for news on various product launches and Android related coverage. If you have any suggestions, leave it in the comments below, and we will take note of it and try to improve in the coming future.
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