William Gallagher
The new iPad Air 4 is now officially on sale, with pre-orders starting today and shipments beginning next week.
At its September "Time Flies" event, Apple was unusually vague about when the new iPad Air 4 would go on sale, and simply said it would be "next month." Now the device is available for pre-orders in all its configurations, and the first buyers will be receiving their iPad Air 4 from next week.
The iPad Air 4 was a stand-out launch at the September event, bringing as it does many of the iPad Pro's features to the middle-range device. The new 2020 model is significantly improved on last year's iPad Air 3, with a larger screen, faster processor, and improved rear camera.
This 2020 model also received a physical redesign, which makes it more resemble the current iPad Pro range. A combination of the redesign, and the improved specifications, even mean that for some users, the new iPad Air 4 is a better buy than the 11-inch iPad Pro.
That's because the iPad Air 4 features a similar larger screen size — 10.9 inches versus 11 inches — plus the A14 Bionic processor instead of the iPad Pro's A12Z Bionic one. It's also now got the faster USB-C charging connector.
The iPad Air 4 starts at $599 for a 64GB Wi-Fi-only model. It's also available in 256GB, and optionally with LTE cellular. The highest capacity LTE model costs $879, and Apple is promoting how you can buy using Apple Card and spread out the cost with interest-free instalments.
Malcolm Owen
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
4 Comments
Very tempting...
still, I feel a “professional” responsibility to give Apple a chance to show their Pro iPad plans before I make a move.
Maybe more importantly, what is Adobe’s plan with Photoshop? Adobe Max is at the end of the month. Presumably, their Sensei AI features will leverage the improved Neural Engine components of the A14 to good effect. Many of the newest, bestest Photoshop features use Sensei AI.
Saw it was finally, finally available *finally* and placed an order for this, a case, and pencil already. This looks amazing and I don't need the Pro features and I'm looking forward to it.
Very excited for this iPad Air! This iPad in my opinion lives up to the Air name and most interesting enough the iPad Name and original design esthetic. Matched with an Apple keyboard with trackpad 11in this will be a phenomenal productivity iPad for professional use along with educational purposes for the current working and educational needs during pandemic. I do wish Apple would of made an actual date of release rather then just making it available today during the pre-order for the iPhone 12 & Pro models. I think they missed an opportunity to make it a bigger deal then It was made to be. The new Air has enough weight behind it to have its own special pre-order date and availability date rather then just shoving it in with the iPhone. That’s from a consumer an former employee of AAPL down to 119.02 points at the end of trading. Air has all the Magic of Apple just not the right execution date.
Before I purchased the iPad 10.5 Pro I had the iPad Air 2 and actually I was more satisfied with the second one, mainly due the better battery life. I hope that my new Air 4 will be also battery friendly. The Touch ID is also important for me, thats the reason for purchasing an iPhone SE instead of the new Twelve.