Inside the new iPad 2017

Apple has released a new iPad to replace its old stalwart the Air 2. This sees an end to the Air line, at least for the time being.

The new iPad shares much of the same chassis design as the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, measuring in at 240 x 169.5 x 7.5mm, and weighing 469g for the WiFi only model or 478g if you also want cellular capabilities. This does make it slightly heavier and more portly than the Pro, but it’s still a svelte device overall.

There are three colour options available (Space Grey, Silver, and Gold) with two storage capacities – 32GB (£339 WiFi / £469 WiFi & Cellular) or 128GB (£429 WiFi / £559 WiFi & Cellular).

It also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack! Will wonders never cease?

The new iPad is available to order now from Apple, although delivery times are currently about 10 to 14 days. Read next: iPad 2017 vs iPad mini 4

Like many of its brethren the new iPad features a 9.7-inch Retina display, boasting a resolution of 2048 x 1536 and 264ppi.

That’s the same resolution and pixel density as the current iPad Pro, but the lower price point means that the new model misses out on the True Tone display and anti-reflective coating that’s sported by the more expensive device.

It also doesn’t support the Apple Pencil or Smart Keyboard, both of which remain Pro exclusives.

Still looks lovely, though.

While it might miss out on some of the higher-end features found on the Pro, the new iPad does come with Touch ID.

This means you can now easily log in, buy apps or music, and even whip the device out at Costa to pay for your latte. Although we’d advise against the latter, mainly from an aesthetic standpoint.

Opening up the new iPad reveals that the majority of its innards consists of battery.

iFixit recently conducted one of its excellent teardowns, where it concluded that the 32.4 Wh battery is the same as the one used on the original iPad Air 1.

This makes it larger than the units fitted in both the iPad Air 2 and the original iPad Pro. Apple estimates that users will get ten hours of use out of a full charge, and we’re inclined to believe those numbers.

Image courtesy of iFixit. Read its comprehensive iPad teardown for more details.

The rear 8Mp f/2.4 aperture camera enables users to shoot crisp, colourful images, with HDR and Burst modes for added flexibility. There’s auto image stabilisation and video image stabilisation too, so shots should remain steady. Read next: iPad photography tips.

Speaking of video, there’s full 1080p (30fps) HD capabilities, with support for Slo-Mo (120fps) and time-lapse recording. 

The front-facing 1.2Mp shooter is also going to be solid for selfies and FaceTime calls.

These are all decent options and certainly meet expectations at this price point, but if you want more optical prowess then the iPad Pro offers a 12Mp rear unit (with 4K video recording), a 5Mp front-facing camera, and the Retina Flash feature which lights up selfies by flashing the screen. (It hasn’t got a proper front-facing flash, but this is a respectable substitute.)

At the heart of the new iPad, or more accurately around the edges of that humongous battery, is the motherboard that hosts Apple’s choice of brain power.

The CPU is an A9 chip with 64bit architecture and an embedded M9 co-processor. This is accompanied by 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The same unit can be found in the iPhone 6s, so there’s plenty of oomph available.

Next to that is the NAND flash storage Apple uses to keep things sprightly. NFC controllers are present to aid the Apple Pay functions, while the WiFi components deliver dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compatibility, with MIMO.

Rounding things off is Bluetooth 4.2, plus the accelerometer, barometer and three-axis gyro sensors.

Apple does fit a lot into those slim packages.

If all this seems tempting then you can order the new iPad directly from Apple today.

Image courtesy of iFixit.com