IPad Air Price Starts At $499: Thinner, Lighter And Faster Tablet Unveiled At Apple’s Fall Event

Apple officially unveiled the fifth-generation of its top-selling tablet last Tuesday, during the Apple Fall Event in San Francisco. iPad Air price will start at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi-only model and go up to $629 for a 16GB with 4G LTE connectivity and will be available on market in November 1.

Apple executive Phil Schiller introduced the new 9.7-inch (Retina Display with 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution) iPad Air, which weighs only 1 pound, 28 percent lighter from its predecessor and 20 percent thinner at only 7.5mm thick, tagging it as the lightest full-sized tablet on the market.  

The tablet will be available in silver and white, space grey and black color options. iPad Air is the first major redesign of Apple for its flagship tablet since the release of iPad 2 on March 2011.

The full-sized tablet is equipped with Apple's faster 64-bit A7 chip processor and M7 motion co-processor also available in iPhone 5s. Apple claims that the newer processor is eight times faster and has 72 times better graphics performance than the older one. iPad Air boasts a 5-megapixel iSight camera and FaceTime HD front-facing camera. The new tablet has 10 hours improved battery life. Thanks to its MIMO 802.11n support, this feature packed tablet can double the data transfer rate on Wi-Fi.

In addition, Apple's big event launched a couple of other products as well. Included is the new iPad Mini, which gets a crisper Retina display and packed with a faster A7 chip processor as well. Apple will be offering its new mini tablets at $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi, while cellular versions start at $529. iPad mini will be available later in November.

Apple will be keeping the older iPad Mini and will get a price drop to $299 for the entry model. The large iPad 2 is still going to be available, which will be available at $399 for the base model.