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Wednesday’s Apple leaks were spot-on. At the Apple event Thursday the company took the wraps off two new iPads: the Air 2 and Mini 3. Preorders start Friday, with shipping expected a week later. What’s your take?
Here’s mine: The new models really can’t be described as anything but evolutionary. The iPad Air 2 is 18 percent thinner than its predecessor, which was already pretty thin. It packs a faster processor, upgraded cameras, a new color option (gold) and Touch ID.
As for the Mini 3 , it’s no thinner, but it has all the same improvements and additions as its bigger brother no faster, and really unchanged overall — save for the addition of a gold option and Touch ID. Update: As many readers correctly pointed out, the Mini 3 is largely unchanged.
Even the prices haven’t changed: the Air 2 starts at $499; the Mini 3, at $399. However, Apple did amp up the storage on higher-end models, jumping to 64GB and 128GB — same as on the iPhone 6 lineup — for an additional $100 or $200.
Photo by Rick Broida/CNET
Now, one could argue that Apple had already set the bar pretty high with previous iPads, so there wasn’t much left to do except make it a little faster, a little thinner, and so on.
On the other hand, the new products deliver zero innovation, at least relative to the models that came before. Surely Apple could have pulled at least one rabbit out of its hat, could have generated some new buzz in the seemingly stagnant tablet market? Alas, not today.
What are your thoughts? Vote in our poll, then hit the comments to talk up the new iPads. Exactly what you were hoping for, or kind of a letdown? See all CNET’s Apple event coverage here.
