![](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/f1df8c38beacbedef1be74bf1e4658f13cfff480/hub/2013/11/01/002f8b3c-8a3f-11e3-a24e-d4ae52e62bcc/ipad-air-ifixit.jpg?auto=webp&width=1200)
The iPad Air is slimmer than a supermodel with food poisoning, which means Apple has to fit an awful lot of technology into not an awful lot of space. Let’s take a look inside to find out more about the new chip, smaller battery and other technology in the slimline tablet.
The intrepid gadget-probers at iFixit cracked the back of the Air to poke about in its innards. The new iPad Air is half the width and half the weight of its predecessor, which means it’s a pretty impressive engineering feat to pack all that into such a slender frame.
The downside of this precision engineering is that it’s darn near impossible to fix should something go wrong. In fact, iFixit gives the iPad Air a repairability score of just 2 out of 10.
The battery is shrunk to fit, a two cell 32.9 WHr battery replacing the older iPad’s three cell 43WHr power pack. Yet the battery life remains the same, which means the A7 processor has been improved to suck up less juice.
Although the Apple iPhone 5S also has an A7 chip, it appears to be a slightly different version.
-
Tablet showdown:
Click here to compare the iPad Air, iPad mini, Google Nexus 7, Tesco Hudl, Microsoft Surface 2, Nokia Lumia 2520 and more
There are two microphones on the top, which allow for noise cancelling to improve the quality of voice chats when you’re Skyping.
![](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/27077c1a0676ea446e73b23fd3b6036bf47c9865/hub/2013/10/23/cc6b5abc-8ed3-11e3-a24e-d4ae52e62bcc/original.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=110&width=196)
Now playing:
Watch this:
Apple iPad Air hands-on
1:27
The iPad went on sale today, with some shops throwing open their doors at 8am. The new generation of the 7-inch iPad mini will follow some time this month.
Are you excited about the new iPads? What’s the best tablet around? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook wall.