The new iPads have arrived: Here’s how to pre-order

The Apple Store briefly went down yesterday, which means yes, the fruity brand has dropped some new iPads. and amazon(opens in a new tab)best Buy(opens in a new tab)and apples(opens in a new tab) Get ready to pre-order them ahead of their October 26 release.

First fall: the tenth generation iPad. Arriving on the scene just over a year after the ninth generation, the latest iPad brings a major (and much needed) redesign. Finally, the home button is gone, the thick bezel is gone, the edges are flat, and we have four different colorways and a larger 10.9-inch screen, reminiscent of the iPad Air. (Unfortunately, the headphone jack is also gone).

The tenth generation iPad comes in more colors than silver and space gray.
credit: apple

The upgrades aren’t just aesthetic. The iPad comes with a new A14 Bionic chip, which according to Apple provides a 20% increase in processing speed. The front facing camera is now also located on the landscape edge, which is huge for anyone who’s ever FaceTimed on an iPad and really didn’t want to awkwardly look to the side. Like the Air, the TouchID is located on the lock button and it comes with a USB-C charging port.

All of this comes at a noticeable price increase, with the 64GB iPad starting at $449, compared to $329 for the previous generation (the ninth generation is more affordable and on sale for $269).(opens in a new tab) At the time of writing, BTW).

For those looking for a tablet to replace their laptop, Apple also announced a new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros, which start with 128GB of storage space and come loaded with the M2 chip. This is the same processor found on the new MacBook Pro and Air released last summer. With so much power, tasks like high-end graphics gaming and large scale video and photo editing are best suited for this tablet.

On the design front, the Pro looks pretty similar to the previous generations. Other new features include ProRes video capture and the Apple Pencil “hover” capability, which detects the Pencil up to 12 mm away from the screen and allows a preview of any marks. Having a tablet that looks like a laptop also brings the price range down to laptop levels — the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 and then the 12.9-inch starts at $1,099.

Both the iPad and iPad Pro will come with iPadOS 16.1 and will again be available from Wednesday, October 26.