The ‘other’ Apple 2018 Event: MacBook Air, iPad Pro, and Mac mini launched

After launching its series of new iPhones in September, Apple unveiled its other lineup of products in late October. Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York to present the keynote at the company’s second-biggest event of 2018. At the event, Apple unveiled its latest MacBook Air, iPad Pro along with its variants, and the new Mac mini. The new MacBook Air and the iPad Pro are among the most awaited updates in Apple’s lineup of products, whereas the Mac mini is the first update to the smaller Mac models after four long years. The company did manage to come up with some interesting updates on these devices.

MacBook Air

Tim Cook started off the event by praising the MacBook as one of the world’s most beloved notebooks and one of the most creative tools ever made.

Boastings aside, the latest MacBook Air has finally received a high-resolution Retina display, which was always confined to the other high-end MacBook variants. This is definitely one of the major updates to the existing lineup of MacBook Air and it was long-awaited by the users.

Apple MacBook Air 2018 2

The device comes with a 13.3-inch edge-to-edge Retina display along with the Touch ID that will allow its users to unlock the device using a fingerprint. Touch ID resides in the keyboard and can also be used for Apple Pay and to unlock your protected documents.

Speaking about the specifications of the device, the MacBook Air sports a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, which can be throttled up to a clock speed of 3.6GHz. It comes with 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM and can be increased up to 16GB. Storage on the device is handled by a 128GB of PCIe-based SSD, which can, however, be configured up to 1.5TB. The device also received an update in terms of the ports and connectivity options, the MacBook Air now comes with a pair of ThunderBolt 3 ports to allow charging, data transfer, HDMI connections, external displays, devices, storage, and more.

Apple MacBook Air 2018

The device runs on the latest Mac OS Mojave out-of-the-box and comes with a 20 percent larger force touch trackpad, which can be used in multiple ways by applying a subtle difference in pressure. For security, MacBook Air comes with the Apple proprietary T2 security chip for better protection while using TouchID. The device also comes with on-the-fly data encryption, which means all the data stored in its SSD is automatically fully encrypted.

The new MacBook Air is priced starting at $1,199, which makes it the most affordable MacBook with a Retina display.

iPad Pro

iPad Pro has received considerably huge updates in terms of design, form-factor, configuration, features, and tech specs. With the new iPad Pro, Apple has ditched its traditional home button and incorporated Face ID technology to unlock the device as with the latest iPhones.

The tablet comes in two variants of 11-inch and 12.9-inch oleophobic edge-to-edge liquid Retina display. It is powered by the company’s latest, top-of-the-line A12X bionic chipset, which Apple claims to be even more powerful than that of the Apple’s iPhone XS, and XS Max. The device comes with varied storage options starting at 64GB and going as high as up to 1TB. It comes with a 12-megapixels primary camera that can record 4K videos and secondary front-facing camera which can capture portrait selfies. Both cameras come with Smart HDR feature to capture images with better details.

Apple MacBook

The company also launched its new Apple Pencil, which can be paired and charged wirelessly with the new iPad Pro. The Apple Pencil responds to the touch and users will be able to change or switch between the tools with just a touch. The company also launched the all-new Smart Keyboard Folio along with the iPad Pro, which comes with a better keyboard and provides protection to the device.

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 whereas the larger 12.9-inch variant’s price starts at $999. The device also comes in a cellular variant, which uses an e-SIM to latch onto the cellular networks.

Mac mini

Apple also announced an updated and newer Mac mini, which is a portable desktop computer that was left out by the company for over years now. The new Mac mini now gets the latest 8th Gen Intel processors paired by a RAM of up to 64GB and up to 2TB of SSD. The Mac mini comes with a Gigabyte Ethernet port and ThunderBolt 3 ports along with the regular USB and HDMI ports. The base price of the device starts at $799 and comes with an 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD.

Apple MacBook

All three of these devices are now available to preorder and will be available for users from November 7.

At the event, Apple also announced the iOS 12.1, which is available for download for the iPhone and iPad users. The update adds dual-SIM support on the iPhone XS, XS Max, and the XR. The update will now allow group FaceTime across all the iOS running devices and also packs in new emojis.

Images: Apple

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