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Apple Debuts New 9.7-Inch iPad With A9 Chip to Replace iPad Air 2, Starting at $329

Tuesday March 21, 2017 6:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple today announced it is launching a new 9.7-inch iPad equipped with an A9 chip and a brighter Retina display to replace the iPad Air 2, which has been discontinued. The tablet, which Apple is simply calling "iPad," is Apple's new entry-level model at the 9.7-inch size, starting at $329 for 32GB and $429 for 128GB.

The new 9.7-inch iPad is similar in many ways to the iPad Air 2, which had an A8X chip and started at $399, but slightly thicker and heavier with a faster A9 chip and a brighter Retina display. Another difference is that the new 9.7-inch iPad does not have a fully laminated display or anti-reflective coating per its tech specs.

Beyond the A9 chip, those specs include a 9.7-inch screen with 2,048‑by‑1,536 resolution and 264 PPI, 8-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera, 1.2-megapixel front-facing FaceTime camera, two speakers, Lightning connector, 3.5mm headphone jack, Touch ID with Apple Pay, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.2.

“iPad is the world’s most popular tablet. Customers love the large, 9.7-inch display for everything from watching TV and movies, to surfing the web, making FaceTime calls, and enjoying photos, and now it is even more affordable,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “New customers and anyone looking to upgrade will love this new iPad for use at home, in school, and for work, with its gorgeous Retina display, our powerful A9 chip, and access to the more than 1.3 million apps designed specifically for it.”

Given its price point, the tablet lacks most iPad Pro features, including a True Tone display with a wide P3 color gamut, Smart Connector, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support, 4K HD video recording, LTE Advanced, Live Photos, True Tone flash, and four-speaker audio.

The new 9.7-inch iPad is available to order beginning Friday, March 24 from Apple.com, and starts delivering to customers and arriving next week in Apple Stores, through select carriers, and at Apple Authorized Resellers in the United States and more than 20 countries and regions.

Namely, the March 24 launch will also include Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Denmark, India, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Turkey, and other countries will follow in April. Brazil and Taiwan, among others, will follow in May.

This low-cost 9.7-inch iPad was accurately rumored by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in August 2016.

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Top Rated Comments

(View all)

MacFather

25 months ago

another sad day for the Mac

Rating: 151 Votes

Bustycat

25 months ago

So they renamed iPad to iPad Air and then renamed iPad Air back to iPad. That is so innovative!

Rating: 124 Votes

alexcanton

25 months ago

Another iPad to the already messy, fragmented, unnecessarily long line up of iPads to saturate the already saturated mobile market while continuing to leave the demand of Macs behind..

I'd love to say we're losing faith Tim, but that was so long ago now.

Rating: 100 Votes

vmachiel

25 months ago

What?? That's it?

Rating: 72 Votes