Today Apple unveiled its redesigned 9.7-inch iPad, which is now called the iPad Air.

The new tablet is 7.5mm thick and weighs in at just 1 pound, making it what Apple calls the "lightest full-size tablet" on the market. Inside is a 64-bit A7 processor and an M7 motion co-processor, with the promise of 8x faster performance, 72x faster graphics performance, and the ability to open files twice as fast as before. WiFi is also twice as fast with 802.11n using MIMO. Battery life is estimated to be 10 hours, consistent with the previous version of the iPad.



Also improved is the rear camera, which is now a 5MP iSight camera, and the front facing camera, which is now a FaceTime HD camera with larger pixels, improve backside illumination, and dual microphones.

The iPad Air will be available in silver, white, space gray, and black when it launches around much of the world on November 1. It takes the place of the existing iPad, with prices starting at $499 for the WiFi-only, 16GB model, and $629 for the cellular-enabled 16GB version. The iPad 2, meanwhile, remains $399 for the 16GB WiFi model