Apple iPad 2017: Most Affordable Full-Size Tablet to Date

The Apple iPad has been something of a commodity device now, and the company might see it that way as well. The newly launched device is simply called the iPad and it has taken over the iPad Air 2, and in the simplified line of devices that Apple is now going with, it occupies half of the company's line of tablets with the other half being the iPad Pro. The new iPad is now for sale at $329.

The device could be considered a derivative of the previous iPads before it, as the article by The Verge noted. It has the dimensions of the original iPad Air, down to the same thickness and 9.7-inch screen. Due to that fact, the new iPad is slightly thicker than the iPad Air 2 that it is replacing, but the difference is minimal and not something that owners will really notice.

Like its predecessors, it has the same wide bezels that surround the screen with an aluminum back supporting the whole assembly. Apple Pencil support and a smart connector are both absent from the new iPad — those features were relegated to the iPad Pro, presumably to differentiate the premium tablet from this device.

As expected, the iPad still has a Retina display with 2,048 x 1,536 pixel resolution, but minus the True Tone display and anti-reflection that the iPad Pro sports. Powering the tablet is the new A9 chip recently introduced by Apple, which in daily usage comes to be a small improvement on the performance of the iPad Air 2.

Compared with the iPad Air 2, the new iPad comes cheaper at $329, $70 less than the original price of $399 of the iPad Air 2, according to CNet. While it is $60 more than the earlier iPad Mini 2, which has been discontinued by Apple, the new iPad still makes its mark as the most affordable full-size Apple tablet to date.