iPad Air (1st generation)
Discontinued 21 Mar 2016
Released
1 Nov 2013
Announced
22 Oct 2013
Launch price from
£499
Discontinued
21 Mar 2016
Lifespan
2 years, 5 months
- Category
- iPad Air
- Status
- Discontinued
- Apple support status
- Obsolete (Apple no longer services it)
- Release type
- Refresh of an existing model
- Replaced by
- iPad Air (2nd generation)
- Official Apple page
- No longer available on Apple’s website
- Tech specs
- Apple specs ↗
- Press release
- Apple Newsroom ↗
- More information
- iPad Air (1st generation) on Wikipedia ↗
Notes
The iPad Air (1st generation) was 20% thinner and 28% lighter than the iPad it replaced, at 7.5mm and 469g against 9.4mm and 652g, and Apple borrowed the Air name from its thinnest laptop to make the point. The screen stayed at 9.7 inches, so all of that came out of the case rather than the display.
Narrower side bezels did most of the work. They were 43% slimmer than before, which took 24% out of the total volume.
The processor was the same one Apple had put in the iPhone 5s a month earlier, and Apple claimed up to twice the speed of the previous iPad for both general work and graphics. Battery life held at the usual ten hours even though the battery itself was smaller. A separate motion chip, the M7, was introduced to handle readings from the movement sensors, so the main processor could stay asleep more of the time.
Apple kept the iPad Air (1st generation) on sale after the iPad Air 2 arrived in October 2014, dropping the larger storage options and holding the 16GB and 32GB versions as the cheaper choice. It was not removed from the line until 21 March 2016, giving it a run of nearly two and a half years.
It was announced on 22 October 2013 at the ‘We still have a lot to cover’ event. There were no pre-orders, and it went on sale on 1 November in the US and around 40 other countries, priced from $499.
iPad Air release history
- 2024
-
7 May 2024
iPad Air (5th generation)
- ↑ 2 years, 2 months later
- 2022
-
18 Mar 2022
iPad Air (5th generation)
-
8 Mar 2022
iPad Air (4th generation)
- ↑ 1 year, 4 months later
- 2020
-
23 Oct 2020
iPad Air (4th generation)
-
15 Sept 2020
iPad Air (3rd generation)
- ↑ 1 year, 6 months later
- 2019
-
18 Mar 2019
iPad Air (3rd generation)
- ↑ about 2 years later
- 2017
-
21 Mar 2017
iPad Air (2nd generation)
- ↑ about 1 year later
- 2016
-
21 Mar 2016
iPad Air (1st generation)
- ↑ 1 year, 5 months later
- 2014
-
22 Oct 2014
iPad Air (2nd generation)
- ↑ about 1 year later
- 2013
-
1 Nov 2013
iPad Air (1st generation)