iPadOS, Laptop, News, Tablet

Apple Reveals New MacBook Air & iPad Pro; Retails From RM3,499 in Malaysia

Here’s a bit of a surprise announcement: Apple just announced two new products. There’s the updated MacBook Air with a new keyboard and faster performance, as well as the new iPad Pro with a rather unique keyboard cover. On top of that, the Malaysian pricing of both products have been revealed too.

Let’s start with the MacBook Air. Just like the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the new Air sports the Magic Keyboard, which promises better durability and typing experience than the previous butterfly keyboard. That being said, with only 1mm of key travel, it’s still a pretty shallow keyboard. Of course, the inverted-T arrow keys are here too.

Aside from the new keyboard, the updated MacBook Air also has “up to two times faster performance,” thanks to the new 10th Gen Intel Core processors under the hood. For the Malaysian market, the base model ships with a Core i3 dual-core chip, while the higher-end variant features a faster Core i5 quad-core processor. As always, you can configure the Air with an even faster Core i7 chip if you so desire.

Storage options of the new MacBook Air has been updated too: the base model now comes with a much more practical 256GB SSD instead of its predecessor’s limited 128GB storage. If you want a higher capacity SSD, you can go for the Core i5 model, which has twice the amount of storage at 512GB.

Other specifications of the new MacBook Air include a 13.3-inch 2560 x 1600 Retina IPS display with True Tone, 8GB of RAM (configurable up to 16GB), Intel Iris Plus Graphics, a Touch ID sensor, as well as two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 support.

And then there’s the new iPad Pro. Aesthetically, it still shares the same chassis as the previous iteration, but it does come with a new square camera module now. It houses a 12MP f/1.8 primary shooter, a 10MP f/2.4 ultra-wide angle lens, and a LIDAR sensor for better depth perception and augmented reality use.

What’s even more exciting is the new keyboard cover, which is also compatible with older iPad Pro models. It attaches magnetically to the tablet, and it can raise the screen to a more comfortable viewing position. The keyboard itself carries the Magic Keyboard moniker too, and right below it is a dedicated trackpad.

That’s right, the iPad Pro now comes with trackpad support. Evidently, Apple is really pushing its tablet as a laptop replacement, though this keyboard cover won’t be available until May 2020.

Rounding out the specifications of the iPad Pro include a new A12Z Bionic chip – which Apple says is “more powerful than most Windows PC laptops” – an 11-inch 2388 x 1668 or 12.9-inch 2732 x 2048 Liquid Retina display with ProMotion and True Tone, up to 1TB of internal storage, and optional LTE support.

The new MacBook Air and iPad Pro are now listed on Apple’s Malaysian online store, but only their retail prices have been revealed; it remains to be seen exactly when these two products will start shipping. The iPad Pro retails from RM3,499 and RM4,399 for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch models respectively, while the MacBook Air starts at RM4,399 – RM5,599 if you want the Core i5 model with 512GB of storage.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *