The high-end tablet war has just intensified, with Apple unveiling its latest slates, the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2 in San Francisco.

The announcement comes just a day after Nokia announced its first tablet, the Lumia 2520 at its event in Abu Dhabi.

The new iPads are now fitted with faster Apple A7 processors with desktop architecture, which Apple claims, are as good as desktop computers themselves. And while the USP of the new iPad Mini is the Retina Display, iPad Air is all about shaving off weight.

The iPad Air is 20 per cent thinner, 28 per cent lighter at just one pound, and has a 43 per cent narrower bezel than the previous generation iPad. These new slates from Apple now also feature two antennas to support Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology, which essentially translates into faster Wi-Fi performance and fast data rate of up to 300 Mbps.

The Lumia 2520, at the same time is making productivity its key selling points, with Microsoft Office applications available to the user out of the box, and a good tablet camera. But Apple is also aiming at that key point of the Lumia, by making iWork, a set of applications for Macs, iPads and iPhones that are essentially the Mac versions of Microsoft’s Office apps, a free offering to customers who will buy new Macintosh computer or mobile device from Apple. Previously, these apps use to cost the users nearly $10 each.

At the same time, Samsung also made its presence felt by announcing the latest edition of Galaxy Note 10.1 – a 10-inch Android tablet with an octa-core processor and a host of stylus-based functions.

>sabyasachi.b@thehindu.co.in

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