Apple officially announces the A14 Bionic, new iPads, Apple Watch and One subscription

Apple hosted an event to introduce what they've been working on. Named “Time flies”, this event showed us the new iPad Air powered by the 5nm A14 Bionic SoC, the 8th Gen iPad, the Watch Series 6 and SE featuring Family Setup, the Fitness+ service, and the Apple One subscription service.

As per the event's name, the Apple Watches were the highlight of this presentation, but the new iPads, the A14, and Apple One also have some “airtime”. The upcoming iPhone 12 was not present in the event, but we should know more about it in the coming weeks.

Starting with the new A14 Bionic, Apple latest SoC is based on the 5nm process node and packs 11.8B transistors. Featuring improved performance and efficiency compared to its predecessors, the 6-core CPU in the A14 offer 40% more performance and the 4-core GPU offers an improvement of 30% over the previous generation device. Additionally, the A14 comes with a 16-core neural engine capable of 11 trillion operations per second, next-gen machine learning accelerators, secure enclave, and an advanced image signal processor.

The next-gen iPad Air will be the first device sporting the new A14 Bionic SoC. Featuring 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with P3 wide colour gamut and True Tone support, the iPad Air will be available in five colours – silver, space grey, rose gold, green, and sky blue. The iPad Air Touch ID sensor will be located on the power button (side), and the device will be compatible with Magic Keyboard, Apple Pencil (attachable to the side), Smart Keyboard folio, new Smart Folio covers, and more.

This tablet will come with stereo speakers, a 12MP rear camera (same as the iPad Pro), and a 7MP front camera supporting FaceTime HD. Apple chose the USB-C connector (max. 5Gbps) to charge it, but it will also work as a mean to connect other devices such as cameras, monitors, and storage devices. Additionally, the iPad Air also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

The iPad Air will be available in October, starting at £579 for the 64GB variant with Wi-Fi and £709 with Wi-Fi + Cellular, while the 256GB variant with Wi-Fi will be priced at £729 and with Wi-Fi + Cellular will cost £859. You can learn more about the iPad Air HERE.

Aesthetically similar to its predecessor, the 8th Gen iPad will feature 10.2-inch Retina display and it will be equipped with the Apple A12 Bionic. Delivering 40% more CPU performance and double the graphics performance than its predecessor, the new iPad will be “two times faster than the top-selling Windows laptop, up to three times faster than the top-selling Android tablet and up to six times faster than the top-selling Chromebook”.

The new iPad will be available to pre-order tomorrow, and it will be priced at £329 for the 32GB variant with Wi-Fi, and £459 with Wi-Fi + Cellular. The 128GB variant with Wi-Fi will cost £429, while the Wi-Fi + Cellular option will cost £559. You can learn more about the 8th Gen iPad HERE.

Focused on health monitoring, the upcoming Apple Watch Series 6 will come with a “revolutionary Blood Oxygen feature” capable of determining your oxygen saturation in about 15 seconds. Featuring a next-gen altimeter, 2.5x brighter always-on display, support for 5GHz network, and a 20% faster S6 System in Package (SiP), the new Watch Series 6 can be fully charged in one and a half hours and comes with an “all-day 18-hour battery life”.

The Apple Watch Series 6 will be available tomorrow, starting at £379 for the GPS only variant, and £479 for the GPS + Cellular variant. Price increases depending on the band styles and colours. You can learn more about the Apple Watch Series 6 HERE.

A cheaper alternative to the Watch Series 6 will be the Watch SE. Featuring the same design as the Watch Series 6 and a Retina display, but a less powerful S5 dual-core SiP, the Watch SE features “Fall Detection and Emergency SOS for your safety”. Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and Walkie-Talkie app are supported.

The Apple Watch SE will also be available tomorrow, with an MSRP of £269 for the GPS variant, and £319 for the GPS + Cellular variant. Just like the Apple Watch Series 6, prices will vary according to the band styles and colours. You can learn more about the Apple Watch SE HERE.

Both new Apple Watches will support the Family Setup feature. From now on, you will be able to set up Apple Watches for family members that don't own an iPhone, allowing them to “connect with family and friends through phone calls and Messages, stay motivated with personalized Activity goals, and express their creativity through custom Memoji”. The Family Setup is available now for free.

Fitness+ is “the first fitness experience built for Apple Watch”. By using metrics from the Apple Watch users and allow them to watch on their other Apple devices, the Fitness+ creates a personalised fitness experience to fulfil your workout needs. From beginners to experts, the workouts provided by Fitness+ come from “world-class trainers” and are paired with the right music to motivate you throughout your exercises.

The Apple Fitness+ will be available late 2020 for £9.99/month or £79.99/year. You can get 3 months of Fitness+ for free by buying an Apple Watch. All current Apple Watch users also get a free month. You can learn more about the Apple Fitness+ HERE.

Apple One is the “ultimate collection of Apple services” divided into three plans. There's the Individual plan, which includes Apple Music, TV+, Arcade, and 50GB on iCloud. Then we have the Family plan, featuring the same services as the Individual plan but with 200GB of storage on iCloud. For last, there's the Premier plan which offers the same as the others plus Apple News+, Fitness+, and 2TB of storage on iCloud.

The Apple One subscription will be available in autumn, and it will cost you £14.95/month for the Individual plan, while the Family plan will cost you £19.95/month. The Premier plan will cost you £29.95/month, but it will only be available in late 2020. You can learn more about the Apple One HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the A14 Bionic SoC? Out of all the devices introduced by Apple, is there one that you have an eye on? Are you thinking on subscribing to one of Apple's new services?

Become a Patron!