By Mario Aguilar – Gizmodo

Apple just announced iPad Air, the fifth in its line of (nearly) 10-inch tablets. Last year, Apple’s big-boy got a perfunctory upgrade, but this year the iPad’s getting a new super skinny design—and a new name—with batch of significant improvements that’ll carry it through the next year. Here’s what you need to know.

Design

The rumors about an iPad redesign were true, but it’s even slicker than we thought. The iPad Air features the first really significant update to the tablet’s hardware since the iPad 3, which added a retina display and an increase in heft due to a hulking battery.

At 7.5mm thick, the iPad Air is 20 percent thinner than its 9.5mm predecessor, with a flat-backed design resembling the iPad Mini. Very handsome. It’s also way lighter, just one pound, compared to 1.44 pounds before. Apple says it’s the lightest full-size tablet in the world. That should help it stand out from the pack. Early accounts suggest the new tablet is a delight.

Guts

Inside, the iPad Air runs the same burly new A7 system chip the powers the iPhone 5s. According to Apple, the new chip doubles the iPad Air’s graphics and computational performance compared to the 4th gen model. Compared to the original, that’s eight times faster CPU performance and 72 times faster graphic.

Camera

The iPad camera has always lagged behind the camera on the iPhone, and it won’t catch up with the iPad Air—not in resolution at least; it’s still just 5 megapixels. The 1.2 megapixel 720p FaceTime camera has been upgraded to a camera that can shoot in FullHD 1920 x 1080 resolution, though.

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