Information technology: Apple iPad 2014 event rumor round-up: Air 2 and iPad mini with Retina 2 specs, price, and release date

It’s official: Apple has spoken to its faithful media and revealed that it will indeed hold a second event nearly a month after the iPhone 6, this time to give us a glimpse at its new iPads, more details about Apple Pay and likely - present us with brand new iMacs, and why not something more.

The big focus of the event for mobile enthusiasts will undoubtedly be the iPad Air 2 and the second generation iPad mini with Retina display. Apple is following a yearly routing of unveiling its new tablets in October, and after last year when the company unified the underlying hardware of the two, we expect to see the Apple A8 on both new iPads. Not just this, expectations are also for both getting the Touch ID fingerprint recognition sensor, as well as updated cameras.

1. Design

After a major redesign of the iPad Air last year that was based on the rounded edges and design lead of the iPad mini, we don’t expect to see any major changes in the looks of neither tablet. The iPad Air is already one of the lightest devices on the market and with the reduction in bezels from last year, it’s also fairly compact for its screen size. The iPad mini with Retina display (2nd generation) is also not expected to get any significant design changes.

One addition is expected to come to the looks of the two new iPads, though: a gold color option, just like the one on the iPhones. This will bring a three-color palette to the iPad series: gold alongside grey and silver.

2. Display

After last year’s update to the iPad mini, both iPads now come with high-resolution ‘Retina’ displays boasting 2048 x 1536 pixels. This results in a pixel density of the whopping 324ppi for the 7.9-inch iPad mini Retina and 264ppi for the 9.7-inch iPad Air, so we do not expect to see a further boost in resolution.

Turning over to colors, the original iPad Air was pre-calibrated very accurately, with the white point at around 6800K, just very slightly north of the reference 6500K value (higher values indicate a colder, bluish tint). Greyscale accuracy on it is excellent, and this also translates in overall pleasing color, within the industry-standard sRGB color gamut. We’d be happy to see Apple stick with this successful formula in the new iPad Air 2nd generation.

The iPad mini, on the other hand, had some issues with its colors: it fell short of covering the full sRGB color gamut, resulting in colors that look a bit muted. The white point is a bit further north, and color accuracy while decent, is not as good as on the iPad Air. That’s the area we hope to see Apple really improve on with the 2nd gen iPad mini Retina.

3. Interface, Touch ID and support for Apple Pay

With iOS 8 powering both tablets, there is little in the interface that won’t already be familiar to iPhone users. The biggest change is the expected Touch ID sensor on both tablets - having a finger sensor means that iPad users will likely be able to use their tablets with the new Apple Pay cashless payment system.

4. Camera

Tablet photography is a topic of separate discussion, but fact remains that people use their tablets to capture images and videos every once in a while, and having a good camera is an important requirement. Both the iPad Air and the mini Retina come with a 5-megapixel main, iSight camera, as well as a 1.2-megapixel front shooter for selfies.

We’ve seen Apple move to a wider, f/2.2 aperture lens on the iPhone 6 lineup, and we would not be surprised if it introduced a similar lens for its iPads, but we have not heard anything about a bump in picture resolution.

It’s worth noting that Apple has integrated a lot of the iPhoto editing functionality in the stock photo app, so you can easily make some nice edits right there. Such light image and video editing is something that’s definitely more pleasing to do on the larger iPad screen.

5. Battery

Battery has long been one of the strongest sides of Apple’s tablets, but as competitors narrow the gap, Apple is so far sticking with the successful 10-hour battery formula. If there are changes to battery capacity, we don’t expect them to have a huge effect on the iPad battery longevity. Let us also remind you that the iPad Air and iPad mini Retina scored a very respectable ~8 hours and 40 minutes on our battery life test that runs on smartphones and tablets alike.

6. Price, release date, and carrier availability

Apple is expected to host the unveiling of the new iPad Air and second generation iPad mini with Retina on October 16th, and given that it adheres strictly to its Friday release schedule, we can be almost certain that the new iPads will appear on store shelves on the next Friday, October 24th.

We see no reason why Apple would change pricing for its tablets either: the iPad Air 2 price is expected to start at $499 for the basic Wi-Fi-only model, while the second-generation iPad mini with Retina is likely to cost $399.

Apple is also offering 4G-enabled versions of iPad models for a $130 premium over the corresponding Wi-Fi version, and those will certainly support bands for all major US carriers.