The verdict: Should you buy the iPad Air and iPad Mini?

The wait is over! But was it worth it?

Apple launched its latest iPads yesterday, just hours after Nokia entered the tablet market with its Lumia 2520.

The first of the two new iPads – called iPad Air – is “thinner, lighter, more powerful than ever before”, Apple said.

Priced at £399, iPad Air is 20% thinner than the 9.7-inch iPad. It will be on sale in the UK from 1 November.

Speaking at San Francisco’s Yuerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “The iPad is one of the most successful products in Apple’s history and in the whole industry. Earlier this month Apple sold its 170-millionth iPad.

“Now everybody seems to be making a tablet, even some of the doubters [but] iPad is used more than any of the rest. iPad is used over four times more than all of those other tablets put together.”

Apple also launched a new iPad Mini which has a high-resolution 7.9-inch retina display and a new A7 chip. It costs £319 in the UK and will be on sale “later next month”.

While the new iPads were the star of the San Francisco launch, the tech goliath also revealed a faster Mac Pro for $2,299.

Other highlights included the launch of the latest version of its Mac OS X software. The new software will be free to all Mac users and is expected to give laptops an extra hour of battery life.

But at a time where you can get a tablet for as cheap as £100 from Tesco or a £99 tablet from Argos, should you buy the new iPad? Here’s what tech analysts have to say:

Should you buy the new iPad?

Jason Jenkins, editor of technology magazine CNET:

“Absolutely nothing [is wrong with the iPad], so why change it? That’s Apple’s philosophy behind today’s launch of its new iPads.

“There are some improvements, like making them thinner and lighter, adding better cameras and faster chips, and the smaller iPad now gets a much better ‘retina’ display.

“But there’s nothing dramatically new here. And you know what? That’s fine. If you haven’t bought an iPad, now is a good time to do so, although if you already own one, there’s no need at all to upgrade.”

Here’s CNET’s first look at the iPad Air

David Phelan, mobile technology advisor at Carphone Warehouse:

“It’s been a big day for tech announcements and Nokia’s come out all guns blazing with something for everyone.

“The real stand-out is the Windows 8.1 tablet which will shake up the tablet market in the run-up to Christmas.”

Ovum analyst Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst:

“This is the clearest statement Apple could have made that it is only interested in competing in the premium tablet space. The yawning gap between the specs of the cheaper iPad Mini and iPad 2 and the new iPads signifies that it is only willing to compete at the lower price points with older models.”

Victoria Woollaston, technology journalist, Mail Online:

“Both new products are a step forward, but certainly not the leap that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook suggested in his keynote. The new iPad mini has been marginally improved. Side-by-side, the first and second-generation 7.9-inch tablets look identical, and in fact the new model feels noticeably heavier than its predecessor.

“This is undoubtedly because of the addition of the Retina Display and the new model does weigh 23g more as a result.”

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