Apple launched the iPad Air towards the last quarter of 2013. The iPad Air features the much touted Retina display that takes the viewing experience to a whole new level. The MacBook Air (2014), on the other hand, was released very recently in April 2014. Apple has refreshed its original MacBook Air model with a super-slim look that is powered by Intel's latest Haswell chipset to boost the speed.

The slew of updates on MacBook Air 2014 calls for a comparison with the undisputed king in the tablets market, the iPad Air. Readers who are planning to buy the Apple iPad Air or the MacBook Air (2014), here is a specification and price comparison pertaining to Australia.

Display and Size

The Apple iPad Air comes with a 9.7 inches display, while the MacBook Air (2014) features a slightly bigger 11.6 inches display. The iPad Air packs a superior resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, when compared to the MacBook Air (2014), which comes with a 1,366 x 768 pixels screen resolution.

The dimensions of the iPad Air are 9.45 x 6.67 x 0.30 inches and it weighs lesser than MacBook Air (2014) at 469 g. The MacBook Air (2014), on the other hand, comes with the following dimensions 11.8 x 7.56 x 0.11 inches and it weighs a whopping 1080 g. This thumping weight can be attributed to the keyboard that comes with MacBook Air.

Hardware and Software

The iPad Air runs on the Apple's iOS 7 software, but it is upgradable to iOS 7.1.1. On the other hand, the MacBook Air (2014) runs on the latest version of OS X, named Mavericks.

iPad Air is powered by a dual-core Cyclone (Apple A7 with 64-bit) processor clocked at 1.4 GHz and it houses a 1 GB of RAM. The MacBook Air (2014), on the other hand, is powered by an dual-core Intel Core i5 (Haswell) 64-bit processor, clocked at 2.7 GHz turbo and it houses a powerful 4 GB of RAM.

Note: In theory, both the devices are incomparable with respect to OS, RAM and processors. However, both the chips power their respective operating systems to provide stunning performance and great user experience.

Memory

The iPad Air comes with a built-in storage of 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB (no microSD card support), whereas the MacBook Air (2014) comes with 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB of internal storage capacity.

Camera

The iPad Air houses a 5 MP rear-facing camera and a 1.2 MP front-facing camera, whereas the MacBook Air (2014) houses a 720p front-facing webcam. It is worth noting that, MacBook Air being a laptop, there is no need for a rear-facing camera unit.

Battery

The Apple iPad Air comes with a non-removable 32.4 W-h battery unit, while the MacBook Air (2014) houses a 38 W-h battery unit. Apple claims that the new MacBook Air can provide up to 9 hours of battery life, whereas the iPad Air can provide up to 10 hours.

Colour

The iPad Air comes in space gray and silver shades, whereas the MacBook Air (2014) comes in silver shade.

Misc

The MacBook Air is a typical laptop; hence it comes with an integrated keyboard and a trackpad. On the other hand, Apple iPad Air is a tablet with a touchscreen. Nevertheless, there are a wide variety of third-party keyboards available for iPad. Also it is worth noting that, MacBook Air does not support touchscreen mechanism.

In addition, the iPad Air provides LTE (cellular) support, while the MacBook Air doesn't. The iPad Air can also be purchased as a Wi-Fi only variant.

Price

The Apple iPad Air with 4G (128 GB) is priced at AU$1,059.95 and iPad Air with 4G (64 GB) is priced at AU$939.95. On the other hand, the 11-inches MacBook Air (2014) 128 GB is priced at AU$1099 in Australia.