The new Apple iPads made their formal introduction yesterday and the device that we had all been calling the iPad 5 is now officially dubbed the iPad Air. You may have the current iPad 4 and be considering whether it’s worth upgrading to the new iPad Air, so we thought we’d bring you a specs comparison of the iPad 4 vs. iPad Air.

We’ve already given readers some details of iPad Air price, release and specs and also given the lowdown on the iPad mini 2 with Retina display, which was introduced at the same event. The iPad Air actually replaces the iPad 4 with Retina display in the Apple lineup, although the iPad 2 will still be available.

We’ll highlight key specs of the iPad 4 and iPad Air and this may help you decide whether to advance to the latest full-sized iPad compared to your current version.

Processor
The iPad 4 features a 1.4GHz Apple A6X dual-core processor with PowerVR SGX554MP4 quad-core graphics, while the iPad Air is powered by a 1.3GHz 64-bit Apple A7 dual-core processor with PowerVR G6430 quad-core graphics. The iPad Air also has the M7 motion co-processor that made its debut on the recently released iPhone 5S.

Display
The iPad 4 and iPad Air both have a 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD display with resolution of 2048 x 1536 and 264 ppi.

RAM and Storage
The iPad 4 has 1GB of RAM and comes in 16, 32, 64 or 128GB internal storage options. The iPad Air has the same models for internal storage and RAM is not yet specified.

Camera
There’s a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and 1080p video capture for the iPad 4 plus a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera. The iPad Air also has a 5-megapixel rear camera and n Facetime HD front-facing camera.

Battery Life
Both the iPad 4 and iPad Air have a battery life of around 10 hours.

Operating System
The iPad 4 is upgradeable to iOS 7 while the iPad Air releases on iOS 7.0.2.

Design and Dimensions
The iPad Air is slimmer, lighter and has much thinner bezels than the iPad 4. Dimensions of the iPad 4 are 241.2mm x 185.7mm x 9.4mm and it weighs 652g (WiFi) or 662g WiFi + Cellular). The iPad Air measures 240mm x 169.5mm x 7.5mm and weighs only 469g (WiFi) or 478g (WiFi + Cellular).

Taking a look at the specs compared it doesn’t look as though the iPad Air is that much different from the iPad 4. However, the new processor set-up of the iPad Air is claimed to make it around 8 times faster than the first iPad and 2 times faster than the iPad 4, so this is something that should be taken into account.

The design changes are the other major difference, with the new iPad Air being so much lighter and slimmer. It comes in Space Gray or Silver color options and importantly the pricing is the same as for the iPad 4 it replaces, starting from $499 for the 16GB WiFi version.

Considering the differences between the two devices do you think it’s worth upgrading from the iPad 4 to the new iPad Air? If so, is that mainly because of the performance improvements or the new design? Let us know with your comments.