Apple has officially unveiled its fifth-generation iPad, aptly called the iPad Air, as it is the thinnest and lightest full-sized iPad so far.

Prior to the big announcement on Tuesday, Oct. 22, the new iPad was widely referred to as the "iPad 5." Apple, however, has decided to rename its popular tablet as the iPad Air.

Not only is the iPad Air thinner and lighter than any of the previous iterations, but it also sports a smaller bezel that makes the tablet look smaller without sacrificing the screen size. The new iPad Air also marks the first major redesign of Apple's flagship tablet since March 2011, when the iPad 2 made its debut.

"iPad created an entirely new mobile computing experience, and the new iPad Air is another big leap ahead. It is so thin, light and powerful, once you hold one in your hand you will understand what a tremendous advancement this is," boasted Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple. "iPad Air with its 9.7-inch Retina display weighs just one pound and packs the incredible performance of iOS 7 running on a 64-bit desktop-class Apple A7 chip, and delivers all-day battery life in the lightest full-sized tablet in the world."

At just one pound, the new iPad Air is 28 percent lighter than the previous iPad. The screen remains the same at 9.7-inches, with a Retina resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

The iPad Air's 64-bit A7 processor and M7 motion coprocessor are the same as the ones found on the iPhone 5S. According to Apple, this allows for 8 times faster and 72 times better graphics performance compared to the old processor. The company also boasts that the iPad Air delivers twice the data transfer rate on Wi-Fi due to the new MIMO 802.11n support. The new iPad does not, however, support Wi-Fi 802.11ac.

The iPad Air will have a starting price of $499 and it will go on sale on Nov. 1. The new iPad will be available in silver, white, gray and black color options. As expected, all new iPads will ship with iOS 7 on board.