At an event in Cupertino, California, on Thursday, Apple announced its newest iPads, called the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3.

The iPad Air 2 will start at $499, and the iPad Mini 3 will start at $399. Preorders begin on Friday and they will start to ship next week.

Both iPads come in various storage capacities. They also now come in gold.

As expected, both iPads got new Touch ID home buttons, which means they'll be able to take advantage of Apple Pay when it launches on Monday.

Also as expected, the new iPads look pretty similar to their predecessors, just thinner; the iPad Air 2 is only 6.1mm thick. Performance got a bit of a boost, as did the screen resolutions and cameras.

Apple dropped the price on older-generation iPads. The beginning of the line starts at $249.