How much the iPad has evolved in just four years

Remember when the first iPad came out and Steve Jobs boasted about how thin, light and, yes, “magical” it was? Well it’s now more than four years since the first iPad came out and the device that wowed the tech world back in 2010 looks positively bulky compared to what Apple just unveiled this week in the form of the iPad Air 2.

GadgetLove has created a fantastic GIF that shows us just how much Apple has refined the iPad since its release in 2010 and you will be amazed at how insanely thin Apple has managed to make the device over that time.

The first-gen iPad measured in at 13 millimeters thin, which at the time seemed very sleek and slim. The iPad Air 2, however, measures in at a mere 6 millimeters thin, which is less than half of the original iPad and is even more impressive when you consider how much more powerful the new device is compared with the first-generation model.

Even though iPads may no longer be the hot-ticket, gotta-have-it item that they were a couple of years ago, it’s still good to step back and appreciate just how talented Apple’s hardware engineers are at making devices lighter and thinner than earlier generations — and this is nowhere better illustrated than by the short history of the iPad.