Apple Introduces New iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3

— -- The iPad Air 2, Apple's thinnest tablet ever, was introduced today at the company's surprise October event.

"Can you even see it?" CEO Tim Cook joked as he showed the 6.1 mm thin tablet to an audience gathered at Apple's campus in Cupertino, California.

The iPad Air 2 is so thin, two of them stacked on top of each other would still be thinner than the first iPad, the company noted.

The device will come with Touch ID and will be equipped with Apple Pay, making online impulse purchases even easier.

Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, the iPad Air 2 is "the best tablet display you've ever seen and the thinnest tablet, but there is so much more that makes the iPad Air great."

The iPad Air 2 runs on an A8X chip packed with a whopping 3 billion transistors, making it faster than ever.

Coming in silver, space gray and gold, the iPad Air 2 starts at $499 for 16 GB, $599 for 64 GB and $699 for 128 GB.

The iPad Mini 3 was also unveiled today and includes Touch ID capabilities. The device starts at $399.

Pre-orders for both new iPads begin on Friday and will ship next week, the company said.

Apple is also dropping the price on its existing line of iPads. The iPad mini will now cost $249. The iPad mini 2 will be reduced to $299, while the iPad Air has been slashed to $399.