CHICAGO - Tech giant Apple launched a new education-centric iPad during a special event held at Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago on Tuesday (March 27).

With prices starting from S$498 (from S$468 for schools), the new 9.7-inch iPad supports Apple Pencil stylus (S$138; S$125 for schools) which was lacking in last year's model. This allows students to draw or annotate for supported apps.

In addition, the iPad is updated with Apple's A10 Fusion processor for faster performance and supports augmented reality apps.

Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice-president of product marketing, said the iPad is "faster than every Chromebook" during the presentation.

In addition, Apple's productivity suite of Numbers, Pages and Keynote will support Apple Pencil. Digital book creations will also be available on Pages out of the iPad.

At the same time, Apple introduced Schoolwork, as part of iOS' developer ClassKit. It allows developers of educational apps to create student evaluation features. Teachers can send out homework, reminders and educational material using Schoolwork.

The new 9.7-inch iPad is available to order on Wednesday and will start delivering to customers later this week in more than 25 countries including Singapore.