Apple on Tuesday unveiled the new iPad with an all-screen design, finally banishing the antiquated Home button from iPad. The new iPad features a large 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display and is powered by the A14 Bionic chip. Users in the market for a full-sized 10.9-inch non-Pro iPad now have a choice between this and the iPad Air which debuted in March.
Updated cameras in the new iPad include an Ultra Wide 12MP front camera located along the landscape edge of iPad for an even better video calling experience, and an updated 12MP back camera to capture sharp, vivid photos and 4K video. A USB-C port supports a wide range of accessories, Wi-Fi 6 brings even faster connections, and cellular models feature superfast 5G so users can stay connected on the go. iPad also comtinues support for Apple Pencil (1st generation).
Both the 10th generation iPad and the 5th generation iPad Air offer 10.9-inch Liquid Retina displays with True Tone, a 12MP Wide rear camera, USB-C connectors, Smart Connector, 5G capability, Touch ID, storage up to 256GB, Nano-SIM and eSIM capability, and very similar physical sizes and weights.
The main differences between Apple’s 10th generation iPad compares to the 5th generation iPad Air:
• Chip
– iPad: A14 Bionic chip (6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 4-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)
– iPad Air: M1 chip (8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 8GB RAM; Media Engine: Hardware-accelerated H.264 and HEVC, Video decode engine, Video encode engine)
• Apple Pencil Compatibility
– iPad: Apple Pencil (1st generation) using USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter
– iPad Air: Apple Pencil (2nd generation)
• Display
– iPad: sRGB
– iPad Air: Wide color display (P3), Fully laminated, Antireflective coating
• Front Camera
– iPad: Landscape Ultra Wide camera
– iPad Air: 12MP Ultra Wide front camera
• Colors
– iPad: Blue, Pink, Silver, and Yellow
– iPad Air: Space Gray, Blue, Pink, Purple, and Starlight
• Price
– iPad:
– Wi-Fi, 64GB: $449
– Wi-Fi, 256GB: $599
– Wi-Fi + Cellular, 64GB: $599
– Wi-Fi + Cellular, 256GB: $749
– iPad Air:
– Wi-Fi, 64GB: $599
– Wi-Fi, 256GB: $749
– Wi-Fi + Cellular, 64GB: $749
– Wi-Fi + Cellular, 256GB: $899
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, what you’re paying more for with iPad Air is a better display, better Apple Pencil support (sans dongle), and a vastly more powerful processor, the M1 vs. the A14 Bionic (certainly a very capable SoC, but not in the M1’s class).
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iPad Air provides much better value, with usability lasting many years longer that this new iPad. The 10th gen A14 iPad’s thorough overhaul makes its “starting at” $449 price $120 more than A13 9th gen iPad. M1 iPad Air is only $150 more for all the added benefits. If you can afford $599, get iPad Air. If not, find a 9th gen iPad while still available (maybe even on clearance sale).
WTF, isn’t the 10th iPad just the iPad Air 4th gen I got in 2020? I swear they are pretty much identical.
Well, they moved the FaceTime camera to longer side 😆 I think you answered my question of why it has an A14 instead of A15. Because that previous iPad Air has A14. It’s a smart and familiar move for Apple. After all, the 9th gen entry iPad was just reusing the design of the workhorse 10.5-inch iPad Pro from 2017, with more recent (but less expensive) parts. Now (and for next few iterations) the base design of entry iPad is previous iPad Air, priced $150 less. Just reuse a proven design instead of creating a new design, but market it as a “complete redesign” of the economy iPad.
One big mistake Apple may be making is not having an “education” model. Increasing your price by 130.00 is going to be tough for a school system to swallow. IPADs are used quite a bit in K-5 and many K-12 in FL as example and not having an affordable model is going to cause them to look at Chromebooks. Apple had an untouchable value with the 329 IPAD. No tablet had its power and screen at its price point. Now they are opening a door for a competitor , essentially a chromebook.