APPLE iPAD (9.7-INCH, EARLY 2018)
The most affordable iPad ever brings some brilliant upgrades.
The new iPad for 2018 is designed to achieve one thing: deliver the best of Apple’s tablet efforts at a more affordable price. The cost is still higher than many other tablets out there but the new upgrades bridging the gap between a ‘standard’ slate and the more impressive iPad Pros.
The new iPad comes with a range of storage and connectivity options, with prices starting at $469 for the 32GB Wi-Fi model, and the equivalent cellular version at $200 more.
In the looks department, the metal back, the wellmachined buttons, the home button at the base of the tablet with TouchID are all present and correct. The thickness of 7.5mm is actually 1.1mm thicker than the iPad Air 2s that emerged a couple of years ago, but Apple has greatly improved the speed and performance of its tablets in that time.
The screen is bright, with a resolution of 1,536 x 2,048 pixels and a pixel density of 264ppi. You could argue that it’s a shame not to see HDR supported here but Apple is trying to keep the costs down. The same reasoning applies to OLED technology. And it’s hard to criticise the display, especially as it can now work with the Pencil.
It’s tough to work out whether the Apple Pencil is a genuinely innovative tool or not. We’ve been using it for a few years now, and have found that it’s great for some things, but useless for others. It costs $145, a third of the price of the iPad itself. It’s really difficult to write legibly on them, too, due to the way the tip of the Pencil glides across the surface. Where the stylus does become worth the outlay is when you want to be artistic.
According to Apple, there are 200,000 apps on the App Store for educators and students, and teachers are also getting access to Schoolwork and iTunes U, for course materials and the ability to set assignments and see how students are progressing. iWork suite is also collaborative and Pencil-friendly, plus there’s 200GB of online iCloud storage for students (but not everyone else).
The new iPad has the A10 Fusion chip that powered the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. That’s combined with 2GB of RAM, so there’s more than enough power here for nearly any task that most users will want to do. In our tests, it returned a similar single-core benchmarking score to the more powerful iPad Pro 10.5, and both devices’ batteries lasted around 4.5 hours, running at full power.
It sounds obvious, but you’ll need to know what you want the new iPad for before you can decide if it’s for you. Apple has made a big deal about the new tablet’s classroom credentials, but in reality, most of the people who buy it will be those who want something to use on the commute and around the house.
If you’re someone who’s never owned an iPad before, or you’re buying it for a relative who’s always wanted a tablet, then you’ve come to the right place, and you should buy this one without question. However, if you’ve got an iPad Air 2, iPad Pro 9.7 or last year’s iPad, there’s not enough of an upgrade to make it worth purchasing...