iPad Air (2020)
Apple’s best iPad is now even better
From $599
From Apple, apple.com
Features 10.9–inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone, A14 Bionic chip, 64GB or 256GB storage, Wi–Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi–Fi + Cellular connectivity option
Ever since it made its debut in 2013, the iPad Air has been in Apple’s tablet sweet spot, delivering both great performance and features while remaining affordable. The 2020 model on test here is no different. And yet it’s dramatically different — in every way.
For one thing, there’s its design. Now more akin to the all–screen iPad Pro, the 2020 iPad Air boasts a 10.9–inch edge–to–edge display (up from last year’s 10.2–inch) and has been given a radical new case design with flat edges just like the iPhone 12. That all–screen design also means Apple has ditched the Home button, shifting its Touch ID sensor from the front to the top of the device, where it now resides as part of the power button.
Another big outward change is that Apple has dropped Lightning from the 2020 iPad Air and gifted it a USB–C port, just like the iPad Pro. It also comes with two sets of speakers — top and bottom — enabling you to enjoy glorious stereo sound whichever way around you hold the device. And that 100% recycled aluminium case now comes in five striking colors: Silver, Space Gray, Rose Gold, Green, and Sky Blue.
Inside, the 2020 iPad Air is all–new too. The A12 Bionic processor from the third–gen model has been replaced with a 2.99GHz A14 Bionic with six processor cores and four graphics cores, dramatically increasing its performance over the previous model by 40% and 30% respectively. Like other Apple devices, the A14 Bionic is also equipped with the company’s Neural Engine, as well as ML accelerators that make it twice as fast at performing machine learning tasks like recognizing voice commands or performing color corrections in your photos.
The iPad Air also gets 4GB of memory and is available in two storage options: 64GB ($599 Wi–Fi–only or $729 Wi–Fi + Cellular) and 256GB ($749 Wi–Fi–only or $879 Wi–Fi + Cellular). It also sports Wi–Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.0. Unlike the entry–level iPad there’s no 3.5mm jack for you to plug your headphones
into, however it does now support two other Apple accessories — the Magic Keyboard ($299) and the second–gen Apple Pencil ($129), both of which can be attached to the iPad Air magnetically.
Apple has also improved the iPad Air’s cameras — the rear camera is now a 12MP model (the same as the iPad Pro). Taking photos and shooting 4K video on a camera this, erm, big always seems slightly silly, but it’s a good option to have in a pinch and the FaceTime HD front camera is great for all those video conferences we do so much of now.
SWEET SPOT
Like we said at the beginning, the iPad Air hits the sweet spot in terms of power and performance. It’s more expensive than the entry–level iPad by some margin, but it’s faster, better equipped and is more future–proof thanks to Wi–Fi 6, second–gen Apple Pencil support, and so on. It’s also cheaper than the 11–inch iPad Pro, which starts at $799 for the Wi-Fi-only model with 128GB of storage.
The benchmarks to the left tell a tale, too. In Geekbench 5, the iPad Air scores a speedy 1590 compared to the 8th–gen iPad’s 1117, while in 3DMark’s Wild Life one–minute graphics test it achieved an average score of 53fps, which is pretty incredible for a portable device.
Our third test measured the iPad Air’s read/ write storage performance — very important when transferring and using files — and again it scored highly, notching up 779MB/s write and 861MB/s read speeds.
What all that technical info means in the real world is that the 2020 iPad Air has more than enough power and performance under the hood to enable you to breeze through everyday tasks like web surfing, photo and video editing and playing the latest Apple Arcade games, while also watching HDR movies on–device or streaming them to your Apple TV 4K. We really like that it works with the new Magic Keyboard with its built–in trackpad — it’s the closest we’re ever likely to get to a 10–inch Apple portable, a Mac Air mini if you will, and its Apple Pencil support is second–to–none too.
Is there anything we can criticize the 2020 iPad Air for? The $100 starting price increase over the previous generation is unfortunate, but completely understandable given the dramatic changes and improvements Apple has made here. If you’re still in any doubt, don’t be — go buy one.
THE BOTTOM LINE. This is the iPad for the rest of us — it’s fast, powerful and remarkably fully featured. It feels like the future. ROB MEAD–GREEN