Apple iPad 10.2in (2020)
Not a huge upgrade over last year’s iPad, other than the processor inside, but at this price it remains the de facto tablet
PRICE 32GB Wi-Fi, £274 (£329 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk
Iterative updates aren’t sexy, but they’re my favourite. Company A (Apple) takes established and market-leading product B (the iPad) and improves it a smidgen. It’s a win-win for everyone.
So it is with this eighth-generation iPad. There’s nothing surprising, nothing groundbreaking, but that doesn’t matter one jot because it remains the best tablet you can buy for the price. And, if you buy the keyboard as well, it makes a mighty fine budget laptop replacement.
Design changes (or lack thereof)
I often begin a review with a deep dive on the design, but since the new iPad 10.2in is exactly the same as the 10.2in iPad from 2019 ( see issue 303, p50), that feels redundant. Its dimensions are exactly the same as before (174 x 7.5 x 251mm, weighing 490g) and its buttons are in the same places. It has the same old Lightning connector, so there’s no move to USB-C, and even the cameras are identical. There’s an eight-megapixel f/2.4 camera on the back and a rather disappointing 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera on the front.
The plain iPad isn’t compatible with Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the 11in iPad Pro, but that makes sense given its £299 cost. Instead, Apple expects you to invest £159 in the Smart Keyboard (which is the same as for the previous iPad 10.2in), which pays off handsomely: it turns the iPad into a lovely little productivity machine, and it’s now even better thanks to the new mouse and keyboard features introduced in the iPadOS 14 update.
Take the Scribble feature. This is Apple’s shot at integrating handwriting recognition into iPadOS and, in the process, givies users another reason to drop £89 on an Apple Pencil. The idea is simple: scribble words and iPadOS will attempt to recognise your scrawl and turn it into text. This works just about as well as most handwriting recognition and, in some ways, it’s better. The system of scribbling out words to delete them is wonderfully intuitive, as is the ability to select text by either circling it or dragging over the top of it. The only thing I struggled with was scratching out single characters, which is needlessly fiddly.
Scribble works best in the Notes app at the moment, which leaves your handwriting in place and allows you to copy and paste it, just like real text. Some of these new features aren’t limited to Notes, however, since you can also write in most text fields across iOS in most apps, from web forms to reminder lists. It’s even possible to write text into Pages and have it converted on the fly, and add data into cells in Numbers.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this level of compatibility doesn’t yet extend to Google Docs, although you can enter handwritten data into Google Sheets cells.
Slightly less useful is the system’s ability to convert hand-drawn shapes – from circles and ellipses to stars and squares – into straight-sided objects. All you have to do is draw what you want then pause at the end and wait for the iPad to do its thing.
“Scribbling out words to delete them is wonderfully intuitive, as is the ability to select text by circling it or dragging over the top of it”
Same old display
It’s a shame, however, that Apple hasn’t updated the display on the
2020 generation of the iPad because it’s the tablet’s least attractive aspect these days.
That’s principally because it hasn’t yet inherited the laminated display that the company lavishes on the iPad Pro and iPad Air further up the range. Lamination is where the touchscreen glass is physically attached to the LCD below it and brings two key benefits: it reduces glare and increases the sense of immediacy when touching the screen with either your fingers or the
Apple Pencil. The standard iPad lacks the variable refresh rate of the Pro tablets, too, which can go all the way up to 120Hz, and it also lacks the widegamut Display P3 colour coverage
(this is similar to DCI-P3, as favoured by Netflix), meaning that it doesn’t look quite as vibrant.
Within these limitations, however, the 10.2in IPS pane l is excellent. A resolution of 2,160 x 1,620 gives a pixel density of 264ppi, so it’s perfectly sharp. Colour performance is also beyond reproach. The iPad’s sRGB coverage (90.6%) and colour accuracy (1.25 average Delta E) are both very good. It’s also bright, reaching a maximum of 509cd/m2 in our testing, while the contrast ratio is an acceptable 1,086:1.
“The 2020 iPad is by far the most powerful tablet in its class, is well made and has the clear and decisive benefit of iPadOS”
Bold new power
The big news, especially given that the price has remained the same, is that the iPad 10.2in is now much more powerful than last year’s model. Apple’s six-core A12 Bionic replaces the four-core A10 Fusion, which is an especially welcome development when you consider that was the same chip as found in the 2018 iPad.
Don’t expect a huge and noticeable uplift in responsiveness, though. The iPad feels just as speedy and slick as always, with apps launching quickly and most games playing at a smooth frame rate. It’s when you tax the tablet with something more demanding – a spot of video editing and rendering via iMovie, for instance – that you’ll find the six-core A12 Bionic a more than capable companion.
Battery life isn’t bad, either. Despite the hike in power, the A12 Bionic is a more efficient chip than the A10 Fusion, and as a result this year’s iPad lasted a fraction longer in our video-rundown battery test.
Buying decision
There are areas of weakness here. The eight-megapixel camera performs well in good light yet it’s no match for the cameras you find in an iPhone, while the front webcam is okay – but we expect sharper images from an Apple device. The design lo oks dated compared to Android tablets such as the Galaxy Tab S7+ ( see issue 313, p56). And it’s still stuck on Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) rather than Wi-Fi 6.
Despite this, 2020’s Apple iPad is an easy recommendation. It’s by far the most powerful tablet in its class, it’s well made and it has the clear and decisive benefit of iPadOS – not to mention all of the apps that you can only find for iPads. Add a keyboard – whether that be the official £159 Smart Keyboard or a cheaper, thirdparty product – and you have an exceptionally good-value laptop replacement.
In fact, your biggest decision is how much storage you need and whether you want to add 4G. The plain 32GB Wi-Fi version costs £329, the 128GB edition £429, and opting for 4G on either configuration adds £130 to the price.
Whichever option you choo se, it’s difficult to argue about value for money here. If you’re looking to buy any kind of computer – be that a tablet, laptop or otherwise – and have around £500 to spend, make it your business to put the eighth-generation iPad 10.2in right at the top of your list.
SPECIFICATIONS
Six-core 2.49GHz Apple A12 Bionic processor
3GB RAM 10.2in IPS screen, 1,620 x 2,160 resolution 32/128GB storage 12/1.2megapixel rear/front camera 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 4.2 Lightning connector
32.3Wh battery iPadOS 14 174 x 7.5 x 251mm (WDH) 490g 1yr warranty