Thursday, March 28, 2024

New iPad Air Reviews: ‘The Best Tablet for Most People’ With New Pro-Like Design and Features at Lower Price

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Last month, Apple introduced a new iPad Air with a larger 10.9-inch edge-to-edge display, a faster A14 Bionic chip, a USB-C port, and Touch ID built into the power button. The new iPad Air begins arriving to customers on Friday, and ahead of time, reviews of the device have now been shared by various media outlets and YouTube channels.

The new iPad Air via The Verge
Most reviews agree that the new iPad Air is the best tablet for the average customer, as it now has a similar design and features as the iPad Pro, despite starting at a lower price of $599, albeit with only 64GB of storage. iPad Pro models start at $799 with 128GB of storage.

The Verge’s Dieter Bohn:

If you’re looking to get an iPad right now and can afford it, the new $599 iPad Air is the best tablet for most people. Apple has taken the design from the more expensive iPad Pro and brought it down to a more reasonable price point. It’s $100 more than it was last year, but in return this year’s iPad Air has a bigger, better screen and a faster (and very intriguing) processor.

Engadget’s Dana Wollman:

With so few differences between the iPad Air and the Pro, I’m forced to reconsider who the Air is for. Last year it was the perfect just-right tablet: it offered more features than the basic entry-level model, but was still more attainable than the premium Pro line. It was the best tablet for most people. This year, I would upgrade Air to the best tablet for almost everyone, and I’d even argue it’s Apple’s best high-end tablet. That is, until Apple upgrades the Pro with a new chip and more advanced display tech, which is almost certainly will.

Six Colors’s Jason Snell:

The iPad Air is a remarkably capable device that offers many features of more expensive models for a lower price.

Though it’s fair to point out that the price isn’t that much lower. The iPad Air starts at $599, meaning it’s $200 less than the base-model iPad Pro. However, that iPad Air model only has 64 GB of storage. If you choose the only other storage option, a model with 256GB of storage, you’ll pay $749—which is $150 less than a comparably equipped iPad Pro, and only $50 less than the base-model 128GB iPad Pro.

MacStories’s Federico Viticci:

The iPad Air raises the baseline for what we should expect from iPad as a portable, versatile computer for everyone. If you’re looking for an 11″ tablet and think you can live without ProMotion and larger storage options, this is the iPad I recommend.

The Wall Street Journal’s Nicole Nguyen:

The $799-and-up Pro is arguably the “better” tablet. It has Face ID, four speakers versus the Air’s two, its screen is brighter, it has more cameras, plus a Lidar scanner for depth mapping and a higher refresh rate capable of smoother scrolling and gaming. There’s also a thousand-dollar Pro with a bigger 13-inch screen.

But I didn’t find myself missing the Pro’s features. The biggest difference is the price: Starting at $599, the iPad Air is essentially a budget Pro.

More Reviews

  • Forbes’ David Phelan
  • TechRadar’s James Peckham
  • CNN’s Jacob Krol

We’ve also rounded up unboxing videos of the new iPad Air.Related Roundup: iPad Air Buyer’s Guide: iPad Air (Buy Now)
This article, “New iPad Air Reviews: ‘The Best Tablet for Most People’ With New Pro-Like Design and Features at Lower Price” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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