[ad_1]
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 – About a month ago, I was asked if the iPad Air is worth beating with the new 8th generation iPad.
I finally got the answer to that question. The short answer is, I really like this iPad. The long answer? There is much more to tell.
Beauty Contest Winner
If it were just about which iPad is most attractive, I would say that the new iPad Air is the prettiest of all iPads ever made.
While the previous Air felt more like an extended version of the basic iPad, the iPad Air is more like a slim version of the iPad Pro design.
There has been a lot of talk about the new color options – now they’ve been expanded to five, with the newest colors being green and sky blue, joining Apple’s usual shades of space gray, silver, and gold.
My personal preference is green. It’s a very nice green, somewhere between mint green and apple green, almost light enough to be pastel.
Of course, it’s a bit of fun to have nice ringtones for iPads when you’re smarter, really wrapping them in a case to protect that aluminum chassis.
The new design features a near edge-to-edge display that maximizes screen real estate so you get 2360×1640 resolution with Apple’s Liquid Retina display, which might be reason enough to choose this over the basic iPad.
Watching my streaming shows on the bigger, brighter screen was more enjoyable on the iPad Pro compared to the entry-level iPad with the latter’s larger bezels. The True Stereo speakers may not be as stylish as the Pro’s four-speaker setup, but they’re loud and nice enough.
Even with the new processor, I don’t see any significant differences in battery life. Which means you’ll get the usual 10 hours or so, although I often shortened it to five or six hours with my intense gaming sessions.
The heart that beats
What’s interesting is that the iPad Air has the latest Apple A14 Bionic processor that will also power the iPhone 12 models – it’s a newer processor than the latest iPad Pro, which runs the A12Z, a modified version of the older A12X.
Does this mean that the iPad Air is more powerful than the current Pro model? Not quite. While the A14 Bionic is newer, the A12X handles graphics better thanks to an additional GPU.
It still makes the iPad Air a compelling alternative to the Pro, although it does have 4GB of RAM versus the Pro’s 6GB.
Playing on the iPad Air had no problems, and since it’s a newer processor, I found that long periods of gaming didn’t warm it up as quickly as on the iPad Pro.
Editing the photos for this article on the iPad Air was easy too, whether you use Apple’s built-in image editor or the resource-intensive Affinity Photo.
Being able to use the newer second-gen Apple Pencil is great too, as it can be connected to your iPad. I don’t miss the hectic days when the first-gen Apple Pencil fell off the table, under the bed, out of my bag … you get it.
The USB Type-C port also opens up the possibility for more accessories, although you’ll need to make sure they are compatible with Apple ports; You can connect external drives, or even network drives, by accessing files through the Files app. That’s one way to avoid limited storage.
If you anticipate your life being filled with conference calling meetings, the front-facing camera on the iPad Air could be another reason to spend the extra money: With the 7MP sensor, it will deliver brighter, sharper images than the entry-level iPad’s 1.2MP camera. .
It doesn’t hurt that the rear camera is also very good for a tablet: 12MP with a large aperture and support for 4K video recording up to 60fps. It may not be the type to take photos with an iPad, but for the price of the iPad Air, it’s nice to see a pretty decent camera.
The lighter alternative (in your wallet)
If you’re on a budget, the entry-level 8th-gen iPad is probably your best bet unless you’re using it for heavy graphic design or video editing.
However, if you want, and could really use, an iPad Pro, but the price is what puts you off, the iPad Air offers a lot of performance for much less.
Unfortunately, the 64GB base storage for RM2,599 (Wi-Fi only) seems very small, although if you can go up to 256GB for RM3,249, you’ll get a lot more storage for your money compared to the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro in Comparison costs RM3,499 for 128GB and RM3,949 for 256GB, and that’s just the 11-inch version, Wi-Fi only.
There’s also the argument that you could probably buy a Windows laptop for the money, but the use-case scenario for a high-spec iPad is very specific.
For digital artists, iPad offers a way to draw anywhere, anywhere, and share the results of their work online via streaming or social media.
Only one drawback here: the need for accessories. For creative work, the newer and more expensive Apple Pencil would likely be necessary, as the alternative third-party styluses available just wouldn’t be enough.
If you want to use it as a laptop replacement, Apple keyboard covers are expensive, but the good news is that there are plenty of third-party options that will work just as well.
For people who find the basic iPad too limiting, the iPad Air will likely be the best option as the Pro, as much as I like the device, will be over the top for most people except professionals.
With the newer processor, the iPad Air, if you see it as an investment, it will probably last you around four years and that could be a good reason to choose this over the other two current models.
The iPad Air is available to order at all official Apple retailers, as well as online, starting at RM2,599.
