iPad 10th Gen and iPad Pro: Which iPad Should You Buy Now?
Tablets
Speaker 1: Apple's latest 10th Gen iPad and iPad Pros are here. Are these the iPads to get? I wish I could say absolutely yes, but it's not that simple. I mean, iPads used to be simple. There was one iPad that came outta year and it would have new features and you get it. Now, there are six variants of iPads. If you count all the ones Apple sells, the ninth gen iPad, the new 10th gen iPad, the iPad Air, [00:00:30] the iPad Mini, the 11 inch iPad Pro and the 12.9 inch iPad Pro across a whole variety of prices and configurations. It's a lot to take in. And this new 10th gen iPad, which is the entry level model, I really was looking forward to this being the iPad for everyone, for the price and for its updated features. And the answer is it's close, but there are things holding it back. Let's get into those.
Speaker 1: [00:01:00] So I, I love the fact that you can spend a little bit of money relatively and get an iPad that's relatively versatile. This year, Apple updated its iPad with a lot of overdue things. Finally it has usbc. Finally, it has a display and design that are like the rest of the iPad lineup. It actually caught up and looks like a member of the family. It has an updated chip inside too and it has a fantastic feature with its front camera, but it's price. It went up. So that's a trade off. I mean [00:01:30] I love the fact that it's got usbc. I love the fact that this has a new processor and the front facing camera being on the landscape edge. Thank you. That's finally fixed. Finally, I can have a conversation on an iPad and it looks like I'm talking on my laptop. Things are centered properly.
Speaker 1: Apple Center stage Zoom follows me around and it looks like what I've wanted for years, which is that that regular type of a conversation, because I'm putting my iPad in landscape mode most of the time when [00:02:00] I set it on a table or use it with a keyboard so far using it, I'm super happy with the results. Strangely, this is the only iPad that has the camera in the right place. No other iPad in the lineup has that. For that alone, I feel like this iPad may be worth getting. However, the price has gone up significantly. It's now 4 49 for the model, which starts with only 64 gigabytes of storage. Now 64 gigabytes to me just eeks in, I don't think it's [00:02:30] enough. I'd ideally want 1 28, which Apple doesn't have. So now you're gonna go to the 2 56 gigabyte storage model, which is $600.
Speaker 1: That's the entry price for Apple's iPad air, and that's how the stepping stone works from model to model, kind of like sizes of popcorn. So instead of going to the iPad Air, you could stay with the 10th gen iPad, but then of course if you want to get AppleCare or you wanna get any sort of accessory or those types of stuff, Apple pencil, a keyboard case, you could be spending well [00:03:00] over $700, maybe closer to $900 for all of this stuff. That's not a cheap iPad. Now who are you buying this for? Are you buying it for a kid? In which case you don't wanna spend that much money. Maybe you just wanna get the ninth Gen iPad from last year and the fact that Apple is still selling that model, which is still capable seems like a sign for other people. They may look at this 10th gen iPad as the most affordable way to get a modern iPad with most of the stuff they need.
Speaker 1: Now in using the iPad, it's got a 10.9 inch display, which [00:03:30] looks really good. Basically indistinguishable from the iPad air even though the iPad air technically has a better anti-reflective display and better color gamut. But all the experiences of that and the audio look plenty good for me. I'm very happy using it. However, the pencil, let's talk about that cuz that's a situation. You have to use the first gen pencil with this entry level iPad, not the second gen. That's nice and magnetic charging that works with the iPad Mini, the [00:04:00] iPad Air, and the iPad Pros. By doing this, not only has Apple made, you had to use an older pencil that doesn't have as many easy tap features and also is easier to roll off the table or lose the cap of, but it no longer plugs in to charge via Lightning. Instead you have to use a separate dongle, a USBC to lightning dongle, which you plug in to the pencil and then you plug that into your USBC charge cable into your iPad.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of doning and it's really super annoying. It's so [00:04:30] bad that I feel like if you really care about using the pencil and an iPad, I would say skip this model and go with one of the others. If you don't care about using a pencil and frankly I don't use a pencil most of the time you might be perfectly fine with this model and find that acceptable. When is Apple gonna update this one for pencil two? Why isn't there a USBC pencil? Two good questions. I don't know the answer, but the other thing about this iPad that's weird is it's a slightly different thickness. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but if you're buying cases in [00:05:00] accessories, it is the iPad Air and the iPad Pro 11 inch have a similar design and that's gone back a couple of years making a lot of compatible cases that you can buy online.
Speaker 1: You'll have to buy a totally different set of cases that will fit this particular iPad. Apple has sold its own new keyboard case for this iPad called the Magic Keyboard Folio. This one is much more like a Microsoft Surface or a log text keyboard accessories that have been out for the iPad for years. There's a snap on back [00:05:30] cover that's magnetic and then there is a keyboard base that snaps onto the side. Basically you have to kick stand it up on a table and type that way. The nice thing about this is that has an extra row of function keys on top, which was missing from Apple's magic keyboard before, but the keyboard's not backlit and you have to have a flat surface. It's really not lap friendly, very floppy and even the case itself doesn't look very protective and I find that the top of the keyboard case kind of slips off a little bit.
Speaker 1: When I hold it from the side, [00:06:00] it's $250, which is a lot and I feel like other accessories will be out there that will get you similar performance for less. So the iPad 10th gen adds up to a product that I almost love at a price that I do not love with a very strange Apple pencil. What about the iPad Pro? It's basically a spec bump compared to the 2021 model. It has a new M two chip, a step up over the M one similar to the chip that's in Apple's latest MacBooks. Also, it has a [00:06:30] slightly better connectivity situation where it has both millimeter wave 5g if you upgrade to that configuration. It also has wifi six E, which is faster and it also has this new feature with Apple Pencil where it will allow you to hover over the screen and it will pick up at a distance when you're hovering it and bring up these contextual interactional commands.
Speaker 1: Possibly ways of even previewing features and and filters before you tap the whole package for this new iPad Pro at a similar price from before [00:07:00] is basically saying I wouldn't upgrade to if I already had the last model, but if you had been waiting to get one, possibly very tempting. The thing is it's a super expensive iPad and it's no closer to being a laptop. Apple is still doing its thing with iPad os keeping it in a separate zone than Mac Os. Despite having the same chip. I think you might even wanna wait and see if Apple's gonna transform the iPad further unless you really love using the pencil, which is something that only exists in the Apple lineup through [00:07:30] the iPad. It's a fantastic graphic tool with a great display, but I would keep looking at it from that perspective. In the iPad air that came out in the spring, you may get an update in the spring as well.
Speaker 1: Do you wait for that or do you feel happy with the lineup as is? The answer is it's very confusing. I think a lot of people will be happy with the ninth gen iPad, which is the cheapest and has still perfectly functional features. The 10th gen iPad is the one I'd ideally pick if it didn't have a weird pencil and the price [00:08:00] is pretty high or again, you might wanna wait. That's the story of the iPad in 2022. I wish it were simpler. Thanks for watching. If you have any comments below, let me know. Make sure to like and subscribe and talk to you soon.
