Which iPad Should You Buy? (Early 2022)

i've just realized how reflective that neon sign is on these ipads that's annoying okay anyway hey guys i'm tom with techchap and i have every single ipad you can buy right now from the standard base ipad which will cost you 319 quid to the brand new ipad air fifth generation this has just come out and it's got this snazzy new blue color and the m1 chip all the way up to the pros and in fact this pro 12 9 top spec maxed out all the bells and whistles will cost you over two grand so which one should you actually buy and also are any of these accessories worth shelling out for and if you do find this helpful then a cheeky little like and subscribe would be very much appreciated so these are the five main ipads that apple sells right now with various color and storage options in either wi-fi or wi-fi plus cellular if you have money to burn and can't possibly hotspot from your phone or use wi-fi they're all running the latest version of ipad os and as i'm filming we're on 15.4 which actually added some nifty features like universal control which i'll come back to later also bear in mind that while i'll come to some proper performance benchmarks later the a13 chip in here the a15 in here and the m1 that's used in these three while there are performance differences fundamentally they all run the same apps and games they also all have great build quality and materials front and rear cameras and they all should get around 10 hours of battery life you can't go wrong with any of them but it comes down to do you need the extra power the better screen and the better cameras of the higher end models but let's start at the budget end with the ipad just the ipad although technically it's the 9th generation ipad and this will cost you 119 pounds or 329 this came out back in september 2021 so it's still pretty recent although it is definitely a case of meet the new ipad same as the old ipad it's kind of like the iphone se of ipads i mean it looks almost identical to most ipads from the last 10 years or so with the same thick bezels top and bottom a physical touch id home button and also the less versatile lighting port there's nothing wrong with the design per se i mean it's still slim and comfortable to use it just feels a bit last last last gen but i would argue to maybe look past that because this will do 95 of what most people use an ipad for and for 319 quid for the 64 gig storage option and even less if you're buying it with the education discount you're getting pretty much the full ipad experience for just over half what you'd pay for the new ipad air so front and center is this 10.2 inch retina lcd screen interestingly they are all the same sharpness they share a pretty much the same pixel per inch density except for the mini actually which is the sharpest out of all them but there is one small downside the display isn't laminated so there's actually a small but just noticeable gap between the glass and the actual screen but it's not the end of the world oh that's creepy take chap inception uh we do get this eight megapixel camera on the back which is okay for taking the quick snap or maybe you know scanning a qr code while the 12 megapixel ultra wide selfie camera is actually very good and it also comes with apple's clever center stage technology which tracks and keeps your face or a group of faces centered in the frame and actually all ipads do now support center stage now on paper the biggest drawback with the base ipad is the fact that we have the slower a13 chip certainly it's not as fast as the a15 and the m1 in the other ipads but it's still very capable and as you can see it easily handles any app or game i throw at it and it likely will do for at least a couple more years so if you want something just for browsing the web watching some videos maybe making the old facetime call realistically this is all the ipad you need and actually it's great for kids as well my nephew oliver loves this i love my ipad so much and he plays loads of logic puzzles and maths and language games plus being the cheapest ipad it's less of a big deal if it gets a bit messy or worse hi i'm oliver the tech chat you can also pair the ipad with the smart keyboard which snaps on magnetically and then folds to keep the ipad in place and it's pretty comfortable to type on although it is a fairly basic experience versus the more expensive magic keyboard with the air and pros we do also get apple pencil support with the standard ipads but it's still only the first gen pencil which charges somewhat awkwardly and also doesn't snap onto the side but it's fine i would stick with the base 64 gig model though for the base ipad i don't think it's really worth paying the extra for more storage and if you can live with this slightly more data design then why pay more all right onwards and upwards well small words let's talk about the ipad mini or the sixth generation ipad mini and you know what don't listen to the haters when they say this is just a big iphone i love this thing yes it costs more than the regular ipad but then it's got a nicer design better tech and in many ways it's just a shrunken down ultra portable version of the air and it actually does just about fit in your pocket just i wouldn't recommend sitting down like this but it is also by far the lightest ipad meaning it's the only one you can use for say reading one-handed for longer periods and it's also the perfect pairing with the apple pencil 2 for drawing and taking notes it's funny when my wife sarah asks if she can borrow one of the ipads i usually go to you know pick up the 12 9 and give it to her because it's the best ipad but she never wants it she always takes the mini partly because she just likes the more portable smaller size of it it's always useful to have a wife who appreciates small things uh but also partly because she loves purple and i've got the purple case with it as well so interestingly even though you know on paper you might think this is best because it's the most expensive not everyone needs it to be that big okay i'll stop now i think the small size has an even bigger advantage though for gaming playing games especially once designed for landscape orientation works really well on this and my thumbs can reach most of the controls although i'm not so keen on the volume button placement when i'm playing it like this it's also powered by the a15 bionic chip which is the same one used in the current iphone 13 range and it does feel a bit quicker than the standard ipad with the a13 and more graphically intensive games are noticeably smoother now the mini does have a lot in common with the ipad air slim bezels squared off design stereo speakers also a touch id power button on the top edge as well as a 12 megapixel rear camera and a 12 megapixel ultra wide selfie again with center stage also wi-fi 6 and a 5g cellular option if you want plus we get the more versatile usbc port as i mentioned earlier this is actually the sharpest ipad in terms of pixel per inch density versus everything else it's not something you'd really be able to notice unless you put your eyes right up to it but either way this is a beautiful 8.3 inch ips screen the only downside really and this also applies to the base ipad and the air is that we're still locked to this 60 hertz screen only the pro models get the pro motion 120 hertz it doesn't feel like we're really unlocking that much performance with the more powerful chips because the screen is still capped at that 60 hertz also this does only come with four gigs of ram compared to eight on the new ipad air it's also not exactly cheap at 479 pounds or 499 dollars which makes this 64 gig mini a hefty 160 pounds more expensive over the 64 gig regular ipad and if you want the extra storage 256 gigs is 619 pounds add in 5g then you're at 759 and that's before a case a pencil or a keyboard well actually not really a keyboard because they don't offer one for this size but you can use separate bluetooth keyboards if you want one other reason you may want to consider going for the mini or any of these in fact is that it supports the gen 2 apple pencil which is a lot nicer firstly if i can actually pick this up it nicely clips onto the side so you don't have to carry it separately it also wirelessly charges this way so it's incredibly convenient and it is more responsive than the first gen pencil with that horrible lightning connector up there although again you will still get better performance better responsiveness by using it with one of the 120 hertz pros i love i've got a little pencil holder here feels like i'm at school or i'm a teacher but for you know tech students all right let's talk about the new kid on the block the brand new 5th generation ipad air and i think in this 64 gig form yes still 64 gigs it is arguably the sweet spot of the ipad range the design may look pretty much identical to the 4th gen air but the performance is now ipad pro level thanks to the m1 chip and also twice the ram now at 8 gigabytes there's also a new 5g cellular option and also usb-c transfer speeds are now twice as fast it also gets the upgraded 12 megapixel rear and ultra wide selfie cameras with center stage and the camera quality is better than last year as well thanks to the improved image processing from the m1 chip although realistically i think the biggest upgrade with the air and maybe the reason to buy it is this snazzy new blue color which i maintain is tech chat blue i think apple are just a big fan of the channel and decided to uh create this color just for me possibly maybe not but i am kind of torn about the new air because on one hand it still has this gorgeous design it's just as powerful as the pros now and with a screen that's almost as bright in fact it can feel like an ipad pro but for almost 200 pounds less it's also slightly lighter than the base ipad and for a lot of people who want a little bit more premium look and feel i think the air is probably worth it especially with the improved performance and also accessories like the magic keyboard that gives it plenty of laptop-like potential while the air's 60 hertz display does still feel nice and smooth and is obviously a very fast ipad and it kind of feels like that 60hz bottlenecks all that performance potential but this is where i always get frustrated with apple they are masses of the upsell i apologize i use that phrase in most apple videos recently but they know most people just want say 128 gigs of storage which is why they give you 64 or 256 gig options on balance i do think the base 64 gig model is still probably my recommendation at 569 pounds i don't think i would want to pay 719 just to go up to 256 gigs of storage yes of course you can always just use icloud to back up your stuff but the trouble is with that 256 gig model of this you're only 15 pounds shy of the ipad pro 11 which does come with 128 so admittedly not the 256 but 128 is all you need and you do get some nice extras with this which we'll come to in a second so that's where this kind of gets a bit blurry between whether you should get the air or the 11 inch pro just a quick side note though because if you are serious about using your ipad for some actual work or productivity whatever you want to call it then i would highly recommend paying the extra and getting the magic keyboard this works with both the air and the pro models it is quite expensive and also you can see this is not the correct version for the air this is for my 12 9 pro but there is a model for this and surprisingly while the keycaps are a little bit bigger on the 12 9 version it is still just as comfortable to type with on the smaller 11s i really do love the magic keyboard it acts as a protective case there's a ton of adjustability it attaches magnetically so it's easy to put it on and take it off and you get an extra usbc port and a touchpad if you want to save some cash though then you can still go with a smart keyboard folio but that does lose the trackpad the extra usbc port and the nicer keys and layout and the adjustability and finally let's talk about the ipad pros we've got the 11 and the 12.9 inch here and really this still feels like a tablet whereas this feels more like a laptop screen and i think again like the air these really do benefit from pairing it with a magic keyboard and maybe a pencil too it's not just the size that separates these those because the bigger 12 9 gets this fancy liquid resonant xdr mini led display and essentially we're getting much higher contrast and so it makes the blacks on the 11 inches liquid retina screen look washed out and grayish in comparison as for brightness in non-hdr content the difference really isn't that obvious as both peak at 600 nits but when you do jump into some hdr video we get a thousand nits on the 12 9's mini led screen with areas peaking up to 1600 nits and that is a big difference if you are watching a lot of movies or doing color sensitive work it does make a big difference although being mini led as opposed to say oled or amoled we do see some fairly obvious blooming and haloing particularly when you've got a high contrast area say between a white and a black both pro models do get that 120hz refresh rate though or what apple calls promotion which makes scrolling and jumping between apps and browsing the web feels so much smoother and snappier versus the air and it's even more obvious in games with a 120 hertz mode it feels like you've really unlocked the m1's potential now obviously i can't actually show you what 120hz looks like in this 60hz video that i'm filming but if i show you both slowed down to half speed then you get some idea of the difference and it makes inputs with the pencil feel more immediate and responsive as well so if you do plan to use this as a serious drawing tablet then i think promotion is a must have like the new air though the m1 is just blisteringly fast it's overkill for most tasks but if you are a power user working with 10 bit 4k video or high megapixel images or 3d design then it is definitely the one to get and of course it makes it more future proof but aside from the size and also the screen difference these are pretty much identical we get the same sleek aluminium design like the air and the mini although with slightly thinner bezels we also get insanely good quad speakers as well as face id instead of touch id storage also goes up to a whopping 2 terabytes if you've got incredibly deep pockets the pros now also get 8 or 16 gigs of ram depending on the storage option you go for as well as an even faster usb 4 port that supports thunderbolt 3 as well as a 5g option and also both pros get a 12 megapixel main camera plus an ultra wide lens along with a now familiar 12 megapixel selfie with center stage up front we do also get a lidar sensor on the pro models which surprisingly i do use quite a bit mainly for measuring things like packages when i'm sending them off or furniture it's not essential but it's kind of nice to have but as you would expect none of this comes cheap the 11 inch pro starts at 749 pounds or 999 if you want the bigger 12.9 interestingly though the ipad pro 12.9 costs the same as the macbook air although this obviously doesn't come with a keyboard you have to pay extra for that so in that way it becomes more expensive for me i would probably go with a macbook air although it does come down to your circumstances fundamentally i still think ipads and tablets generally are a bit more of a luxury than a necessity like a phone or a laptop and also whether mini led and the larger size is worth an extra 250 pounds over the 11 really comes down to how you use your ipad for most of us i don't think it's essential so that is the lineup but since i have them all here why not run a few benchmarks and just see how fast they are and to the surprise of absolutely no one the m1 kind of dominated particularly in multi-core and graphics performance as you can see from my antutu geekbench and 3dmark results actually in the 3dmark graphics test the mini was around 35 faster than the regular ipad while the air averaged twice the fps versus the base ipad interestingly though the air was a little bit less consistent in its low frame stability score versus the pros it seems to throttle a bit more easily although i didn't really see any stutter in my gaming tests the thing is though since most developers optimize their apps and games for the least powerful ipad on the market often you're not really fully unlocking the potential of the m1 the more powerful chips in these guys so really the difference comes down to if the game or the app supports higher graphic options and also you can max out the 120 hertz if it supports high refresh but also more importantly i think it's future proofing all these ipads if you buy them right now will probably last you at least three four five years but with the m1 since it is such an upgrade and also so ubiquitous within apple's ipads and macs now i think you're going to get a couple extra years of support from it the good news though is the battery life is great no matter which ipad you go for and the difference between them was only a few percentage points at most realistically in everyday use with a bit of gaming and watching videos and browsing the web you are gonna get between nine and eleven hours i think it's also worth mentioning that if you own a macbook air or pro laptop or a mac mini with a screen like i've got over there actually that's the mac studio with the studio display you can use these ipads as a second screen via sidecar either wirelessly or via usbc and if you're on the latest mac os 15.4 or later we now get universal control which lets your mac and ipad become a single workspace by allowing you to share the trackpad and keyboard between devices and even drag apps and transfer files between them via airdrop it genuinely feels like magic so that was a lot to take in but let me finish with a few quick takeaway tips number one think carefully before you pay extra for more storage are you really going to use it because it often does have a lot of money and maybe you can get away with just transferring things off it or storing in icloud secondly i wouldn't really recommend paying the extra for the cellular option whether it's 4g or 5g unless i don't know it's on the business and you don't really care how much it costs and you think you will use it most of the time i just hot spot for my phone and use the internet that way or you know use wi-fi thirdly most people don't need a pro i would probably recommend one of these for 95 of people and lastly don't forget about refurbs or buying an older version like the ipad air gen 4 the outgoing one you may now be able to find some good deals on official refurbishments are still quite expensive but it's still worth looking around and actually i saw some amazon discounts on the 11 inch pro which actually made it much closer to the current new ipad airing price so i reckon if i was going to buy an ipad for say my parents i would go with something like this i think if it was a recommendation to my friends who are a little bit more techy perhaps and would use more of the features then i would go between the mini and the new air really it just depends on what size they prefer and then really only if you're a proper enthusiast and you want the best features and maybe money isn't as much of a problem then i would i recommend the pros the 12 9 stands out with that mini led screen so i like this this is what i actually end up using most of the time myself but it is a lot of money and at that kind of price if you don't have a modern laptop then maybe a macbook air or something would be a better option and breathe thank you so much for watching guys if you have any questions at all or also any tips then let me know in the comments below don't forget to hit that subscribe button and i'll see you next time right here on the tech chat

Channel: The Tech Chap

Views: 1,099,753

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Id: jHA5mbCQ6lY

Length: 19min 31sec (1171 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 28 2022