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iPad Air 2020
- ethanpil 6y agoWith Apple's switch to Arm, is this basically the new Macbook Air in a tablet format with iOS instead of MacOS?
- iagooar 6y agoThat is an accurate description of an iPad, yes. BTW, Apple „switched“ to ARM 13 years ago with the launch of the iPhone.
- stjo 6y agoI believe not - it has the new A14, but they are very careful to say "the fastest iPad air ever", not the "fastest iPad ever". It is probably slower than the A12Z in the iPad Pro and waaay slower than the A14Z, which will (supposedly) power the new MacBooks
- EricE 6y agoIt will indeed be interesting to see what CPU ends up in the next ultralight Mac notebook; whether they just use this CPU or have something else designed for it. Either way, I'm crossing my fingers that my 2015 Air hangs on long enough for it's ARM based successor - even if they just did slap this CPU into a new Air it would run circles around my current model.
- minimaxir 6y agoThe first AS MacBook will likely have an A14X, not the A14.
- apazzolini 6y agoLooks good, but I'll hold out for a similar upgrade in the Mini form factor. I don't see the extra size, weight, and sharp corners as an improvement for reading in bed.
- chrisweekly 6y agoIf you mean reading in the old-fashioned sense (ie, books), I recommend giving serious consideration to a Kindle Oasis.
- skrtskrt 6y agoHow are the Kindles with PDFs that may have technical diagrams, like O'Rielly-style instructional books or CompSci textbooks? I want a device I just use for reading, but I almost exclusively read PDFs of technical books. I'm thinking iPad Air vs Kindle
- Jtsummers 6y agoI've found the Kindle Fire to be a pleasant reading device for PDFs and ebooks. It's not an e-ink display, but you do get full color and PDF rendering is good. It's also cheap compared to an iPad, especially if this is your primary use case (I have both an iPad Pro and a Kindle Fire, the Kindle is my main reading device now, the iPad is a portable computer with Scrivener, Blink, Textastic, and Working Copy).
- skrtskrt 6y agoThank you. I still might hold on for an updated iPad Mini because I know I'll get the itch to set up Blink and Working Copy.
- Jtsummers 6y agoA nice thing about the Fire is that it's cheap. They had a recent sale going on the Fire HD for $60, I think it's about $100 now. It's not an either-or proposition (at least not for me), more of an "iPad now, Kindle in a month or two" (or reverse depending on your more important use-cases) proposition.
- jonplackett 6y agoI'm kinda surprised (in a good way) that they put the A14 in the Air. But where does that leave the Pro now (with only A12Z)? Or is the Z part of that processor so much faster that it's still got better performance?
- suyash 6y agoPro has LIDAR camera, Air doesn't
- jonplackett 6y agoYeah... but it's still 2 years of processor ahead!
- newscracker 6y agoI wondered about this too. My guess is that there will be a new iPad Pro by February 2021 with an A14X or similar processor (considering that the first Macs with Apple chips will have aomething like A14Z or similar variant).
- iwasakabukiman 6y agoIt actually has the A12 Z, not even the A13.
- jonplackett 6y agofixed it! thanks.
- foobaw 6y agoTheir new products always make me regret buying their older product line but too expensive for me to upgrade
- threatofrain 6y agoWhat now differentiates between iPad Pro 2020 ($800) and iPad Air 2020 ($600)? Surely not the sensor.
- iagooar 6y agoI saw: A14 vs A12 processor, the camera, Touch ID vs Face ID, LiDAR sensor vs no sensor. I almost regret getting the iPad Pro recently...
- justinplouffe 6y agoThere is also the 60hz vs 120hz refresh rate which makes quite a big difference.
- davio 6y ago120Hz - which I've never appreciated on mine
- EricE 6y agoCareful what you ask for. Scroll a 60 and 120 side by side and it's very obvious. And once you see it you may not be able to unsee it. When LCD TVs first came out I thought people were being overly dramatic with the whole motion blur thing - until I went looking for it. And then I saw it - every time a scene was still, it was in perfect clarity - the the camera panned and everything went fuzzy. Once I saw that effect I couldn't unsee it. 120Hz scrolling is the same for me too. Ignorance is indeed bliss :)
- wenc 6y agoI have both an iPad Air 2 (60Hz) and an iPad Pro 10.5 (ProMotion 120Hz). (I wanted to trade in my Air 2 but saw it wasn't worth much so decided to keep it) Scrolling is smoother on the latter, but it wasn't appreciable enough that the iPad Air 2 looked bad in comparison. I could continue using the Air 2 without any FOMO. Maybe it makes more of a difference for artists? (Pencil users)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tosh 6y agoiPad Pro 11" (2nd model) and iPad Air 11.9" 4th gen in comparison: https://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/?device1=ipad-pro-11&device2=ipad-air-4th-gen&device3=ipad-8th-gen https://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/?device1=ipad-pro-11&devi... the Pro comes with a better camera (ultra wide), more maximum storage (1TB vs 256GB), slightly higher resolution at same DPI and higher screen brigthness (600 nits vs 500 nits), will be interesting to see how the A14 Bionic (Air) stacks up against the A12Z Bionic (Pro)
- threatofrain 6y agoI wonder if the "pro-motion" high screen refresh technology makes any difference for artists?
- Someone1234 6y agoIt is nice to see more iPads move to USB-C. iPad Pro already did, now the Air has too, just leaves the "iPad" and iPad Mini. This also moves their Apple Pen support to 2nd gen from 1st gen.
- EricE 6y agoHopefully this is also foreshadowing the iPhone moving to USB-C. Lightning is OK, but the thought of being able to standardize on one cable for everything is very, very appealing.
- Zippogriff 6y agoNot doing so at least shortly after switching over their MacBooks has been really annoying. We're back to playing "which adapter and which charger this time?" USB-A + other-ports macbooks and lightning for iOS devices was better than the current mess, and they've gone years without fixing it. Oh and then if you find the right cable there's the matter of which port the charger itself has (A or C). Ugh. "One port, except for this other one, and then also you'll almost never need either of those ports directly so you'll have two adapters for everything".
- walterbell 6y agoSadly iPhone seems to be moving to zero cables, which means relying on perennially insecure basebands for Bluetooth & WiFi. EU tried to force Apple to move iPhone to USB-C and their response was to drop all cables. Hopefully the market rejects zero-port iPhones and Apple finally provides local USB-C for sync, audio, wired ethernet, keyboard, external displays, etc.
- oblio 6y ago> Hopefully the market rejects zero-port iPhones and Apple finally provides local USB-C for sync, audio, wired ethernet, keyboard, external displays, etc. Highly unlikely. I'm not an Apple fan but they'll probably have a slick solution at about $60-$140 and people will just buy that instead. It's going to be a classic upsell move ("would you like $60 worth of shoe miscellany together with your $80 shoes?") and people will just see the nice ads, the nice design, but it and move on :-)
- Hemospectrum 6y agoThe internet is erupting in a chorus of "How much RAM?" but Apple seems to be keeping quiet about that. Maybe we'll find out from an iFixit teardown.
- kevindong 6y agoRAM isn't super relevant to iOS devices. Those devices have always managed to squeeze out far more performance with far less RAM than their competitors.
- Hemospectrum 6y agoFrom what I'm seeing, most of the people asking are artists and musicians, and the apps they use are more RAM-hungry than the OS itself or the bundled Apple apps. However, I'm not sure what specific apps those are. Maybe they're ports from Windows, and their iOS-native competitors can make better use of GPU and ML hardware acceleration APIs, since those seem to be strengths of the A14 SoC.
- tzs 6y agoIt's relevant for browsing with multiple tabs. The more RAM you have, the more you can do in other tabs after switching away from a tab without having that tab reload when you return. It's very annoying if you were somewhere in the middle of a long page, go to look up a few things on other sites, come back, and your original tab reloads and you are back on top.
- phren0logy 6y agoSo now that this is nearly indistinguishable from the iPad Pro, what does that mean for iPad Pro / ARM Mac? Only Apple knows, but I wouldn't be shocked if the first ARM Mac is a 2-in-1 convertible that replaces the iPad Pro.
- mortenjorck 6y agoI always used to think this idea was a non-starter given the many incompatible UX patterns between MacOS and iOS. Then came the ARM announcement, including the mention that Apple Silicon Macs would be capable of running iOS apps, which would point to such a seemingly chimaeric device being inevitable. How I think Apple will manage it is by keeping the two halves separate. No or minimal touch interactions in MacOS; no Mac desktop in iPad mode. Apple won't repeat Windows 8's fridge-toaster attempt at making a unified UI between desktop and tablet mode, but apps with Mac and iPadOS versions will automatically switch UIs dependent on context. It will still be an enormous pile of design challenges, but for the first time, I think a Mac-iPad hybrid could actually work.
- EricE 6y agoI'd love to see the Pencil come to the Mac! And Big Sur spacing out everything hints at touch probably coming to the Mac. As a MacBook Air user I'd love an option to restore the previous compact spacing. Maybe it will still come as an accessibility option? One can hope.
- Marsymars 6y agoYou can kinda have Pencil on macOS by using Sidecar with an iPad.
- msoad 6y agoCan't wait to see what they have built for laptops with the 5nm fab process. I'm sure this CPU will break some records on its own but a boosted version with more RAM will deliver MacBook Pro level performance.
- josteink 6y ago> iPad Air does more than a computer in simpler, more magical ways. They keep claiming this, but it’s still not true, and this is why I’m still on the lookout for a new laptop, and not another tablet. Tablets, no matter how fancy the hardware, are always let down by their locked down software-platform hellbent on making it an appliance rather than a computer you actually own.
- EricE 6y agoDepends on who you are. While I tried the iPad only lifestyle and found it wanting (ended up back with a MacBook Air) it absolutely is true for my father. He never did feel comfortable using computers, but he loves his iPad Pro - it let's him keep in contact with friends, follow news and sports, keep track of his appointments - in other words it's a tool that does things he cares about. He doesn't consider it a computer, nor does he want a computer. I suspect that there are far more of him than there are of us - which is why having a choice of computing styles is a good thing. It always baffles me when people (not necessarily you, just making general observation) seem to get bent out of shape that every offering doesn't meet their expectations and is thus bunk. Maybe it's not bunk, but just not good for your use case. Diversity is our strength and all that...
- josteink 6y agoNot getting bent, but if what you’re selling isn’t a computer, don’t market it as one. If some told you you were getting a car, and in the end you are delivered a bicycle, you’d be unhappy. Obviously that bicycle may be great for a lot of people, it may be the best bicycle ever built... But it’s still not a car, so don’t sell it as such.
- EricE 6y agoBut it is a computer. And it's no where near as dramatic as a computer vs. bicycle. I'd pin it more from nimble sports car to full size sedan in variation. It may not be your definition of a computer, but it does everything my father wanted a computer for - without having the overhead of having to operate and maintain a general purpose computer. In that respect it's FAR superior to a general purpose computer. If you want to call it an appliance - fine. I'm down with that. Still doesn't make it any less powerful for my dad and what he wants, and doesn't make it any less powerful for the majority of what I do either. And honestly if text selection would have been better I probably would still be on my iPad Pro. Yes, now they have track pad support for the text selection but I'm not investing in a new keyboard with trackpad for an older iPad Pro. It will be interesting to see if I get an iPad Pro or new laptop first. Multitasking on the iPad is still a bit convoluted so I'm tending to remain in the laptop first for upgrading camp, but I vastly prefer the form factor and flexibility of the iPad Pro. Thankfully most of my issues with the iPad Pro vs. MacBook are software and they have fixed the vast majority of them with the two iPad OS 13 & 14. It's nice to have choices!
- mitjak 6y agoTouch ID in the locking button is neat but I've seen issues with the touch ID home button dying on previous generations of iPads. Wonder what'll happen with this generation.
- mns 6y agoNever heard of this. We still have some old 5S, 6S and an iPad Air 2 being used as music and cast devices around the house and all of the 1st gen Touch ID buttons still work. My problem is the placement, I’m using my iPad daily and almost only in landscape mode. That power button Touch ID seems very uncomfortable to use.
- ogre_codes 6y agoIt is quite odd for the iPad Air to have the A14 based CPU while the iPad Pro has the A12(Z?) CPU. I know the SOC in the Pro has more RAM and likely a better GPU than he base A12, but it's a really odd mix of processors. This and the fact that the processor on the iPad Pro only did a half-upgrade earlier this year makes it seem like the Pro is in some weird between state. Certainly if you were on the fence between the Pro and the Air, the case for buying the Pro became a lot tougher. Aside from the additional RAM, what are the big advantages of the Pro? * Marginally bigger display. * 120 Hz refresh rate (ProMotion)/ Faster GPU * (Likely) More RAM * Bigger base memory (128GB vs 64GB) * Better cameras/ LIDAR. * FaceID I guess it's still a pretty decent bump up for the $200 price difference?
- EricE 6y agoIt's pretty clear, to me anyway, that the Pro is yet to be updated - Apple seems to be segmenting the Pro updates from the non-Pro updates. So now would NOT be a good time to get a Pro if that's what you are leaning more towards. If you don't need the Pro features, now is the perfect time to get an iPad :)
- nsxwolf 6y agoPro was last updated in March, so it's probably still a neutrally OK time to buy one... but not for too much longer.
- AgloeDreams 6y agoThat update basically wasn't one. The A12Z is a binned A12X from the 2018 model and the Lidar sensor is the single other change. It's basically a 2018 Pro.
- EricE 6y agoNo way would I be buying one right now - unless I absolutely had to. As others pointed out the last update wasn't really much of one. It feels like the tock of the tick/tock upgrade cycle. I vastly prefer to buy on tick (but now that I think about it, usually bought on tock with the iPhone - ha!).
- svacko 6y ago* first they mention "10x faster machine learning" * later they mention "70% faster machine learning" seems not enough ML applied in the review process ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- bnt 6y agoI think it’s 10x faster matrix calculations “for ML”
- colinmhayes 6y agoWho's doing machine learning on an iPad? Unless they mean running the already trained algorithm which I think is a stretch to call machine learning.
- manojlds 6y agoThey clearly said it's about apps leveraging CoreML models to do things.
- npmaile 6y agoOne of my biggest gripes with apple mobile design is the fact that the camera sticks out from the back of the device, making it unable to sit flat. On a phone it's much less of an issue given the usual one handed use and the fact that the vast majority of people use cases(which I don't so it's still annoying to me) but on a tablet, it's basically a deal breaker for me. If it's meant to be drawn on with a stylus, it should sit flat on a table like a piece of paper.
- kolinko 6y agoDid you encounter this in practice? I never noticed it as an issue when working on my ipad pro.
- ChuckMcM 6y agoI've got the iPad Pro 12.9 and the keyboard portfolio which makes the back flat (and generally non-slip). On my previous iPad pro (the 10.5" one) the 3rd party case did the same thing. That said, the bump in cost from an iPad Air 2020 and an iPad Pro makes the Pro a lot less attractive. You get wide angle, face id, and larger "top end" in storage.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- usaphp 6y agoA benefit of that is that since it does not sit fully flat with its back against the table - it does not get scratched as much
- opieters 6y agoSigh, the default storage option is still 64GB...
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y agoWhy does the default option matter to you?
- Jtsummers 6y agoBecause the default option is a poor choice for many (if not most) users, and it's the option used to show the base price. In practice, all prices are $100-150 higher than listed when people actually get around to buying. It's a misleading tactic to get people in the door (so to speak), and then upsell them.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y agoI’m not sure I see the problem. What you’re saying is it entices people to go to the website only to discover that the one they really want is more expensive than the base model. At which point... I guess they close the browser? No harm done.
- Jtsummers 6y agoIt's a way of priming people, an element of marketing. You get them in the door (or site) already committed to the purchase because they think they know the price. Then they find out the truth, but they're primed to buy your product and it's easier to sway them to the higher priced "upgrade" (which should be the base, especially in this case, as the base option is too little for many users). This isn't unique to Apple, many (if not most) companies do the same.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y agoBut “getting them in the door” is in actuality “visiting a website.” It’s not like they’re pot committed to purchasing anything. This is a far cry from walking onto a car dealership or something.
- ddlutz 6y agoExtremely disappointed it doesn't support the apple pen 1st gen. The apple pen 1st gen is still being sold, and I just bought one 2 months ago to work with my "old" 2017 ipad pro. Why force us to spend another $130 for a 2nd gen pencil when the first gen is essentially just as good.
- radley 6y agoTo be fair, I thought it only supported 1st gen pencil and was disappointed.
- kevindong 6y agoOne interesting thing is that the iPad (8th gen) only supports the Apple Pencil 1 but the iPad Air (4th gen) only supports the Apple Pencil 2. Both of those iPads were just announced today.
- EForEndeavour 6y agoIt just irks.
- AgloeDreams 6y agoThe First Gen is not just as good. It has longer latency, no tap sensor, worse ergonomics and critically: no mount magnet or wireless charging. The lightning connector for charging would plug...where? Type C iPads support Pencil 2, Lightning iPads get Pencil 1
- tzs 6y ago> The lightning connector for charging would plug...where? Into the adapter that comes with it that lets is be connected to any lightning cable for charging?
- AgloeDreams 6y agoSo now the design of the pencil, designed to be plugged straight into the iPad now has users dragging around an adapter, an additional cable (not included with either product) and the pencil that does not store on the device. Pretty clearly this is not how Apple builds things.
- krisag 6y agoGiven this, what are some valid reasons for folks to prefer iPad Pro over iPad Air ?
- auggierose 6y agolarger screen, if you go for the 12.9 inch one but for the smaller one? don't really know also, no mention of the iPad Pro I think the next iPad Pro will dual-boot macOS :-D
- mcphage 6y agoIf (like me) you like the 12.9" form factor. That being said, I wouldn't buy a new iPad Pro right now.
- jiofih 6y agoCamera bump. Bleh.
- bryanmgreen 6y agoNow if they'd just give the iPad Mini the thinner bezel. A 9" screen on that would be my dream. I take my mini everywhere because of the form factor. (Also, touch ID integrated into the top button is great)
- leetcrew 6y ago"all screen design" is kinda pushing it. the bezels look no smaller than the side bezels on a nexus 9.
- mandeepj 6y agoApple is back to flat edges (similar to iphone 4s) instead of round
- Zippogriff 6y agoFor whatever reason, I like the flat edges on phones but not on tablets. I've got a gen 4 iPad Pro with the flat edges and a 1st gen with rounded, and rounded both looks better and feels more comfortable to hold. Meanwhile I wish my iPhone 7 Plus had flat edges.
- archagon 6y agoAgreed. The iPad 3 was the best feeling iPad to me. Easy to pick up, easy to hold.
- jbverschoor 6y agoThe iPad / Macbook merger seems awfully close. Same CPU, same connectivity. Macbook can run iOS apps. If I can get an iPad Pro, which I can use as a desktop too. That'd be awesome. I remember a year or so ago, Apple promoting the iPad or the Macbook as "The last notebook you'll ever buy"