Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Six iPads, four Apple Pencils, a whole bunch of different keyboards and a ton of
00:05different options to choose from. Buying an iPad is actually kind of confusing
00:09and also if you're not careful it can get very, very expensive. Now I've been
00:15making these iPad buying guides for three or four years now. I'm literally
00:19seeing myself age here it's kind of scary but I'm back again with all new
00:22iPads, new options, new Apple intelligence which we'll talk about
00:25later on and if you've got any questions at all drop a comment below. If you find
00:29this video helpful a cheeky like and subscribe will be fantastic and also a
00:33big thank you to Paperlike for sponsoring this video. Okay so let's kick
00:37off with a bit of a lightning round. There are sort of seven things right off
00:41the bat that you need to know and the first one being nearly every app will
00:45run on all of these iPads. Even the cheapest 3, 4, 9, 10th gen iPad here
00:50versus the top-end iPad Pro you can watch all the same streaming apps and
00:53borrow a handful, play the same games and use the same productivity tools and they
00:57all support at least one version of the Apple Pencil and they all have USB C
01:02ports. No more lightning cables since they've stopped selling this, the older
01:059th gen iPad with those chunky bezels, the home button and the headphone jack.
01:09So now we have the base model, the 10th gen iPad, the mini which hasn't been
01:13refreshed in like three years, the two airs and the two pros. But number two
01:17what are you actually gonna be using these iPads for? Why are you buying it?
01:20Just keep that in mind during the video and we'll come back to it at the end.
01:24Number three and you don't need to buy a new new iPad. It is absolutely worth
01:28looking at older or refreshed models as well. You could save a chunk of money
01:32maybe even get more storage as well and while Apple do have their own certified
01:35refurbs it is also worth shopping around. Amazon has some really good deals.
01:39Although make sure you check the warranty. Number four, the extras. Choosing
01:43which iPad you want is like the first step. You then have to consider the
01:47storage. Do you want 4G or 5G cellular connectivity? Do you want a pencil? Do you want a
01:51keyboard? Do you want it engraved? And the answer to that is no because it's much
01:55harder to resell although you can still always trade it in. But I would avoid
01:59engraving. I think in order of importance I would say storage first because that
02:04is the only thing you can't change afterwards. Yes you can also change
02:07whether it has a mobile cellular plan but I don't think that many people
02:11really use it. Businesses perhaps but generally for me I'm either on Wi-Fi or
02:15I can hotspot from my phone. So if you think you need to maybe increase the
02:18storage because you can't upgrade this, you're stuck with it, then decide if you
02:22also need a keyboard for a more laptop like experience and then perhaps the
02:26Apple Pencil. Number five and I know this is kind of obvious but is a tablet
02:30really the best option for you and would a laptop actually be better suited?
02:33Considering MacBook Airs and Pros aren't that much more expensive than the iPad
02:38Air and Pros especially if you up the storage and add a keyboard. But of course
02:42the iPad gives you this lovely big touchscreen with the fantastic Apple
02:45Pencil and keyboard accessories. There's Apple's App Store, we get long battery
02:49life, cameras front and back and also just the incredibly slick iPad OS
02:53software that's about to get even better with iPad OS 18. All in a beautifully
02:58crafted thin and light form factor. But of course as lovely and slick and fast
03:03and nice to use iPad OS is, this is not gonna be a full laptop replacement. It
03:08comes close in some ways and in other ways it's actually better but you are
03:11still by and large getting the mobile versions of apps and also the file
03:15management and the desktop and home screen and all that stuff still feels a
03:18bit kind of clunky compared to a regular desktop. With that said though tip number
03:22six, for my money these are the best tablets you can buy especially if you
03:26already in the Apple ecosystem, if you already have an iPhone or a Mac or you
03:29know use AirPods. If you're in that lovely cozy prison ecosystem it is very
03:34very convenient. Although bear in mind you do have other options, Samsung's
03:38Galaxy Tab series, you've got Pixel tablets, you've got the Surface Pros especially now
03:41there's one with the Snapdragon X Elite chip or if you just want something cheap
03:45and cheerful for reading or maybe for the kids then consider a Kindle Fire. And
03:49lastly tip number seven, iPad OS is launching later this year around
03:53September-ish and will have some really cool new features like customization for
03:57the home screen, finally a calculator app with truly magical math notes, also much
04:02improved handwriting tools and of course Apple intelligence is coming. Although
04:06for that with the supercharged Siri you will need an iPad that has an M chip
04:10whether it's an M1, M2 or M4. So out of this lot, just these. Right so with that
04:17quick lightning round out the way let's look at the lineup for 2024 and figure
04:21out what are the differences and which one you should actually buy. And we have
04:24four iPad models to choose from with two of them having larger options. And if you
04:28want a full spec breakdown then definitely check out Apple's comparison
04:32tool, it's actually quite useful. But let's start with what is known as the
04:35iPad. It's the base iPad, the 10th generation model. This is the cheapest
04:40one. Now that Apple's discontinued the old 9th gen and given this a price cut
04:43this used to be like $499 for $349 I think this is terrific value for money. I
04:49mean for goodness sake it's the same price as the Magic Keyboard for these
04:52guys. That's nuts to me. And this may be the base model but it's great and it does
04:57all the usual iPad-y things like watching movies, playing games, reading
05:01and browsing effortlessly. The only thing I miss from the outgoing 9th gen is the
05:05headphone jack and a lot of people especially with kids and schools did
05:08appreciate having that. And of course you can still buy them from third parties
05:11just not new from Apple. But this 10th gen iPad has a lovely slim design with
05:16four very snazzy colors. We get the A14 Bionic processor which has more than
05:20enough performance for 99% of apps and games. We get Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2,
05:25there's a 5G cell option and like pretty much the rest of the lineup we have
05:29about 10 hours of battery life. So this is a 10.9 inch 60 Hertz LCD screen and
05:35it is very nice. The only downside, the one sort of thing that I miss about some
05:39of the higher-end models, even the Air and the Mini, is it doesn't have the
05:43anti-reflective coating. You can see if I bring up the iPad Air and shine it at my
05:48little studio light, if I can get the angle right, that's kind of hard to do in
05:51reverse, you can see quite a big difference there. And like its
05:56predecessor the 9th gen, this is still the only iPad that doesn't have a
05:59laminated screen. So you can see just a tiny bit of a gap between the glass and
06:04the screen underneath but it's not really a big deal, most people wouldn't
06:07care. As I say there's USB-C for charging and plugging in accessories, we get
06:11stereo speakers top and bottom, Touch ID fingerprint login and we get the selfie
06:15camera on this side here which is the better position for it using it
06:18horizontally and only just got updated with new pros. And it supports the Apple
06:23Pencil although it is only the first gen model but with the USB-C charging. The
06:27only issue as I say really is that the screen isn't quite as nice as the other
06:31ones and it does only come with 64 gigs of storage as standard. Now a quick word
06:35from today's sponsor, Paperlike. Drawing on a glass iPad screen never feels quite
06:40as good or as easy to control as drawing on actual paper does, which is where the
06:45Paperlike comes in. I'm using the Paperlike for iPad screen protector here
06:48and to be honest this is the first time I've used it and it's been a genuine
06:52surprise just how much this feels like real paper when I'm stoodling and
06:56drawing and writing. And it's all down to Paperlike's unique NanoDots
06:59micro bead tech which gives the texture, the feel and the feedback like your
07:03pencil is gliding over a paper surface which helps you judge your movements
07:07more precisely meaning fewer mistakes and better results. And a big one for me
07:11is your wrist also moves more smoothly across the surface without sticking to
07:15the screen like it does on the glass. And it also gives this lovely matte look
07:19which also minimizes glare kind of like the nano texture option you get on the
07:22pros except this is a lot cheaper and you can take it off if you want to. And
07:26it doesn't dim or distort the colors. Plus it works as a screen protector and
07:30it is only slightly thicker than a human hair. And if you're still not sure there
07:34is a 100 day satisfaction guarantee so if you don't love it, Paperlike will
07:37offer a free replacement or refund within a hundred days. Can't argue with
07:41that. And it's not just for iPads so definitely check out the full Paperlike
07:44range and I will leave a link in the description below. Alright next up we
07:48have the iPad mini which unbelievably is the 2021 model. This hasn't been
07:53updated for like three years. Still very nice though it is still the most compact
07:57option here and I think really the best if you just want something that can
08:01literally fit in your pocket or for reading books or if you just simply
08:04don't want a huge screen. The trouble is it's quite expensive £499 so it's a
08:08hundred and fifty quid more than this guy which obviously has the bigger
08:11screen as well. Also 60 Hertz also starts with 64 gigs of storage however it does
08:16get the anti-reflective coating it is a laminated screen very nice but still
08:208.3 inches it's a very nice screen size and it is also obviously the lightest
08:24iPad among the lot so I suppose on paper this kind of makes the least sense given
08:29the specs and the price but there is something nice about this size and my
08:33wife Sarah absolutely loves this she has it propped up on her makeup desk
08:36watching shows she takes it to work and hands it to clients to show pictures
08:39it's a really nice size for that. I do kind of like it I just wish they'd
08:42refresh it because this is nearly three years old maybe drop the price a little
08:46bit and also I use an iPhone 15 Pro Max and when you're watching a TV show or a
08:50movie with a letter boxing you're getting near enough the same amount of
08:54actual usable screen size when watching a show on this. Performance also gets a
08:58small bump over the basic iPad with the A15 Bionic chip and it supports both the
09:02Apple Pencil USB and the more capable second-gen Apple Pencil but then again
09:06because of its size it doesn't really have a great keyboard option although of
09:09course you can just use Bluetooth keyboards and put it on a smart foldy
09:12case thing and it's not a deal-breaker but I would say the iPad mini has the
09:16worst battery among these guys not significantly more like nine hours
09:20rather than ten hours but would I pay a hundred and fifty pounds more for this
09:24over this I don't know if I would. Alright we're moving up in the world
09:28let's talk about the newly refreshed 2024 iPad Airs we have an 11 and a brand
09:34new 13 inch version which I was gonna try and let's just do it let's try and
09:37pick up both side by side and see if I can make that work and now the screens
09:41are too bright okay I'll cut to b-roll so technically these are the sixth
09:45generation iPad Airs and on the outside except for this larger model not much
09:49has really changed versus the previous Airs really this is a bit of a spec bump
09:53as we get the M2 chip which was previously in the iPad Pros and finally
09:57finally they have doubled the base storage to 128 gigs on the iPad Airs for
10:02the longest time forever they've been 64 gigs same as these guys but now 128 I
10:06still think that's a little stingy for 2024 given the prices but I'll take it
10:10because for my last two or three iPad buying guides it's always been well the
10:13iPad Air is great but you're gonna want to double the storage to 128 and at that
10:16point you're pretty close to the Pro iPads so then that became a bit
10:21confusing but that makes it easier to recommend the Airs now. Or does it?
10:24Because the Air is still in a kind of awkward place it's significantly more
10:28expensive than the regular 10th gen iPad which does pretty much everything you'd
10:32want an iPad to do and while also missing out on some of the cool tricks
10:35and 120 Hertz and OLED screens of the iPad Pros. I think the question a lot of
10:39people will be asking is should they buy the iPad Air and spend extra money over
10:43say the base 10th gen model? Well the Air does get the much faster M2 chip with
10:48its media engine which makes it much faster for video editing and because it
10:52is an M series chip it will be fully compatible with the new Siri and all the
10:55Apple intelligence stuff when it becomes available. There's also much faster
10:59graphics and it can play a handful of console level games. We get faster USB C
11:03transfer speeds, we get double the base storage, Wi-Fi 6E, a wider P3 color
11:08gamut with the anti-reflective laminated LCD screen and also larger
11:12storage options and we have some lovely pastely colors. It also supports Apple's
11:17stage manager feature and gives you more of a desktop feel when moving and
11:20resizing apps although it can still be a bit fiddly and it's not my favorite
11:23thing in the world. And it also supports the fantastic but very expensive Magic
11:28Keyboard as well as both the Apple Pencil USB and also the brand new Apple
11:32Pencil Pro. And all together, Pencil Pro, Magic Keyboard, the Air becomes a hugely
11:37capable almost laptop replacement and without costing an absolute fortune like
11:42the iPad Pros. Oh and good news, both the new Air and the new Pros have had their
11:47front-facing camera moved to this landscape position rather than at the
11:50top which makes a lot more sense as now you are centered for your video calls.
11:54But realistically, just everyday use, you're not gonna feel that much
11:57difference really between the 10th gen and the iPad Air. As I say, both LCD
12:02screens, both 60 Hertz, general performance is pretty much the same
12:06unless you're video editing or playing high-end games. Both have the landscape
12:09selfie cams with center stage, stereo speakers, USB-C, Touch ID, 12 megapixel
12:14cameras, 5G options and around 10 hours of battery life. But even with all that
12:18performance under the hood, because we have that 60 Hertz screen, it just
12:21doesn't feel as fast as the Pros. And if the Apple Pencil support, particularly
12:25the Pro, is really important to you and you want the absolute best pencil
12:28experience, you'll want to go with a Pro because it has a high refresh rate as
12:31well. It's not a bad experience by any stretch on the Airs but that is a little
12:35bit just more responsive. For £250 more than the 10th gen iPad, it is a
12:40little bit hard to recommend the iPad Air. I think what makes it really stand out
12:44is the 13-inch model of this and you can see my pet friend's memory from 2021. We
12:49got Sylvie the cat there. If I was gonna go for the Air, I think I would actually
12:53go for the 13-inch version because you're getting this really lovely big
12:55screen but it is £500 cheaper than the similarly sized iPad Pro. And the
13:02bigger screen is just so much more immersive for movies and games and the
13:05extra space makes multitasking and using the keyboard feel less cramped. And while
13:10we are certainly into laptop money territory at this point, especially if
13:13you bump the storage and add a keyboard and pencil, but if you do just want a big
13:16screen iPad that does everything you need, skip the Pro, go for this. Now before
13:21we finish with the Pros, let me just take a second to talk about the
13:24accessories, the keyboards and the pencils because it is a bit confusing. So
13:28there are four Apple Pencil options and put simply, all new iPads will work with
13:33the entry-level Apple Pencil with USB-C which attaches magnetically but lacks
13:37wireless charging and also you don't get pressure sensitivity but it is the
13:41cheapest one. But now we have a new pencil on the scene. This is the Pencil
13:44Pro which just launched alongside the refreshed Airs and Pros and despite the
13:48Pro name, this will also work with the new iPad Airs. And it adds features like
13:52haptic feedback, it lets you squeeze and do barrel roll controls, which artists
13:57I've spoken to actually seem pretty excited about. Plus there's Find My
14:00support in case you lose it. Now the iPad Mini as well as previous-gen iPad
14:04Airs and Pros use the older Apple Pencil second-gen and has full pressure
14:08sensitivity and wireless charging and therefore is better than the basic Apple
14:11Pencil USB-C but it's a bit more expensive. And finally the basic iPad, the
14:1610th gen one here, also supports the older first-gen Apple Pencil but has the
14:20awkward charging because you need a lightning adapter. So for the basic iPad
14:23I would go with the Apple Pencil USB-C. And apparently if you leave the battery
14:27completely discharged for a number of weeks or months then it will just die
14:31which is not ideal. So make sure you keep yours topped up. And then we have the
14:36keyboards. And just in terms of official keyboards, as I mentioned the iPad 10th
14:40gen gets this lovely Magic Keyboard Folio with a touchpad and function row
14:44although it doesn't hold the iPad as high as the regular Magic Keyboard does
14:48making it a little bit trickier to use on your lap and also misses out on
14:51backlit keys. But you can split it into stand mode if you don't want to use the
14:55keyboard. The new iPad Airs as well as the last couple of gens of Airs and Pros
14:59are compatible with the original Magic Keyboard which is still fantastic and
15:02lovely to type on. But it is very expensive as is the new Magic Keyboard
15:06exclusive to the new Pros and it's kind of like a second-gen Magic Keyboard with
15:10a bigger glass trackpad with haptic feedback along with a full set of
15:14function keys making it look and feel almost identical to a MacBook Air
15:18keyboard and trackpad. But at £349 it is an awful lot of money as I say it's the
15:23exact same price as the 10th gen iPad but I would say if you are gonna buy an
15:27Air or Pro the keyboard does make a significant difference to the
15:30functionality of it. It really can be close to a laptop replacement with the
15:34keyboard and it's just lovely to type on if you can stretch your budget that far.
15:37Alright so that's the accessories let's talk about these new iPad Pros. Just
15:42refreshed for 2024 with a pretty big upgrade actually. Thinner, lighter, we have
15:47the new M4 chip and not only does it come in 11 and 13 inch sizes this is
15:51also the first time that we have an OLED display on a laptop. The Airs, the
15:55Mini and the regular one all use LCD. The previous 12.9 inch iPad Pro did have a
16:00mini LED screen which is very nice but this tandem OLED is even nicer with no
16:05light bleed or blooming, with deeper blacks, better contrast, same brightness
16:09up to 1600 nits, 120 Hertz so it feels incredibly fast and the best bit is you
16:14get the exact same screen on the small 11 inch as well. Previously that had to
16:18make do with a crappier screen well you had to spend the extra money to get the
16:22high-end mini LED. With the new Pro lineup it's the same screen on both just
16:26a different size. It's also ludicrously thin at 5.1 millimeters for the 13 inch
16:31or 5.3 for the 11. It's also ludicrously powerful with that M4 chip which gives
16:36the M3 chips in a MacBook Pro a run for their money which is even more
16:39impressive given this doesn't have a fan for cooling but it is also ludicrously
16:43expensive. The 11 inch iPad Pro starts at £1,000.99 although they have also
16:49doubled the base storage like they did with the Airs but now up to 256 gigs
16:53which is very nice and probably enough for most of us at the Pro end. And small
16:57note but if you do go with the 1 or 2 terabyte option then it also doubles the
17:00RAM from 8 to 16 gigabytes and you also get an extra core on the processor. Would
17:04you notice much difference? Probably not but then if you are gonna spend this
17:08kind of money on an iPad Pro anyway then I guess paying the extra for the 1
17:11terabyte and getting those extra upgrades could be worth it if you have
17:15very very deep pockets. And also there is now an option for a nanotexture display
17:19coating on the 1 and 2 terabyte models which costs an extra £100 or
17:22so and reduces glare and reflections. So handy if you're using it outside a lot
17:26but it does also come at the expense of contrast and it can also affect the
17:29viewing angles. But the 120 Hertz just makes everything feel faster and smoother
17:34and also does make the Apple Pencil a little bit more responsive. It's such a
17:37lovely thing to use. It really really is. Hard to get over the price and
17:41functionally it's not that significantly different than you know the cheapest one
17:45here. And love or hate Apple but you have to give them credit for this kind of
17:48engineering. It's absolutely insane. Other upgrades with the Pros include quad
17:53speakers which sound incredible although the 13-inch speakers are noticeably
17:57better than the 11-inch. It's like a halfway house between these. We also get
18:01quad studio mics, we have Face ID login rather than Touch ID, faster Thunderbolt
18:05USB C which allows you to connect up to a 6k display, we have the TrueDepth
18:09selfie camera, we have up to 16 gigs of RAM and it also supports 4k ProRes
18:13video recording as well as hardware 8k h.264 and AV1 decoding which may mean
18:19nothing to you but if it does, great. The Pros also do get the LiDAR sensor and we
18:23also have a new True Tone flash which they say makes taking pictures of
18:27documents a bit more realistic, the natural lighting. Weirdly though they
18:30have dropped the ultrawide camera that has now gone versus the older Pros. I
18:34guess the biggest issue is that while these OLED screens are very nice and it
18:37is ludicrously fast, it can't really do anything the older Pros couldn't do or
18:41even the Pros before that. We're still at this point with iPads where they're so
18:45powerful, so fantastic but they're just kind of hamstrung by the software. And as
18:49much as the new Apple intelligence that will come baked into iPadOS 18 for the
18:53Airs and the Pros, it is still iPadOS. So app compatibility, multitasking, that's
18:58not really changing although I am looking forward to being able to
19:00customize the home screen more. And the crazy thing is a top-spec iPad Pro 2
19:04terabytes with a keyboard with a pencil is about £70 more expensive than a
19:0914-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip and also a terabyte storage. It can be a
19:14little hard to justify which if anything just makes it easier to recommend the
19:1810th gen iPad. I love this thing. So let's wrap this up. Which one should you
19:22actually buy? Well I kind of spoiled it earlier on but I think the pick of the
19:26iPads for me is the base one, the cheapest one, the 10th gen iPad. I think
19:31for the price, £349 here in the UK. I think that's the same in the US in dollars.
19:34This does everything you need from an iPad and is really good value. I think
19:39the other one to consider would be the 13-inch Air if you want the big screen,
19:42some of the nicer features and it is just so much cheaper than the 13-inch
19:45Pro. So if you want a big screen, great all-rounder iPad with an M-series chip
19:50so it will get all the Apple intelligence stuff and also Apple Pencil
19:53Pro support, I think the iPad Air and possibly with a magic keyboard and
19:56pencil is like the best all-rounder option. The mini is good if you do really
20:01want a small size but I think it's too expensive and it's not been refreshed
20:04for a while so that's probably my least favorite right now. And in terms of the
20:07Pros, well they're just so expensive and they don't do anything fundamentally
20:12different than the Airs or even the older Pros which are still definitely
20:15worth looking at if you can get a good deal on them. I think the highlight is
20:18that 120Hz OLED screen particularly on the 11 which you couldn't get
20:21before. So I think maybe the 11 Pro would be my pick of those guys but certainly
20:26they are very very nice, they're just a lot of money. So in order I would say
20:30number one, number two, number three, four, five, six. I think. What do you reckon?
20:40So I hope that helped and you now have a better idea of which one to buy. If you've
20:43got any questions at all, drop a comment below and I'll see you next time right
20:46here on The Tech Chat. Thanks for watching.