This week I’m going to be looking more into the new iPads that were announced last week in Apples special event they announced two new iPads but first I want to look at some history.
This year marks 10 years of the iPad, The iPad was announced by Steve Jobs back in 2010 on the 27th of January. Since we’ve seen over 20 different versions of the iPad from the generic iPad, the Mini, the Air and the Pro. Remember back in March 2012 they released the third generation of the iPad and called it “The new iPad” when in November 2012 they released the fourth generation of the iPad it made it a little confusing.
In November 2012 they also released the iPad Mini. A popular iPad due to its size. It was easy to hold with one hand and made reading books and news online for example very easy, a year later Apple launched their first iPad Air which was praised for its balance in features and portability.
Now in Late 2020 Apple have launched two new iPads. The 8th generation is available to purchase now and the iPad Air available in October.
The iPad 8th generation is Apples most affordable iPad starting at £329 ($329) and with that affordability you get even more power and even more compatibility. For the first time ever, the iPad is compatible with the first generation Apple pencil and the smart keyboard.
The 8th generation iPad also comes with the A12 Bionic chip this is the same chip which was introduced with the iPhone XS. This iPad is perfect in my opinion for kids to do their homework with its power available it can easily run PowerPoint and notes side by side and if you didn’t want it for that this iPad is the perfect Netflix companion.
The second iPad announced was the fourth generation iPad Air. The iPad Air is the mid-tier iPad and is a for £579 ($599). The 4th generation iPad Air comes with a major redesign. Featuring a new all-screen display similar to the iPad Pro, the difference between this display and the Pro is that the Air does not include the TrueDepth camera because of this it doesn’t have FaceID. Instead it has TouchID but with no home button it works differently and TouchID is built into the lock button. Personally, I prefer FaceID as, as soon as you have a sweaty finger or a little bit of dust on your finger TouchID stops working but with the current pandemic and wearing a mask FaceID struggles too.
The New iPad Air comes with a new chip, The A14 Bionic as well as support for the second-generation Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard which was released with the latest iPad Pro. It is very likely we will see this new A14 Bionic in the new iPhones when they are announced some point later this year.
The major redesign includes more colours. The iPad Pro comes in Silver, Space Gray, Rose Gold, Green and Sky Blue. The iPad Air 4th generation is generally a fantastic work tool and is fantastic for working with many great apps on the go like Adobe Photoshop and iMovie.
With all these cool new changes to the iPad line-up it makes the current iPad line up the best yet! This is the current line-up with prices:
iPad 8th Generation - £329 , $329
iPad Mini - £399 , $399
iPad Air - £579 , $599
iPad Pro - £769 , $799
Sticking with the history theme from the beginning of this article let’s look at what the iPad line up was 5 years ago back in September 2015, this was the year the first iPad Pro was announced and when Apple didn’t actually sell their generic iPad but they were selling 5 different devices, this was the line-up:
iPad Mini 2 - $269
iPad Mini 4 - $399
iPad Air - $399
iPad Air 2 - $499
iPad Pro - $799
Thanks for reading and if you have any questions please contact me here or on Twitter @kylewilkinson46
Kyle Wilkinson
Kyle Wilkinson Blog – The Podcast
Episode 2 – iOS 14, WatchOS 7 & BigSur Is available now, Listen here: Apple Podcasts (iTunes) https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/kyle-wilkinsonpodcast/id1527561946#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F893018860 Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/user-31417610/episode-2-ios-14-watchos-7-bigsur-more Kyle Wilkinson Online https://www.kylewilkinsononline.com/podcast-1
Information about Apples new iPads was sourced from Apples Newsroom site. www.apple.com/newsroominformation on Apples older line-up from 2015 and the pricing was taken from Apples website via the Wayback machine. http://web.archive.org/web/20150927222005/http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare
Images of the iPad Air are from Apples Newsroom I do not own the images.
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