The New Apple iPad: Should You Upgrade?

At start glance, Apple's new iPad is an iterative upgrade from last year'due south model. Information technology features improved specs at the aforementioned $329 price tag that makes it compelling for home use; the iPad Pro line remains for more than professional applications, in the vein of the Microsoft Surface tablets and notebooks.

If yous already have a 2022 iPad or an iPad Air 2, it might be hard to tell if yous should consider upgrading to the new iPad. Let's swoop in.

A Focus on Education

One glance at the production page for the new iPad tells you everything about where Apple envisions this tablet: in the classroom, non the office.

Apple shows the tablet in a number of educational employ cases, similar taking notes and making presentations. Information technology's decidely a tablet intended for students and for casual domicile utilise, from putting together reports in Pages to playing with GarageBand.

Apple tree's marketing materials for the new iPad are too wildly different from how the visitor sells the pricier iPad Pro. To highlight that appeal, Apple is offer the new iPad for $299 to schools, $30 less than the retail price for dwelling users. It'due south likewise boosting the free iCloud storage offered to Apple tree IDs associated with schools from 5GB to 200GB.

Apple Pencil Support

Until now, the powerful Apple Pencil stylus has only worked with the iPad Pro, just the new iPad adds Apple Pencil support.

Apple iPad (2018) with Pencil support

We chose the Apple tree Pencil equally an Editors' Choice for tablet stylii because of its reliability and accuracy; beingness able to employ it on the much less expensive standard iPad is a boon to whatever aspiring artist. You still need to purchase it separately for $99 ($89 for schools), but you lot'll still be spending more than than $300 less than if you lot bought an iPad Pro solely for the Apple Pencil.

A Faster Processor

The new iPad uses Apple'due south A10 Fusion bit, which puts it on the same generation of Apple chips as the iPhone seven. The A10 Fusion isn't as powerful as the A10X used by the iPad Pro, but it's a solid jump in functioning from previous processors.

Apple iPad (2018)

Apple claims the A10 Fusion has a CPU that's twice as fast and a GPU that'due south two.7 times every bit fast as the A8 fleck in the iPad mini 4. That doesn't tell us how much faster it is than the A9 used by the previous iPad, though, or even the A8X fleck used past the iPad Air 2, then we'll have to reserve judgment until we get the new iPad in the lab for testing. For comparison, Apple says the A10X fleck in the iPad Pro has a CPU that'south 2.5 times faster and a GPU that's a whopping iv.seven times faster than the A8.

Augmented Reality

Apple highlights the new iPad's ability to employ augmented reality (AR) apps, and information technology does indeed have the camera, processing power, and software to do so. However, the single 8-megapixel, rear-facing camera and unmarried 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera (the same as on the previous iPad) means the tablet can't do some of the more than advanced AR the iPhone Ten tin can do with its dual rear-facing cameras and 7-megapixel front-facing camera with 3D sensor.

You can nevertheless utilise AR apps on the new iPad, like y'all can with almost whatever modern mobile device with a camera, just without stereoscopic imaging or additional sensors for tracking depth, it isn't a very hereafter-proof device for AR. We have like qualms with the iPhone 8 and its singular rear- and front-facing cameras.

Not Many Other Changes

Everything else well-nigh the new iPad is about indistinguishable from the 2022 iPad. Information technology withal has the aforementioned 9.vii-inch, two,048-past-1,536 Retina display, cameras, impact sensor, wireless radios, and even the exact aforementioned measurements equally the previous model. Also the A10 Fusion processor and Apple tree Pencil back up, the new iPad is identical to the terminal iPad.

Apple tree Pencil support is probably the biggest selling point for this new model. If you're a graphic designer or an art student who doesn't want to buy an iPad Pro simply to use the Apple Pencil, the new iPad'due south back up for it is a good reason to consider upgrading. Otherwise, wait for our full review of the new iPad to meet if its faster processor and tweaks are worth it.