Apple iPad Air 2020 review: Great tablet, not quite a laptop By Engadget

I am the best kind of person to write a review of the new iPad Air, no, not because I'm the editor-in-chief of Engadget, but because I happen to be in the market for a personal computer, I need a machine for emails, browsing Spotify, slack all the basic stuff, but I'm undecided between a pricey notebook and a tablet. Do I really need a 1300 machine when I already have a work laptop that I use? I don't know 10 hours a day five days a week. Probably not I don't think anyway. As it happens, I've tested iPads before, but I've never actually owned one other than my perceiving taste. Then I am exactly the kind of person apple is trying to win over with the new air. The air is slightly larger than the previous gen at 10.9 inches, and it's a little more expensive too. The performance, Wi-Fi and optional LTE are all faster as well.

Tablet also now supports apple's, 2nd gen Apple Pencil, which got some useful new tricks in iPadOS 14, which came out recently with few exceptions. Then the air is now on par with the iPad Pro the highest end of apple's 3 tablets. Speaking of the sort, the design here is pretty similar to the iPad Pro with flat edges a smooth, uninterrupted backside and a nearly edge to edge screen that does away with the old school home button. The touch I'd fingerprint sensor that used to live inside the home button is now in the lock button. There's also now an USB port on the bottom, which is first for the airline.

Some color choices are new. Here too, though, it's available in familiar hues, like silver space gray rose gold, you can also opt for sky blue. That's the one I've got here, or the same mint green offered on the new iPhone 12. It's a pretty lovely screen, similar in quality to what you'll find on the iPad Pro. This is what apple calls a quote: liquid retina display with 2360x1460 resolution or a pixel density of 264 PPI.

It also supports the wider p3 color gamut and makes use of apple's true tone technology which automatically adjusts the color temperature, depending on the ambient light. One thing you won't get on the air: the iPad Pro's faster, refreshing, 120, hertz screen, it's also a little less bright, 500 nits versus 600 on the pro oh well, gotta save something for the top shelf model right. I haven't much to complain about after using the air for nearly a week I typed browse the web stream movies scrolled. Through my photos, everything looks sharp and punchy, but never over saturated. The anti-reflective coating also meant I had some wide viewing angles too.

If you put up with my nitpicking for just a minute, it's really a shame that apple doesn't use. OLED displays on its tablets, not even the iPad Pro after hours in Google Docs with dark mode enabled. I couldn't help but notice that the black taking up most of the screen wasn't as dark as what I see even on my three-year-old iPhone 10. Finishing up our hardware tour. This year's air has the same camera resolution as before.

That would be 12 megapixels on the back and 7 megapixels up front spec wise. The rear camera setup now matches what you'll find on the iPad Pro line, with the ability to shoot video in 4k and snap stills up to 8 megapixels, while shooting the aperture on the back camera is also significantly improved. It's f 1.8 now compared with f 2.4 on the 2019 model. The front camera meanwhile promises to hold up better in low light. So what's the air like to use, I want to start by saying apple has done a perfect job over the years, perfecting the iPad setup process, especially for people who already own iPhones.

I will say that setting up touch I'd felt a little clumsy compared to the setup process for touch ID on a Mac. You have to hold your finger over the narrow button on the top edge, but it feels less intuitive than running your finger over a smooth fingerprint sensor. Honestly, it's a shame that the air still doesn't have face ID a feature you'll find on the iPad Pro and that iPhones, of course, have had for years now. Okay, I think I'm done complaining now here's a long list of good stuff. First up, the new air was the first Apple device to use the company's new a14 bionic chip.

The system on a chip includes a six core CPU and a four core GPU, that's up to 30 faster than the previous generation. Lastly, apple's next generation neural engine is two times faster at machine learning. In practice, it's just a really zippy device that had no problem keeping up with my multitasking and frequent app switching in writing this review. I had the Google Docs app open at all times, but frequently needed to use other apps, like chrome and slack, either at full screen or split screen view to give the machine more of a workout, I transcoded a 1.6 gigabyte, 4k video to 1080 in Adobe Premiere rush and that took about 100 seconds each time. I also downloaded the game.

Pascal's wager and Apple Arcade titles like red out and beyond the steel sky. Each ran smoothly with the details rendering nicely on that sharp display. Also, as much as I nitpick about the LCD's black levels compared to an iPhone's OLED panel. The screen is a good match for the vibrant colors in these games, particularly red out, and the Trippe sayonara wild hearts, and it's not just performance. That's fast.

The new air also steps up to Wi-Fi six with sixty percent faster LTE speeds on cellular models. Normally, I have a love-hate relationship with my home Wi-Fi, but I noticed off the bat that the iPad was really quick at downloading the various Apple TV plus movies I use in my battery testing last time. I did this when I tested the MacBook Pro that same series of downloads took hours, pretty, pretty good, I would say throughout the air delivers solid battery life apple claims it's capable of up to 10 hours with web browsing or video playback and up to 9 hours on LTE the same as always. Basically, I suspect that 10 hour promise is actually on the conservative side, which is often the case with apple products after using chrome and Google Docs unplugged for two and a half hours, I still had around eighty percent, which is a run rate that would have put me closer to twelve and a half hours like. I said earlier, the new air supports the second generation Apple Pencil, whose defining feature is that it latches onto the tablet magnetically for storage and charging, there's also a smart connector on the device allowing you to use accessories like apple's, excellent magic keyboard.

As it happens, some of the most exciting new features in iPadOS 14 are specific to the Apple Pencil. The new scribble feature lets you write inside any text field with pencil. The feature it works nearly perfectly now. My penmanship is naturally messy, and it gets worse when I'm trying to write in small text fields no matter, the iPad usually knew what I was trying to say. Another new trick jot down a phone number or address underline it.

An iPadOS gives you the option to dial that number look up, directions and maps, add the number to contacts, etc. You can also sketch shapes into the notes' app which the software then converts into precise vector drawings, which can be nice if drawing diagrams is a big part of your life. Like last year's era, the 2020 edition comes with two storage options: 64 gigs at the base level or 256 gigs. It's worth noting that's more expensive than last year. The air used to start at 4.99, not 5.99. Those prices are for Wi-Fi only models by the way in each case, LTE will add 130 bucks to the price, not including monthly fees.

Of course, from there you have your choice of accessories, which you'll absolutely want. If you intend to use the iPad as a laptop replacement, the magic keyboard costs 2.99 almost as much as one of apple's basic iPads. You can also go with the smart keyboard folio, which costs 179 and forgot the trackpad, then there's a second gen pencil which costs 129 dollars. Assuming you go with a 256 gigabyte iPad because really, who wants only 64 gigs of storage for a laptop replacement, you're looking at 1028 with the keyboard, and you still don't have a desktop class, cursor or multitasking experience when you need it. That proposition only gets more ridiculous.

If you consider the iPad Pro, which starts at 7.99 for the smaller 128 gigabytes, 11 inch model and offers many of the same features as the less expensive air, adding a few amenities like a higher refresh screen, LIDAR sensor face ID and a four speaker, audio setup, to be clear. You don't need any of these accessories to enjoy the iPad for what it is just a perfect tablet, but you do need the keyboard if you want to take apple in its word that the iPad can be a legit laptop replacement. I'm still not convinced this should be anyone's primary computer if they expect to do a lot of multitasking or cursor work, but as a secondary computer. If you already own a laptop or have access to one, maybe even a work machine yeah, I can see it with so few differences between the iPad Air and the pro I'm forced to reconsider who the air is for last year. It was the perfect just right tablet: it offered more features in the basic entry-level model, but was still more attainable than the premium proline.

It was the best tablet for most people. This year, I would upgrade the air to the best tablet for almost everyone, and I'd even argue. It's apple's best high-end tablet, at least for now, thanks for watching this review of the 2020 iPad Air for more reviews and all sorts of other videos, please like and subscribe to, Engadget, thanks. You.

Source : Engadget