iPad 8 Top Features: The Best Value iPad gets Better! By 9to5Mac

What's up guys miles here with nine to five mac, and today we're going to be checking out the 10.2-inch iPad, 8th generation. They gave us a minor update this year and while it may not be the most exciting iPad update of this year, it's still probably the best value iPad that you can get in the best iPad for most people. So here are its best features.995 macs on YouTube is sponsored by Zulu case featuring a deceptively thin but highly protective design. The alpha case is built to give you stylus features and the most functional and protective design for the iPad Pro. The alpha case features not one but two slots for your Apple Pencil at the top for charging or on the back. You've got a built-in adjustable stand with eight magnetic angles, which is going to give you a super secure, viewing angle on any surface.

The alpha comes with a free 2 year. No questions ask warranty, has sleep weight functionality and is awesome for traveling office work or anyone looking for a sleek and protective case click the link in the description to get your iPad Pro alpha case today, and thanks again to Zulu case for sponsoring 95 macs on YouTube. Firstly, performance is the hallmark feature here with the 8th generation iPad, as this model has gotten the upgraded a12 bionic chip, and this is the same CPU found in the third generation iPad Air in the 5th generation, iPad Mini, as well as the iPhone 10r and the 10s. So if you've ever gotten to use any of those devices expect this iPad to perform. Similarly to those devices and in my usage, the iPad 8 does perform substantially better than the 7th generation does applications load up a tad faster gaming is a lot better and general multitasking has seen an increase here.

Is it on par with the iPad Pro or upcoming air? Absolutely not, but I'll tell you what for the 329 you're going to pay for this? This is probably going to be the best performing option you can buy when taking a look at geek bench 5. You can see that there's been a huge increase in performance from the previous generation iPad. The 7th generation iPad pulled an average single core score of around 750 and a multi-core score of 1400 this year, we're looking at scores of around 1100 for a single core score and scores as high as 2600 for multi-core, which is a huge jump as the a12 bionic is supposed to bring improvements over the a10 for things like photo and video editing. Let's take a look at suffusion, which is probably one of the best options for editing video on iPadOS and, as you can see here, I can edit this 4k video with no problems at all. When scrubbing through the timeline.

I can jump from one point in the project to another and play back the clip with no drop frames or hesitation, which is nice to see granted. This is just from an iPhone, but if you're someone who's bought an iPad 8 for editing high-end video, then you might want to look into other options. So it only took me 6 minutes and 30 seconds to export this 10 minute, 4k video, with some transitions and effects, which is honestly impressive for sub 400 iPad and definitely going to be reliable option. If you need to whip up some quick video edits on the go. Since I talked about gaming performance on the iPad 8th generation uh, I just want to showcase some gaming here on the iPad.

Here we are playing Call of Duty mobile, it's a free to download game uh in just a disclaimer, I'm not great at this game at all. This is essentially like my third or fourth time playing, so this is really just to test uh how it performs on the eighth generation iPad here. But overall, I'm pretty impressed, I think, graphically speaking, I'm seeing a huge jump over the 7th generation iPad. This is a 24 frame per second video, so you're not going to get a full sense of how smooth it is. But it's really smooth here.

All the textures look really nice. I had no frame drops whatsoever, and I had an overall perfect experience. This is a device that I can confidently pick up and play video games with. I haven't tested like every game you can imagine on iPadOS, but at least as far as AAA titles mainstream games that most people are going to play. This is going to handle it just fine like I said this is based on the same CPU found in the iPhone 10r and 10s, so this device is going to be absolutely great for gaming.

I'd say the biggest downside is not having the pro motion, but when you really think about it, not all games support that a full 120 hertz that you get on the iPad Pro. So when you really think about it, you're not going to have that much of a different experience uh when gaming compared to an iPad Pro depending on the game, you're playing. So as you can see here, I'm able to get a few kills. I'm not I'm not that terrible, but I hope no one asks me to play because I'm I'm definitely not good enough to play with anyone, I'm awful, but anyway, moving on this is a game I'm much more familiar with. This is super phantom cat 2.

You can get this on iOS and on android, it's a nice little 2d platformer, and I like it because everything is just so colorful and shiny, and it's really easy to play because I suck at video games. So, as you can see here, everything is running really smoothly, and I know this isn't a graphically intensive game by any means. This isn't meant to stress test the iPad in the same way that Call of Duty mobile was, I just want to give a general sense of what gaming would be like on this 8th generation iPad. The 7th generation iPad with the a10 chip really stood out to me is the weak link amongst the rest of the iPad lineup, but this year with the a12 and the eighth generation uh we're seeing a lot better performance across the board. Another improvement that the a12 bionic brings into play is improved AR experiences on the iPad.

The processor is doing a lot of the heavy lifting as far as supporting the camera and the other sensors within the iPad, and as you can see here, I've got an AR basketball app running right now, and I like the way it feels to play generally speaking, while Apple did not add a LIDAR scanner to this iPad, like they did on the pro it's good to see that they've slowly but surely started making improvements to the AR experience across all of their lineup. Who knows what the 9th generation will bring in that regard? Overall, though, this is the fastest tablet I've ever used under 400, and while this wasn't designed for the speed demon power user per se, the new processor upgrade definitely makes the iPad 8 capable enough to get some legitimate work done. The previous generation iPad in combination with iPadOS 13, had pretty good Apple Pencil performance, but it could be better and that's what we're looking at right here. This is much better. The Apple Pencil is noticeably more responsive than on previous models running older versions of iPadOS.

You don't really feel that delay the same way you could on the previous iPad model, and this is something that's extremely important for artists, religious note, takers or perhaps, if you're playing some kind of game using the Apple Pencil it sucks to have that kind of delay. But that's not something I'm experiencing here. It's been great for me to take notes or even scroll through twitter, occasionally and, of course, you've got all the awesome iPad. Os 14 features like being able to draw in any text field, copying handwritten notes as text and generally having more precision when drawing or writing. If you're a student who's constantly needing to take notes or are looking for an inexpensive, iOS device for illustration, then this is the best way to go, and if the Apple Pencil is a bit more than what you're willing to spend, I've got some cheaper alternatives linked down below, as there are a handful of solid 3rd party pencil options.

If there's anything I want for the next generation iPad, though it's definitely to get rid of this Apple Pencil design and either support the second gen or come out with a new model that doesn't charge like this. I still can't believe it sometimes doesn't. Get me wrong. I'm fully aware that the smart connector isn't a new feature on this 8th generation iPad, but it's still one of the best things about it. The smart connector is going to allow you to hook up keyboards that are powered directly through a smart connector, so you don't have to worry about charging an extra device.

The magnets are fairly strong too. So, as you can see here, I can lift the iPad fully off of the surface and the keyboard is staying connected, even when I wobble it a little right here. I've got the lg combo touch keyboard, and this is, in my opinion, the best alternative to the Apple keyboard for the iPad, because this one's got trackpad support. It comes as two pieces as a case with a magnetic keyboard that you can attach and detach with ease. The trackpad here is very spacious and tactile, and it feels perfect to use generally speaking, because mouse support is in its early stages in iPadOS, you don't have right, click controls or anything like that, but this keyboard makes it really easy to never have to interact with the display itself outside using touch ID.

Occasionally, you've got a home button right here in the corner and the keys are backlit, so you don't have to worry about not seeing the keys in the dark overall. The combo touch is a great example of what the smart connector is capable of. It's only going to get better with future hardware and if you're interested in checking out the combo touch, it'll be linked down below probably one of the best-selling points of the entry level. iPad is the battery life, and this year the a12 bionic has brought even more improvements to the 8th gen iPad. With this processor upgrade, there's been an improvement in general efficiency, so apple's claiming here that you can get up to 10 hours of use out of the 8th, gen iPad, and I can definitely attest to that battery life has been great.

Generally speaking, I don't like to base my opinion purely on the numbers, though I like to get a general sense of how the device hangs throughout the day when doing a lot of my typical daily tasks, note-taking using social media watching YouTube videos or using the iPad as a logic remote for recording videos, and I can easily end the day with around 30 to 40 percent battery life. Depending on how hard I push it and once again, when you put the price into perspective, you're paying 329 dollars for a device that you can take off the charger in the morning and essentially use all day if you'd, like that's a pretty good value proposition in my eyes, it's something that a lot of people will be drawn towards, because a lot of us have trouble. Keeping our devices charged as it is. The battery in the iPad 8 will definitely mediate that for some people- that's about it for this one, though, overall, these are the best new additions to the iPad. All the same features that you love at the same awesome price, just bumped up a bit for 2020, and this is a great value like I said, and something that I'd highly recommend uh for someone just looking for a nice tablet to use for the everyday tasks even for school work, artistry with the Apple Pencil.

There are so many good ways to use this, and it's such a good value, if you enjoyed make sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe for future content like this, because we've got a bunch more hardware coverage coming this month. Thank you all for watching, and I'll talk to you in the next one featuring a deceptively thin but highly protected design. The alpha case by Zulu is built to give you stylist features in the most functional and protective design for the iPad Pro. The alpha case features not one but two slots for your Apple Pencil at the top for charging or on the back. You've got a built-in adjustable stand with eight magnetic angles, which is going to give a super secure, viewing angle on any surface.

The alpha comes with a free two year. No questions asked warranty, has sleep, wake functionality and is awesome for traveling office work or anyone looking for a sleek and protective case click the link in the description to get your iPad Pro alpha case today, and thanks again to suitcase for sponsoring nine-to-five mac on YouTube. You.

Source : 9to5Mac