iPad Air 4 (2020) Unboxing & Review: An Interesting Alternative! By 9to5Mac

The iPad Air 4 is a very interesting device within apple's tablet. Lineup the air force somewhat of an awkward middle child between the pro and the standard iPad for 600 you're. Getting that beloved iPad Pro design, along with all of its functionality, in combination with apple's most powerful processor. Yet, but is it worth it? The iPad Air unboxing experience is pretty much the same as any other iPad would come out from this year. So inside the box, we've got the iPad Air itself, some documentation and a 3 foot, USB cable, alongside an apple 20, watt, power, adapter, and you'll, of course, also get a few apple stickers just to clarify no you're, not looking at an iPad Pro here. This is an iPad Air they've done what we all suspected.

They do, eventually, which is incorporate the iPad Pro body style into one of the lower end iPads. So the antennas, the bezels and that power button are pretty much the only distinguishing factors between the air and the 2018 iPad Pro as far as design goes, and overall I like it, it's only 11 grams, lighter than the new 11-inch iPad Pro and 8 grams, lighter than the 2018 11-inch iPad Pro. So you kind of lose that wow factor you used to get with previous iPad Air models. They feel identical in weight and that isn't a problem at all. I don't ever feel as though this tablet is too heavy in really any usability situation with the current state of technology apple can only make their devices so light, and so, as long as it's a light device in general I'd say that's enough to keep the air moniker with the updated iPad Pro body style.

We've got the new smart connector, which means the iPad Air 4 is going to be compatible with the apple magic keyboard and the apple smart keyboard folio that they designed for the iPad pros, and we've also got support for the second generation Apple Pencil. I think it's only right that they brought that support over for the second generation pencil, with the updated design and as always using the Apple Pencil is a really nice experience here on the iPad Air. I can't say the experience here is any worse than it is on the iPad Pro models. It's indistinguishable, and this year apple introduced two new blue and green colors for the air. This time around here, I've got the sky, blue and apple sure, as heck made.

It looks real nice, online and pictures, but in person, even in perfect lighting. This color is like if they took the saturation filter and brought it from 100 all the way down to 5, it's a very pale blue and while you can always see a hint of it on the aluminum rails, here it's barely a blue. It's honestly, more of a silver with a light blue tint. That's how I'd best describe the color. Overall, though, this tablet has a perfectly fine design, and I think the blue is while subtle a nice addition.

The display, although featuring a slim down bezel, is probably one of the more mundane elements of the air 4. It's 10.9 inches because of those slightly thicker bezels compared to the iPad Pro. It's got a 1640 by 2630, liquid retina IPS display, which means it's essentially got the same: pixel density as the iPad 8 and the latest iPad Pro. Furthermore, it features true tone technology and supports the wide color gamut. So as far as colors and general display quality you're going to have a viewing experience, that's extremely similar to the iPad Pro.

But the big thing that this tablet lacks in comparison to the pro is the high refresh rate display. This is something that was never expected to come on this tablet, nor something that I think needs to be on the iPad Air, but that enhanced smoothness and general fluidity that you get from having promotion is something that having a crazy, fast, CPU or high resolution display will never be able to replicate, and if the air 4 did have promotion, this would hand down, be the best value iPad. You could buy period, but you got to save some stuff for the pro right touch. I'd has gotten its unique evolution yet here in the iPad Air 4, as apple's incorporated touch ID into the power button, which is their way of working around the lack of face ID in the iPad Air. As you can see, it's substantially larger than the typical iPad power button.

It's got a sleek metal strip going around the button with a shiny glass surface and as with every version of touch ID, I never have issues. It reads my finger fast and accurately. My only issue with this application of touch ID, however, is the physical placement. I think it would have made much more sense for apple to place it on the right vertical side of the display. This way it's easily accessible when using the tablet vertically and horizontally after a while using this tablet, it's definitely something that you'll get used to doing, but the placement of the button doesn't allow for a truly thoughtless, unlocking experience like you get on a traditional touch ID or face ID device, and although face ID, is more of a premium feature, I don't think it would have hurt apple to include it over touch ID.

It would definitely take some headache away from the case manufacturers who are now going to have to work around the touch I'd button for all their cases. Sorry guys, the iPad Air, just like the new iPhone 12s features the a14 bionic processor, along with four gigabytes of ram. This is by far the most fast and capable the iPad Air has ever been, and, although you're not going to get that same, feel of fluidity that you get from the iPad Pro with the pro motion display. The iPad Air objectively feels just as snappy as the iPad Pro does for everyday tasks, opening and closing applications playing games using productivity. Apps all feels really quick here on the iPad Air when taking a look at geek bench 5, the iPad Air blows the previous generation air away for single core and multi-core performance.

The a14 is apple's first 5 nanometer CPU to be put in any iPad, which means the air force going to be 40 faster than the previous generation have 30 faster graphics and still offer improved power efficiency than the previous generation. When taking a look at video, editing, performance and suffusion, I've been extremely impressed with how this air performs. I can easily import and work with footage from my 4k canon camera. This is pretty dense. H.265 footage that my iMac currently struggles to play in full quality. The iPad Air handles this footage with no sweat, and I can export a 5-minute-high quality video project in minutes, that's extremely impressive for 600 tablets and with a few accessories.

This could easily be a laptop replacement for a lot of people on paper. The air 4 isn't as fast as the iPad Pro, but I'm confident that if you were to switch to this device from a 2018 or 2020 iPad Pro, you wouldn't be able to tell a difference in general performance that a14 is putting in work. Gaming on the iPad Air is an enjoyable experience as well. I really do miss that 120 hertz from the iPad Pro for gaming purposes, but not every iPad game actually has high frame rate support so for a lot of people. This doesn't make much of a difference.

I played the Apple Arcade samurai jack game. In addition to a few other titles with 60 frames per second support and gaming on the air for is very smooth and while the iPad isn't a device, I would recommend anyone buy strictly for mobile gaming. This will be a perfectly fine tablet to hand off to your child or younger relative who just wants to play some games. The air will work just fine for that. Getting USB-C on the iPad.

Air is quite a big deal for this tablet because, unlike previous air models, you've now got the ability to connect USB c docks and other accessories that'll only expand the potential functionality of the tablet. For example, here I've got an engineering sample from an upcoming product from pledging they make incredibly fast storage devices that I personally use on the daily. This is the fledgling Hubble, and it's a 7 in 1 USB dock that you can incorporate into a folio case. So, with this USB hub, I can easily connect my SD card and offload pictures or videos. I took with my cameras or get a 3.5 millimeter headphone input, because these are becoming increasingly more rare, so it's nice to see that here the lightning connection still only supports USB 2.0 transfer speeds as well, so transferring data to and from the iPad is going to be significantly faster than before. You've now got USB 3.0 per second speeds, and this enables you to connect high-speed storage devices to the iPad like USB flash drives or even a display. I can use this with my lg ultrafine display with no issues.

USB opens a lot of doors for what you can now do on the iPad Air and including it was a no-brainer and make sure to subscribe, because we've got a dedicated video on the Hubble coming soon apple claims. You should get up to 10 hours of use out of the iPad Air and while this tablet isn't necessarily the battery king, in my experience, you should be able to get close to that with relatively light usage. If you're a power user, though, and you consistently use more power, hungry applications, you're going to see a dip in longevity with moderate usage watching YouTube videos using iMessage email stuff, like that, I get around seven to eight hours of screen on time, which is solid, but I can pretty much always get the tablet down to at least 30 percent by the end of the day and while standby time is pretty good, just like any other iPad, it's noticeably worse than on the regular 8th generation iPad. As far as the battery life, the air doesn't give me the same all-day confidence that I get from the standard, 8th generation iPad. But it's not bad.

I just thought: it'd be a bit better. The iPad Air 4 has the quad speaker, grille setup, just like on the iPad pros and the speakers on the iPad. Air 4 are a nice improvement over the previous air 3. , but even though we've got larger grilles here than we do on the iPad Pro, the iPad Air doesn't sound as good, but I think it's good enough for the average content consumer, even though you've got four grilles here, only two of them actually emit sound and that alone makes a huge difference as far as sound quality between the iPad Pro and the air. I think the iPad Air 4 does a good job of delivering an overall punchy and present sound with pretty crisp, mid and highs, but I think the iPad Pro just having those two extra speakers.

It just delivers a much more full sound on its own. I think the air has a solid set of speakers, but when you put it next to the higher end iPad Pro, you can definitely hear the differences in what makes the pro better for all you iPad cinematographers out there you're going to be quite pleased with the new camera features brought over to the air 4. The iPad Air 3 featured a single lens camera with HDR photo capability and 1080p video. This year we still have just the one lens, but it got a bump up to 12 megapixels to support 4k video capability up to 60 frames per second, as well as 1080p video up to 240 frames per second, and now the selfie camera can do 1080p video it up to 60 frames per second as well. Apple, obviously, doesn't market the iPad Air as a tablet for taking photos or video, and that's because the cameras are just eye, they're definitely improved from the last generation.

But this is nothing to get excited about unless you're, an iPad videographer. I really like the iPad Air as a tablet in and of itself and as an alternative to the iPad Pro. The updated design is very lightweight, as always, the a14 processor and USB make this iPad Air more capable than any air model to come before it. Performance is absolutely outstanding, and I can do so much more with this tablet. Now that we've got USB battery life is solid, but it could be better and the smart, connector and Apple Pencil 2 support are great to have, but it's not really offering anything new.

It's just on a cheaper iPad, but I would definitely call this cheaper with a lower kc, because the air starts at 599 for the 64 gig of storage model, and for that price I wouldn't say the air is too expensive. But if you want to kit this out with the magic keyboard and Apple Pencil, you're well over a thousand dollars in the blink of an eye or if you opt for the 256 gigabyte option, you're only 50 away from an iPad Pro and for that 50 dollars more you're, getting a much more refined experience than the iPad Pro face, ID better display, better speakers and double the storage. If the air 4 was 4.99 instead of 5.99, I think apple would have the ultimate iPad on their hands as far as value, but not this year. I guess, if you're, not the kind of bother with accessories like keyboards or styluses, and just want a modern iPad experience or are just looking for a step-up from the baseline iPad 8, then the air is definitely a great choice. But if you're looking at the air as a slightly cheaper alternative to the iPad Pro, then you probably just want to get the pro.

It feels so much more complete than the standard air, but when this eventually comes down in price a bit at retailers, I think this would be a great middle of the road option. I think this iPad could easily give anyone three to four years of smooth usability. I just wish it was a tad cheaper, but what do you guys think about the new iPad Air? Are you interested in picking one up? Let us know in the comments section down below and give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed and make sure to subscribe for future content like this. Thank you all for watching, and I will talk to you guys in the next one. You.

Source : 9to5Mac