iPad Air iPad Air 2020 or iPad 2022?

[Mr. 123]

Hi,
After the disappointing iPad 10th gen announcement I am considering picking up a 2020 IPad Air with 64GBs of memory. I have 256gb on my phone and 1TB on my iMac but I just don’t feel like paying upgrade prices. I mostly stream and don’t store music on the iPad so it should hopefully be fine but it’s so greedy that they don’t start at 128.

First of all I have used a 6th gen iPad since it was released and it’s been good but it’s pretty laggy these days so I don’t use it much so I thought I’d upgrade to get something smoother and I thought the 10th gen would be a good replacement at first glance.

Where I live the new 10th gen with 64GB costs $592 whereas the 2020 iPad Air with 64GB costs $619.

I’m a student so I mostly use the iPad for reading eBooks and pdfs for school, doing markup with the pencil, streaming some movies, browsing and maybe some photo editing. I pay for photoshop CC so with a more powerful iPad than my old 6th gen, I might want to try to use the iPad app which is included in the subscription.

I already own the Apple Pencil 1st gen and hopefully the adapter works with the Air as well but that we don’t know yet.

Which device would be better to buy in terms of longevity and performance? Considering that the air is from 2020.

Thanks I’m advance for any help!

 

[AJB1971]

Both use the A14 processor so they should have similar performance and lifespans. I would imagine they both have 4GB of RAM. The Air 2 supported eight versions of the OS and it appears that Apple bases this on performance rather than the age of the device. That could change, but I wouldn't consider it an issue at the moment.

My preference would be for the Air 4 because of the laminated display.

The 10th-generation iPad has a new camera position, and also the option of using the Magic Keyboard Folio, but that's very expensive. There are a lot of cases already available for the Air 4.

A consideration for you would be that the Air 4 isn't compatible with the original Pencil. You would have to upgrade to the 2nd-generation.

A refurbished 11-inch iPad Pro (2018 version) is also worth considering if they're available where you are. It's better than both of these, even though it's older. Again, it uses the 2nd-generation Pencil.

 

[Mr. 123]

I would not be using a keyboard so that doesn’t matter. The price of those things is like a third of the iPad lol.

The air feels like a better quality device with the laminated screen and better speakers (I think).

It’s too bad that Apple probably won’t make the pencil adapter work with the air (and pros) but the second gen pencil does seem much better for sure.

The 2018 pro can be bought but not from Apple refurbished and the price Is over my budget sadly.

 

[Mr. 123]

Update: I found a deal for the 5th gen Air for $672 so now I’m trying to decide between the 4th and 5th gen Air and the price difference is around 50 bucks.

An additional 50 for the M1 and the 2GBs of extra ram should be worth it right?

 

[GMShadow]

Update: I found a deal for the 5th gen Air for $672 so now I’m trying to decide between the 4th and 5th gen Air and the price difference is around 50 bucks.

An additional 50 for the M1 and the 2GBs of extra ram should be worth it right?

It's 4GB of extra RAM actually (so double). If you can swing it, it's definitely worth it.

 

[AJB1971]

Update: I found a deal for the 5th gen Air for $672 so now I’m trying to decide between the 4th and 5th gen Air and the price difference is around 50 bucks.

An additional 50 for the M1 and the 2GBs of extra ram should be worth it right?

Yes, definitely worth it.

As the above poster says, the 5th-generation Air has 8GB of RAM and RAM can be a limiting factor in whether a device gets OS upgrades.

 

[Mr. 123]

Yes, definitely worth it.

As the above poster says, the 5th-generation Air has 8GB of RAM and RAM can be a limiting factor in whether a device gets OS upgrades.

Just ordered the 5th gen. I want to be able to use it for years to come so 50 seems like a good investment for longevity. I won’t buy a pencil 2 for a while though and hope that there’s a way to use the new gen 1 pencil adapter with the Air.

Is there anything else that is different between the models or is the ram and cpu it?

 

[MobiusTech]

Just ordered the 5th gen. I want to be able to use it for years to come so 50 seems like a good investment for longevity. I won’t buy a pencil 2 for a while though and hope that there’s a way to use the new gen 1 pencil adapter with the Air.

Is there anything else that is different between the models or is the ram and cpu it?

Should have went with the iPad 10th Gen 2022. You are going to regret it....

 

[GMShadow]

Just ordered the 5th gen. I want to be able to use it for years to come so 50 seems like a good investment for longevity. I won’t buy a pencil 2 for a while though and hope that there’s a way to use the new gen 1 pencil adapter with the Air.

Is there anything else that is different between the models or is the ram and cpu it?

Front camera is 12MP and supports Center Stage (keeps you in focus as you move around). That's about it.

 

[AJB1971]

Just ordered the 5th gen. I want to be able to use it for years to come so 50 seems like a good investment for longevity. I won’t buy a pencil 2 for a while though and hope that there’s a way to use the new gen 1 pencil adapter with the Air.

Is there anything else that is different between the models or is the ram and cpu it?

There are some minor differences like the addition of center stage (the camera that tracks your movements on video calls), but the main difference is the processor. It will really future-proof the device having that amount of RAM.

It will also run Stage Manager, the new multitasking system in iPad OS 16. That isn't available on the Air 4.

It won't get support for the original Pencil so you would be better off selling that and looking for a deal on the 2nd-generation version.

You might want to watch the reviews here -

iPad Air 5 Reviews: Great Value With M1 Chip at $599 Starting Price

The new fifth-generation iPad Air will begin arriving to customers on Friday and, ahead of time, the first hands-on reviews of the device have...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Mr. 123]

There are some minor differences like the addition of center stage (the camera that tracks your movements on video calls), but the main difference is the processor. It will really future-proof the device having that amount of RAM.

It will also run Stage Manager, the new multitasking system in iPad OS 16. That isn't available on the Air 4.

It won't get support for the original Pencil so you would be better off selling that and looking for a deal on the 2nd-generation version.

You might want to watch the reviews here -

iPad Air 5 Reviews: Great Value With M1 Chip at $599 Starting Price

The new fifth-generation iPad Air will begin arriving to customers on Friday and, ahead of time, the first hands-on reviews of the device have...

www.macrumors.com

Stage manager is a nice addition!

I think I’ll use my 2018 iPad around the kitchen when I get the Air but I won’t need a pencil there so selling the gen 1 pencil is a good idea!

 

[Mr. 123]

Should have went with the iPad 10th Gen 2022. You are going to regret it....

How come? The one I ordered (5th gen) has both more ram and a faster processor (M1) and is just a few months older than the 10th gen.

 

[rui no onna]

Stage manager is a nice addition!

I think I’ll use my 2018 iPad around the kitchen when I get the Air but I won’t need a pencil there so selling the gen 1 pencil is a good idea!

I dunno. The Pencil's kinda nice for navigation, etc. when your fingers have sauce and other stuff.

 

[AJB1971]

You could always get a Logitech Crayon to replace the Pencil. They're cheaper and will work with both of your iPads. You probably wouldn't be much out of pocket after you've sold the Pencil.

Logitech Crayon for iPad - Apple Digital Pencil Technology

Grab a Crayon! Logitech Crayon is compatible with iPads 2018 and later. Built using Apple Pencil technology giving you the best experience today and access to hundreds of Apple supported apps.

www.logitech.com

 

[Mr. 123]

I dunno. The Pencil's kinda nice for navigation, etc. when your fingers have sauce and other stuff.

Good point, never thought about this use case lol.

 

[Mr. 123]

You could always get a Logitech Crayon to replace the Pencil. They're cheaper and will work with both of your iPads. You probably wouldn't be much out of pocket after you've sold the Pencil.

Logitech Crayon for iPad - Apple Digital Pencil Technology

Grab a Crayon! Logitech Crayon is compatible with iPads 2018 and later. Built using Apple Pencil technology giving you the best experience today and access to hundreds of Apple supported apps.

www.logitech.com

Has anyone here used the Crayon? I guess it doesn’t have the tilt features of the 2nd gen but is it comparable to gen 1?

It would be great to be able to use it with both iPads.

 

[rui no onna]

Has anyone here used the Crayon? I guess it doesn’t have the tilt features of the 2nd gen but is it comparable to gen 1?

It would be great to be able to use it with both iPads.

I use it but only for PDF markup (no drawing/sketching). For my usage, the Crayon works just as well as the Apple Pencil and bonus is it doesn't require pairing. Just switch it on and you can write right away.

I can use the same Crayon to write on multiple iPads (2018 and newer) seamlessly. I imagine it was designed this way for a classroom setting where iPads and Crayons can easily get mixed up.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Theoretically the iPad Air 4 is better than the iPad 10th gen. In reality, I wouldn't be surprised to see the 4th gen ipad air stop receiving iOS updates a year or 2 before the 10th gen iPad for no other reason than because Apple decides to.

You can see evidence of this in the iPhone 7 (A10/2GB Ram) dropping support while the iPad 5th gen (A9/2GB RAM) gets iOS 16.

It's probably a coin toss. If you want longevity in OS updates, get the 2022. If you want a better device and plan to only keep it for 3-4 years then get the 2020.

 

[Digitalguy]

Has anyone here used the Crayon? I guess it doesn’t have the tilt features of the 2nd gen but is it comparable to gen 1?

It would be great to be able to use it with both iPads.

Crayon has tilt but no pressure sensitivity, contrary to first and second gen pencils

 

[rui no onna]

Theoretically the iPad Air 4 is better than the iPad 10th gen. In reality, I wouldn't be surprised to see the 4th gen ipad air stop receiving iOS updates a year or 2 before the 10th gen iPad for no other reason than because Apple decides to.

You can see evidence of this in the iPhone 7 (A10/2GB Ram) dropping support while the iPad 5th gen (A9/2GB RAM) gets iOS 16.

It's probably a coin toss. If you want longevity in OS updates, get the 2022. If you want a better device and plan to only keep it for 3-4 years then get the 2020.

iPadOS 13 dropped three iPads: iPad Air (2013, A7, 1GB), iPad mini 2 (2013, A7, 1GB) and iPad mini 3 (2014, A7/1GB)

iPadOS 16 dropped two iPads: iPad Air 2 (2014, A8X, 2GB), iPad mini 4 (2015, A8, 2GB)

iPad Pro 9.7 (2016, A9X, 2GB) and 1st gen iPad Pro 12.9 (2015, A9X, 4GB) are still getting iPadOS 16 same as the iPad 5th gen (2017, A9, 2GB).

Support may differ across product lines but within the same product line, I expect support to be similar for similar chipsets/RAM combo. I reckon the Air 4 and iPad 10th gen will stop getting updated at the same time.

 

[Mr. 123]

Crayon has tilt but no pressure sensitivity, contrary to first and second gen pencils

Too bad about the sensitivity as I’m used to that with the first gen pencil but I might try out the crayon and see how it works. I’ll probably hold off for a while and use my 2018 iPad with pencil when marking up documents for the time being.

Maybe a second hand pencil 2 might be an option down the line as the price is crazy where I live around $160.

 

[FeliApple]

iPadOS 13 dropped three iPads: iPad Air (2013, A7, 1GB), iPad mini 2 (2013, A7, 1GB) and iPad mini 3 (2014, A7/1GB)

iPadOS 16 dropped two iPads: iPad Air 2 (2014, A8X, 2GB), iPad mini 4 (2015, A8, 2GB)

iPad Pro 9.7 (2016, A9X, 2GB) and 1st gen iPad Pro 12.9 (2015, A9X, 4GB) are still getting iPadOS 16 same as the iPad 5th gen (2017, A9, 2GB).

Support may differ across product lines but within the same product line, I expect support to be similar for similar chipsets/RAM combo. I reckon the Air 4 and iPad 10th gen will stop getting updated at the same time.

I wanted to ask you a question about iPadOS 13. If I recall correctly, you had said that the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s performance and battery life had fallen apart starting with iPadOS 13. I think you’d said that reloading really worsened starting from that version. Is that correct?
As you know, Apple forced my 9.7-inch iPad Pro to iOS 12 (from the absolute masterpiece that iOS 9 was), and I’ve found that while battery life is pathetic (pathetic to me. It went from 13-14 hours to barely scraping 9-10. I’d say the overall range is 8-11. It was 12.5-14.5 back on iOS 9. It’s not abhorrent like it is on the iPhone 6s on iOS 15, but I really notice it). I barely managed to avoid iPadOS 13 (the activation bug showed literally two days before its release), and I wanted to know whether that was a glass half-full situation, or if the difference is actually negligible. What was your experience with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro?

 

[rui no onna]

I wanted to ask you a question about iPadOS 13. If I recall correctly, you had said that the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s performance and battery life had fallen apart starting with iPadOS 13. I think you’d said that reloading really worsened starting from that version. Is that correct?
As you know, Apple forced my 9.7-inch iPad Pro to iOS 12 (from the absolute masterpiece that iOS 9 was), and I’ve found that while battery life is pathetic (pathetic to me. It went from 13-14 hours to barely scraping 9-10. I’d say the overall range is 8-11. It was 12.5-14.5 back on iOS 9. It’s not abhorrent like it is on the iPhone 6s on iOS 15, but I really notice it). I barely managed to avoid iPadOS 13 (the activation bug showed literally two days before its release), and I wanted to know whether that was a glass half-full situation, or if the difference is actually negligible. What was your experience with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro?

I found standby battery life was already crappy by iOS 12 (vs 10 which had really good standby time). Onscreen time was around the same as iOS 10 though. In terms of battery life, I didn't see much difference between 12 and 13.

Performance (memory usage in particular) suffered with iPadOS 13. It got laggy switching between Safari tabs similar to how my pre-SSD Windows PCs could sometimes get when swapping between RAM and page file.

 

[FeliApple]

I found standby battery life was already crappy by iOS 12 (vs 10 which had really good standby time). Onscreen time was around the same as iOS 10 though. In terms of battery life, I didn't see much difference between 12 and 13.

Performance (memory usage in particular) suffered with iPadOS 13. It got laggy switching between Safari tabs similar to how my pre-SSD Windows PCs could sometimes get when swapping between RAM and page file.

Thanks! I’m a little surprised by that, standby time is good for me on iOS 12, I don’t notice much difference. Maybe there is and I don’t remember, which is possible. This happened three years ago and I don’t track standby time as closely as I track screen-on time, so I don’t trust my assessment there too much, it’s been too long for me to remember. I have screenshots but my standby time isn’t too high. Usage time is a lot better on iOS 9, like I said, though.

I’m pleasantly surprised by your battery life statement! iOS 13 obliterated the iPhone 6s’ battery life, so I expected it to be the same on the iPad. The performance part is a shame though. With that, it obliterated the final part that was left standing of what turned out to be the best classic design 9.7-inch iPad, ever. (The A9X beats the A10 Fusion in many categories, iirc; screen and features-wise it’s not a contest between the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and the last 9.7-inch iPad, the 6th gen, as the former wins easily).

I’m surprised about your iOS 10 statement, my iPhone 6s on iOS 10 matches my previous iPhone 6s on iOS 9, I thought iOS 11 had obliterated battery life on the iPad Pro 9.7, not iOS 10. (iOS 11 was a fiasco, at least on iPhones, both the 6s and the 7).

There aren’t many results online, but it appears that iPadOS 15 finished obliterating battery life on this model, unfortunately. I don’t have any performance results, it’s not discussed as much, as enthusiasts probably moved on. Some “I get 4-5 hours on iPad OS15”, though, which is absolutely abhorrent. I get that on an iPhone 5c on iOS 10.

I am really, really curious about iPadOS 16. It’s the oldest supported processor for the first time. Based on what we’ve said, I guess I would be able to confidently state that there isn’t much more margin for worsening performance and battery life. It’s poor enough at this point.

 

[rui no onna]

Thanks! I’m a little surprised by that, standby time is good for me on iOS 12, I don’t notice much difference. Maybe there is and I don’t remember, which is possible. This happened three years ago and I don’t track standby time as closely as I track screen-on time, so I don’t trust my assessment there too much, it’s been too long for me to remember. I have screenshots but my standby time isn’t too high. Usage time is a lot better on iOS 9, like I said, though.

I’m pleasantly surprised by your battery life statement! iOS 13 obliterated the iPhone 6s’ battery life, so I expected it to be the same on the iPad. The performance part is a shame though. With that, it obliterated the final part that was left standing of what turned out to be the best classic design 9.7-inch iPad, ever. (The A9X beats the A10 Fusion in many categories, iirc; screen and features-wise it’s not a contest between the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and the last 9.7-inch iPad, the 6th gen, as the former wins easily).

I’m surprised about your iOS 10 statement, my iPhone 6s on iOS 10 matches my previous iPhone 6s on iOS 9, I thought iOS 11 had obliterated battery life on the iPad Pro 9.7, not iOS 10. (iOS 11 was a fiasco, at least on iPhones, both the 6s and the 7).

There aren’t many results online, but it appears that iPadOS 15 finished obliterating battery life on this model, unfortunately. I don’t have any performance results, it’s not discussed as much, as enthusiasts probably moved on. Some “I get 4-5 hours on iPad OS15”, though, which is absolutely abhorrent. I get that on an iPhone 5c on iOS 10.

I am really, really curious about iPadOS 16. It’s the oldest supported processor for the first time. Based on what we’ve said, I guess I would be able to confidently state that there isn’t much more margin for worsening performance and battery life. It’s poor enough at this point.

I got the same battery life on iOS 9 and 10 but after a year of heavy use with occasional drops to 0% (marathon reading sessions), the poor iPad Pro 9.7's battery was quite abused.

I skipped iOS 11 and went from 10 -> 12 directly.

That said, I'd been experiencing lower onscreen time post-iPad 4. These were the onscreen times I was getting back when the devices were brand new.

16 hrs - iPad 4
12 hrs - iPad Air
10 hrs - iPad Pro 9.7

After a year's worth of abuse, I think I was getting just 8 hours on the Pro 9.7 even when kept on iOS 9. I think it was at 87% battery health already then (original capacity was more than 100%, iirc, like 107% or something).

I switch between multiple iPads now so battery wear is spread out plus we have more efficient chipsets (A12 onwards). I can easily get 10 hours onscreen time on newer iPads and they're still at 20-30% when I plug in to charge.