Carrier which iPad is the best ?

[SubRages]

The 'best' is the most expense ipad pro 12 model.

The best bang for the buck:

Ipad Air 5 with 128gb of storage would have been the best bang for the buck.
But Apple wanted to push more people towards the Ipad Pro's. So they only offer the Air 5 with 64gb or 265gb of storage. The Air 5 with 265gb of storage is only 100$ less than the ipad pro 11 with 128gb of storage....

I went with the ipad pro 11. Resale value after 4.5years for the pro will also be higher than the air.
But if you don't have enough money to buy the pro, then i would buy the 64gb air. 265gb air seems like a bad deal (unless you have a very specific need for the 265gb of storage, don't need pro features and the 128gb storage on the pro is not enough).

 

[unrigestered]

not sure how close the price difference is now since the price rise for the base iPad, but best bang for the buck until now has always been the base iPad... by far

 

[SubRages]

the base ipad is fine for all basic usage. for sure.

But i'm talking about the best bang for the buck = the sweet spot = what get's you the most without spending the most.
That would have been an ipad air 5 with 128gb. I think many ipad pro buyers would have bought an ipad air 128gb if it would have been available.

 

[FeliApple]

The new TouchID button fails 99% of the time for me whenever I use my left hand.




I use small iPhones so I've given up on those maintaining good battery life for a long time.




My iPad usage is divided among M1 Pro 12.9, M1 Pro 11, A14 Air 4 and A15 mini 6. Before that, I was juggling A10X Pro 12.9, A10X Pro 10.5 and A12 Air 3. Spreading out my usage seems to help greatly with maintaining battery life/health (makes sense since there are fewer charge/discharge cycles per device).

Amongst my previous generation iPads, only the 10.5 has noticeably degraded battery life but I'm guessing that was due to the very heavy use for around a year as my primary iPad.

I've posted battery life on my M1 12.9 here and it's doing very well on iPadOS 16. Granted, it's only got a little over a year of battery wear.

-I wouldn’t have expected the top Touch ID button to fail, it is slower than the home button Touch ID but it works well for me.

-Small (4.7-inch) iPhones’ battery life hasn’t ever been any good, but I’ve maintained them just fine by doing one thing: not updating. My 6.5-year-old iPhone 6s’ battery life is great, like-new with light use, with the original battery and 63% health. Heavy use would probably be as awful as it always was, but with my usage, battery life matches that of my iPhone 6s on iOS 9 when it was new. No complaints, other than the obvious improvement with my current iPhone Xʀ (on iOS 12, of course).
For reference, my 6s gets about 7-7.5 hours of screen-on time with full Wi-Fi; about 6 hours of SOT on full LTE (with higher, outdoor brightness). I’m happy with that, it has never been capable of more.

-Yeah, fewer cycles and use is key for better battery health in the long run, but like I said once, I haven’t seen any impact yet when I kept the iPad on the original iOS version, but unlike iPhones, I haven’t been able to try an iPad on an original iOS version with a high cycle count. I have no reason to believe it will be poor, however, considering that a 4.7-inch iPhone wasn’t (the 6s is great and it has 63% health, like I said, and 1400 cycles).

-Hopefully the M1 breaks the pattern and remains great!

 

[unrigestered]

the base ipad is fine for all basic usage. for sure.

But i'm talking about the best bang for the buck = the sweet spot = what get's you the most without spending the most.
That would have been an ipad air 5 with 128gb. I think many ipad pro buyers would have bought an ipad air 128gb if it would have been available.

depends on your use case...
if you're using the pencil for drawing, the laminated screen might give you some advantages, otherwise most people are imo better served by a basic iPad, unless paying tons of bucks just for some (admittedly nice) quality of life features like a 120Hz screen doesn't bother you.
and yes, i have both an M1 IPP 11" and a base iPad (Gen 6 though, which is now getting sucky speed wise though)

this might change of course if / when more "pro" apps arrive that actually benefit from the currently completely underutilized CPUs of the more expensive models

 

[EastHillWill]

(Speaking generally and flippantly)

For normal people? Base iPad. For someone on this forum? iPad Pro

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Yep. The iPad Pros are technically the best iPads that Apple sells.

Whether it's best for you depends on a variety of factors (#1 being budget).

Nope on both points.
1, Technically, the iPad Pro isn’t the best because its size means that it’s almost never with me when I need to access my drawings or whip up a new sketch in the moment. A giant, heavy iPad that’s unavailable when I need it is not even good, it’s a problem. With the iPad sitting back at home or office, its lack of presence translates to a lack of utility, and to compensate, requires I‘d then have to carry a sketchbook and instruments as well as a phone around for comms as well, which is just as clumsy and impractical.

2, I have no budget. If the iPad that is most useful is $2000 I will spend it and not even think about it.

In my case, the technically superior iPad is the Mini 5, w/ physical button, headphone jack, and Pencil 1, TMo Cellular service and a Skype account. If it cost $3000, I would still own two.

 

[turbineseaplane]

This is a highly subjective question

For me, an iPad mini is "the best"

 

[SubRages]

depends on your use case...
if you're using the pencil for drawing, the laminated screen might give you some advantages, otherwise most people are imo better served by a basic iPad, unless paying tons of bucks just for some (admittedly nice) quality of life features like a 120Hz screen doesn't bother you.
and yes, i have both an M1 IPP 11" and a base iPad (Gen 6 though, which is now getting sucky speed wise though)

this might change of course if / when more "pro" apps arrive that actually benefit from the currently completely underutilized CPUs of the more expensive models

What device/hardware and functionality someone needs is indeed something that depends.

But the hardware and functionality of the device that you can get for a certain amount of money does not change based on some variable. This is static. My comment about the ipad air 128gb option was a general statement about the hardware/functionality that you get for the price.

 

[unrigestered]

you could have bought 2 iPads for the price of one iPad Air, at least here in Europe.
Not sure if you think the Air is actually twice as good.
i certainly don't. Even the Pro isn't, other than in some fringe cases

 

[SubRages]

If that works for you. Then great! 👍

 

[Technerd108]

What will you use your iPad for?

Are you a digital artist? Do you do photo/video editing and want to use the iPad for that?

Are you going to use your iPad as a laptop replacement?

Or are you going to use your iPad as something to consume content and general use like web browsing, checking emails, some document creation and editing?

If you are in the first or second sentence then the iPad Pro would be best. Size is also depending on how heavy a tablet you are willing to use and if mini led is important to you.

If you are in the last category then the iPad air is by far the best choice. Compared to the iPad 10gen you are getting a much better fully laminated display, Apple pencil 2 support, M1 with 8gb ram vs a14 with 4gn ram. The cost difference is around $100 depending on sales and retail price.

If you just want a basic iPad to watch videos and don't care about much else then the 9th gen is probably your best value at around $279 at various retailers.

 

[darngooddesign]

Like adult diapers it depends.

Answer these questions:
What is your budget?
What do you want to do with it?
How important is portability?
How important is drawing?
How important is screen quality?
How important are the speaks (vs using BT speakers)?
Do you want to store a lot of apps, music, photos, or videos on it, or are you ok with using the cloud for that?
Will you connect it to an external display?

 

[kristalsoldier]

can you please suggest me that which iPad is the best ?

The iPad that you currently have or can currently afford is always going to be the best.

 

[Systemlord]

The iPad Pros are technically the best iPads that Apple sells.

There’s two iPad Pros and only one has an HDR screen. Hail to the King baby.

 

[darngooddesign]

There’s two iPad Pros and only one has an HDR screen. Hail to the King baby.

Sure, but the 13” is larger and heavier so its not objectively better than the 11”.

 

[QCassidy352]

Meh. I regularly switch between Mini 6, Air 4 and Pro 11. Don't miss ProMotion or quad speakers at all.

Now the M1/8GB, I'm definitely missing particularly now that I've been playing some mobile games (which can sometimes get stuttery on the Mini 6).

I have a Pro M1, and my wife has an A14 Air. Totally agree - hardly see a difference.

 

[Systemlord]

Sure, but the 13” is larger and heavier so its not objectively better than the 11”.

Weight shouldn’t factor into equation unless you’re frail and weak. The HDR screen is better than the 11” iPad Pro.

 

[KPOM]

The 64GB iPad Air has the best “bang for the buck” if 64GB is enough for you (with iCloud at $2.99 for 200GB, it’s enough for me). You get a good mix of “pro“ features (e.g. M1, full Stage Manager support including external displays, compatibility with the “pro” keyboards) at a nice price.