If you were to buy an iPad comparing all the features across all models etc which would you say offered the best bang for the buck?
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All iPads Best value iPad?
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In my opinion, the iPad 9th gen. Does almost everything at a fraction of the price. This is extremely subjective, however.
This ^ as it gives you the best bang for the bucks spent. The 10th is crazy expensive.
Probably iPad Air M1.
It has the CPU performance and 8GB RAM to last a long time. It has a laminated display for great compatibility with Pencil 2. If you're a serious artist, then you'll want ProMotion on iPad Pro. But for most users, iPad Air is a good balance.
It has the CPU performance and 8GB RAM to last a long time. It has a laminated display for great compatibility with Pencil 2. If you're a serious artist, then you'll want ProMotion on iPad Pro. But for most users, iPad Air is a good balance.
The 9th gen or Air 5.
The 9th gen because it can pretty run everything that more expensive iPads can.
The Air 5 for the longevity M1+8GB RAM provides at a fairly reasonable price point.
The 9th gen because it can pretty run everything that more expensive iPads can.
The Air 5 for the longevity M1+8GB RAM provides at a fairly reasonable price point.
I have the 9th gen £319 ipad at home and to be fair can do the same as what my ipad pro 12.9 £1k does. Granted smaller display and no pro motion and mini LED but it gets by. the 10.2 9th gen still will do alot of things people use their ipads for.
Having an iPad Mini 6 myself (plus an iPad Pro), I would disagree, I think the Mini 6 is poor bang for the buck. The reason to get the Mini 6 is if you want or need an iPad that is as small as possible, otherwise other iPads are better value, IMO. Buy it because it is small, not because it is good value.
I ended up getting the iPad mini. I have the iPhone 13 mini and I love it but I do also enjoy the slightly larger portable screen, rather than a full on Mac, to consume media. I previously had an iPad Pro and I did really enjoy it. That said, I’m loving the iPad mini 6. I thought I would notice the screen resolution but it’s an extremely good tablet and the resolution isn’t even a problem or a notice. I would hope that maybe the next upgrade would be a better screen and the M1 chip for the iPad mini but I’ll take this one right now.
Best Buy had it on sale for $100 off (plus 12 months interest free on a new credit card lol) and the Smart Folio was like $10 off on Amazon so it felt like a decent deal altogether. Has potential for good resell value so if another one comes out I’ll just sell this and buy the new one later on in the year.
A good choice and complements the iPhone Mini really well.
Your eyes however must be better than mine because I still can't see the pixels on an iPhone 4 screen.
IPad mini is awesome, but not what I’d call “Best value” for the $$$ spent. I have one too and love it - but it just happens to suit my personal requirements best, not necessarily the best value.
+1. Now if the iPad mini had 6-8GB RAM (even with the same A15 chipset), the value proposition changes.
Is the iPad Mini not meant more as a note taking and sketching device rather than anything that would require that much RAM?
I found 4GB RAM plenty up to iOS 12 but memory management got much worse on iPadOS 13+.
I have an iPad mini 6 and I get tons of reloads with it. App crashes, too, when it's running out of RAM (happens fairly frequently with one of the games I play). Typical tasks like tabbed web browsing use a lot of RAM.
The A15 is just as fast as the M2 core-for-core, clock-for-clock. The only downside on the mini 6 for me is its low RAM. I definitely plan on upgrading as soon as Apple releases a new mini with more RAM.
I just bought a 64GB 9th Generation (2021) iPad for $250. Older design for sure, no face id, no laminated screen, but you get an A13 Bionic that will receive updated for like ever, and again, all for $250. Has to be the value iPad ever at this price point.
The iPad with the best value is the iPad 9. I have one and it does just about anything the other ipad can and it’s a much lower price.
Owning 12.9 M1 iPad Pro I can easily say that if I had to do it over then my choice would be 9th gen base iPad or M1 iPad Air base.
Yes, miniLED 12.9 screen is great to consume media on, but, aside from that and few apps that will run just as good on smaller screened and lesser specced iPad(I mentioned apps factor just to let people know that otherwise I might have gotten Galaxy S series tablet instead), I dont see myself spending close to 1500$ on an iPad again, given how poor the iPadOS in combination with Stage Manager is due to lack of full fledged apps and the way Stage Manager has been implemented. Just waste of money, to be honest, I can certainly get by with smaller and cheaper iPad, and now I know it, iPadOS just didnt become what I had hoped it will be in years time.
Yes, miniLED 12.9 screen is great to consume media on, but, aside from that and few apps that will run just as good on smaller screened and lesser specced iPad(I mentioned apps factor just to let people know that otherwise I might have gotten Galaxy S series tablet instead), I dont see myself spending close to 1500$ on an iPad again, given how poor the iPadOS in combination with Stage Manager is due to lack of full fledged apps and the way Stage Manager has been implemented. Just waste of money, to be honest, I can certainly get by with smaller and cheaper iPad, and now I know it, iPadOS just didnt become what I had hoped it will be in years time.
Great buy!
speaking of performance… I have a 10th gen that I got on sale, with of course the a14 chip. I also picked up an Air 5th gen with the M1 chip for $100 more, and am seeing which I like better and will return one of them.
I am pretty surprised at the fact that performance between the two on the things I use is identical! Opening apps, identical speed- including beefy apps like DaVinci Resolve.
I created a slideshow movie in iMovie on each with music- same exact speed exporting the video.
saving edits to a photo in Affinity Photo- same exact speed as well.
it’s amazing what the lower spec iPads can do! I know differences will be apparent if doing heavy gaming (which I don’t do), and heavier video editing such as 4k video and multiple layers in daVinci Resolve- but that is getting more into pro territory, something I wouldn’t be doing.
the screens look the same as far as colors and clarity- but I do notice the slight hollow sound when tapping due to the air gap in the display… and the speakers on the air sound ever so slightly better.