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JPack

macrumors G5
Mar 27, 2017
13,543
26,166
Whether it’s the 10 or the Air I seriously doubt you’ll see that kind of price in Canada.

Apple Store Canada sells iPad (10th gen) for the equivalent of US$409 for edu customers (which basically everyone qualifies for).
 

jm31828

macrumors 65816
Sep 28, 2015
1,394
896
Bothell, Washington
unless you mind lightning I'd go for the iPad 9th . Rounded edges are super nice to hold btw

The reason I wouldn't want to go to the 9th gen iPad is the even older/slower chip (A12) and 3 GB RAM- that to me is a nonstarter when I am already concerned 4GB is maybe not going to be enough. And, I can get the 10th gen now for $389, if I do go that route- not a bad price.
 
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rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
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The reason I wouldn't want to go to the 9th gen iPad is the even older/slower chip (A12) and 3 GB RAM- that to me is a nonstarter when I am already concerned 4GB is maybe not going to be enough. And, I can get the 10th gen now for $389, if I do go that route- not a bad price.

It has A13 which isn’t really much slower than A14. Even A12 performs very well.

Frankly, with iPadOS 15 and 16, it feels like there’s not much difference between 3GB and 4GB. They both reload a lot.
 

Love-hate 🍏 relationship

macrumors 68040
Sep 19, 2021
3,057
3,235
The reason I wouldn't want to go to the 9th gen iPad is the even older/slower chip (A12) and 3 GB RAM- that to me is a nonstarter when I am already concerned 4GB is maybe not going to be enough. And, I can get the 10th gen now for $389, if I do go that route- not a bad price.
9th gen is a13 . and i assure you it is extremely fast . ah right it has 3gb..shame that . **** apple eh ?

i think you should try the 9th but you do you. i mean you should try and see. 4gb is a lot , and for what you (we) do even 3gb would be more than enough . but yeah i hear you still . no that ain't a bad price.
 
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jm31828

macrumors 65816
Sep 28, 2015
1,394
896
Bothell, Washington
9th gen is a13 . and i assure you it is extremely fast . ah right it has 3gb..shame that . **** apple eh ?

i think you should try the 9th but you do you. i mean you should try and see. 4gb is a lot , and for what you (we) do even 3gb would be more than enough . but yeah i hear you still . no that ain't a bad price.
Ah, sorry I was off base on which chip is in the 9th gen.
Thank you for that clarification!

Interestingly, I see others in other discussions mentioning that 4GB is not enough even for basic usage as iPAD OS gets more bulky and uses a lot of RAM on its own, so I was also considering spending $499 and getting the Air 5, to have the M1 and the 8GB RAM.... but I suspect for what I would be doing with it, that is severe overkill- and I wouldn't notice any performance boost since I don't play games or do anything heavy with the device (as noted, editing single photos in Pixelmator or possibly Lightroom would be the most work I put it through).

In the store as I compared the 10th gen and the Air 5 side by side a few days ago, they had Pixelmator installed and I compared them side by side, same function at the exact same time on the same picture- and they were identical except for when using the "Machine Learning" option for automatic photo enhancement- it takes just a second or so longer to complete that task on the 10th gen than it does on the Air.

But as noted, everything else was identical speed-wise.

Not sure if that would ever really change even a couple of years down the road? The extra RAM wouldn't be necessary unless I actually got into using other apps that do more powerful things that actually need the RAM?
I know there are some features that are already being limited to only the M1 iPads (such as Stage Manager for multitasking), but that doesn't matter as I wouldn't need to do any real multitasking.... but it does make me wonder what else is coming for the M1 iPads that may leave those of us on the the non-M1 iPads feeling left out.

Sorry for all the rambling- this is great conversation, and it is interesting to hear how good the regular iPads are, when the more techie people in reviews and other forums are really, really crapping on these and mentioning the need to spend more for an Air or Pro if at all possible, regardless of the use case.

I can understand that thought process when the 10th gen is $450, but at a sale price of $399 or $389 as I am finding it for now, it seems decent- and is a full $110 (25%) cheaper than the best sale price I found on the Air.
 
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FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,088
I'm not sure . You know better. I only looked at several tests, but didnt use one myself

Bro, 25h ? Are you for real? I'd like a screenshot, that's incredible battery life !! I've never heard anyone getting that much SOT.

I do think you'd get even more with the 9th gen still...which would crazy honestly. The 9th gen has a more efficient chip and a bigger battery lol

Could you please show screenshots and describe your use? I'd love to hear about it. 25h of sot is a dream of.mine

unless you mind lightning I'd go for the iPad 9th . Rounded edges are super nice to hold btw
I don’t have a screenshot, but I got 9h 100-63% and 8 hours 100-68%. My usage is light: low brightness, web browsing, some tv shows and content consumption, reading. Extrapolating, if it’s not 25 hours, it’s 22, around there. I can’t get more with any iPad, I think the M1’s efficiency for light tasks plays a part there.
 
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Warped9

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 27, 2018
1,723
2,415
Brockville, Ontario.
Watched a couple of video reviews that essentially echoed much said in this thread.

Takeaways…

The general slant here on MR is that many will almost reflexively defer to the iPad Air or even the iPad Pro primarily because they see the more expensive options as the only real choice with the features, hardware and specs they think need to be in a tablet. The lower cost options are for the mainstream, and don’t wanna be mainstream. And this is true with other hardware and not just iPads.

Forgive the cheekiness.

The iPad Air is unquestionably the better tablet in terms of features and specs. It’s going to do everything better…except maybe the 10’s landscape mode camera which I’m not likely to use anyway. The option to use Apple Pencil 2 and the better Apple Magic Keyboard are also superior…although I’m not likely to use any of those options either since I don’t need those for how I use my tablet.

On its own the 10th gen iPad is a good device and better than the 9 in most every respect…except in terms of value. I really just don’t see it as $170 CAN better than the 9. When Apple eventually discontinues the 9 they damn well better drop the price of the 10. But it is what it is presently and my ten percent staff discount and trade-in for my old iPad make it more palatable. I would probably be satisfied with the 10.

It needs to be said that even I thought myself a bit nuts for popping for my iPad Pro 10.5 five years ago. Did I really need this level of device for my needs? That said I have enjoyed using this Pro and don’t regret the purchase. But my needs haven’t really changed much in how I use a tablet. In that light maybe I should more seriously consider the iPad Pro 11, but that $1099 CAN feels even more lofty than the $899 my pro originally listed for in 2017. However, $899 in 2017 is equal to $1046 in 2022 so in that light the M2 Pro 11 isn’t out of whack.

I don’t know if I can convince myself this time to pop for the Pro. But I do find myself leaning toward the Air 5. The M1 isn’t going to be taxed by anything I’m liking to use my iPad for and it strikes me as a decent compromise from the Pro.

With the 10 I keeping thinking the features and specs should be better for its price or the 10 as is should be cheaper even though it would most likely do everything I need of it.

I’m leaning more toward the Air.
 
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rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,916
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On its own the 10th gen iPad is a good device and better than the 9 in most every respect…except in terms of value. I really just don’t see it as $170 CAN better than the 9. When Apple eventually discontinues the 9 they damn well better drop the price of the 10. But it is what it is presently and my ten percent staff discount and trade-in for my old iPad make it more palatable. I would probably be satisfied with the 10.

That’s really my gripe with the 10th gen. If one doesn’t mind the older design, the 10th gen isn’t much better than the 9th gen for the price.

For light use that I won’t mind replacing in 2-3 years, I’d rather opt for the less expensive 9th gen. For smoother operation, longevity and some extra frills, I’d rather go straight up to Air 5 rather than 10th gen.
 
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Warped9

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 27, 2018
1,723
2,415
Brockville, Ontario.
For smoother operation, longevity and some extra frills, I’d rather go straight up to Air 5 rather than 10th gen.
I think this is what it’s coming down to for me. I want a decent five years out of the device, like I’ve gotten with my Pro.

And to be clear my 10.5 isn’t anywhere near the end of it’s life. It works fine with the battery just starting to seemingly not hold its charge like before, but nothing really problematic.

There is also the aspect of wanting something new with some things I don’t presently have.
 
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Mainsail

macrumors 68020
Sep 19, 2010
2,430
3,235
Yep, I bought two base iPad 10s, one for my daughter and one for myself. I use my iPad purely as a tablet for:
  • Reading Books and PDFs
  • Browsing web, news, weather, and sports
  • Reviewing mail and messages
  • FaceTime/Zoom
  • Photos
  • Streaming Music, TV, Movies, and Video
When using productivity apps and multi-tasking, I prefer my MBA. I have tried numerous times to make my iPad a laptop and failed every time.....so, I just want a basic tablet for the things listed above. Also, the iPad is a nice mobile secondary screen using Universal Control.

I think the iPad 10 is a pretty good value at $399, on sale at BB. We should get 4 years of good service.....so, $100/year or ~$8/month or a small cup of coffee and pastry at Starbucks. Seems like a good deal to me.
 
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jm31828

macrumors 65816
Sep 28, 2015
1,394
896
Bothell, Washington
Watched a couple of video reviews that essentially echoed much said in this thread.

Takeaways…

The general slant here on MR is that many will almost reflexively defer to the iPad Air or even the iPad Pro primarily because they see the more expensive options as the only real choice with the features, hardware and specs they think need to be in a tablet. The lower cost options are for the mainstream, and don’t wanna be mainstream. And this is true with other hardware and not just iPads.

Forgive the cheekiness.

The iPad Air is unquestionably the better tablet in terms of features and specs. It’s going to do everything better…except maybe the 10’s landscape mode camera which I’m not likely to use anyway. The option to use Apple Pencil 2 and the better Apple Magic Keyboard are also superior…although I’m not likely to use any of those options either since I don’t need those for how I use my tablet.

On its own the 10th gen iPad is a good device and better than the 9 in most every respect…except in terms of value. I really just don’t see it as $170 CAN better than the 9. When Apple eventually discontinues the 9 they damn well better drop the price of the 10. But it is what it is presently and my ten percent staff discount and trade-in for my old iPad make it more palatable. I would probably be satisfied with the 10.

It needs to be said that even I thought myself a bit nuts for popping for my iPad Pro 10.5 five years ago. Did I really need this level of device for my needs? That said I have enjoyed using this Pro and don’t regret the purchase. But my needs haven’t really changed much in how I use a tablet. In that light maybe I should more seriously consider the iPad Pro 11, but that $1099 CAN feels even more lofty than the $899 my pro originally listed for in 2017. However, $899 in 2017 is equal to $1046 in 2022 so in that light the M2 Pro 11 isn’t out of whack.

I don’t know if I can convince myself this time to pop for the Pro. But I do find myself leaning toward the Air 5. The M1 isn’t going to be taxed by anything I’m liking to use my iPad for and it strikes me as a decent compromise from the Pro.

With the 10 I keeping thinking the features and specs should be better for its price or the 10 as is should be cheaper even though it would most likely do everything I need of it.

I’m leaning more toward the Air.

Probably a good call- the biggest factor may not just be the slightly faster M1 chip, but the 8gb Ram vs the 4gb in the 10.

I think if the 10 had 6gb I’d just go for it- but buying an iPad in late 2022 with 4gb ram seems like it will lead to regret not too far down the road as the OS and apps get more memory-hungry.
 
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DaPhox

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2019
292
442
Are you sure about this? Maybe with heavy use this is true, but my Air 5 is by far the best iOS device ever in terms of battery life. Web browsing, TV shows, reading, low brightness, and I get like 25 hours of screen-on time.

Neither the 9.7-inch iPad Pro nor the iPad 6th gen on their original iOS versions are anywhere close to that, both standing at about 14 hours (I tested the iPad 6th gen and I was shocked to see that it was similar to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro when it was on iOS 9 (it was pathetically forced to iOS 12 by Apple and battery life plummeted), but maybe I should test it again sometime, that said, every partial test I’ve run indicates it is at 16 hours at most, not a lot better), so if I had to guess, I doubt the iPad 9th gen gets anywhere near 25 hours. Maybe the M1 is too efficient for these tasks and you’re taking heavy use into account which presumably shatters battery life? Because like I said, even large-battery, efficient iPads on earlier - and more efficient - iOS versions aren’t anywhere near the Air 5.

For reference, I got 9 hours of screen-on time from 100% to 63%. Like I said, I doubt the 9th gen can be better than that.
9th gen beats pro/air easily. No doubt.
 

Warped9

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 27, 2018
1,723
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Brockville, Ontario.
Okay, then. I got lucky.

I decided on the Air and that I will sell my old 10.5 Pro on my own rather than the trade-in option.

Anyway when I went to purchase my new Air (a blue one) apparently I was unaware of a holiday incentive for staff purchase. So instead of getting 10 percent off ($80) I got 15 percent off ($120).

That definitely made it more palatable. (-:
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,088
Okay, then. I got lucky.

I decided on the Air and that I will sell my old 10.5 Pro on my own rather than the trade-in option.

Anyway when I went to purchase my new Air (a blue one) apparently I was unaware of a holiday incentive for staff purchase. So instead of getting 10 percent off ($80) I got 15 percent off ($120).

That definitely made it more palatable. (-:
Congratulations on the new iPad! Yeah, that looks a little bit more palatable in terms of selling the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Like I said, for that trade-in value I’d keep it. I don’t know how much you’d get, but it should be more than $50.
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,916
13,260
I think this is what it’s coming down to for me. I want a decent five years out of the device, like I’ve gotten with my Pro.

And to be clear my 10.5 isn’t anywhere near the end of it’s life. It works fine with the battery just starting to seemingly not hold its charge like before, but nothing really problematic.

There is also the aspect of wanting something new with some things I don’t presently have.

When iPadOS 13 was released and I started to do a bit more multitasking, that's when I felt the limitations of 4GB RAM. Doing batch operations with Gmail desktop website was cumbersome, too. The website would crash after a few batch operations. I had to restart my 2017 iPad Pro (12.9) sometimes 2-3x a day to properly clear up the RAM.

I gave the 2017 Pro to my mom when I upgraded to the 2021 Pro. She mostly uses it for Netflix and she's perfectly happy with it.

I think with M1+8GB/16GB RAM, iPad hardware is at the point where it would perform very well for more than 5 years. I might even end up keeping it for 8 years like I do with my Windows laptops.

At this junction, I just don't see what improvements Apple can make that would make me want to upgrade that can't be implemented via software (unless they artificially gate new software features to newer models).
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,088
I don’t have a screenshot, but I got 9h 100-63% and 8 hours 100-68%. My usage is light: low brightness, web browsing, some tv shows and content consumption, reading. Extrapolating, if it’s not 25 hours, it’s 22, around there. I can’t get more with any iPad, I think the M1’s efficiency for light tasks plays a part there.
@rui no onna you mentioned that you have the iPad 9th gen, and you also have an 11-inch iPad. Can you shed a little light on this? May I get your opinion? The Air 5’s efficiency gives me astonishing battery life, like I said, anywhere between 22-25 hours if extrapolated (I’ve never run a full test on the Air 5). By any chance, is it possible that I’d get even more from an iPad 9th gen? I haven’t been close even with an iPad 4 on iOS 6 (at 16 hours), and obviously not with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro (standing at 14 hours on iOS 9, you’ve mentioned it’s never been good in terms of battery life for you), neither have I been close with perhaps the most similar model: an iPad 6th gen on iOS 12. It also stands at about 14 hours.
 

Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,928
3,811
The 10th gen is on sale for $399 and the Air is on sale for $499. I would go with the Air for $100 more as you get double the RAM @ 8GB.
 
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rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
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@rui no onna you mentioned that you have the iPad 9th gen, and you also have an 11-inch iPad. Can you shed a little light on this? May I get your opinion? The Air 5’s efficiency gives me astonishing battery life, like I said, anywhere between 22-25 hours if extrapolated (I’ve never run a full test on the Air 5). By any chance, is it possible that I’d get even more from an iPad 9th gen? I haven’t been close even with an iPad 4 on iOS 6 (at 16 hours), and obviously not with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro (standing at 14 hours on iOS 9, you’ve mentioned it’s never been good in terms of battery life for you), neither have I been close with perhaps the most similar model: an iPad 6th gen on iOS 12. It also stands at about 14 hours.

I kinda bought the 9th gen on a whim (it was on sale) and only use it for iPadOS beta testing.

I've never really used it in a scenario where I could properly determine battery life as I find the 3GB RAM too annoying for my normal use. It definitely has the best standby time amongst all my iPads on iPadOS 15/16, though. Granted, it should be noted that my other iPads are wifi+cellular while the 9th gen is wifi-only.

Surprisingly, I get worse battery life on the Air 4 (A14/4GB) compared to the Pro 11 (M1/16GB) by maybe 1-2 hours.
 
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FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
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I kinda bought the 9th gen on a whim (it was on sale) and only use it for iPadOS beta testing.

I've never really used it in a scenario where I could properly determine battery life as I find the 3GB RAM too annoying for my normal use. It definitely has the best standby time amongst all my iPads on iPadOS 15/16, though. Granted, it should be noted that my other iPads are wifi+cellular while the 9th gen is wifi-only.

Surprisingly, I get worse battery life on the Air 4 (A14/4GB) compared to the Pro 11 (M1/16GB) by maybe 1-2 hours.
Thank you! I reckon the 5th Gen iPad Pro’s M1 might be a little more efficient. Maybe it matches what I found on my Air 5, although I’ve only used A9X and A10 iPads on iOS 9 and 12, nothing newer than that until the M1.
 

Warped9

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 27, 2018
1,723
2,415
Brockville, Ontario.
Love the wireless setup from iPad to iPad. When technology works as it should, and you have proper passwords and such, it’s magical. No fuss.

It’ll take getting used to no home button—I keep reaching for it.
 
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