Edit: This entire review needs a future update after now being on my 3rd iPad Air 4
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iPad Air iPad Air 4 review - To be continued
- Thread starter Gandek
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When and if it blows up maybe ?How often will you provide us with updates? Very good review!
I will be getting a Smart Keyboard for it soon. I want to turn this into more of a laptop as In the past I just kept the 10.5 stock. Apple Pencil isn’t out of the question either though I’d only see myself using it for adjusting filters in photo editing atm.
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Great review; currently on my 10.5 iPad Pro, which has become my main computer over the past few years. Household budgeting and note taking with Smart Keyboard, ebook reader, photo browser etc. Been toying with an upgrade for a few months, especially given the awesome performance of my iPhone 12 Pro.
I’m hoping tomorrrows Apple event might bring an A14 based Pro, as right at this moment I’m torn between the current A12Z pro with pro motion & quad speakers vs the slightly lesser but much cheaper A14 Air.
Appreciate your posting your experience of the new Air vs the 10.5; definitely food for thought ahead of tomorrow’s event and will likely play into my upgrade path decision.
I’m hoping tomorrrows Apple event might bring an A14 based Pro, as right at this moment I’m torn between the current A12Z pro with pro motion & quad speakers vs the slightly lesser but much cheaper A14 Air.
Appreciate your posting your experience of the new Air vs the 10.5; definitely food for thought ahead of tomorrow’s event and will likely play into my upgrade path decision.
Yeah the A14 would be faster for any basic tasks like opening apps than the A12Z that one would pull ahead in video workloads and rendering especially. In my use case since I don't do those things too often the A14 is great for my use. A14X is wayy overdue and should be a nice upgrade for years to come, if that starting 11" remains at $799 with 128GB of storage its going to be tough not just recommending to go up to that from a Air 4 tbh. I don't want to be "that guy" to return my Air yet again after the announcement I already made up my mind to save the $200 so I'm sticking with this.
What's your 10.5s battery health btw? Mine was at 85% which all things considered doesn't sound too bad after the years, but it was starting to become a little tough using it as a iPad when I had to charge it so often. Ended up using my iPhone more in the house. P.S. If you decide to replace the battery via Apple they will just give you a new refurbished one from what I heard - I wish I had done that pre-pandemic because now here in Chicago its tough to do it all in store and get it exchanged like that.
Here is what my screen looks like... wondering if I won the notorious “screen lottery” my 10.5 has a really noticeable purple hue to the screen as you can probably tell + the usual white spot. The air 4 looks great and normal. Didn’t turn off true-tone but these were taken in complete darkness on a white screen with both low and max brightness so I don’t think it matters.
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More updates on display... turned on some Ted Lasso in the dark and there I noticed the unfortunate LCD bleed. Looks like I didn’t win the display lottery afterall... this is only really visible in 40% to 100% max brightness on a dark screen (or watching anything with black bars) I have attached a photo and video. Not sure why the photo turned out looking so white taken on my iPhone it’s not like that but you can still see the light bleed on both sides.
I have heard people on this forum complain about the bleed usually in the same spot on the right, but I do also have a bit on the left side as you can see. I could honestly live with this, but I’m worried it might get worse over time. Already had to deal with the 10.5 infamous white spot and now this... If it gets any worse I will keep updating.
I have heard people on this forum complain about the bleed usually in the same spot on the right, but I do also have a bit on the left side as you can see. I could honestly live with this, but I’m worried it might get worse over time. Already had to deal with the 10.5 infamous white spot and now this... If it gets any worse I will keep updating.
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I just received mine yesterday, unfortunately i have the exact same bleeding effect as everyone. When I looked up my serial number it showed that the production date for my iPad was 29.03.2021, clearly the issue hasn’t been fixed.
The more unfortunate part for me is that I live in country where theres no Apple store, we have what they call authorized service provider, what this translates to is a pain to try to get a replace even under warranty.
Otherwize is a fantastic product.
The more unfortunate part for me is that I live in country where theres no Apple store, we have what they call authorized service provider, what this translates to is a pain to try to get a replace even under warranty.
Otherwize is a fantastic product.
IMHO, iPad Air 4 screen is its weakest point.
It is not bad, yet compared to Pro it is more “dull” with lighter blacks.
Then we have the infamous light bleeding as a “feature”, most likely caused by the ribbon display cable running around that area. I am “lucky”, as I cannot see the bleeding under normal circumstances, only when I have a pure black background with the brightness turned high up = never. ?
Honestly, iPad Air 2 screen looks better to me, as it is less “yellow” (True Tone aside) and the black colour is deeper. My Air 2 is 6 years old now and I still cannot see anything wrong with its screen, testing it the same way as Air 4.
I personally use my iPad sparingly, for about 30% of the time, compared to 70% spent with an iPhone and its gorgeous OLED screen, so Air 4 screen is “ok” for me. However, had I been spending more time with it, I would look elsewhere.
It is not bad, yet compared to Pro it is more “dull” with lighter blacks.
Then we have the infamous light bleeding as a “feature”, most likely caused by the ribbon display cable running around that area. I am “lucky”, as I cannot see the bleeding under normal circumstances, only when I have a pure black background with the brightness turned high up = never. ?
Honestly, iPad Air 2 screen looks better to me, as it is less “yellow” (True Tone aside) and the black colour is deeper. My Air 2 is 6 years old now and I still cannot see anything wrong with its screen, testing it the same way as Air 4.
I personally use my iPad sparingly, for about 30% of the time, compared to 70% spent with an iPhone and its gorgeous OLED screen, so Air 4 screen is “ok” for me. However, had I been spending more time with it, I would look elsewhere.
Luckily the same applies to me. The only way I can see it, it is when I have the brightness up to 90 - 100% in a dark environment. To have the brightness all the way up is something that never happens to me.
Yes, it is indeed very subtle. Ironically, I was also able to test my iPad Air 4 in the shop just after I bought it, looking at it all over and booting it up. Could not see anything wrong with the screen under their bright lighting. To spot it, we really need to go into a rather dark space, open a black image and turn the brightness all the way up. How often does this happen? ? Basically, it is barely noticeable if we do not actively look for it.
This is not to justify Apple getting slack with their screen quality, of course.
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A little quirk that I found to really minimise the backlight bleeding. At night when you watch something and for some reason you want to crank up the brightness, turn on night shift. Because of the yellowish tint that night shift creates helps overshadowing that bleeding.