iPad Air iPad Air now or wait? (from an eye-strain perspective)

[Vinxi]

Hi everybody,

need your help. Right now I have a 2018 iPad that I want to upgrade. I'm really interested in reducing eye strain, and I read that laminated display, true tone, automatic brightness, antiglare coating, p3 color all help in that way.

Since the iPad 9 doesn't have all of that, but the Pro is overkill and pricey for me, do you recommend the 2020 Air? Should I wait October to see if it gets updated?

Thanks

 

[Shirasaki]

You have an iPad and it should do just fine mostly right? Then wait a month and see how it goes. Doubt anything much will change (mostly just for Mac) but patience may award those who choose to wait.

 

[Vinxi]

Then wait a month and see how it goes.

And the next question is, if nothing will change, is the 2020 Air a good value for the money?

On Amazon the Air is now 569€, 100€ less then Apple price. The Pro is 882€, it's 313€ of difference, not a little one.

 

[0128672]

I love my iPad Air 4 (and use it with the Logitech Combo Touch case) typically for 6+ hours/day with no eye strain. I keep Accessibility > Reduce White Point enabled and Night Shift in the center setting enabled most of the time.

 

[MhaelK]

I belive the new iPad 9gen has both True Tone and Automatic Brightness? Besides eye strain from your 2018 iPad is most likely caused by limitations of the IPS technology, which will also be found in the iPad Air. So maybe hope for the rumored 2022 iPad Air with an OLED screen which IMO is a much more pleasing for the eyes technology.

 

[Shirasaki]

And the next question is, if nothing will change, is the 2020 Air a good value for the money?

On Amazon the Air is now 569€, 100€ less then Apple price. The Pro is 882€, it's 313€ of difference, not a little one.

If nothing changes, I don’t see any issue going for iPad Air 4. It is still pretty powerful and modern design means they will easily outlast iPad in terms of design, and Apple Pencil 2nd gen is miles better than 1st gen Apple Pencil imo.

 

[one more]

I use iPad Air 4 moderately, 1-2 hours a day at the most and quite like its screen, which is adequate. However, its blacks are not as deep when we compare it with other iPads, obviously the Pro, but even the iPad Air 2. What I found most helpful for the eyes is reducing the brightness and the white point. The best thing for me is its TouchID, which works very well.

I doubt that iPad Air 4 will be updated in any significant way this year (possibly the minimum storage increase and perhaps a slight RAM increase). The next big rumoured thing for iPad Air is an OLED screen, but doing it now will effectively sink iPad Pro 11” sales, IMO. So if you could hold for a month just to be sure, I would personally wait. If you need a new iPad urgently or the current Air 4 specs sound good to you, you should be fine, as it should serve you well for the next 2-4 years, depending on how you use it.

 

[Username-already-in-use]

I think the Air 4 is a good device for the money. In terms of waiting, you can always wait, but to wait for what? There’s always going to be something newer or better down the road.

 

[rui no onna]

I got the Air 4 on sale.

OLED/PWM gives me migraines so if they upgrade the Air 5 to OLED, that's a no go for me.

 

[Prince Akeem]

Besides eye strain from your 2018 iPad is most likely caused by limitations of the IPS technology, which will also be found in the iPad Air. So maybe hope for the rumored 2022 iPad Air with an OLED screen which IMO is a much more pleasing for the eyes technology.

Please no, LCD/IPS is much, much better on the eyes than OLED. Full OLED screen devices from Apple have a relatively cheap controller that uses a low flicker-frequency (PWM) when the screen is dimmed.

This means that (unless you have a 100% black background), if you are sensitive you can actually see the screen flickering. LCD doesn't have this problem. Although they still use LEDs for background on LCD screens, they use a higher flicker frequency, or DC-dimming instead of PWM. Some OLED screen phone manufacturers also solve the OLED problem by using a higher OLED PWM flicker frequency or DC dimming, but as of today unfortunately Apple uses a pretty low PWM frequency on the iPhones. It took me some weeks to adjust my eyes to the iPhone 12. I don't have headaches anymore, but still some eye strain when using the device with a dimmed screen in dark lit rooms.

 

[MhaelK]

Please no, LCD/IPS is much, much better on the eyes than OLED. Full OLED screen devices from Apple have a relatively cheap controller that uses a low flicker-frequency (PWM) when the screen is dimmed.

This means that (unless you have a 100% black background), if you are sensitive you can actually see the screen flickering. LCD doesn't have this problem. Although they still use LEDs for background on LCD screens, they use a higher flicker frequency. Some OLED screen manufacturers solve the OLED problem by using a higher OLED PWM flicker frequency, but as of today unfortunately Apple uses a pretty low PWM frequency on the iPhones. It took me some weeks to adjust my eyes to the iPhone 12. I don't have headaches anymore, but still some eye strain when using the device with a dimmed screen in dark lit rooms.

Your keywords “if you are sensitive”, which I would argue most people are not.

Also, OP is having issues with his current iPad with IPS Technology (not Oled). This could be (most likely I Said) due to the IPS Technology of admitting light in a uniformen Way across the screen, which is known to irritate the eyes over time. Even if Apple iPad IPS display are among the best, using them for reading or in Dark mode is just not ideal. Here OLED or the Mini-LED Technology of the iPad Pro 12.9 is vastly superior. And since an OLED iPad Air is rumored for 2022, it could make sense for OP to wait for a Technology which might be better suited his/her needs.

 

[Prince Akeem]

Your keywords “if you are sensitive”, which I would argue most people are not.

Also, OP is having issues with his current iPad with IPS Technology (not Oled). This could be (most likely I Said) due to the IPS Technology of admitting light in a uniformen Way across the screen, which is known to irritate the eyes over time. Even if Apple iPad IPS display are among the best, using them for reading or in Dark mode is just not ideal. Here OLED or the Mini-LED Technology of the iPad Pro 12.9 is vastly superior. And since an OLED iPad Air is rumored for 2022, it could make sense for OP to wait for a Technology which might be better suited his/her needs.

Although I agree that other people are not affected by it, it's a bigger problem than most consider. Yes, it could be a minority, but I don't think it's a very small minority:

Will iPhone 13 Trigger Headaches and Nausea?

Apple introduces another generation of OLED-only phones, potentially shutting out the flicker-sensitive

spectrum.ieee.org

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/this-is-why-i-will-not-buy-iphone-12-oled-pwm.2260031/page-25 (600+ posts)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/eye-strain-while-using-iphone-x.2085427/page-151 (3700+ posts)

And also I agree that OLED screens are very nice (actually better) screens than IPS in terms of display quality, including the black being truly black/dark. But let's hope Apple includes DC-dimming mode (or higher PWM freq) to the next gen OLED devices. It's not a factor if they will do it, but when.

 

[sam2428]

I’m in a similar situation. Rocking a 10.5” iPad Pro that i bought several years ago. It still works great for my needs but the battery life is not what it used to be and I recently decided its probably time for an upgrade. I really dont need an iPad Pro because the most intensive things i do is some light photo editing. I think the Gen 4 Air will be more than sufficient for me. However, I am choosing to wait until Black Friday sales which are only about 6 or weeks ago. Black Friday sales usually start around the first week of November....so that is the only reason I am waiting. Otherwise I would probably pull the trigger.

 

[nburwell]

I got the Air 4 on sale as well. Though I only upgraded from the Air 3, the 4 will at least serve my needs for the next several years. I had the 11" Pro at one point, but it was overkill for my uses.

 

[snipr125]

I got the Air 4 on sale.

OLED/PWM gives me migraines so if they upgrade the Air 5 to OLED, that's a no go for me.

Rui no onna, i remember that you brought the 12 Mini, and were having PWM issues with its OLED screen. Did it get any better, or did you have to return it?

 

[rui no onna]

Rui no onna, i remember that you brought the 12 Mini, and were having PWM issues with its OLED screen. Did it get any better, or did you have to return it?

As long as I don't look at it more than 15 minutes, it's tolerable. Although really, it's a glorified, overpriced 5G hotspot at the moment.

 

[Vinxi]

Thank you to everybody.

As I said the iPad Air 4 is in a good discount right now on Amazon, 100€ less then Apple price.
But October is really near, so I decided to wait and see, hoping for some news.

As for today there are no rumors howerver and the BuyersGuide says that it is in a "Neutral" position, 340 days while the average is 635, so 2 years.

 

[Crow_Servo]

Thank you to everybody.

As I said the iPad Air 4 is in a good discount right now on Amazon, 100€ less then Apple price.
But October is really near, so I decided to wait and see, hoping for some news.

As for today there are no rumors howerver and the BuyersGuide says that it is in a "Neutral" position, 340 days while the average is 635, so 2 years.

Yeah, I don't anticipate any more iPad announcements this year. It would be very weird of Apple to separate the iPad announcements into two events a month apart. I'm pretty sure that would be unprecedented.

 

[Vinxi]

I'm pretty sure that would be unprecedented.

In 2020 Apple announced the new iPad on September and the new Air on October.

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPad-Air
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPad

But the problem is that while the iPad is set to a "one year cycle", the Air average is two.

 

[Crow_Servo]

In 2020 Apple announced the new iPad on September and the new Air on October.

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPad-Air
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPad

But the problem is that while the iPad is set to a "one year cycle", the Air average is two.

Not true. They announced both iPads at the September event in 2020. They just released the regular iPad in September and the Air in October.

My point is that they were not announced at separate events. If you don’t believe me, you can watch last year’s September event to see the announcement of both the 8th gen iPad and 4th gen Air.

It’s similar to them announcing the 9th gen iPad and 6th gen iPad Mini at the same event, only this time they are both being released together too, not just announced together.

But yes, the Air does seem to be on a longer cycle than before. Of course, the Air 1 and 2 were about a year apart, but those were so long ago, I consider the Air 3 and 4 to be some sort of resurrection of the Air branding. Wish we knew Apple’s roadmap a little more clearly.

 

[kerr]

Personally, I doubt the Air will get an update next month. October will be Macbooks and AirPods.

I think Apple might update the Air in Sep' 2022 then update the mini in Sep' 2023.

 

[Crow_Servo]

Personally, I doubt the Air will get an update next month. October will be Macbooks and AirPods.

I think Apple might update the Air in Sep' 2022 then update the mini in Sep' 2023.

I like that idea. I think it would be a good idea for them to adopt that release cycle. It would be really clear and easy to follow. A16 in the fall on the Air 5. A17 in the fall on the Mini 7.

But it's Apple, so they like to play around with release cycles, unless it's the iPhone/Apple Watch. The regular iPad seems to have settled into an annual fall refresh groove too, though.

Either way, I always have fun following the new iPad releases.