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iPad iPad Vs iPad Air

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beardedpt

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 20, 2019
2
1
United Kingdom
Hello all,

I am considering buying an iPad or an iPad Air. Is the iPad Air worth the extra money?

It will be mainly be used in my clinical practice to write notes, look things up, read papers and books and send emails.
If any of you are from the UK and work in the NHS you will know how slow the computer systems run. So, ideally, I can just whip the iPad out and get on with my work.

Thoughts?
 
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Would use the price difference to buy the pencil and a good keyboard (one that can store the Apple Pencil). The main drawback is it will only probably get 2-3 years support possibly and it is not as powerful. But for your usage it is sufficient. I would however, see if the NHS portal or whatever software you need is available on IOS and secondly if it is usable before committing.
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Or I would personally recommend the iPad mini 5. Abit more expensive but will last longer and is easier to carry around.
 
beardedpt said:
Hello all,

I am considering buying an iPad or an iPad Air. Is the iPad Air worth the extra money?

It will be mainly be used in my clinical practice to write notes, look things up, read papers and books and send emails.
If any of you are from the UK and work in the NHS you will know how slow the computer systems run. So, ideally, I can just whip the iPad out and get on with my work.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Do you care about the screen quality by any chance?
 
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beardedpt said:
Hello all,

I am considering buying an iPad or an iPad Air. Is the iPad Air worth the extra money?

It will be mainly be used in my clinical practice to write notes, look things up, read papers and books and send emails.
If any of you are from the UK and work in the NHS you will know how slow the computer systems run. So, ideally, I can just whip the iPad out and get on with my work.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

For this kind of usage I think that the regular iPad would be just fine.
 
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At the same time, for that extra £150 you're getting a screen with much nicer colour reproduction, TrueTone to compensate for the ultra yellow-ish or blue-ish or whatever tone in some of the dingey hospital rooms you'll be working in to make it easier on your eyes, anti-reflective coating so that the reflection of the lights above you are less noticeable and irritating. Also 64GB storage for more apps and locally stored files such as PDFs and all sorts of note taking apps with scans, downloads and photos you might find handy to keep downloaded for areas with no WiFi or poor connection.
 
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Thanks for all the replies.

You have all summed up my dilema perfectly. When you factor in the 128GB iPad & the 64GB iPad Air there isn't too much of a price difference. So I may go for the better screen with TrueTone as the light can be terrible. On the otherhand, my mum has an iPad and it is fine.

I carry a XS Max in my pocket but I fancy more real estate and people can get abit fussy about getting a "phone out" anywhere near a clinical area. Also, the fact you can write actual notes would of been handy at the conference I was at on the weekend.

I am also half tempted to wait for the new iPad Pro to be launched but honestly that's too good for work?!
 
beardedpt said:
Thanks for all the replies.

You have all summed up my dilema perfectly. When you factor in the 128GB iPad & the 64GB iPad Air there isn't too much of a price difference. So I may go for the better screen with TrueTone as the light can be terrible. On the otherhand, my mum has an iPad and it is fine.

I carry a XS Max in my pocket but I fancy more real estate and people can get abit fussy about getting a "phone out" anywhere near a clinical area. Also, the fact you can write actual notes would of been handy at the conference I was at on the weekend.

I am also half tempted to wait for the new iPad Pro to be launched but honestly that's too good for work?!
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, what did you end up getting?
 
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OP, seems like the 7th gen iPad is a good fit for you. Walmart has a great Black Friday deal for it. $249.
 
The iPad 7 is all you need. I honestly don’t think the Air 3 is worth the premium. But the Pro Gen 2 and up are definitely worth the premium.
 
beardedpt said:
Hello all,

I am considering buying an iPad or an iPad Air. Is the iPad Air worth the extra money?

It will be mainly be used in my clinical practice to write notes, look things up, read papers and books and send emails.
If any of you are from the UK and work in the NHS you will know how slow the computer systems run. So, ideally, I can just whip the iPad out and get on with my work.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Very good! Need a USBC PoE Splitter to feed your computers, IPads, Macbook, Google Wifi? It can charge a smart phone in 15 minutes. USB-C can only transmit power less than 3m, but use the USBC splitter via Ethernet cable can transmit power and data 100m. Please contact me at susie@procetpoe.com
 
I have both*, and I vote for an Air. OP, Apple will price match up to 10%, just bring the ad in and be nice.

The Air responded faster, a bit less lag with the pencil and it's lighter too. Plus the screen is slightly bigger. Shop around, you may find great deals this Fri-Mon.

*Trading in 2018 iPad soon, and gave mom the Air 3 to replace the 2018. I briefly owned a 2019 iPad and returned it.
 
If you are ok with 32GB of storage, then there are some incredible deals on the base iPad ($250). For some reason, you rarely see deep discounts on the Air. So, you may be looking at a substantial price difference when you consider the sale prices.
 
Mainsail said:
If you are ok with 32GB of storage, then there are some incredible deals on the base iPad ($250). For some reason, you rarely see deep discounts on the Air. So, you may be looking at a substantial price difference when you consider the sale prices.
Click to expand...
We already saw the Air on early Black Friday pricing at $100 off for My Best Buy members (price matched by Amazon) a couple weeks back.

Sales on regular iPad just went live earlier but we're expecting the ff:

$249 iPad 10.2" 32GB Wi-Fi
$329 iPad 10.2" 128GB Wi-Fi

$399 iPad Air 3 10.5" 64GB Wi-Fi
$549 iPad Air 3 10.5" 256GB Wi-Fi

If 64GB is sufficient space, I'd be inclined to go for the Air 3.
 
rui no onna said:
We already saw the Air on early Black Friday pricing at $100 off for My Best Buy members (price matched by Amazon) a couple weeks back.

Sales on regular iPad just went live earlier but we're expecting the ff:

$249 iPad 10.2" 32GB Wi-Fi
$329 iPad 10.2" 128GB Wi-Fi

$399 iPad Air 3 10.5" 64GB Wi-Fi
$549 iPad Air 3 10.5" 256GB Wi-Fi

If 64GB is sufficient space, I'd be inclined to go for the Air 3.
Click to expand...

Based on the sale prices you found and the need for 64 GB storage, I would agree the Air 3 is a better value.
 
I’ve been leaning more towards the air 3 for my kids mainly for the extra processing power for their games and screen real estate for school work as well.

The biggest worry for me was 32gb I don’t think would be enough but 64gb I’ve always gotten by just fine. To me seemed to be a no brainer to just pay the $100 extra to get the air 3 over a 128gb base model. Sure a bit less storage but considering they will actually push the processor for their usage, that makes it worth it more.
 
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