All iPads So who else is getting their kids iPads for Christmas?

[parker5011]

My kids love their iPads (11, 8). My youngest daughter who is 3 uses an old iPhone 5 as a Netflix cartoon only iPod when we go on long trips. I’m thankful for technology and try to use it properly and in proper amounts. Some weeks are better than others. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[1BadManVan]

My kids love their iPads (11, 8). My youngest daughter who is 3 uses an old iPhone 5 as a Netflix cartoon only iPod when we go on long trips. I’m thankful for technology and try to use it properly and in proper amounts. Some weeks are better than others. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Haha, I hear you. Some days you “accidentally” forget to remind them their time is up so you can finish up your own personal time.

their ages are 6,7 and 11. The 11 year old will be the most excited since this will finally run fortnite lol.

 

[Johnny365]

Kids as in...my fur babies? Or Kids as in...myself? What are these other Kids you speak of?

 

[1BadManVan]

Kids as in...my fur babies? Or Kids as in...myself? What are these other Kids you speak of?

We also have guinea pigs lol

 

[Digitalguy]

I did mention that the kids hated the iPad 2 because it was too slow, but of course that's an extreme example. On the flip side, I don't think there will be any complaints about the A8X in the iPad Air 2 my kids have for next 3 years. Same goes for my wife. Even though she has an iPhone XR, she's fine using an iPad Air 2, and so the iPad 7th gen will actually be an upgrade for her.

IMO, in general, for non-content-creation and non-heavy-gaming type usage an iPad with a Geekbench 5 score over 1000 is acceptable, and any iPad with a Geekbench 5 score over 2000 is downright fast. Source: We have the A8X iPad Air 2 and A10X iPad Pro 10.5", as well as the A10 iPhone 7 Plus. The A10 in iPad 7th gen is 1400+, so better than adequate, even if not "downright fast".

View attachment 884221

So, given that the CPU performance of the iPad 7th gen ought to be fine for my wife for the next several years, my concept of future proofing came down to memory and keyboard support. I also had the option of a very cheap certified pre-owned iPad 6, but the 2 GB RAM and lack of Apple Smart Keyboard support didn't make it as future proof in my eyes, even though its CPU performance is exactly the same as the iPad 7. YMMV.

I tend to look more at single core benchmarks than at multicore... I have had at some point almost all the ipads listed and multicore is sometimes quite misleading... For instance the Air 2 and the pro first gen look very similar when they are miles away and the 1st gen pro is actually closer to the second gen pro than to the air 2. Same for ipad air 3 and pro 3rd gen. The A12X is far from feeling almost twice as fast, it actually feels almost exactly the same as the A12X. Sure you will see the difference in some tasks like rendering etc. but for most things people do on an ipad, starting from web browsing, single core is what matters and what makes the difference.

 

[EugW]

I tend to look more at single core benchmarks than at multicore... I have had at some point almost all the ipads listed and multicore is sometimes quite misleading... For instance the Air 2 and the pro first gen look very similar when they are miles away and the 1st gen pro is actually closer to the second gen pro than to the air 2. Same for ipad air 3 and pro 3rd gen. The A12X is far from feeling almost twice as fast, it actually feels almost exactly the same as the A12X.

Well, even A12 and A10X feel about the same to me, yet the single-core AND multi-core is significantly higher on A12 than A10X. Diminishing returns I guess.

I've tested the Air 3 10.5", Pro 10.5", and Pro 11" all side by side together at the same time and they all feel fast to me, with the Pro 11" just feeling a shade faster at times. That's why I said any multi-core score over about 2000 in Geekbench 5 is fast.

In contrast, iPad Pro 10.5 A10X does feel faster than iPad 6 A10 even in Safari, despite the fact that the single-core is very similar. The A10 is definitely decent, and in fact I just ordered an iPad 7 with A10 for my wife, but A10X is just better.

Sure you will see the difference in some tasks like rendering etc. but for most things people do on an ipad, starting from web browsing, single core is what matters and what makes the difference.

I'd say it is somewhere in between. Web browsing is NOT just a single-core experience, because more than one thing can be done at a time. It's not as if we're just rendering one window of plain HTML or something.

Similarly, iPad Air 2 (A8X) feels noticeably faster than iPad mini 4 (A8), but their single-core scores are almost identical. However, I didn't actually say iPad Air 2 was fast. I just said it was adequate, along with any machine with a multi-core score over 1000. Actually A8 is OK but A8X is just better.

BTW, for my Windows 10 desktop, I went from an Athlon II X3 435 triple-core 2.9 GHz CPU to a Phenom II X6 1055T hex-core 2.8 GHz CPU, and just about everything including surfing is noticeably faster. Single core performance would be very similar, and thus it's not surprising multi-core PassMark is almost exactly doubled. Everything else in the hardware is exactly the same. Exactly, as in all I did was swap out the CPU in that machine. Initially I was considering buying a new desktop even though all I did on that machine was light business apps, VPN for light business apps, surfing, email, and occasional Netflix, because the Athlon II X3 435 was getting long in the tooth. However, now that I have the Phenom II X6 1055T in there, I no longer desire an upgrade at all, despite the fact this machine is almost 10 years old. I suspect I can use this for another several years. Best US$59 upgrade ever.

Phenom II X6 1055 scores ~400 in Geekbench 5 single-core, but ~1900 in multi-core.

 

[1BadManVan]

Well, even A12 and A10X feel about the same to me, yet the single-core AND multi-core is significantly higher on A12 than A10X. Diminishing returns I guess.

I've tested the Air 3 10.5", Pro 10.5", and Pro 11" all side by side together at the same time and they all feel fast to me, with the Pro 11" just feeling a shade faster at times. That's why I said any multi-core score over about 2000 in Geekbench 5 is fast.

View attachment 884281

In contrast, iPad Pro 10.5 A10X does feel faster than iPad 6 A10 even in Safari, despite the fact that the single-core is very similar. The A10 is definitely decent, and in fact I just ordered an iPad 7 with A10 for my wife, but A10X is just better.

View attachment 884280


I'd say it is somewhere in between. Web browsing is NOT just a single-core experience, because more than one thing can be done at a time. It's not as if we're just rendering one window of plain HTML or something.

Similarly, iPad Air 2 (A8X) feels noticeably faster than iPad mini 4 (A8), but their single-core scores are almost identical. However, I didn't actually say iPad Air 2 was fast. I just said it was adequate, along with any machine with a multi-core score over 1000. Actually A8 is OK but A8X is just better.

BTW, for my Windows 10 desktop, I went from an Athlon II X3 435 triple-core 2.9 GHz CPU to a Phenom II X6 1055T hex-core 2.8 GHz CPU, and just about everything including surfing is noticeably faster. Single core performance would be very similar, and thus it's not surprising multi-core PassMark is almost exactly doubled. Everything else in the hardware is exactly the same. Exactly, as in all I did was swap out the CPU in that machine. Initially I was considering buying a new desktop even though all I did on that machine was light business apps, VPN for light business apps, surfing, email, and occasional Netflix, because the Athlon II X3 435 was getting long in the tooth. However, now that I have the Phenom II X6 1055T in there, I no longer desire an upgrade at all, despite the fact this machine is almost 10 years old. I suspect I can use this for another several years. Best US$59 upgrade ever.

Phenom II X6 1055 scores ~400 in Geekbench 5 single-core, but ~1900 in multi-core.

That’s definitely an old cpu lol. Last pc I owned was an E8400 core 2 duo. Since than I’ve just used an iPad and my phone

 

[Digitalguy]

Well, even A12 and A10X feel about the same to me, yet the single-core AND multi-core is significantly higher on A12 than A10X. Diminishing returns I guess.

I've tested the Air 3 10.5", Pro 10.5", and Pro 11" all side by side together at the same time and they all feel fast to me, with the Pro 11" just feeling a shade faster at times. That's why I said any multi-core score over about 2000 in Geekbench 5 is fast.

View attachment 884281

In contrast, iPad Pro 10.5 A10X does feel faster than iPad 6 A10 even in Safari, despite the fact that the single-core is very similar. The A10 is definitely decent, and in fact I just ordered an iPad 7 with A10 for my wife, but A10X is just better.

View attachment 884280


I'd say it is somewhere in between. Web browsing is NOT just a single-core experience, because more than one thing can be done at a time. It's not as if we're just rendering one window of plain HTML or something.

Similarly, iPad Air 2 (A8X) feels noticeably faster than iPad mini 4 (A8), but their single-core scores are almost identical. However, I didn't actually say iPad Air 2 was fast. I just said it was adequate, along with any machine with a multi-core score over 1000. Actually A8 is OK but A8X is just better.

BTW, for my Windows 10 desktop, I went from an Athlon II X3 435 triple-core 2.9 GHz CPU to a Phenom II X6 1055T hex-core 2.8 GHz CPU, and just about everything including surfing is noticeably faster. Single core performance would be very similar, and thus it's not surprising multi-core PassMark is almost exactly doubled. Everything else in the hardware is exactly the same. Exactly, as in all I did was swap out the CPU in that machine. Initially I was considering buying a new desktop even though all I did on that machine was light business apps, VPN for light business apps, surfing, email, and occasional Netflix, because the Athlon II X3 435 was getting long in the tooth. However, now that I have the Phenom II X6 1055T in there, I no longer desire an upgrade at all, despite the fact this machine is almost 10 years old. I suspect I can use this for another several years. Best US$59 upgrade ever.

Phenom II X6 1055 scores ~400 in Geekbench 5 single-core, but ~1900 in multi-core.

Single and multi core use in Windows is different. Windows takes more advantage of multi-core than IOS. Having said that, even in IOS browsing is indeed not just single-core but is still mainly single core, even on IpadOS 13. My experience with the mini 4 vs the air 2 ( I still own the 4, while I have sold the air 2) is limited to IOS 12, but is different. They feel very similar, with the air 2 being a little bit faster than the mini 4.
Instead my experience of A10X, A12 and A12X is similar to yours, they all feel very similar, a bit like mini 4 and air 2 by the way, and while you can tell which one is faster than the other when side by side, it‘s really not a big deal (again barring some specific tasks like rendering etc).

 

[1BadManVan]

I definitely notice a difference between my 6th gen iPad and the air 3 after using them side by side. Snappy and more fluid animations. Gaming is night and day difference between the two soc’s

 

[Digitalguy]

I definitely notice a difference between my 6th gen iPad and the air 3 after using them side by side. Snappy and more fluid animations. Gaming is night and day difference between the two soc’s

Yes A12 is clearly faster than A10 and A9X, though the latter are still decent and much better than A8(X). Gaming is influenced by GPU which is much better...

 

[ssledoux]

I’ve been pretty ridiculous with Apple products and kids over the years. My 4 kids are all married (except one) now, so I don’t typically buy them gadgets anymore, although we have had plenty of years with iPods, iBooks, iPhones, MacBooks, etc.

Problem is, I now have 7 grandkids, and I pretty much keep them in iPads. They graduated from minis a couple years ago to 5th/6th gen iPads, and now the oldest grandchild (8 1/2) has an Air 3, the next 3 oldest have the 6th gens, 1 still has a 5th gen (planning to upgrade her in the spring to something with pencil support), and the 2 youngest have mini 4s.

With so many of them, I try to stagger a bit so I’m not buying so many at once, but yeah, we‘ve been in the Apple ecosystem a while, and are in it for good I think.

Screen protectors and cases for each right out of the box!

 

[AutomaticApple]

The 11 year old will be the most excited since this will finally run fortnite lol.

Nah, the kids are all over Minecraft. 😆

 

[1BadManVan]

Nah, the kids are all over Minecraft. 😆

He still plays that too, and roblox but he’s been chomping at the bit to get on fortnite lol

 

[Lobwedgephil]

My kids are lucky as they get my hand down iPads, so not buying any for the kids this year. Did buy my mom the new mini as she has been using the original mini and it is time for her to upgrade. She uses that thing for everything she does pretty much. Excited to give her the new model.

 

[1BadManVan]

My kids are lucky as they get my hand down iPads, so not buying any for the kids this year. Did buy my mom the new mini as she has been using the original mini and it is time for her to upgrade. She uses that thing for everything she does pretty much. Excited to give her the new model.

Must not do too much on an original mini lol. Same cpu as my iPad 2 that barely ran Netflix

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Must not do too much on an original mini lol. Same cpu as my iPad 2 that barely ran Netflix

Well yeah, just email, Netflix, internet, etc. I was shocked she still used it hours everyday, it must be slow. Think she will appreciate the new model, and will last her years.

 

[AutomaticApple]

He still plays that too, and roblox

Yeah, that game too.

 

[EugW]

Well yeah, just email, Netflix, internet, etc. I was shocked she still used it hours everyday, it must be slow. Think she will appreciate the new model, and will last her years.

Even my 3 year old (at the time) complained about how slow our iPad 2 was. And it would regularly crash in YouTube. Netflix would also crash. I found it basically unusable ion iOS 9. I should have kept it on iOS 7 or 8. It was usable initially, but I guess as apps became more demanding in iOS 9, they were too much for its 512 MB to handle.

Note that the iPad 2 (and presumably iPad mini 1) could be downgraded back to iOS 6 in certain situations. It wasn't advertised, but Apple brought back signing of iOS 6 for a while. However, that didn't really help either because iOS 6 was too old. Too many software incompatibilities.

The kids love our hand-me-down iPad Air 2s though. Their main complaint now is that the kids' YouTube is quite limited vs regular YouTube, but I'm not letting them use regular YouTube without direct supervision. Video recommendations and advertisements can sometimes be quite inappropriate or even scary. eg. Kids are watching kids' Halloween video, and then advertisement for scary Halloween movie or whatever comes on. Doesn't happen at all with kids' YouTube.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Note that the iPad 2 (and presumably iPad mini 1) could be downgraded back to iOS 6 in certain situations. It wasn't advertised, but Apple brought back signing of iOS 6 for a while. However, that didn't really help either because iOS 6 was too old. Too many software incompatibilities.

iOS 6 is no longer being signed for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. I don't think the iPad mini 1 was ever signed for iOS 6.

 

[1BadManVan]

I already loaded up fortnite on the air 3 and paired it with our Xbox one controller. Damn it runs nice! High settings at 60fps, the oldest will be very happy with that.

 

[1BadManVan]

Even my 3 year old (at the time) complained about how slow our iPad 2 was. And it would regularly crash in YouTube. Netflix would also crash. I found it basically unusable ion iOS 9. I should have kept it on iOS 7 or 8. It was usable initially, but I guess as apps became more demanding in iOS 9, they were too much for its 512 MB to handle.

Note that the iPad 2 (and presumably iPad mini 1) could be downgraded back to iOS 6 in certain situations. It wasn't advertised, but Apple brought back signing of iOS 6 for a while. However, that didn't really help either because iOS 6 was too old. Too many software incompatibilities.

The kids love our hand-me-down iPad Air 2s though. Their main complaint now is that the kids' YouTube is quite limited vs regular YouTube, but I'm not letting them use regular YouTube without direct supervision. Video recommendations and advertisements can sometimes be quite inappropriate or even scary. eg. Kids are watching kids' Halloween video, and then advertisement for scary Halloween movie or whatever comes on. Doesn't happen at all with kids' YouTube.

our iPad 2 has been our away for bout 3 years now because of how unusable it is lol.

 

[1BadManVan]

Besides a very bizarre situation of the one iPad on Christmas morning suddenly deciding not to accept the passcode and refusing to connect to wifi, forcing me to hook it up to the computer and wipe it. They were a huge success with the kids, had to peel them off after awhile. They were happy they just worked with whatever they wanted them to do lol.

No idea why the one iPad was screwing up so bad, I’ve had them set up and been fiddling with them for about a week. Suddenly Christmas morning, passcode no longer valid, no longer connected to wifi so couldn’t even remote wipe it. After it was wiped and reset, it’s worked flawless. Other two worked fine.

I’m not sure if something got crossed when I set up an old iPhone for him as well as a music player and synced them to the same account. Because the iPhone also had to be hooked up and wiped clean to work. Just glad we have the ability to fix that at home instead of going to Apple

 

[EugW]

Besides a very bizarre situation of the one iPad on Christmas morning suddenly deciding not to accept the passcode and refusing to connect to wifi, forcing me to hook it up to the computer and wipe it. They were a huge success with the kids, had to peel them off after awhile. They were happy they just worked with whatever they wanted them to do lol.

No idea why the one iPad was screwing up so bad, I’ve had them set up and been fiddling with them for about a week. Suddenly Christmas morning, passcode no longer valid, no longer connected to wifi so couldn’t even remote wipe it. After it was wiped and reset, it’s worked flawless. Other two worked fine.

I’m not sure if something got crossed when I set up an old iPhone for him as well as a music player and synced them to the same account. Because the iPhone also had to be hooked up and wiped clean to work. Just glad we have the ability to fix that at home instead of going to Apple

Apple's authentication system seems to be flaky. I had major problems with an iCloud sign-in on my wife's new iPad 7 on Xmas day. Kept on giving me this weird error about an IP subnet or else just that the authentication failed, which I was trying to change the sign-in account. Finally I just updated the machine from 13.1.3 to 13.3 and everything worked fine after that.

 

[1BadManVan]

Apple's authentication system seems to be flaky. I had major problems with an iCloud sign-in on my wife's new iPad 7 on Xmas day. Kept on giving me this weird error about an IP subnet or else just that the authentication failed, which I was trying to change the sign-in account. Finally I just updated the machine from 13.1.3 to 13.3 and everything worked fine after that.

Can’t win them all I guess lol. After I redid, his phone and iPad synced up fine and worked great all day. Overall a great Christmas, kids said it was too good to be true apparently lol

 

[1BadManVan]

I thought I would post a follow up Incase any future air 3 sales show up and some are still on the fence.

The air 3 has been a fantastic device for the kids so far, runs amazing, battery life is the best I’ve seen so far out of any device. The performance has been spot on perfect, the kids are loving the extra screen real estate. Fortnite runs great at 60fps for the older one. We have an Xbox one and he rather play it on the iPad everytime

I’ve snuck on them a few times myself to play around and definitely walk away impressed each time. I’m happy knowing these are future proof for quite some time

if I had to do it over again, between these and the iPad 10.2, I would still go for the air 3. While the younger ones aren’t pushing its potential, They still will be able to grow into them more and be able to throw more intense apps at them in the future without worry.