I would pick iPad 9 per your noted purpose unless you want better screen quality, speakers and processor.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All iPads Undecided between iPad Air 4 or iPad 9
- Thread starter Yuuuki
- Start date
-
- Tags
- buying advice ipad ipad 9 ipad air
- Sort by reaction score
For media consumption there’s very little difference between a new iPad 9th and an Air 2. We own both. Personally I prefer the thinner and lighter oldie.
Give a second hand iPad a new life.
They both play a video similarly, but in between, when choosing a video, maximizing minimizing, checking a message in between the air 2 is waayyyy slower, I couldn't stand mine and sold it in 2019....
I applied some standard optimizations as background apps refresh off, Siri indexing mostly off, Bluetooth off, location services off, airdrop off, AirPlay and handoff off, notifications off for most apps. Things I don’t need anyway.
With that I find it totally useable. 9th is much snappier but doesn’t fundamentally change my experience.
these are things I have done in low end iPads and has never changed responsiveness dramatically.
As for totally usable, yes, if you are patient enough... My mini 4, which is not much different from my (now sold) air 2, is usable if you are (very) patient, but the issue is that we (at least some of us) get used to faster devices and become less tolerant to waiting for things to load (those 3, 4, 5 etc seconds to load and opens things quickly become annoying)
At this point even the 9.7 pro, which back in the day felt enjoyable and so much better than the air 2, is feeling sluggish and really my new good enough baseline has become the 10.5. So A10X, A12, A12X and of course M1 all feel fast enough that it does not change my experience (other than reloads due to RAM), anything below that feels laggy and annoying for general use and browsing... unless I am using a specific app.
It boils down to the value of few seconds. I have the luxury of not having to continuously switch context. So one or two seconds of setup time are fine. It started as a question about content consumption. After all.
yeah, if you don't move frequently from app to app or from web page to web page, those seconds are negligeable... like watching a movie is not an issue since you spending a few seconds to then watch a movie for a couple of hours
This being said, I principally use it for internet browsing and notes taking. Apart for the occasional stuttering or short waiting time not much difference with 9th. Also used it to prepare an almost 1,000 actions long group of interconnected Shortcuts. The only occasion I had to switch to the 9th from time to time. Not because of execution but because editor is notoriously slow at rendering text.
when you say note taking you mean writing with the onscreen keyboard? (since the air 2 has no pencil support).
As for browsing, well, I do agree it's totally possible, but it's a matter of tolerance and "being spoiled".
For instance a 1080p monitor is perfectly usable, but once you get used to a 4k one it's annoying when something is not as sharp... Same with speed, it's annoying when it's not instant, so I guess I am spoiled by newer devices... So for me the experience is not the same...
Yes, virtual keyboard (have BT Magic as well but rarely use it) with Notes app. It gets slow at times when note is very long with links and pictures. But still useable.
Apt citation of 4K TVs. Every diagram shows is not needed for my screen size and TV viewing distance. I am not that exceptional so I assume this is also valid for most.
But perception of image quality is shaped by HDR, contour sharpening and many other algorithms and hardware features as well. I.e. it may be that with all other features being equal you would perceive the same quality on a Full HD TV as well. But what we want to believe is also important.
Finally as far as I know all TVs for sale above 32” are 4K. Not much of a choice then. Producers have unanimously moved on from the 3D debacle. Apple moved on from iPadOS 15. With Numbers as example.