It has been a few weeks since the iPad Air 5 came out. There are reports by many people on the poor build quality on the iPad Air 5 and yet Apple did not make a statement on the poor build quality. Some people received units that have good build quality and others received units with bad build quality. There's been lots of back and forth discussions between the iPad Air 5 and iPad Pro 11 inch M1. This post is not to put down iPad Air 5/iPad Pro owners or future iPad Air 5/Pro owners. This post has to do with your deciding factor.
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All iPads What Did You Choose: iPad Pro 11-inch M1 or iPad Air 5
- Thread starter gregpod9
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I just purchased an iPad Pro 11 w 256gb. I'm not a power user but things like the pro-motion screen and better speakers have value for me. One of my uses is to download DRM protected movies from sources such as HBO Max, Amazon Prime, etc. to my local drive when traveling or when I think we might have a weather related power outage. I also load photographs (RAW files) and do a bit of photo editing while traveling. While I don't really make use of the power of the M1, I do use a fair bit of on board storage. My view on the iPad Air is that it offers good value to 1) persons for whom 64gb is sufficient, and 2) persons for whom 128gb is not sufficient but 256gb is. I certainly could've been fine with a 256gb Air, not with a 64gb Air. The Air is a very nice device but I sort of see it as a middle tier product leading folks to the Pro. The base iPad is also a fine device and a 256gb base model would do all I need. It can do most of what the higher end iPads can do a lot more affordably. With a 3 tier product line there's a tendency to think I won't buy the lower end product. Then we look at the 64gb Air and decide that 64gb is not enough. A 128gb Air at $599 would look like a great value compared to a base 11" Pro. But we don't even get a 128gb upgrade option. Nope, right up to 256gb for an additional $150 which brings it almost to the price of the base 11" Pro. I wonder how much more profit Apple earns on a 256gb Air than on a 64gb Air. I suspect their cost difference on 64 vs 256gb is pretty minimal. So if a person buys a 256gb Air, or a 128gb Pro Apple earns more profit per unit (relative to 64gb Air). I think the 64bg Air is product intended to hit a price point but with a limitation that will steer folks to a more expensive, higher profit, product. Ultimately for me, the niceties of the 256gb Pro outweighed the difference in price relative to a 256gb Air. I also tend to keep devices quite a while, I upgraded from 9.7" Pro which I believe was from 2016.
I wanted an iPad to use with Swift Playgrounds, so I was looking hard at the iPad Air 5, but I also wanted to use an Apple Pencil 2 for drawing; Procreate advertises as optimized for 120Hz, and the iPad Pro has ProMotion, so 11" iPad Pro it is...! ;^p
I bought the air. The built quality is fantastic. I use it for note taking, web browsing and occasional gaming.
I went from the iPad Pro 10.5 with pro-motion. I thought i wouldn’t be able to go back to a slower refresh rate but you don’t notice the difference after a short while
I went from the iPad Pro 10.5 with pro-motion. I thought i wouldn’t be able to go back to a slower refresh rate but you don’t notice the difference after a short while
They probably wont make a statement as it appears to be only some units affected. I went into the Apple store yesterday, and every Ipad Air 5 they had was rock solid in terms of build quality. Exactly the same as my Air 4. I noticed many people trying out the Air 5, and many also buying them. I saw one person buy 3 of them in different colours!
I bought the air 5 256gb last week. Couldn’t see the 64gb working for me. the 128GB would have been great. So I paid $749 for the 256gb model. It did not creak and It worked great. I did notice the lack of pro motion though. Then the iPad Pro 11 128gb dropped to $749 so I decided to go that way. Gotta love the pro motion.
The Air 1-3 was always a nicer version of the base iPad, not a cheaper version of the Pro; however, since the design change the lineup has shifted and the Pro is now the nicer version of the Air/the Air is the cheaper version of the Pro. The 256GB Air now has the same Pro M1 CPU and Pro 8GB RAM for $150 less than the 256GB Pro, that sounds more affordable to me. But how is Apple also going to put the same Pro screen in the Air and still charge significantly less for it?
The Pro has 120 Mhz variable refresh screen, but the Air 5 does not (only normal 60Hz screen). The Pro also has 4 speakers. These 2 features are now the only real difference between the M1 Air and Pro ipads. Performance is identical.
Yes. I know those things.
What you didn't mention is that the iPP screen is 100 nits brighter, the iPP has more robust 5G, and the iPP has TB4 while the Air has regular USB-C, albeit faster than the Air4's USB-C. Not to mention Face ID vs Touch ID.
What I noticed when comparing the 11" M1 iPP to the Air 4 is that if you use Lightroom on the iPad, the slightly larger and slightly higher res screen means that at the same zoom level the iPP can display an extra row of thumbnails. You wouldn't think that such a small difference is noticeable, but it turns out that it is.
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Oh yes I know about these extra perks also on the IPP, its just that to the average non techie Apple consumer, they probably wont care about these things. Touch ID vs Face ID is subjective.
What you mentioned about the extra row of Thumbnails on Lightroom is interesting though, and would obviously be a benefit to an actual real Professional video/photo editor.
Whether those appeal, they should be mentioned instead of just saying they are the same except for the screen and speakers. Brighter screen is beneficial to all owners.
Professional and hobbiest photographer.
The iPad Air 5 & 11" iPad Pro (Gen3) have different screens; the Air is 60Hz, the Pro is 120Hz ProMotion...
There is also:
- FaceID
- TrueDepth on the selfie camera
- 10MP UltraWide camera
- Flash
- LIDAR scanner
- 16GB RAM option (w/1TB or 2TB SSD)
I use my iPad to write notes for students and project them. I have tried using a non-ProMotion screen and it is not as pleasurable experience as ProMotion. The writing is noticeably more fluid. If it weren't for that, then I would have gone with an iPad Air 4 over the M1 iPad Pro.
Considering both these options as an upgrade to a Pro 9.7 and 6th gen in the household. Leaning towards the Pro 11 for FaceID. Waiting for $100-150 discounts on cellular though.