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iPad Why the iPad Air 3 is the iPad you should buy

I prefer the 10.5" Pro over the 10.5" Air.

ProMotion: Very nice on the Pro, but I can use a non-ProMotion iDevice no problem. That said, IMO the impact of 120 Hz vs 60 Hz is more noticeable on an iPad than it would be on an iPhone, since the screen size of the iPad is so much bigger.
Quad speakers: Very nice on the Pro. Dual speakers on the Air in landscape mode is just annoying. I was annoyed with dual speakers on my iPad Air 2 so it's a real breath of fresh air to have quad speakers on the Pro.
Better camera: Makes a difference even you're just document scanning. Plus there's a flash, optical image stabilization, and 4Kp30 video recording.
4 GB RAM: Probably most people won't notice this vs. the Air's 3 GB RAM, but it is important in some content creation applications even now. For example, drawing and video editing programs allow more layers with more RAM. I suspect Photoshop will be the same. I also find that for device longevity, amount of RAM is often the most important factor. Overall though, 3 GB should be sufficient for basic usage for quite a while.
USB 3: Probably most people won't notice this, but for image imports it's potentially much faster than the Air, which is limited to USB 2. On the 64 GB model Pro 10.5", I can get about 70 MB/s, so that would likely be about 2.5X as fast as typical USB 2 speeds. It's appears to be even faster on the 256 GB and 512 GB iPad Pro 10.5" models, although I can't confirm this myself as I only have the 64 GB model.
SoC: The A12 is slightly faster than A10X for CPU type tasks, but sometimes the A10X is faster for GPU type tasks (and sometimes it is not), and A10X may also be faster for video exports according to reviews. Overall, it's a wash though IMO. Side by side for UI navigation, they feel exactly the same to me.
iOS updates: I expect the 10.5" Air to get 1 year longer updates than the 10.5" Pro.
Bluetooth: The Air 10.5" has BT 5 but the Pro 10.5" has BT 4.2. For most people this won't matter at all though.
Stylus support: Pro 10.5" supports Pencil. Air 10.5" supports Pencil and Crayon. Crayon isn't as good but is cheaper.
Reliability: Some people have gotten the white spot issue on the Pro 10.5" after about a year of use. The jury is still out on the Air 10.5", but the Air 10.5" does have slightly different internals.
Cost: It depends on the location and the store, but in some areas the Pro 10.5" is cheaper (refurb or on sale) than the Air 10.5", even though even after a price drop, Apple still has the Pro priced slightly higher at retail than the Air.

As mentioned, overall I prefer the 10.5" Pro over the 10.5" Air, so that's what I bought. However, I have a 2 year warranty, with the 2nd year provided by my credit card.
 
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EugW said:
ProMotion: Very nice on the Pro, but I can use a non-ProMotion iDevice no problem.
Quad speakers: Very nice on the Pro. Dual speakers on the Air in landscape mode is just annoying.
Better camera: Makes a difference even you're just document scanning. Plus there's a flash, optical image stabilization, and 4Kp30 video recording.
4 GB RAM: Probably most people won't notice this vs. the Air's 3 GB RAM, but it is important in some content creation applications even now. For example, drawing and video editing programs allow more layers with more RAM. I suspect Photoshop will be the same. I also find that for device longevity, amount of RAM is often the most important factor.
USB 3: Probably most people won't notice this, but for image imports it's potentially much faster than the Air, which is limited to USB 2.
SoC: The A12 is slightly faster than A10X for CPU type tasks, but sometimes the A10X is faster for GPU type tasks (and sometimes it is not), and A10X may also be faster for video exports according to reviews. Overall, it's a wash though IMO. Side by side for UI navigation, they feel exactly the same to me.
iOS updates: I expect the 10.5" Air to get 1 year longer updates than the 10.5" Pro.
Bluetooth: The Air 10.5" has BT 5 but the Pro 10.5" has BT 4.2. For most people this won't matter at all though.
Stylus support: Pro 10.5" supports Pencil. Air 10.5" supports Pencil and Crayon. Crayon isn't as good but is cheaper.
Reliability: Some people have gotten the white spot issue on the Pro 10.5" after about a year of use. The jury is still out on the Air 10.5", but the Air 10.5" does have slightly different internals.
Cost: It depends on the location and the store, but in some areas the Pro 10.5" is cheaper (refurb or on sale) than the Air 10.5", even though even after a price drop, Apple still has the Pro priced slightly higher at retail than the Air.

I prefer the 10.5" Pro over the 10.5" Air, so that's what I bought. However, I have a 2 year warranty, with the 2nd year provided by my credit card.
Click to expand...
I happily respect your opinion and decision. :)
 
Seanm87 said:
But they don’t have pro motion?
Click to expand...
You can definitely notice the jitteriness of 60 Hz on the iPhones, but as I mentioned above, it's more noticeable on 10" iPads. Even worse on my 27" iMacs.

However, it's not a deal-killer feature for me. 120 Hz is a great feature to be sure, and it really does look awesome, but I can live without it. BTW, another interesting aspect of ProMotion is that it has variable refresh rate, so it can drop down to as low as 24 Hz for video content for example. That saves battery life, and doesn't suffer the issues of conversion of 24 fps material to 60 Hz.
 
EugW said:
I prefer the 10.5" Pro over the 10.5" Air.

ProMotion: Very nice on the Pro, but I can use a non-ProMotion iDevice no problem. That said, IMO the impact of 120 Hz vs 60 Hz is more noticeable on an iPad than it would be on an iPhone, since the screen size of the iPad is so much bigger.
Quad speakers: Very nice on the Pro. Dual speakers on the Air in landscape mode is just annoying. I was annoyed with dual speakers on my iPad Air 2 so it's a real breath of fresh air to have quad speakers on the Pro.
Better camera: Makes a difference even you're just document scanning. Plus there's a flash, optical image stabilization, and 4Kp30 video recording.
4 GB RAM: Probably most people won't notice this vs. the Air's 3 GB RAM, but it is important in some content creation applications even now. For example, drawing and video editing programs allow more layers with more RAM. I suspect Photoshop will be the same. I also find that for device longevity, amount of RAM is often the most important factor. Overall though, 3 GB should be sufficient for basic usage for quite a while.
USB 3: Probably most people won't notice this, but for image imports it's potentially much faster than the Air, which is limited to USB 2. On the 64 GB model Pro 10.5", I can get about 70 MB/s, so that would likely be about 2.5X as fast as typical USB 2 speeds. It's appears to be even faster on the 256 GB and 512 GB iPad Pro 10.5" models, although I can't confirm this myself as I only have the 64 GB model.
SoC: The A12 is slightly faster than A10X for CPU type tasks, but sometimes the A10X is faster for GPU type tasks (and sometimes it is not), and A10X may also be faster for video exports according to reviews. Overall, it's a wash though IMO. Side by side for UI navigation, they feel exactly the same to me.
iOS updates: I expect the 10.5" Air to get 1 year longer updates than the 10.5" Pro.
Bluetooth: The Air 10.5" has BT 5 but the Pro 10.5" has BT 4.2. For most people this won't matter at all though.
Stylus support: Pro 10.5" supports Pencil. Air 10.5" supports Pencil and Crayon. Crayon isn't as good but is cheaper.
Reliability: Some people have gotten the white spot issue on the Pro 10.5" after about a year of use. The jury is still out on the Air 10.5", but the Air 10.5" does have slightly different internals.
Cost: It depends on the location and the store, but in some areas the Pro 10.5" is cheaper (refurb or on sale) than the Air 10.5", even though even after a price drop, Apple still has the Pro priced slightly higher at retail than the Air.

As mentioned, overall I prefer the 10.5" Pro over the 10.5" Air, so that's what I bought. However, I have a 2 year warranty, with the 2nd year provided by my credit card.
Click to expand...



Good list. The Air has simultaneous wifi, the Pro does not. I haven’t seen any real world competent testing on the impact of this, but it’s a difference.
 
Josieb1 said:
I bought the Pro 10.5. I had both that and the Air 3 in my possession for over two days, I used them side by side. I couldn’t even see any difference with ProMotion at all.

Tbh i’m getting a bit fed up with all the fuss about ProMotion, it’s not useful for everyone, or even needed.
Click to expand...

Can I ask why you chose the 10.5 pro over air 3 in the end please? Just price?

Thanks
 
aakshey said:
It doesn’t matter if it has an A13 / A15 whatever.

If you’re used to 120 Hz, the 60 Hz is like it’s stuttering.

That’s not my opinion. That’s reality.

You probably haven’t extensively used a 10.5 Pro yet.

And the Air 3 regardless has no advantage (A12 makes no difference) over Pro 10.5. Pro 10.5 is better in many ways. It makes more sense to just buy that instead. Unless it’s unavailable where you live.
Click to expand...

It's just your biased opinion. As everybody else has said already, promotion is just a nice feature... that you don't even notice if you don't know it exist. People don't spend their lives scrolling fast among home screens or scrolling pages as fast as they can just for the sake of it. It's more of a (nice) marketing gimmick than a very useful feature.
Quad speakers make a very noticeable difference instead, unless you don't use speakers.
But for me the big disadvantage of the 10.5 pro that nobody talks about is lack of Bluetooth 5.0.
After buying the mini 5, I don't want any more ipads with less than 5.0... Now granted, if you leave in a tiny apartment it may not matter, but if you leave if a larger house, with several rooms, or even a house with a garden or 2 floors, then that changes everything... For me this is huge.
 
Digitalguy said:
It's just your biased opinion. As everybody else has said already, promotion is just a nice feature... that you don't even notice if you don't know it exist. People don't spend their lives scrolling fast among home screens or scrolling pages as fast as they can just for the sake of it. It's more of a (nice) marketing gimmick than a very useful feature.
Quad speakers make a very noticeable difference instead, unless you don't use speakers.
But for me the big disadvantage of the 10.5 pro that nobody talks about is lack of Bluetooth 5.0.
After buying the mini 5, I don't want any more ipads with less than 5.0... Now granted, if you leave in a tiny apartment it may not matter, but if you leave if a larger house, with several rooms, or even a house with a garden or 2 floors, then that changes everything... For me this is huge.
Click to expand...

What does Bluetooth 5.0 offer over previous gen, much greater range?
 
plucky duck said:
What does Bluetooth 5.0 offer over previous gen, much greater range?
Click to expand...
yes, range is the most important element for me, but it also offers other advantages such as less impact on battery life, both for the ipad and for the headphone/speaker as well as faster connection
 
MrMister111 said:
Can I ask why you chose the 10.5 pro over air 3 in the end please? Just price?

Thanks
Click to expand...

No it wasn’t price, the Pro (with AppleCare) was £30 cheaper. I felt compelled to check out both due to the anti Air view of a large majority on this forum. I found the Pro speakers good, and the camera slightly better than the Air, but in the end the decider was simply that I wasn’t prepared to spend nearly £700 on a device that had a 50/50 chance of developing a screen issue, I.e the dreaded Bright Spot. Yes, I had AppleCare so if one developed hopefully I would get it replaced within the two years, but after that, or if the replacement got one too, which is not unlikely, then my device would be compromised. I also wanted the newer processor as it would provide the Air with a potentially longer life span than the Pro 10.5. I haven’t regretted my decision.

When I ordered the Pro 10.5 I already had the Air 3. I expected to be blown away by the Pro compared to the Air, but I wasn’t. As for the legendary ProMotion. I didn’t notice it at all. Obviously the way I use my iPads doesn’t need ProMotion.
 
Digitalguy said:
I am not an expert and don't know what bandwidth translates to in real life, but range is definitely much more than double, more like 4 times
Click to expand...


Correct, 4x the range too.
Double the bandwidth means double the data that can be transmitted over a time period.

BT 4.2 is 1Mb/s, BT 5 is 2Mb/s.

But you don't get it all at once. If you're going for double the bandwidth you don't get 4x the range at the same time. And vice versa. But overall it's a great improvement.
 
BT range has never been an issue for me. If I'm watching a show, obviously I'll have the iPad in front of me, or at least in the same room.

I suppose it could be an issue for music, but I don't use my iPad for music.
 
EugW said:
BT range has never been an issue for me. If I'm watching a show, obviously I'll have the iPad in front of me, or at least in the same room.

I suppose it could be an issue for music, but I don't use my iPad for music.
Click to expand...
This is very personal, for a show or movie, it doesn't matter. But for that, for instance I mainly use speakers (and use the pro), unless it's late at night. I use bluetooth for music, podcasts, audiobooks and even some youtube videos where there is just one or 2 people speaking but nothing to see... (which is the equivalent of a podcast).
 
Digitalguy said:
It's just your biased opinion. As everybody else has said already, promotion is just a nice feature... that you don't even notice if you don't know it exist. People don't spend their lives scrolling fast among home screens or scrolling pages as fast as they can just for the sake of it. It's more of a (nice) marketing gimmick than a very useful feature.
Quad speakers make a very noticeable difference instead, unless you don't use speakers.
But for me the big disadvantage of the 10.5 pro that nobody talks about is lack of Bluetooth 5.0.
After buying the mini 5, I don't want any more ipads with less than 5.0... Now granted, if you leave in a tiny apartment it may not matter, but if you leave if a larger house, with several rooms, or even a house with a garden or 2 floors, then that changes everything... For me this is huge.
Click to expand...

Yup that’s what opinions are - an expression of a person’s bias. I’m with Aakshey on this one, when I bought into an iPad after being frustrated with the abandonment of android tablets in favor of ChromeOS I immediately saw the smoothness of the interface on the pros in direct side by side comparisons at the store. I didn’t have to put a name to it, the fact was even slowly scrolling during web browsing was smoother to my eye. At that point I couldn’t unsee it. I totally get that for many the difference isn’t significant but that doesn’t diminish the fact that some of us appreciate it.

If price were equal and the iPad Pro 10.5 didn’t exhibit any display issues I’d go that route too mostly because I never push my iPad to its limits cpu wise anyway so I’d want the screen and the speakers. We’re all different..
 
Josieb1 said:
No it wasn’t price, the Pro (with AppleCare) was £30 cheaper. I felt compelled to check out both due to the anti Air view of a large majority on this forum. I found the Pro speakers good, and the camera slightly better than the Air, but in the end the decider was simply that I wasn’t prepared to spend nearly £700 on a device that had a 50/50 chance of developing a screen issue, I.e the dreaded Bright Spot. Yes, I had AppleCare so if one developed hopefully I would get it replaced within the two years, but after that, or if the replacement got one too, which is not unlikely, then my device would be compromised. I also wanted the newer processor as it would provide the Air with a potentially longer life span than the Pro 10.5. I haven’t regretted my decision.

When I ordered the Pro 10.5 I already had the Air 3. I expected to be blown away by the Pro compared to the Air, but I wasn’t. As for the legendary ProMotion. I didn’t notice it at all. Obviously the way I use my iPads doesn’t need ProMotion.
Click to expand...

Sorry when you said you bought the 10.5 in presumed it was the pro not the air 3! But it's other way around, sorry. Thanks for comments
 
MrMister111 said:
Sorry when you said you bought the 10.5 in presumed it was the pro not the air 3! But it's other way around, sorry. Thanks for comments
Click to expand...

The Pro 10.5 was nice. The speakers are wonderful and the camera is very good. I’m sure ProMotion could be useful depending on what you use your iPad for. Also if you buy one from the Apple Refurb store the price is very good. I’m also sure it will last almost as long as the new Air.

In my view you need to way up just one major thing. It “could” develop a screen defect. Now if that happens during a period where you have insurance then usually Apple replace the iPad, but if you don’t have insurance anymore, or the iPad has already been replaced and it’s happened again, then you live with it or try and sell it at a reduced value. The cost of a repair is almost as much as a new iPad.
 
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The idea of a mid tier iPad Air is a good one. The strategy of basically using an older 10.5 in Pro chassis with a current gen processor but removing some pro features makes sense to me. This helps keep cost down.....$499 is a great price point. Also, the Air starts with 64 GB storage, and this works for a lot of people. If you buy the base iPad, you might need to upgrade storage, which brings you to $429......so the Air starts looking like a pretty good value.

I would like to see Apple continue this mid tier strategy in the future. In a couple of years, I could see an 11in IPad Air using the same chassis as the current 11in Pro with a current gen processor but without some “pro” features that are not very important to typical users. This could be an ongoing process for updating and refreshing the mid tier of their iPad line up. Good for consumers. Good for iPad sales. Win win.
 
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