2018 iPad Review Roundup: The Tablet to Beat This Year
Apple has just come out with the first new iPad in a while now, and this particular model is an interesting blend of affordability and power that the company has begun to push to the education segment.
A new chipset and support for the Apple Pencil are some of the pleasant surprises in an otherwise largely unchanged tablet design, and the price doesn't hurt either. Even as Apple is emphasizing the features of the 2018 iPad for the classroom, casual tablet users will find plenty to be pleased about with this year's new 9.7-inch model.
For Tech Radar's Garth Beavis, the new 2018 iPad is a brilliant new offer from Apple for those who just want a good tablet, even if the company chooses to stick to a tried and tested iPad design that has seen little to no change on the outside since the first models came out.
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While Apple has been launching extensive re-designs for their iPhones, most of the update in the new iPad won't be something obvious at first glance. What stands out for this new model, however, is the price. It's still at the premium price range for a tablet, but with the new 9.7-inch iPads starting at $329, this new model is a whole lot more accessible than, say, the iPad Pro line of tablets.
What's more is that schools in the UK and US also get ten percent off. That price already gets a buyer a tablet with 32 GB of storage and Wi-Fi capability — for the 2018 iPads that can use a cellular connection, those start at $459.
Apple has chosen to drop the A9 chipset, an already capable spec from the 2017 line of iPads, for the even more powerful A10 processor. That means the new iPad lags behind the much more expensive iPad Pro by just about 20 percent, at least in the single-core benchmarks according to Ars Technica.
Unfortunately, all that power only comes with 2 GB of memory, compared to the 4 GB of the iPad Pro tablets. While 2 GB may suit the iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 just fine, the improved multitasking capabilities of the latest iOS won't exactly shine with the 2018 iPad's configuration.
The new iPad has a good display, at 2,048 by 1,536 pixels, a standard spec that carried through from the iPad Air. It's nowhere close to the ones in the iPad Pro, though, as this one does not support HDR and does not boast nearly the same color gamut. At the price point, however, it's hard to complain.
There are some more compromises Apple made with the new iPad, like what Digital Trends pointed out. There's the fact that the tablet only comes with an 8 MP camera and has stayed with the first generation version of its fingerprint scanner. The trade-offs are more than worth it for the outstanding performance, though; and with Pencil support, this will be the tablet to beat for 2018.
