The Air launched last fall and, of all iPads last year, it received the biggest design makeover. It looks a lot like the iPad Pros with its thin bezels, flat edges and lack of circular Home button. There is no FaceID on this model yet, but Apple moved the TouchID sensor to the thin lock button on the side of the card. It also has a USB-C port to charge and, like the iPad Pros, can be used with Apple’s luxurious Magic Keyboard accessory (which is actually still on sale). If you are an annotator or artist, you can also use the second generation Apple Pencil with the Air.
We were impressed by the Air’s lovely Liquid Retina Display, its fast performance and WiFi speeds and its long battery life. It is important to note that Air was the first Apple device to use the company’s A14 Bionic chip, and is responsible for much of the tablet’s performance improvements. Apple estimated battery life to be up to 10 hours, but we managed to get up to 12.5 hours in our tests.
Apple has closed much of the gap between the iPad Pro and the Air with this new model. If you feel comfortable ignoring the advanced features included in Professionals (like FaceID, LiDAR and a four-speaker setup), Air will save you money and probably serve you just as well. And if fun color options mean a lot to you, Air is certainly the way to go.
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