iPad

2020 iPad Air vs. iPad Pro: Hands-on comparison

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Juli Clover, MacRumors:

> Apple announced the new 2020 fourth-generation iPad Air in September, but the new tablets just started shipping out to customers last Friday. We picked one up and thought we’d do a hands-on comparison with the iPad Pro, which was last updated in March, because both tablets are about as powerful and share many similarities.

If you are in the market for an iPad, you are likely comparing the pros and cons of the new iPad Air against those of the most recent iPad Pro. Juli does an excellent job digging through those differences so you don’t have to.

Most significant to me:

> There’s no ‌Touch ID‌ Home button, but there is ‌Touch ID‌ built into the power button at the top of the device. It’s fast and effortless, but you do need to reach up to the top of the ‌iPad‌ to unlock it, and it’s not as seamless of an experience as Face ID, especially when you’re using accessories like the Magic Keyboard. On ‌iPad Pro‌, you can wake it with the keyboard and then it instantly unlocks after scanning your face, but on ‌iPad Air‌, this is a two-step process.

If you plan on shelling out for the Magic Keyboard, think about Face ID and the process of unlocking your iPad. Can you live with the extra steps a lack of Face ID adds to the process? Might not matter to you, but worth thinking about.

Apple’s new iPad Air ad

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[VIDEO] Solid use of the slinky, especially to highlight the rose gold, green, and sky blue colors. Video embedded in main Loop post.

2020 iPad Air review: Almost Pro

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The big question for me, when it comes to the new iPad Air, is how it compares to the iPad Pro.

Jason Snell:

> The release of the fourth-generation iPad Air feels kind of like that. Apple is apparently so confident in the roll that it’s on with the iPad that it’s happy to take the iPad Air, which it previously defined as a more expensive version of the low-end iPad, and transform it into an iPad Pro.
>
> No, the new iPad Air doesn’t offer every single feature of the iPad Pro. There are still some reasons for some users to opt for the more expensive model. But this isn’t a move that a company terrified of undercutting its own high-margin products would make.

So what are those differences?

> The iPad Air has two speakers rather than four. There’s no second rear camera, no portrait mode support, and no Lidar scanner. And the screen refreshes at 60Hz, not the buttery-smooth 120Hz found on Pro models.

No Face ID, but you do get Touch ID in the power button. And no Face ID means no face-reacting Animoji or Memoji. And the new iPad Air has a 10.9″ screen.

If the above sits well with you, the new iPad Air is a no-brainer. Starts at $599.

iPad execs talk 2020 iPad lineup, Touch ID on power button, with iJustine and Jenna Ezarik

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[VIDEO] Apple marketing and hardware execs Bob Borchers and John Ternus jumped onto the Same Brain podcast to talk about the 2020 iPad lineup. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Of particular interest to me was the detailed discussion (jump to about 7:22) of the fingerprint scanner on the iPad Air’s power button. I would love to see this tech on an iPhone. Not sure if the footprint is large enough to allow this.

A great achievement. Love this discussion.

Geekbench scores, new iPad Air, and the 16″ 2019 MacBook Pro

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Hartley Charlton, MacRumors:

> Benchmarks supposedly for Apple’s A14 Bionic processor in the iPad Air 4, first spotted by Twitter user “Ice Universe,” reveal that the A14 offers significant performance improvements over the iPhone 11’s A13 Bionic.

Here’s a link to that Geekbench 5 result.

– 1583 Single-Core Score
– 4198 Multi-Core Score

Note that the multi-core score was computed on a 6 core device.

Now check out the Geekbench 5 results for the 16 inch 2019 MacBook Pro:

– 928 Single-Core Score
– 5934 Multi-Core Score

This is an 8-core device. With that in mind, scroll and compare all the various tests. The A14 Bionic in the new iPad Air kicks some serious butt.

Is this a fair comparison? For a strict CPU vs CPU comparison, seems like it does offer a level of insight. And makes me hopeful that the Arm-based Macs coming our way will significantly raise the bar for Mac performance.