(ominous music)
- So I've spent some time trying,
trying to understand this iPad.
I've never been so confused
by so many choices in one new product.
So this is a new 10th generation baseline iPad
and it's in one of those bright new colors too.
And this thing has a slightly new design,
which is overall improved.
The home button is gone
and it's a pretty familiar rectangular shape now
with flatter sides.
The new colors are actually kind of saturated,
which is neat.
This one here is yellow,
but there's also a pink and a blue,
on top of the safe bet silver.
It's slightly less saturated than it looks
on Apple's website though.
There's a Touch ID button up top,
so you do get biometric unlocking
even though there's no home button,
thinner bezels, thinner anyway,
and a slightly larger 11-inch LCD screen up front.
Landscape stereo speakers,
a bump from an 8 to a 12-megapixel camera on the back,
and an A14 Bionic chip inside.
Not their newest,
but it's a step up from the A13 Bionic
that's in the ninth gen iPad.
So none of that is confusing.
They're modernizing the baseline iPad. Great.
But then that's where some of the weirdness starts.
So first of all, upgrades to USB Type-C.
Finally, no, it's not thunderbolt speeds or anything,
but hey, you can now finally plug in USB-C flash drives.
You can charge fast.
You can even plug in an external display,
up to 4K 30 hertz or 1080p 60 hertz,
which you were definitely not doing
with a Lightning port before.
I had been asking for USB-C,
getting it in the base iPad now is great.
It's confusing though,
because they also announced that this iPad
will support the first generation Apple Pencil,
which if you remember, it's Lightning.
This was the pencil that infamously, hilariously,
plugged into the bottom of the old iPads
to charge via that Lightning port.
But if we're USB-C now,
then that means, oh, oh no, it's, it's happening.
This needs a USB-C to Lightning adapter
to charge the Pencil.
I'm sure no one will ever lose this.
It also comes in this separate piece of packaging.
It doesn't come in the iPad box or in the Apple Pencil box.
It's more packaging, which is a little more wasteful.
But also, yeah,
if you ever do lose it and need another one, nine bucks.
But I'm still just thinking like, Apple,
you made a new pencil a second gen pencil
that's way better.
The second generation pencil snaps onto the side
of the iPad Air or the iPad Pro with magnets,
and charges wirelessly.
Where is that one here?
I feel like I've been through every version
of this in my head,
but basically what I've come up with
is some people would probably say that Apple knows
that there are gonna be groups of people,
businesses, schools,
that have the older ninth generation iPad
and they have pencils,
and they're gonna wanna continue using those pencils
when they upgrade to this new iPad.
That's why they kept support for the old Apple Pencil.
And to those people, I would say,
but you make both, (speaking foreign language)
why not both?
So honestly, the real answer is most likely,
because this is the first ever iPad to move the webcam
to that long side, the long bezel,
low key that might be the best change
in this whole piece of hardware.
So now when you're on video calls or doing anything
while looking at the camera,
it'll actually look like you're looking at the camera
instead of way off to the side, like in every other iPad.
So this is a welcome change,
but now that means the spot that you'd normally slap on
a second generation Apple Pencil
with magnets and a cutout,
well that's now populated by webcam housing.
And the other side has a Smart pins,
which I'll get to in a second.
And then the top and the bottom are speakers.
And apparently it would be too un-Apple like,
to put it like off to the side, you know,
asymmetrical like that or something,
just to have space for the cutouts.
Basically, Apple also came out with their new M2 iPad Pro
at the same time as this.
That also has a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide webcam
with Center Stage,
just like this one.
But it's not moved to the long side.
It's still on that side spot.
Which leads me to believe that Apple views this
as a direct compromise.
You can either have the new Apple Pencil
and that'll charge at the top,
or you can have the webcam on the long side.
One or the other, but not both.
And I guess we'll never see an iPad Pro
with the webcam in the right spot.
So for those who want a little bit more
out of the baseline iPad,
Apple has also dropped a brand new,
completely redesigned,
two-piece Magic Keyboard folio for the iPad.
I actually really like most of it.
This first piece is just like a back plate that attaches
to the iPad with magnets
and then acts as just a kickstand basically,
very surface, very useful.
And then with the second piece, it's just a new keyboard
with a new full function row about the top.
So now that the Smart Connector pins are on the side edge
instead of the back,
you can just slap on or remove the keyboard at any time
and just go straight to the iPad.
So this two-piece setup has its benefits and drawbacks.
The main drawback really being that it's not as lappable,
it's much more suited for working on a desk
or a more stable surface,
because of the weight distribution.
But the benefit is it's two pieces, it's modular.
So now you can just go straight kickstand if you want
to just watch a movie or a show with no hands.
Or you can add a keyboard any time you want to type.
Or if you want, if you wanna be mobile
but take the keyboard with you,
you can flip the keyboard around
so that you're not feeling those buttons on the back
all the time,
every time you're holding the thing.
So that's nice. I like the idea.
But there are still a couple of head scratchers.
First of all, this new two-piece setup
is not coming to the new iPad Pro, for some reason.
I would think if you like those function keys
that you'd want that for the iPad Pro,
but this is only for this iPad.
But then also this iPad does not get Stage Manager.
Not that Stage Manager is, you know,
that amazing or anything.
But this would've been nice for people
who want to use that USB-C,
plug it into an external monitor,
and get a little bit more window management
a little bit more of that multitasking going on.
But this one won't do that. Weird.
But then the biggest head scratcher of them all
has gotta be the prices, right?
So this is still a $250 keyboard and case accessory.
And then this new iPad here is starting at $450,
which is a pretty big price bump
from the ninth gen iPad we just upgraded from,
which stays in Apple's lineup at $330 unchanged.
This might be kind of a hot take,
but I don't really understand why this one exists.
Like I'm not even saying it's a bad product.
It's a perfectly good iPad.
It works, it does all the things,
it's got the new chip, it's got the little things,
it's got Wi-Fi 6 now, it's got a perfectly fine display.
It's got USB-C, the new colors, it's thin, it's a tablet.
It's fine. I just, it's weird.
Like if you just want a basic iPad,
this person still exists, right?
"Oh, I just want to get a basic iPad."
That's the schools, the businesses,
that's the moms getting it to like
put it in a giant foam case and like,
hand it to their kid to watch videos.
Like, I just need an iPad.
That's still the $329 ninth gen iPad.
It's a hundred something dollars cheaper.
It's a better deal.
That's still the one I would recommend for those people.
But then the second you think like,
"Ooh, I might want a little bit more from my iPad.
I wanna do a little more," right?
Maybe I want to like use it
as a pseudo computer a little bit.
The second you think, "Oh I want it to be a real computer,"
this is 64 gigs at the baseline.
In 2022, not real computer storage.
So you bump up to real computer storage
and then this, plus this,
is $850.
What? What?
I mean, you could get an iPad Air for that price.
You could get an iPad Pro for that price.
You could also just get a computer for that price.
So this is a strange combination of things
to exist together for that amount of money.
Like, even without the keyboard,
this iPad, 64 gigs in 2022 for $450,
it's just weird.
So in conclusion, this is a slightly strange set of stuff
slotted between sweet and simple.
Sufficient for some, but pretty silly for most.
Thanks for watching.