This is the new iPad Air 5:
And this is the old iPad Air 4:
At first glance, yeah, their specs look pretty similar
It’s not the jump from the iPad Air 3 to the 4
This is more of an incremental upgrade
But, I want to draw your attention to 3 things of increasing importance
First, the camera system, specifically the front one, is a bit better,
being that it’s an ultra wide and it has Apple’s Center Stage feature,
so it has an improvement in quality and it follows your face as you move around,
which is especially useful since many of us are communicating via video calls,
but it’s not a feature that I would be too excited about
So, the next one is battery life,
which I would say is more important
because the iPad Air 5 runs a more powerful and more power-efficient processor
~more on that in a minute~
compared to the iPad Air 4
And, therefore, it gains a little bit more battery compared to its previous generation,
which is pretty significant
But, again, it’s not game-changing,
and it’s not the reason why we’re getting a new iPad Air
No, no, no. The reason why Apple upgraded the iPad Air is because of the processor
Say “hello” to Apple M1
Yes, M1 does seem like relatively old news now,
especially since we’re getting the M1 Max, and the M1 Ultra, …and even M2 maybe in the future
But, the point is that this is the cheapest Apple product that comes with this processor, and, therefore,
this kind of performance
Here are the benchmarks:
I mean, it’s pretty incredible what Apple silicon is capable of,
and you are certainly getting some killer value, even overkill performance, at this $600 price-point,
which is cheaper than one of the first products to receive this processor,
the iPad Pro, which is fairly similar to the iPad Air 5,
but I would caution you comparing the two
because things get a little hairy
The feature to note when comparing the two tablets would be the storage of the iPad Air 5
At $600, it only comes with 64 gigabytes of storage,
And the next tier up of 256 spikes the price all the way to $750,
which puts it right below the 11-inch iPad Pro, which starts at $800 (retail)
But, in some cases, they’re priced exactly the same
This has always been Apple’s strategy with its iPad line
Make the base model have fairly, almost unreasonably low storage
And then, if you upgrade, make that price just an inch short of the next model,
which makes you want to get the better, and oftentimes cooler, option,
with, again, less storage
So, you end up paying a lot more for something you don’t need
For instance, in the case of those considering upgrading the storage of the iPad Air 5,
It seems plausible to want to buy the iPad Pro
But, this is falling straight into Apple’s trap,
And I cannot say, in my good conscience, that there won’t be another iPad Pro model coming soon
But, in general, it does seem reasonable to want to get the iPad Pro 11-inch over the upgraded iPad Air 5
Because they have similar prices, but the iPad Pro has better features,
such as Apple ProMotion, or 120Hz refresh rate,
more speakers and more cameras
However, it does come with 128GB instead of 256 with the upgraded iPad Air,
so you might end up paying for something you don’t really need
You see what I mean? They make you choose between having more storage and more features
So, here’s what I think:
if you want to get the iPad Air 5, the newest iPad,
The 64GB option has the best value
It’s the cheapest and you can always get external storage which will be fairly low-cost compared to the built-in upgrades
But, if you want more storage and you don’t want to deal with SD cards,
This is more personal preference,
but focus on your needs first
Do you want more storage or do you want a better tablet?
If you just need more storage,
get the upgraded iPad Air 5
But, if you need a better tablet,
are you okay with 128 gigabytes or spending extra for more storage?
If so, get the iPad Pro
Whew
That was a difficult decision to make, but I hope it helps
Because Apple really does know how to get you buy things that you don’t need
They’re just that good at pricing and marketing
So, just make sure you buy the right device for you
But, ultimately,
all of this is your decision based on your preferences
Don’t just watch my video on this
I’ve linked many more down in the description to view at your discretion
My name is Cyrus
It’s spelled like “Cyrus,” pronounced like “See Rooster,” just take out the “ter’
Thank you very much for watching, good luck with your purchase, and have a wonderful day!