- Hey friends, welcome back to the channel.
Today, we are gonna be talking about
which iPad out of the legend choices that we have,
which iPad you should buy in 2021.
Let's go.
(upbeat music)
So in the market for an iPad in 2021,
there are five options to choose from.
We've got the iPad Mini, the iPad Budget, the iPad Air
the 11 inch iPad Pro and the 12.9 inch iPad Pro.
And two, we're gonna go over each of those in turn.
And for each one, I'm gonna give you my opinion
on whether you should buy it.
And we'll talk about the performance and the value for money
and the fun factor for using that particular iPad.
All right, let's start with the iPad Mini.
Now, I probably wouldn't recommend the iPad Mini for anyone.
It hasn't been updated in a while.
It doesn't really give you the full experience
of using an iPad.
If you need a little device to read on,
you'd get a Kindle or use your phone.
If you need a little device to type on,
again you can just get an external keyboard for your phone.
But the iPad Mini isn't really an iPad that I would consider
as being a proper iPad.
And therefore, we're gonna kind of exclude it
from these calculations.
Next, we come to the Budget iPad.
Now the Budget iPad is actually genuinely really good.
It is the by far the best value for money iPad
that you can get.
And it's the one that the broadly trying to aim at students
or basically anyone on a budget.
In terms of performance the Budget iPad
has the 812 chip in it, which is actually very good.
The new iPads have the M1 chip in them.
But honestly, for most things, if you are most people,
you won't really notice a difference in performance
between the $329 Budget iPad and the $1,300, you know,
M1 iPad Pro.
And so if we're rating the performance of the iPad Budget,
we're gonna have to give it a three stars
because it is the least powerful chip
out of the iPad lineup.
But honestly,
most people probably won't notice the difference
between the 812 chip on this, the 814 on the iPad Air
and the M1 or the iPad Pro,
unless you're the sort of person
that pushes the iPad to its limits
which I personally am not.
Obviously if you're the sort of person
who does like professional grade things on an iPad,
like, I don't know, video editing or 3D modelling,
or like very intensive gaming, then
you're probably gonna notice a difference in performance.
But I know lots of people who have an iPad
and I don't know anyone who actually uses it
for those intensive level things.
And so if you are like 99% of people,
the Budget iPad performance wise will be completely fine
for you, right?
So what are the drawbacks of the Budget iPad?
Well, there are a few drawbacks.
The first one is that
it uses the old generation Apple pencil.
This is not a huge deal.
It just is slightly annoying to charge
because you have to stick the lightening thing
at the bottom of the thing.
And it just looks, it looks a little bit annoying.
Whereas for the second generation,
you can stick the iPad pencil
on the iPad, it chargers magnetically.
So you've gotta decide
is that like worth paying the extra money for.
The Budget iPad also
doesn't let you use the new magic keyboards.
The magic keyboards are very good
but you can use the smart keyboard, which is,
it's all right.
It's not as nice as the magic keyboards
and it doesn't have a track pad but it's still pretty good.
In terms of price,
if you were gonna get the Budget iPad, it starts at $330
but that's for the 64 gigabyte model.
And please don't get the 64 gigabyte model.
It's gonna run out of space very, very quickly
and you're gonna be very annoyed.
So if you upgrade the storage, ends up costing $430
for the Budget iPad, you get the 128 gigs of storage.
And then if you add on the cost
of the Apple pencil and the smart keyboard,
it ends up overall, the package costs $700.
This is still quite a lot of money to pay for an iPad
but the iPad is the best tablet on the market
as most people say, not just Apple fanboys.
And therefore this actually pretty pretty solid value
for money.
And so we're gonna give five stars to the Budget iPad
in terms of value for money.
And honestly, if you're looking to get an iPad
and you're on a budget, this is an absolute no-brainer.
It gives you, you know,
if we think of the iPad lineup,
it's basically a demonstration
of the idea of diminishing returns,
where you get a lot of bang for your buck,
for the Budget iPad, but then
as you pay more and more money for the iPad Air
and the iPad Pro and the iPad Pro 12.9 inch,
you actually get a lot less for your money
the more you pay for it.
And so you get this sort of diminishing returns type curve.
And I would suggest that the Budget iPad
probably has about 90% of the overall
kind of like a goodness of owning an iPad.
And so, yeah, if you're on any kind of budget,
Budget iPad is definitely the way to go.
But 10.9 inch model, it's very good.
Yes, you don't get the apple pencil, nice one.
And yes you get a slightly worse keyboard
but it is a fantastic option for students
or anyone who doesn't have like $1,200 to blow
on an iPad pro.
And finally, let's talk about the fun factor,
the joy of owning the Budget iPad.
And honestly, this is the point
at which the Budget iPad starts to flop a little bit.
Because yes, you do
like it is an iPad and it gets the job done of an iPad.
You can write on it.
The apple pencil feels broadly the same.
You can put the paper like screen protector on it,
if you want.
That's the screen protector that I use.
Link in the video description if you wanna check it out.
This is not not as nice to use as the iPad Air
or as the iPad Pro.
The display is only 60 hertz.
So it's not quite the fancy display of the iPad Pro.
The FaceTime HD camera is like 4.2 megapixels.
So if you're doing Zoom calls on an iPad,
it looks a bit crap.
And it is quite an old design.
You don't see many people with sort of the old design
with the touch ID button of the iPad these days.
So, I mean, I'm gonna have to give this one a two stars
in terms of like how nice and experience it is
to use the Budget iPad.
And so if you're gonna get one,
it's about weighing up, like, do you care more
about the fact that this is by far the best value for money?
And are you okay with the fact
that your user experience is gonna be a little bit,
well, it's significantly less good
than someone who has an iPad Air or an iPad Pro.
All right, let's move on to the iPad Air.
Now, the iPad Air is interesting.
It's sort of like the middle of the lineup starts
at $600 and it comes in all these fancy colours.
I have the sky blue version here.
Now, in terms of performance, the iPad Air is reasonable.
It's the A14 chips.
So it's a bit better than the 812
that we've got on the Budget iPad.
And it's not quite as good as the M1 chip
that we've got on the iPad Pro.
But, you know, again, when it comes
to performance on an iPad, you probably wouldn't set again
unless you're a pro level user who really needs the power
of the M1 chip which almost no one in the world is.
The 814 chip is gonna be absolutely fine.
And so we're gonna give this a four stars
in terms of performance.
But again like it's probably five stars
for most people 'cause you just won't notice the difference.
The real problem with the iPad Air comes in
when we think about the value for money.
So it does start at $600.
But again, the problem is that
the $600 gives you the 64 gigabyte version of the iPad Air.
That is really bad.
You do not wanna buy an iPad with 64 gigs of storage
because it's gonna run out of space very, very quickly
and you're gonna be super annoyed by it.
And so we need to upgrade the storage.
But the only storage upgrade option is to 256 gig.
And that takes the cost up to $750.
That is remarkably similar to the cost
of the 11 inch iPad Pro, which is $799.
So like again, value for money,
I'm gonna have to give this like a two star rating
because it fits into this like very weird camp
where realistically the one you're gonna buy
is exactly the same price as the 11 inch iPad Pro.
In fact, if you get the Apple pencil and the magic keyboard,
with it, it takes it to a total cost of about $1,200
for the 256 gigabyte version.
And honestly, if I had $1,200,
I would never ever ever get an iPod Air.
I would instead just shell out an extra $50, whoops
for the 11 inch iPad Pro
because the iPad Pro has a lot more quality
of life improvements than the iPad Air.
Finally, let's talk about the joy factor, the fun factor
how nice this thing is to use.
It's nicer than the Budget iPad
but it's just not as nice as the iPad Pro.
And the thing that makes it not as nice as the iPad Pro
is purely the screen.
So the iPad Air, again
only has a standard like 60 Hertz display screen
whereas the iPad Pro has the 120 Hertz promotion display.
And it doesn't like, I didn't
I think I would notice much of a difference,
but like the iPad Pro screen is so much more smooth and nice
and a pleasure to use than the iPad Air screen.
If the only iPad you've ever used is an iPad Air
or a Budget iPad,
you probably won't realise what you're missing from going
from 60 hose to 120 Hertz
where the display on the iPad Pro is just so smooth.
But I think the smoothness of that display
and the fact that it's just got a brand new
more powerful chip makes the iPad Pro 11 inch a no-brainer.
If you are in the camp of spending in the region of,
I don't know, 700 to 1200
depending on how many accessories you have,
if you're spending that amount on an iPad
I would not recommend the iPad Air in the slightest.
Even though I'd like to
because it's pretty and it's got nice colours and stuff.
Let's talk about the 11 inch iPad Pro now.
So it's actually very similar to the iPad Air.
You can still use the, it's got the same keyboard
the magic keyboard, which is awesome.
They've got the same Apple pencil.
Again, second generation Apple pencil.
You can do the same things.
But the crucial difference
between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro is that
the iPad Pro is now well as of this recording brand new
and has the M1 chip
which is better than the 814 chip.
Not that anyone's really gonna notice,
but as I said, the main thing is the promotion display
that makes the iPad Pro
like a really smooth and lovely and nice experience.
Now, the iPad Pro starts at $800
for the 128 gigabyte option.
And I think 128 gigabytes is actually completely fine.
I have 128 gigabyte version
and I don't have an issue with it.
Like I've never had an issue with 128.
I have had an issue with 64.
So it's completely reasonable to buy the $800
128 gigabyte base model of the M1 iPad Pro.
And then of course,
if you add in the Apple pencil for 129
and the magic keyboard for $300,
it ends up taking you to about $1,200
which is basically the same price as the iPad Air.
But instead you get an iPad Pro
with a nicer screen and a better chip.
The new iPad pro lineup also has this cool feature
where the sort of the front facing camera is higher quality.
And it does this really cool thing
where it follows you around if you're walking around.
I've never needed to use it
because whenever I'm on a call, I'm generally sitting down
and I don't need the camera to follow my head.
But it's a nice little thing to have
if you're the sort of person that walks around
doing presentations while you're on a Zoom call.
So performance wise,
obviously we've got to give this five stars.
It's got the brand new M1 chip.
It's the same chip that's in the iMac.
And it's in the MacBook Pros and the MacBook Airs.
It's now in the iPad as well,
which is quite a bit of overkill.
A lot of people are saying
because iPad OS, the operating system,
it doesn't really let you use the sorts of apps broadly
that actually use the M1 chip to its full potential.
But either way, performance definitely gets a five star.
In terms of value for money,
we're gonna give this a four star rating.
But I think it is really important to keep in mind
that the diminishing returns.
So again, you get 90% of the value
of having an iPad from the Budget iPad for 430 or $700,
if you buy all the stuff.
And if you spend an extra 300 like,
if you spend an extra $400
literally double the price of the Budget iPad,
you get an extra, like, I don't know, 10% like 9% of value.
I would give this sort of a 99%.
You get like 99% of the value of having an iPad
with the 11 inch iPad Pro because it's just so nice
but it is double the price of the Budget iPad.
And all accessories considered this plus pencil
plus keyboard is 700
whereas I've had iPad pro plus pencil and keyboard is 1200.
So you're paying an extra $500 basically
for like 9% extra user experience.
For me personally, that is actually worth it.
Even if I don't notice any performance difference
between the Budget iPad and the iPad Pro,
I'm still more likely to use the iPad Pro
because of the joy of using it
because the screen is so nice because the keyboard is nice
because the pencil is a bit more convenient.
And because the sorts of things I do on my iPad Pro
involve like focused work like writing.
You know, if I can squeeze out a few extra hours
of productivity in a given year,
that easily makes up for the price of the iPad Pro.
That's a position that you're gonna be in.
If you run your own business,
if you use the iPad for work stuff.
If you're a student,
you should you get the Budget iPad or the iPad Pro.
Don't get the iPad air.
IPad air, we are putting away
because it does not count anymore
because of the weird price point.
And if you're a student,
should you get Budget iPad or iPad Pro,
I think broadly, it really comes down to
how much money do you want to blow on an iPad?
You will prefer the iPad Pro if you get it,
it's really, really nice.
But if you need to save money
then the Budget iPad also does the job just as well.
And as I said earlier, the thing that you're paying for
is really the user experience rather than performance.
And so if you're a student
trying to convince your parents to get you an iPad, sure,
try and shell for the iPad Pro
and you can convince your parents, oh
I really need an iPad Pro for university,
but realistically you can get away with a Budget iPad.
It's just a little bit less nice to use.
Finally, let's talk about the 12.9 inch iPad Pro.
Now this is exactly the same as the 11 inch iPad Pro.
It's same performance, same everything, except
this time around increased the like it's a fancier screen.
So I think it's like an older display.
And side by side, it's kinda hard to tell the difference
but like watching something on Netflix
or something on YouTube, the fact that, you know,
this is an old led display means the blacks look more black
and it looks a bit more contrasty
and just a little, a bit more nice.
Honestly, if I didn't look at themselves by side,
I wouldn't really notice
that this screen is noticeably better
than the screen that I would expect to see on an iPad.
But, you know, maybe I'm weird like that.
Plus I always have the people like screen protector
which I've not yet installed on this, which I'm going to.
And that is a matte screen protector.
That's sort of makes the screen a little bit more like,
you know, is my old one mat
but it also makes it much nicer to write on
and genuinely feels like paper.
So if that sounds up your street at the affiliate link
in the video description, it's not sponsored,
but I do get a bit of a kickback.
If you buy the screen protector,
it's very good, I would recommend.
Anyway, the iPad Pro is great.
Like obviously performance has five stars
because it's the M1 chip, which is the same chip
as in the 11 inch iPad Pro and the IMAX
and the MacBook Pros and the MacBook Airs.
Now, value for money again is a bit difficult
because this is the true, you know,
the big daddy of iPads.
It is 100% of the power of having an iPad,
but it costs $1,600.
It's like 1100 for the baseline,
and then you add the magic keyboard
and you add the Apple pencil and you end up paying
like 1,517 or $1,600 for the iPad package.
That's not very good value for money.
Again, if you're the sort of person
who is not price sensitive about these things,
and you really want a big screen,
then by all means, go for it.
But for most people, I would suggest that
the iPad Pro 12.9 inch is probably a bit overkill.
In the past, it used to be my daily driver.
I used to take this to work.
I used to have the magic keyboard attached to it.
I used to do lots of writing
and lots of work on the iPad pro.
But ever since the M1 MacBook pro and MacBook Air came out,
I haven't really had any much need to use
a 12.9 inch iPad Pro
because if you have a 13 inch laptop that you carry with you
which has amazing battery life
and it's thin and light and gets the job done,
then carrying another 12.9 inch
with a keyboard that looks kinda like a laptop
and just works a little bit less well than a laptop.
I haven't found that to be particularly handy.
And so to be honest,
my main driver these days is the 11 inch iPad Pro.
And I always carry this with me
along with my 13 inch MacBook Pro.
And so if I need something that requires a laptop
or if I'm on a desk or something,
I will absolutely always reach for the MacBook Pro.
But if let's say I'm chilling on the sofa
or I'm on a train and I don't have much space, you know,
then I will bust out the iPad Pro
and I'll do some writing on the 11 inch monitor.
Anyway, going back to the 12.9 inch performance,
definitely a five star, but we're gonna have to give this
like a one-star in terms of value for money, just
because of how expensive it is compared to what you get.
But again, that's the sort of thing you'd expect
from this diminishing returns end of the spectrum.
And in terms of joy factor,
we're gonna have to give this a five stars.
It's just such a, it is really nice.
It's a pleasure to use.
It's super nice.
And the screen is side-by-side a little bit nicer
than you would get on the 11 inch model.
And so let's put all of this stuff together.
So what would be my recommendations if someone asked me
all right, Ali, which iPad should I get?
I wanna say, I think the biggest thing is just
how much money do you want to blow on an iPad?
If you are on a budget and you want an iPad
and you need not, I don't think anyone needs an iPad.
But if you're on a budget and you want an iPad
then the Budget iPad is absolutely the way forward.
It will get the job done.
If however, you have more money to burn
then the iPad Pro 11 inch would be my recommendation.
It's very hard to recommend the iPad Air these days, purely
because of how the pricing and the upgrade structure works
and the fact that it doesn't have the 120 Hertz display
which is like super, super nice.
And it's very hard to recommend the 12.9 inch iPad Pro
unless you literally want the iPad
to be your only device that you carry with you.
In which case 12.9 is actually quite nice
and better to have
because it just gives you more screen real estate
than the 11 inch model.
If you're the sort of person
who needs pro-level performance, again
you've got to go for the iPad Pro
because the 812 chip in the Budget iPad
is probably not gonna cut it.
And the 814 in the iPad air, well,
why would you get an iPad Air given all the stuff
we've talked about?
And if you're a student again,
like how much can you convince, you know,
yourself or your parents to pony up,
Budget iPad, totally fine.
iPad Pro just a little bit nicer to use.
And if you're thinking of getting an iPad Pro
and you're really not sure between the 11 inch
and the 12.9 inch, despite the price difference,
you should check out this video over here
which explains why I personally chose
the 12.9 inch iPad Pro.
My mind on this has changed a little bit
because of the addition of the MacBook Air
and MacBook Pro M1 liner which is now my daily driver.
But that video will give you kind of my thought process
on 11 inch versus a 12.9 inch.
Thank you so much for watching
and hopefully I'll see you in the next video.
Bye-bye.