Welcome to the ultimate go-to guide for choosing an iPad in 2019.
Now that the new iPad Air and iPad Mini are available, Apple’s 2019 iPad lineup is complete,
alongside the 2018 budget iPad and 2018 iPad Pro. and I personally think this is it until
next year.
There’s no reason for Apple to update the budget iPad until next year, since they’ll
have to raise the price into the iPad Mini’s territory, and same for the iPad Pro, since
the hardware is already way ahead of the current iOS software.
So with four iPads in the lineup, how in the world do you choose one?
Well, I’m confident that by the end of this video, you’ll be able to make up your mind!
And we’re gonna have links to the best sales on each of these iPads in the description
below so check those out if you make up your mind!
Let’s get started with design differences.
All three non-pro iPads look basically identical on the back side.
The Pro looks much different with a darker space gray finish, antenna bar at the top,
and a large camera bump, which none of the other iPads get, but it’s for good reason,
as you’ll see in the camera comparison.
The Pro also gets the smart connector on the back since it uses magnets to attach to the
smart keyboard, and the iPad Air is also the only non-Pro iPad ever to get the smart connector,
but it’s on the side.
The iPad Pro is also the only iPad out of this lineup that gets four speakers, two on
the bottom and two on top, and as you’ll hear later, it destroys the others in the
sound comparison.
Another difference is USB-C on the Pro, but you can’t really do much with it yet.
But you do get a faster 18W charger compared to the old 12W charger that comes with the
rest of these iPads.
Of course, the Pro gets the new modern square-edged design that also comes with rounded corners
on the display, making the other iPads look outdated compared to it.
However, the Pro is the only iPad that doesn’t get a headphone jack, which sucks for a lot
of people, but it makes for the thinnest iPad out of the lineup, which is nice, but it led
to some bendgate issues, which I personally haven’t experienced at all.
The Pro has even bezels all-around thanks to the removal of Touch ID and the switch
to Face ID, which by the way, works great since there’s no notch and you can use it
in any orientation, even upside down.
Some people still prefer Touch ID though, and that’s totally fine.
The Pro has smaller bezels than the 2018 iPad, but both the 2019 Air and Mini actually have
slimmer bezels on the side.
Moving onto display differences, the new Air and Mini have literally identical displays,
but the Mini packs the same amount of pixels into the smaller 7.9” display, so it has
the highest pixels per inch out of the whole iPad lineup, including the Pro, and it also
comfortably fits in one hand so it’s the lightest and most portable out of all of these.
The 2018 budget iPad is the only one that doesn’t get a fully laminated display, which
basically means the display is glued to the glass.
This leads to it looking a little grey, lacking deep blacks like the rest, and there’s a
gap between the display and the glass which is noticeable from an angle, and especially
while using the Apple Pencil.
It’s also the only one that doesn’t have an anti-reflective coating, so you’ll notice
reflections a lot more.
It doesn’t get P3 wide-color gamut either, like the other iPads, which makes for a very
color accurate display with colors that really pop.
It also lacks True Tone, which automatically adjusts the display’s color balance to match
the environment you’re in.
I personally love True Tone!
So as you can see, the 2018 budget iPad is really lacking in the display department.
Now the 2018 iPad Pro gets a couple more things, it boasts 600 nits of brightness compared
to 500 on the 2019 iPads and around 450 on the budget iPad.
The iPad Pro also gets ProMotion, which is huge in my book!
It allows the display to refresh at up to 120Hz and dynamically go down to match the
frame rate of the content you’re viewing to save battery life.
As you can see in this slow-mo clip, the difference in the smoothness of ProMotion compared to
the other iPads in this lineup is huge!
And trust me, you’ll feel this difference every day!
Not only that, but ProMotion lowers the latency of the Apple Pencil as well, and you can easily
see the difference compared to the other iPads in this slow-mo clip.
Speaking of the Apple Pencil, all of the iPads support it, but the Pro supports the new Apple
Pencil 2, which is better in every way.
You don’t have to plug it into the side like on the other iPads.
It magnetically attaches to the side and instantly starts pairing and charging.
The new matte finish feels a lot better in the hand and it comes with a new double-tap
to switch tools feature which is incredibly convenient.
Now let’s get into that speaker comparison, and make sure to put on some headphones.
Before we get into performance and gaming, let’s quickly compare the cameras.
The Pro gets flash on the rear with a 12MP sensor compared to 8 on the other iPads, and
here’s a photo comparison between them, the Pro obviously looks better than the others.
The Pro is also the only one that can shoot 4K video at 60 frames per second.
On the front-side, the budget iPad only gets a 1.2MP sensor compared to 7MP on the other
iPads, so selfies look horrible compared to the other iPads, especially the Pro since
it gets Portrait mode thanks to the Face ID sensors.
The Pro also gets 5 microphones instead of 2 on the other iPads so it sounds much better
as well.
Now let’s finally get into performance!
The budget iPad only gets 2GB of RAM compared to 3 on the 2019 iPads and 4 on the Pro.
But you can also get up to 6GB on the Pro if you buy the 1TB model, but it’s not worth
the cash for almost everyone.
The budget iPad gets the A10 processor, compared to the A12 on the 2019 iPads and the A12X
on the Pro.
The budget iPads A10 is also the only one that doesn’t come with the neural engine.
Getting into the Geekbench 4 benchmark, the budget iPad is way behind the others in terms
of single-core, and even more behind in multi-core, with the Air and Mini almost doubling the
score, and the Pro almost tripling the score!
In the Metal test, the Air and Mini are around 75% faster than the budget iPad, and the iPad
Pro is almost 2x faster than the 2019 iPads, and over 3x faster than the budget iPad.
In Antutu’s 3D benchmark, there isn’t as big of a difference now, but the iPad Pro
is still around 2.5x faster than the 2018 iPad.
Finally, for a more realistic test, we exported a 1-minute 4K 60p video on each of the iPads,
and the iPad Pro finished 4x sooner than the budget iPad, and it was over twice as fast
as the 2019 iPads.
This is where you’ll actually feel the power of the new iPad Pro.
And now let’s talk about gaming.
Each of these iPads apart from the budget iPad can run Fortnite at High graphics at
60 frames per second.
The budget iPad can only run Medium graphics at 30 frames per second.
And that’s the same story for other games like Asphalt 9, running at 30 instead of 60
like on the other iPads.
The graphics are noticeably worse and I also noticed some dropped frames while gaming.
The iPad Air, Mini and Pro all run Fortnite and Asphalt 9 perfectly at 60 fps, no dropped
frames or issues at all, so the extra power of the Pro isn’t really being used for almost
every game on the app store.
Out of all of them, the iPad Mini is by far the most comfortable to hold in the hand while
gaming.
The others weigh quite a bit more so your hands will get tired over time.
Let’s quickly mention some other spec differences before I start recommending which iPad you
should buy.
The budget iPad gets Bluetooth 4.2 compared to 5.0 on the other iPads, which also get
simultaneous dual-band WiFi for more bandwidth and a more reliable connection.
They also get Gigabit-class LTE if you’re buying that model.
Now with all of that said, which iPad should you buy?
Well, the iPad Pro is obviously the best and most powerful iPad, but it’s also the most
expensive, at $800.
The four speakers and ProMotion technology make a huge difference in daily use, but if
you’re not gonna be doing high-end editing or anything that can use the power of the
A12X chip, you’ll probably be better off with the 2019 iPad Air.
If you’ve got extra cash, you love the new design and you want to keep it for over 5
years, the Pro may be worth the investment since software will soon catch up to its amazing
hardware.
Also, if you’re a serious artist, the laminated display, ProMotion tech, and Apple Pencil
2 make it the best option for drawing, and you can get the Pro in the 12.9” size as
well.
Now the iPad Air is the best all-around iPad since it gets all of the amazing display tech,
the 10.5” size is great for most people and the A12 processor is really powerful and
can run most of the apps and games that the A12X can.
It’ll also be fast enough for most photo editing tasks as well.
The new Air is also the only non-Pro iPad that comes with the smart connector, so if
you’re planning on getting the smart keyboard and you don’t want to spend the extra cash
on the Pro, the Air is a great all-around long-term option for the price.
Now the Mini is literally identical to the Air in almost everything except that it doesn’t
get the smart connector and it packs the same amount of pixels in a smaller display, so
it’ll look sharper if you get up close to it.
It’s also $100 cheaper than the Air so you can save a good amount if you’re fine with
the small display.
I’d also like to say that if you play a lot of games, the Mini is the best choice
since it’s so comfortable to hold for longer gaming sessions.
It’s small, light, and portable, so it’ll be a great option for kids as well.
Now the budget iPad will also be a good option for kids since the non-laminated display is
really cheap to replace.
It’s the slowest out of the bunch, the display and cameras are worse, but it’s also the
cheapest, especially if you can find it on sale for only $250 on Amazon.
Check the link below to see if it’s still on sale.
It’s a great budget option for everyone who just needs a basic iPad to do iPad things,
and it’ll be fine for most of the popular games on the app store.
Well there you have it, if this comparison didn’t help you make a decision, comment
below with your specific situation and we’ll help you out!
If you enjoyed this video, hit that subscribe button for more videos like this one.
This has been Vadim with Max Tech, and we’ll see you in the next one!