New tablet looks stunning, is fast with long battery life, great 10.9in screen, speakers and video call camera
The latest tablet on the block is the totally revamped iPad Air with a modern design and plenty of power.
The fourth-generation iPad Air costs £579 and fits in between the £329 iPad and the £769 11in iPad Pro.
The new iPad Air ditches the older design still used by the basic iPad, which still has a home button, large bezels around the screen and curved edges. The new tablet is practically identical to the 11in iPad Pro, matching its height, width, aluminium back and flat sides. It has thin bezels around the screen, although the display is a smidgen smaller at 10.9in on the diagonal compared with the Pro’s 11in, giving it a stunning and modern look.
The display is really good – colourful, crisp and bright. It is significantly better than the basic iPad but doesn’t have the faster “ProMotion” refresh rate of the iPad Pro, so doesn’t look quite as slick when scrolling around the home screen, apps and sites.
The tablet has really good speakers that are stereo when held in landscape orientation. It also has a magnetic wireless charger for the optional Apple Pencil stylus (£119) on one edge, a USB-C port for charging and connecting accessories such as card readers, plus a pogo-pin smart connector on the back for attaching keyboards and cases.
The seven-megapixel selfie camera and excellent microphones make video calling easy and great. The rear 12-megapixel camera is pretty good too, but is still beaten by a good smartphone.
The power button now doubles as a Touch ID fingerprint scanner, as the iPad Air has neither Face ID nor a home button. It works well but is certainly a downgrade from Face ID on the iPad Pro.
Specifications
Screen: 10.9in 2360x1640 Liquid Retina display (264ppi)
Processor: Apple A14 Bionic
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64 or 256GB
Operating system: iPadOS 14.1
Camera: 12MP rear, 7MP selfie camera
Connectivity: Wifi 6 (4G optional, eSim), Bluetooth 5, USB-C, Touch ID
Dimensions: 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm
Weight: 458g (4G version: 460g)
The power button now does three things: press to power on, rest to unlock with your fingerprint and press-and-hold for Siri.
iPadOS 14 supports standard Bluetooth keyboards and mice.
The selfie camera is mounted in the left side when held in landscape – it would have been better at the top as most video calls are landscape like a laptop, not portrait.
Price
The wifi-only 2020 iPad Air costs £579 with 64GB or £729 with 256GB of storage. 4G-capable models cost an additional £130.
For comparison, the RRP for the 8th-generation iPad is £329, the iPad Pro costs from £769, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ costs £799 and the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 costs from £799.
Verdict
The iPad Air is essentially an 11in iPad Pro but with a few high-end features removed for a £190 price cut.
That means it has Apple’s attractive, modern tablet design, slim bezels, top performance, long and reliable battery life and a robust software ecosystem that will be kept updated for five-plus years.
The iPad Air is just as happy getting work done as it is as an entertainment station. Movies and TV shows look and sound great, as do even the most graphically intensive games, but if you want to use it as a laptop replacement you can with the right accessory.
It also has an excellent front-facing camera, good mics, and speakers that make great video calls easy, regardless of your app of choice.
The iPad Air is not cheap but it is the all-rounder that’ll beat pretty much any tablet in its class.
Pros: modern design, great performance, good battery life, great screen, USB-C, iPadOS, plenty of apps, great speakers, great mics, great video-call camera, long support, recycled aluminium.
Cons: no Fortnite or cloud game streaming, no multiuser support, relatively small storage on the starting model with no way to add more, comparatively expensive.
