A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about possibly selling my 2018 iPad Pro to raise some money for the new miniLED version that most analysts and leakers expect to arrive in a little over a month. It actually just sold yesterday on Swappa, but I actually put it up for safekeeping right after writing that article.
Evidently Santa’s is getting a lot of letters about Apple’s iPad Air. According to real estate blog HomeSnacks, the company’s newest tablet is a pretty popular potential present this year. That’s especially the case for people living in Alabama and Massachusetts. More on that in a second.
I’ve reviewed several cases from UAG over the years, including their new Mouve case for the iPhone 12 Pro Max a few weeks ago. I’ve also looked at their Metropolis cases for a few different models and sizes of iPad, as well as the original Surface Go. While I really like that case design, I was happy to see a new and different model available from UAG for Apple’s recently released iPad Air.
The iPad Pro has all the horsepower you could ever want from a tablet and the Magic Keyboard adds a laptop-quality keyboard and trackpad to the equation. Anyone who has used them can tell you how capable they are. You would never catch me saying otherwise.
However, the price tag is a definite obstacle. We are talking about $1,098 for the base model 11” Pro and a whopping $1,348 for the base 12.9” Pro. And that doesn’t include the 2nd gen Apple Pencil, which adds another $129. That’s a lot of money, especially if the Pro isn’t your primary computing device.
I tried buying a Logitech Folio Touch for the 11” iPad Pro before my new iPad Air arrived last week. I knew that cases for the two should be interchangeable and that is true except for one not so little detail- TouchID. Many iPad cases cover the Power button with flexible material. Unfortunately, the Folio Touch for the 11” Pro does this, rendering TouchID on the iPad Air unusable.
Unfortunately, the model for the new iPad Air wasn’t in stock at any of my BestBuys yet, but I was able to get one shipped and it arrived last week while I was working out of town, so I started kicking the tires on it this weekend.
So who is the iPad Air for, exactly? The fast answer to this question is pretty much anyone who is interested in using a tablet. After a few days of kicking the tires and comparing the new Air 4 to the iPad Pro, I feel very confident in the opinion that it is the new default Apple tablet. It is the Goldilocks iPad- not too much, not too little. It’s just right.
My time with the iPad Air 4 yesterday was about getting set up and started with it. Today was about leaning into a few specific features to see how they work, as well as how they stack up with the iPad Pro. Specifically, I tested the new TouchID sensor, and did some real-world testing on the processor and the speakers.
I came home from working out of town to a new iPad Air. Unfortunately, after a long couple of days on the road, it didn’t make it out of the box. However, after a good and long night’s sleep, I got the new Air out this morning and got started.
I’m still waiting for the last of the applications from my iPad Pro’s backup to make their over as I start writing, but I’ve spent enough time with the new hardware to form some initial impressions.
We know for certain that preorders for Apple’s new 6.1″ iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro will begin at 5 AM Pacific tomorrow in the United States and 29 other countries. Normally I would be sitting this one out and going about my day when 7 AM Central rolls around, but the rumor mill just keeps me hanging on.
And that game would be called bait and switch. Or maybe it’s just a little deck shuffling slight of hand. Either way, the iPad Air still isn’t here and if you believe the Apple rumor mill, it sounds like it won’t be here after today’s event, either.
One of the top leakers in the biz had something to say about one of Apple’s newest tablets earlier this evening.