Apple iPad Air – Preview
Until recently, if you wanted to use a tablet for high end video editing and music production, the iPad Pro was the only game in town. However, despite being a formidable machine, its price tag puts it out of reach of many a starving artist/musician/filmmaker. Clearly Apple get this, because its just announced iPad Air offers almost as much power as an iPad Pro for almost as little money as an iPad, making it a no brainer for creatives, on paper at least. Although we haven’t got our hands on one yet, we hope to bring you a full review in due course. In the meantime, here’s a quick look at what the new iPad Air has to offer.
The new iPad Air is based around Apple’s custom A12 Bionic chipset, which is also found in its iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. Whilst not quite as powerful as the A12X Bionic chipset found in its current iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9, it’s certainly no slouch. Indeed it is more powerful than the A11 chipset that powered the last iteration of Apple’s iPad Pros!
Unlike the iPad Pros which offer four capacities (64GB, 256GB, 512GB & 1TB), the iPad Air offers just two – 64GB & 256GB. For general use, drawing and illustration (the iPad Air is compatible with Apple’s 1st, but not its second, generation Pencil) the $499/£479 64GB model is probably adequate. For pro video, audio and photography, we reckon that paying the extra $149/£150 for the 256GB model is likely to prove a good investment.
The most obvious difference between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro is that the former has the larger bezels and home button of the iPad. Compared to the iPad Pro 11, the iPad Air’s case is 3mm taller, 4.4mm less wide, 0.2mm deeper and has a 10.5″ instead of an 11″ screen.
The screens on both models are laminated, anti reflective & anti fingerprint-resistant coated LED-backlit 264 PPI IPS wide colour (P3) True Tone Retina displays, though the iPad Pro’s is a liquid retina display that offers ProMotion technology (which the iPad Air does not).
The other main differences are that the iPad Air has a lightening connector instead of USB-C, uses touch ID instead of face ID and has two speakers instead of 4.
There are some differences between the rear cameras on the iPad Air & iPad Pro (for example the iPad Air has an 8-megapixel f2.4 camera, whereas the iPad Pro has a 12-megapixel f1.8 camera) and video recording abilities (the iPad Pro can record 4K at up to 60FPS, 1080p at 120 fps and 720p at 240 FPS, whereas the iPad Air is restricted to 1080p HD standard and 720p 120 fps recording). However, if you are a creative, the chances are that you are shooting/editing content that was originated on a dedicated camera, so these differences are hardly likely to be a deal breaker.
Like the iPad Pro, the iPad Air is compatible with Apple’s smart keyboard (which cleverly doubles as a cover) for 2-in-1 functionality; and third party bluetooth keyboards.
All in all, at $499/£479 for the 64GB model & $649/£629 for the 256GB model, the iPad Air feels like it could be the iPad Pro for the creative masses. We look forward to testing it with apps such as Korg Gadget and Adobe Lightroom CC, in due course.
More info: https://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/
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