The iPad Air is good, but not the iPad to buy
Why should you buy the iPad Pro, iPad Air, or an iPad to become a MUST-HAVE? The Case for the 11–inch iPad Pro and the iPad Air
Preorders for the new iPad Pro and iPad Air models are already underway, with discounts on select colors ahead of the May 15th launch. The base iPad Air is going for 769.95 ($30 off) at Amazon but the 11-inch iPad Air is down to $569.99 with wi-fi and 128 gigabytes of storage. Meanwhile, the 256GB 11-inch iPad Pro with the M4 chip / Wi-Fi is down to $949.99 ($50 off) at Amazon; you can also save $50 on all 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models at Best Buy if you’re a My Best Buy Total or Plus member (which itself starts at $49.99 a year).
But honestly? If you’re just looking for a way to send emails, browse the web, play games, and maybe make an iMovie or two, none of that will really change the way you use your iPad. An iPad is an iPad, and until Apple fixes things or opens up the operating system, you just aren’t going to get enough out of it to become a must-have. You can do lots of things on an iPad, which is great! But the list is pretty much the same no matter which tablet you’re holding. The iPad Pro is the best iPad, no question about it, but it’s also a very expensive iPad. And it’s still an iPad.
Outside of a couple of specific scenarios, I don’t think I’d tell you to buy this year’s iPad Air. Not because it’s not great — it is great! It is just that the base iPad is just as good at every iPad activity as the one you purchase for $250 less. The 10th-generation iPad is a few years old, but it’s still an excellent device and Apple lowered its price from $450 to $349. The iPad, not the iPad Air, is the right iPad for most people.
In real use, the Air is much closer to the base iPad than the Pro, which puts it in an awkward tweener position. It is possible that having a lot of processing power will become very useful, since Apple continues to push into on-device artificial intelligence features, and you get the M2, instead of the A14 Bionic. The M2 is more future proof than the A14 Bionic and it’s definitely a better option.
