The iPad confusion zone includes the Apple Pencil
The Apple Pencil and the iPad Mini: Where are we? Where do we stand with the iPad? Why do we need them? What do they need? Why are they worth it?
The pencil is not any better than cheaper alternatives without those features. It doesn’t attach to your iPad magnetically and doesn’t do the hover thing, but it’s also $10 cheaper. There are also magnetic Pencil knock-offs, some of which have USB-C charging and even work surprisingly well, often for less than $30.
Apple has been overdue for some iPad updates. The 10th-gen iPad was launched in October 2022, followed by the iPad Pros with M2 chips in March, and the new iPad mini in September.
The new Apple Pencil also doesn’t have the double tap feature that lets you switch back and forth between tools — I’m giving it a pass here, though. It’s been frustrating and inconsistent for me to use that feature. At least it has tilt sensitivity?
If you have one of the higher-end iPads, though, some more advanced product features may be important to you — and this new stylus cuts one feature too many.
The confusion of the Apple Pencil is made worse by the scattered state of iPads in general right now. With iPhones, you know what you’re getting — the cheaper models are mostly distinguished by their size, while the pricier ones generally just get some hardware niceties. If you purchase a regular iPhones, its the same experience as the Pro, just with less-than-satisfying cameras.
I think the features decisions here are more about market formation than they are about cutting costs and reaching a price point. I suspect a lot of people are like me, and they’re fully willing to give up a pressure-sensitive tip and a double tap feature that only works when it feels like it if they can have the convenient wireless charging thing. I think Apple suspects the same thing.
Not the case with the iPad. It’s old and cheap if you really need to save money, but you don’t have to pay for a lot of features. The 10th-gen iPad gives you that updated design and a bigger screen… but then it adds over $100 to the price and lacks key features. To get fully featured software while not paying for performance you don’t need, you have to buy at least last year’s iPad Air, which isn’t cheap at its $699 starting price. Then you get to the Pro models, and you again have to decide if you care more about convenient size or a better screen (the 12.9-inch model gets Mini-LED, while the 11-inch gets boring old LCD tech).
