With the release of the iPad in October 2022, Apple officially celebrated 10 years with one of its most popular and sought-after products. When compared to the first generation, this is the first time Apple has made a stunning design overhaul for the 10th-generation tablet, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the costly iPad Pro and iPad Air. The $449 price tag, however, appeared to be a source of concern and a difficult pill to swallow for many users. Continue reading the blog to get more details and understand if it is worth your precious pennies.
Body Design
The iPad comes with an aluminum chassis and has a solid build of glass on the front and aluminum on the back. Finally, the size of the display has been extended, and in that process, the Home button has been removed. In place of that, it has a built-in Touch ID, and the bezels have become much thinner, though they are still noticeable. The dimensions of the device are 248.6 x 179.5 x 7 mm, which makes it easily fit in a sling, backpack, or messenger bag. Weighing only 481 g (LTE), it is also easier to carry around than many other tablets. The device has dual microphones for calling and stereo speakers that emit decent sound for a tablet, but there is no audio jack or external memory slot.
Display
The 10th generation iPad has a 10.9 in Liquid Retina IPS LCD display, which provides decent visuals. The device has a peak brightness of up to 500 nits, which is great for the indoors but struggles in the outdoors on a sunny day, and an anti-reflective coating would have been appreciated by the users. With a screen-to-body ratio of 80.5%, the iPad (2022) is equipped with an oleophobic coating and is scratch resistant. The iPad comes with a resolution of 1640 x 2360 pixels and has a pixel density of 264 PPI. Both video and image reflect rich color tones with utmost accuracy and hit 101.2% on the sRGB color gamut and 71.7% on the DCI-P3 color space. In the Delta E-test for color accuracy, the lower the score, the better the accuracy, iPad(2022) scored 0.21, which is better than iPad Air, which had a score of 0.29.
Technical
The iPad (2022) runs on iPadOS 16.1 and is equipped with the Apple A14 Bionic chip, similar to the one present in the iPhone 12. Yes, it is true that the A14 Bionic chip is not as powerful as the M1 and M2 chips present in the iPad Air and iPad Pro, but it has enough juice to run heavy-duty apps and games smoothly without any glitches. The 10th generation iPad has a hexacore CPU with four efficiency cores and two performance cores. It scored around 1,580 on a single core and 4,400 on a multi-core on Geekbench, which is pretty impressive. The 4-core GPU on the 3D Mark Wild Life test came up with 51.4 frames per second and scored 8,579. Apple should review its storage options, as the iPad (2022) comes with the same 64/256 GB options as the previous generation.
Keyboard And Stylus
While buying the iPad (2022), if you have in mind to use it as a mini laptop for your everyday work, then the Magic Keyboard Folio is a must-have accessory. It consists of two parts, a magnetically attached back with a kickstand, and the keyboard, which is side mounted. The Smart Connector is used for synchronization and power configuration. Though the keyboard is not stable for lap typing, but it does offer a 14 key function row, 1 mm of travel, and a large and responsive trackpad. It is quite frustrating to see that the iPad (2022) supports the first-generation Apple Pencil, which was introduced in 2015. It is quite uncomfortable to use due to its slipperiness and also has issues regarding charging now that Apple has shifted to USB-C. But that aside, it is responsive and fast enough to create doodles or take down notes. Both of these accessories are not included in the package and have to be bought separately.
Camera
Whenever we are talking about the camera of a tablet, we do not pay much attention due to its poor quality. But that is not the case when you use the iPad (2022) which is equipped with a 12 MP (wide) rear camera and a 12 MP (ultrawide) selfie camera. The rear camera is packed with features like Smart HDR 3, Digital Zoom (5x), Auto Image Stabilization, Panorama (up to 63 MP), and Burst Mode, among many others. The camera performs better than many budget-segment phones and takes decent pictures with balanced colors and clarity. The device has the ability to capture videos in 4K, 1080p, and 720p at multiple frame rates and also has features like Video Image Stabilization, Continuous Autofocus Video, Extended Dynamic Range, and Playback Zoom. The selfie camera has been relocated to the side edge, which makes video calls in landscape mode feel more natural on the 10th-generation iPad.
Battery And Connectivity
The iPad (2022) has a built-in 28.6 Wh battery, and surprisingly, Apple has provided a 20 W USB-C power adapter in the box. Apple promises around 10 hours of battery backup with web surfing and video consumption. But whenever you are doing heavy tasks like playing games or streaming videos on your favorite websites, the battery backup is bound to come down. For connectivity, the device is equipped with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
Wrapping Up
Available in colorful hues like Pink, Yellow, Silver, and Blue the iPad (2022) will cost you $449. Though the tablet has gone through a major transformation in various departments, it is quite arguable for a $120 price hike from the previous generation. You also had to splash out extra cash for the keyboard and stylus if you want to use it to its full potential. On a final note, it goes without saying that if you want a tablet for creative and casual use alike, the iPad (2022), though priced a bit higher, still remains one of the best in the market.
