After updating the iPad Pro earlier this year, Apple last night updated the iPad Air with a whole new design, and the 8th-gen iPad with a new processor. The company’s entire iPad line-up (save the iPad Mini) is now updated for 2020 and if you’re wondering what are the differences between each of these devices, we have you covered.
iPad Pro vs iPad Air vs iPad: Design and Build
Up until last night, the iPad Pro was the most clean looking iPad on offer. It has thin bezels all around, a full screen display, and flat edges that harken back to the iPhone 4s days (in a good way). The iPad Pro comes with an aluminium body, a dual rear camera with a third LiDAR sensor, and four speakers plus a USB Type-C port.
The iPad Pro and iPad Air are closer than ever in terms of dimensions as well. In fact, both the iPad Pro and the iPad Air have the same height and width of 247.6mm and 178.5mm respectively. In thickness, you wouldn’t expect it, but the iPad Air is slightly thicker than the Pro. 0.3mm thicker that is. Still it’s a lighter iPad, weighing in at 458 grams as compared to the 471 grams of the iPad Pro.
Moving on, the iPad Pro’s display is one of the best in class. You get an 11-inch or 12.9-inch Liquid Retina display with a 264ppi pixel density. The resolution obviously varies by screen size, but the 11-inch iPad Pro has a 2388×1668 pixel display. It’s also a very bright screen, at 600 nits typical brightness. Plus, it’s laminated, has an anti-reflective coating on it, and supports P3 wide colour gamut. Moreover, unique to the iPad Pro so far is the 120Hz ProMotion display. Image: Apple
iPad Pro vs iPad Air vs iPad: Performance
The iPad Pro comes with Apple’s A12Z Bionic SoC. Up until now, this was certainly the fastest processor in an iPad. However, the new 4th-gen iPad Air comes with the latest A14 Bionic processor, which is bound to be the fastest processor in iPhones at least. The iPad Pro has an A12Z Bionic processor | Image: Apple
At the very least, it seems the iPad Air is on-par, if not better than, the iPad Pro right now in terms of performance. That said, Apple will likely upgrade the iPad Pro line-up with a new SoC sometime soon and that should bring the difference right back.
On the optics front (and back, heh), the iPad Pro leads the pack. For starters, it comes with the Face ID True Depth camera up front with a 7MP camera. This can take portrait photos, and create animojis and memojis. It also shoots 1080p videos, and supports Smart HDR.
On the other hand, the new iPad Air also comes with a 7MP camera on the front. However, this isn’t the True Depth camera system, so you don’t get features like portrait mode on the front camera, or support for animojis and memojis. You do, however, get support for shooting 1080p videos, and Smart HDR.
iPad Pro vs iPad Air vs iPad: Biometrics
All three of the iPad variants we’re discussing support biometric authentication for various purposes. Of course it’s used to unlock your device, but you can also use biometrics to make purchases on the App Store, and (in supported countries) use Apple Pay.
All three of these iPads have smart connectors. That means you can hook them up to Apple and Apple certified accessories for things like iPad keyboards. However, while the iPad Pro, and the new iPad Air both support Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio and the new Magic Keyboard, the 8th-gen iPad only supports Apple Smart Keyboard.
Similarly, the iPad Pro and the 4th-gen iPad Air both support the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil. This means you can attach the pencil magnetically to these iPads for charging and storage, which is a lot better than plugging in the 1st-gen Apple Pencil into the lightning port on your iPad. That, by the way, is exactly what you’ll have to do on the 8th-gen iPad since it still supports the first-gen Apple Pencil.
Both the iPad Pro and the 4th-gen iPad Air come with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. Plus, they support simultaneous dual band WiFi for speeds up to 1.2Gbps. On the other hand, the 8th-gen iPad comes with WiFi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.2.
Apple’s battery life claims for the iPad line-up are slightly confusing. The iPad Pro comes with a 28.65Wh battery in the 11-inch variant and a 36.71Wh battery in the 13-inch variant. On the iPad Air, you get a 28.6Wh battery, and the 8th-gen iPad packs in a 32.4Wh battery.
However, according to Apple’s testing, all the iPads are rated to last 10 hours of surfing the web on WiFi, or watching video. Or, 9 hours if you’re surfing the web on cellular networks. That makes sense somewhat for the 11-inch iPad Pro and the iPad Air, since both of them have almost the same sized display and the same sized battery. However, the 8th-gen iPad has a smaller 10.2-inch screen and a larger 32.4Wh battery but apparently still lasts the same as the iPad Pro and the iPad Air.
Starting from the most affordable, the 8th-gen iPad is priced at $329. The 4th-gen iPad Air starts at $599, while the iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 11-inch variant.
