The 10th Generation iPad: A Newfound Sweet Spot?

Apple's ever-evolving tablet lineup has seen its fair share of upgrades and innovations, but the latest iteration of the base model iPad may be one that Apple's fans have been waiting for. With a price cut to $350, this device is no longer out of reach for those on a budget or looking for a more affordable option without sacrificing too much performance.

As I revisited Apple's base model iPad, I found the experience to be quite nice overall, with some paired expectations. It's expected that there would be trade-offs, and indeed, there are. For example, let's look at performance. The A14 Bionic chip included in this $350 iPad might be a few generations old by now, and is significantly down on power compared to the M2 chip in the 2024 iPad Air, which yields about half the performance in multi-threaded tasks. However, I still think it's an appropriate level of power for the base model iPad, especially given what probably 90% of people are doing on these devices.

Thankfully, iPad OS is rather well optimized for this hardware, and I found that with most of my regular use, it rarely skipped a beat. Absolutely fine for doing research and writing content, even in split window multitasking while playing video or picture and picture in the background. Naturally, you will start to feel the age of this chip while dabbling in more demanding tasks such as gaming, editing high-res RAW photos, or cutting together video at which point users will probably want to start looking at higher-end iPads or Macintoshes with better specs.

The adequate performance combined with great battery life, at 7,600 milliamp hours, I've gotten to around 10 hours of screen on time total, which is plenty for a full workday and some leisure time at home. Now, even with a more open mindset, there are still some things that annoy me with this 10th-generation iPad.

The price might have gotten better over time, but it still sucks that the accessories for it are rather expensive. For example, those who might want to sell their iPad as a laptop will probably want a keyboard. Apple's Magic Folio costs $250 MSRP and while not mission-critical, optioning a pencil is anywhere between $80 to $100 depending on whether you get the cheaper USBC one or the first-generation pencil with pressure sensitivity.

If I'm being honest, if you build the 10th-gen setup in the way that Apple wants you to with all of the extra add-ons, the cost of these accessories alone can rival that of the iPad itself. What's granted, it's always best to shop around for deals, refurbished items, and third-party options, but even still, that is an added cost to the iPad that can absolutely sneak up on you.

Having 64 gigs as the base storage option is kind of baffling for me in 2024, especially considering when the next tier up, the 256 gig model, is $150 extra. God Apple, I don't think 64 gigs will present much of an issue, especially if you plan on mainly using this device for streaming content, browsing the web, or using web-centric apps like Notion for word processing.

However, users that aren't necessarily on top of their storage usage, grandma might want to consider budgeting for an iCloud storage subscription or a physical storage upgrade. The biggest downside with the 10th-generation iPad, especially for tech enthusiasts who will always pursue better, is that the higher-end options can actually be pretty enticing for a handful of reasons.

This thought might be a bit counterintuitive considering I just heavily argued against the iPad Pro M4 but there is also something to be said that even a used M1 or M2 iPad Pro or used M1 Air are solid alternatives for not much more money if you happen to have some flexible budget. If you absolutely care about experience, then you'll be getting some mix of better displays maybe higher refresh rates and of course more performance.

It's hard to say whether Apple will continue to sandbag the functionality of iPad and iPad OS but if you can afford to get one with nicer laptop-class hardware it'll last you way longer especially as Apple starts introducing intricate functionality with AI that might require extra processing power.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the M4 iPad Pro keyboard and it costs as much as 350 bucks for the 13in model but you know what also costs 350 bucks this the base model 10th generation iPad and I think it's the best value for a new iPad you can buy today let's talk about it it's hard to believe that the 10th gen iPad launched nearly 2 years ago back then when I first covered it on the channel it was a tough sell namely in how Apple positioned it in its lineup for an entry-level iPad this was a much needed update over the previous generation with a modern design an increase in performance and a better screen however because it also retailed at $450 the value proposition wasn't quite there especially since the 9th generation iPad was still on sale for 330 it also probably didn't help that for a little extra cash there was the iPad Mini 6 with its excellent form factor which is available at $500 and the iPad Air M1 which offered way more performance at $600 however fast forward to the present in 2024 and Apple has actually updated the iPad lineup in a way that adds clear distinct separation between its price points on the top end there's the iPad Pro Pro M4 which starts at a whopping $1,000 then the iPad Air M2 which stays at 600 bucks offers clear mid-range performance in the lineup you also have that iPad Mini 6 which also stays the same price at 500 but most notably the 10th generation iPad receives a price cut to 350 making it the proper entrylevel iPad it was always destined to be I've actually been using this guy for the past couple of weeks leading up to that Apple event and I've come to enjoy my time with it especially knowing now that it's gotten cheaper I'll elaborate more on my experience a little later in the video but to really drive home that point of what real value looks like in the iPad space I think it's important to look at the contrast between the base model and its counterpart on the opposite side of the spectrum the 2024 iPad Pro which we also just got in for testing for starters this is the biggest update we've seen to the iPad Pro in quite a while and by that same token it is also now the most expensive it's ever been as well starting at $1,000 which is quite profound for a tablet no matter how you spin it it's funny you don't even get Apple stickers included in the Box anymore with that price of admission which Apple says this more for environmental reasons and you can't just go to the Apple store to buy the iPad and ask for the stickers there but still what else am I going to put on my car just kidding I don't drive a 1999 Ford Explorer now given everything that I've said about this device so far in the video some of you might be expecting me to completely rag on it but if I'm being real at least if we're looking at the hardware alone separate of all of the other context of price and comparisons to other devices I think that this iPad Pro M4 is shockingly impressive again I don't want to be lenient on this thing but credit where credits do man first of all it is an incredibly thin device this is the 11-in model which goes at I believe 5.3 mm thin which is awesome especially considering all of the stuff that they've actually crammed into here of course this is running Apple's next gen M4 so C which as expected is an improvement over last generation's M3 Austin Evans my boss who unboxed the iPad Pro and some content before I did ran geekbench 6 on this and these are the scores that he got I'm not going to scrutinize the performance here because I haven't had enough time to actually properly try this device but naturally the multicore score shows a year-over-year Improvement compared to last generation and I especially love this single core performance on this thing what this translates to in the real world is for simpler tasks like scrolling through iPad OS things are buttery smooth and very Snappy on top of including Apple's newest silicon again keeping in mind that this is one of the thinnest devices that Apple has ever made the fact that they were able to include a tandem OLED in here is also just as impressive how this technology works is they're actually stacking two SC screen layers on top of each other to benefit on top of all of the other stuff that come with OLED already such as the increased contrast the deeper blacks and the excellent color also improves screen brightness as well compared to Conventional olets we are talking a peak of up to 1,600 nits in HDR content which is seriously impressive especially given the screen sizes that they're giving you here yeah man loading up a 4K music video on here the image quality is absolutely nuts it's a shame this device costs $1,000 because it is a very good content consumption machine ah you're so good but so expensive speaking of expensive we should probably talk about the accessories for this iPad Pro as well namely the keyboard case which is probably the one that I'm excited about the most even though it can cost as as much as my 10th generation iPad this accessory specifically makes the iPad that much closer to becoming a Macbook replacement even though as we all know with iPad OS there's a lot more involved there to actually make this a proper full-fledged computer but for what it's worth I do like the improvements that they made to this case compared to the outgoing one last generation the allmetal deck lid feels way more premium I think the build quality is generally better I like the keyboard on here the function rows are especially nice because now you can change all of your settings if you want without having to go into Control Center and I like the new haptic trackpad as well which makes it kind of like a Macbook one where you can actually activate button presses on all four corners since there is no mechanical piece here we also have the new Apple pencil Pro which might not look too different from the previous generation but I think the key feature here is that you can actually squeeze it in order to bring up menus now I've even seen people activate series shortcuts with this kind of treating it like the action button on the iPhone 15 Pro it's nice that they give you some extra functionality with the pencil and I do think that for illustrators this is an absolute essential piece to include with your iPad Pro but man all of these accessories together the pencil costing $129 and this keyboard case for our 11-in Pro costing $300 on top of the fact that this 11in iPad Pro starts at $1,000 you are really encroaching into MacBook Pro territory if you want to spec this device out with all of the goodies if I'm being blunt the iPad Pro doesn't really make much sense to me as a product especially when I think about what people are actually doing on these devices they are taking notes in class doodling some artwork browsing the web scrolling socials and also streaming video which really begs the question do you really need the most technologically advanced iPad that Apple's everever made to do all that stuff probably not in fact one that costs half or even a third of the price will certainly do the trick it might be a bit weird to say that this device has matured into its role in Apple's tablet lineup but the price cut to $350 makes it so much sweeter in the time that I've spent revisiting Apple's Bas model iPad I found the experience to be quite nice overall at least with some paired expectations after all it's expected to have some trade-offs here and there to keep the cost low for example let's look at performance the A14 bionic chip included in this $350 iPad might be a few Generations old at this point and is significantly down on power compared to something like the M2 in the 2024 iPad Air which yields about half the performance in multi-threaded tasks however I do still think it is an appropriate level of power for the base model iPad especially given what probably 90% of people are doing on these things and thankfully iPad OS is rather well optimized for this Hardware too I found that with most of my regular use it rarely skipped a beat absolutely fine for doing research and writing content even split window multitasking while playing video picture and picture in the background naturally you will start to feel the age of this chip while dabbling in more demanding tasks such as gaming editing highres Raw photos or cutting together video at which point users will probably want to start looking at higher-end iPads or macintoshes with better specs the adequate performance combined with great battery life at 7600 milliamp hours I've gotten to around 10 hours of screen on time total which is plenty for a full workday and some Leisure Time at home now even with a more open mindset there are still some things that annoy me with this 10th generation iPad while the price might have gotten better over time it still sucks that the accessories for it are rather expensive for example those that might want the iPad to sell subin for a laptop will probably want a keyboard well Apple's magic folio costs $250 MSRP and while not Mission critical optioning a pencil is anywhere between $80 to $100 depending on whether you get the cheaper USBC one or the first generation pencil with pressure sensitivity now I'm no Matha wizard but if you build the 10th gen setup in the way that Apple wants you to with all of the extra add-ons the cost of these accessories alone can rival that of the iPad itself what the granted it's always best to shop around for deals refurbished items and thirdparty options but even still that is an added cost to the iPad that can absolutely sneak up on you also having 64 gigs as the base storage option is kind of baffling for me in 2024 especially considering when the next tier up the 256 gig model is $150 extra God Apple in all fairness I don't think 64 gigs will present much of an issue especially if you plan on mainly using this device for streaming content browsing the web or using web Centric apps like notion for word processing but users that aren't necessarily on top of their storage usage grandma might want to consider budgeting for an iCloud storage subscription or that physical storage upgrade however the biggest downside with the 10th generation iPad especially for Tech enthusiasts that'll always pursue better is that the higher end options can actually be pretty enticing for a handful of reasons this thought might be a bit counterintuitive considering I just heavily argued against the iPad Pro M4 but there is also something to be said that even a used M1 or M2 iPad Pro or used M1 air are solid alternatives for not much more money if you happen to have some flexible budget if you absolutely care about experience then you'll be getting some mix of better displays maybe higher refresh rates and of course more performance it's hard to say whether Apple will continue to sandbag the functionality of iPad and iPad OS but if you can afford to get one with nicer laptop class Hardware it'll last you way longer especially as Apple starts introducing intricate functionality with AI that might require extra processing power but that's all I got for now let me know what you think about these new iPads in the comments below otherwise thanks for watching this video on Dany Channelthis is the M4 iPad Pro keyboard and it costs as much as 350 bucks for the 13in model but you know what also costs 350 bucks this the base model 10th generation iPad and I think it's the best value for a new iPad you can buy today let's talk about it it's hard to believe that the 10th gen iPad launched nearly 2 years ago back then when I first covered it on the channel it was a tough sell namely in how Apple positioned it in its lineup for an entry-level iPad this was a much needed update over the previous generation with a modern design an increase in performance and a better screen however because it also retailed at $450 the value proposition wasn't quite there especially since the 9th generation iPad was still on sale for 330 it also probably didn't help that for a little extra cash there was the iPad Mini 6 with its excellent form factor which is available at $500 and the iPad Air M1 which offered way more performance at $600 however fast forward to the present in 2024 and Apple has actually updated the iPad lineup in a way that adds clear distinct separation between its price points on the top end there's the iPad Pro Pro M4 which starts at a whopping $1,000 then the iPad Air M2 which stays at 600 bucks offers clear mid-range performance in the lineup you also have that iPad Mini 6 which also stays the same price at 500 but most notably the 10th generation iPad receives a price cut to 350 making it the proper entrylevel iPad it was always destined to be I've actually been using this guy for the past couple of weeks leading up to that Apple event and I've come to enjoy my time with it especially knowing now that it's gotten cheaper I'll elaborate more on my experience a little later in the video but to really drive home that point of what real value looks like in the iPad space I think it's important to look at the contrast between the base model and its counterpart on the opposite side of the spectrum the 2024 iPad Pro which we also just got in for testing for starters this is the biggest update we've seen to the iPad Pro in quite a while and by that same token it is also now the most expensive it's ever been as well starting at $1,000 which is quite profound for a tablet no matter how you spin it it's funny you don't even get Apple stickers included in the Box anymore with that price of admission which Apple says this more for environmental reasons and you can't just go to the Apple store to buy the iPad and ask for the stickers there but still what else am I going to put on my car just kidding I don't drive a 1999 Ford Explorer now given everything that I've said about this device so far in the video some of you might be expecting me to completely rag on it but if I'm being real at least if we're looking at the hardware alone separate of all of the other context of price and comparisons to other devices I think that this iPad Pro M4 is shockingly impressive again I don't want to be lenient on this thing but credit where credits do man first of all it is an incredibly thin device this is the 11-in model which goes at I believe 5.3 mm thin which is awesome especially considering all of the stuff that they've actually crammed into here of course this is running Apple's next gen M4 so C which as expected is an improvement over last generation's M3 Austin Evans my boss who unboxed the iPad Pro and some content before I did ran geekbench 6 on this and these are the scores that he got I'm not going to scrutinize the performance here because I haven't had enough time to actually properly try this device but naturally the multicore score shows a year-over-year Improvement compared to last generation and I especially love this single core performance on this thing what this translates to in the real world is for simpler tasks like scrolling through iPad OS things are buttery smooth and very Snappy on top of including Apple's newest silicon again keeping in mind that this is one of the thinnest devices that Apple has ever made the fact that they were able to include a tandem OLED in here is also just as impressive how this technology works is they're actually stacking two SC screen layers on top of each other to benefit on top of all of the other stuff that come with OLED already such as the increased contrast the deeper blacks and the excellent color also improves screen brightness as well compared to Conventional olets we are talking a peak of up to 1,600 nits in HDR content which is seriously impressive especially given the screen sizes that they're giving you here yeah man loading up a 4K music video on here the image quality is absolutely nuts it's a shame this device costs $1,000 because it is a very good content consumption machine ah you're so good but so expensive speaking of expensive we should probably talk about the accessories for this iPad Pro as well namely the keyboard case which is probably the one that I'm excited about the most even though it can cost as as much as my 10th generation iPad this accessory specifically makes the iPad that much closer to becoming a Macbook replacement even though as we all know with iPad OS there's a lot more involved there to actually make this a proper full-fledged computer but for what it's worth I do like the improvements that they made to this case compared to the outgoing one last generation the allmetal deck lid feels way more premium I think the build quality is generally better I like the keyboard on here the function rows are especially nice because now you can change all of your settings if you want without having to go into Control Center and I like the new haptic trackpad as well which makes it kind of like a Macbook one where you can actually activate button presses on all four corners since there is no mechanical piece here we also have the new Apple pencil Pro which might not look too different from the previous generation but I think the key feature here is that you can actually squeeze it in order to bring up menus now I've even seen people activate series shortcuts with this kind of treating it like the action button on the iPhone 15 Pro it's nice that they give you some extra functionality with the pencil and I do think that for illustrators this is an absolute essential piece to include with your iPad Pro but man all of these accessories together the pencil costing $129 and this keyboard case for our 11-in Pro costing $300 on top of the fact that this 11in iPad Pro starts at $1,000 you are really encroaching into MacBook Pro territory if you want to spec this device out with all of the goodies if I'm being blunt the iPad Pro doesn't really make much sense to me as a product especially when I think about what people are actually doing on these devices they are taking notes in class doodling some artwork browsing the web scrolling socials and also streaming video which really begs the question do you really need the most technologically advanced iPad that Apple's everever made to do all that stuff probably not in fact one that costs half or even a third of the price will certainly do the trick it might be a bit weird to say that this device has matured into its role in Apple's tablet lineup but the price cut to $350 makes it so much sweeter in the time that I've spent revisiting Apple's Bas model iPad I found the experience to be quite nice overall at least with some paired expectations after all it's expected to have some trade-offs here and there to keep the cost low for example let's look at performance the A14 bionic chip included in this $350 iPad might be a few Generations old at this point and is significantly down on power compared to something like the M2 in the 2024 iPad Air which yields about half the performance in multi-threaded tasks however I do still think it is an appropriate level of power for the base model iPad especially given what probably 90% of people are doing on these things and thankfully iPad OS is rather well optimized for this Hardware too I found that with most of my regular use it rarely skipped a beat absolutely fine for doing research and writing content even split window multitasking while playing video picture and picture in the background naturally you will start to feel the age of this chip while dabbling in more demanding tasks such as gaming editing highres Raw photos or cutting together video at which point users will probably want to start looking at higher-end iPads or macintoshes with better specs the adequate performance combined with great battery life at 7600 milliamp hours I've gotten to around 10 hours of screen on time total which is plenty for a full workday and some Leisure Time at home now even with a more open mindset there are still some things that annoy me with this 10th generation iPad while the price might have gotten better over time it still sucks that the accessories for it are rather expensive for example those that might want the iPad to sell subin for a laptop will probably want a keyboard well Apple's magic folio costs $250 MSRP and while not Mission critical optioning a pencil is anywhere between $80 to $100 depending on whether you get the cheaper USBC one or the first generation pencil with pressure sensitivity now I'm no Matha wizard but if you build the 10th gen setup in the way that Apple wants you to with all of the extra add-ons the cost of these accessories alone can rival that of the iPad itself what the granted it's always best to shop around for deals refurbished items and thirdparty options but even still that is an added cost to the iPad that can absolutely sneak up on you also having 64 gigs as the base storage option is kind of baffling for me in 2024 especially considering when the next tier up the 256 gig model is $150 extra God Apple in all fairness I don't think 64 gigs will present much of an issue especially if you plan on mainly using this device for streaming content browsing the web or using web Centric apps like notion for word processing but users that aren't necessarily on top of their storage usage grandma might want to consider budgeting for an iCloud storage subscription or that physical storage upgrade however the biggest downside with the 10th generation iPad especially for Tech enthusiasts that'll always pursue better is that the higher end options can actually be pretty enticing for a handful of reasons this thought might be a bit counterintuitive considering I just heavily argued against the iPad Pro M4 but there is also something to be said that even a used M1 or M2 iPad Pro or used M1 air are solid alternatives for not much more money if you happen to have some flexible budget if you absolutely care about experience then you'll be getting some mix of better displays maybe higher refresh rates and of course more performance it's hard to say whether Apple will continue to sandbag the functionality of iPad and iPad OS but if you can afford to get one with nicer laptop class Hardware it'll last you way longer especially as Apple starts introducing intricate functionality with AI that might require extra processing power but that's all I got for now let me know what you think about these new iPads in the comments below otherwise thanks for watching this video on Dany Channel