The debate about whether a MacBook Air or Pro is a better option than an iPad as a laptop replacement has been ongoing for some time. While MacBooks do offer a more traditional laptop experience, with a larger screen and keyboard, iPads have made significant strides in recent years to address these limitations.

One of the main advantages of MacBooks is their ability to run full-fledged applications like Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. However, even with the latest M1 chip, which boasts impressive benchmarks, the difference in performance may not be as noticeable in everyday use. This means that iPads can still offer a great user experience, especially for non-demanding tasks.

On the other hand, one of the main downsides of MacBooks is their price point. While the M1 chip does provide future-proofing to its fullest extent, it's still a significant investment. In contrast, iPads are generally more affordable, with prices starting at around $500 for the latest models.

In terms of display quality, both MacBooks and iPads have made significant improvements in recent years. The latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a stunning Mini-LED display that offers superior brightness and color accuracy compared to traditional LCD screens. However, this comes at a cost, with prices starting at over $1,000 for the top-of-the-line model.

If you're looking for a more affordable option, the 11-inch iPad Air is still an excellent choice. While it may not offer the same level of performance as the Pro model, it's still a powerful device that can handle most tasks with ease. The Mini-LED display on this model is also impressive, offering peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits and vibrant colors.

For users who are looking for a more premium experience, the iPad Pro is definitely worth considering. However, unless you're working in a professional environment or need the advanced features offered by the Pro model, there's little reason to upgrade from the Air. In fact, if you already have an iPhone, it may be worth sticking with that device.

One area where the iPad Pro does excel is in terms of camera capabilities. The latest model features three cameras, including a high-quality telephoto lens and a wider-angle lens. While these cameras are certainly useful for photography and videography, they do add to the overall cost of the device.

In contrast, users who are looking for a more affordable option may want to consider purchasing an older iPad model or refurbished device from Apple's certified resellers. These devices offer significant savings, but may not come with all the bells and whistles of newer models.

Storage is another area where MacBooks tend to be more expensive than iPads. While 64GB of storage may seem like a lot for some users, it can quickly become insufficient for streaming and downloading large files. However, Apple's pricing strategy does make sense, as most users don't need that much storage space.

Finally, one of the most underrated features of newer iPad models is their keyboard support. The Smart Keyboard case offers a comfortable typing experience, while Bluetooth keyboards can be paired with the device for additional functionality. While these keyboards do add to the overall cost of the device, they're an essential feature for many users.

In conclusion, while iPads have made significant strides in recent years to address some of the limitations of traditional laptops, MacBooks still offer a more traditional laptop experience that's hard to beat. However, unless you're working in a professional environment or need advanced features like those offered by the Pro model, there's little reason to upgrade from an iPad Air.

The sixth-generation iPad Mini is actually one of my favorite new iPad models, and it's definitely worth considering for users who want a more portable device. While it may not offer as much performance as the larger Pro models, its smaller size and weight make it an excellent choice for reading, gaming, or doodling with the Apple Pencil.

Ultimately, whether an iPad is a good replacement for a laptop depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you're looking for a more affordable option that still offers a great user experience, the latest iPad models are definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right hey guys i'm tom with techchap and i've got every single ipad that apple sells right now from the 330 pound base ipad to the over two grand fully tricked out ipad pro 12.9 you may have noticed that i made one of these pretty similar buying guides just a couple of months ago but now we have a couple of new additions to the ipad family including the ipad mini and what is unhelpfully called well the ipad and so the new ipad mini has just had its biggest design overhaul for nearly a decade and it looks just fantastic now plus the regular ipad now in its ninth generation and still the most affordable overall has just had a much needed spec boost and finally gets a decent sized base storage option at 64 gigs so actually both this and the mini have just jumped way up in my recommended ipad list but which one should you actually buy well i've tried to boil down all the important information everything that you need to know uh to pick the right one and hopefully you find it useful and if you do a cheeky little like and subscribe would be lovely okay so these are the five main ipad models that apple sell right now including the 11 and 12.9 inch ipad pros and they're all running the just released ipad os 15 software and as usual we get the different color and storage options which vary between models as well as cellular versions if you want a mobile data connection although personally i usually just hotspot for my phone or use wifi but there is a lot to think about screen size processors storage accessories cameras maybe and it's all a balancing act against what you'll actually use it for and of course your budget but first of all why would you actually want to buy an ipad well for me it's quite simply the best tablet you can buy and that's mostly down to the app store and the sheer number of good ipad optimized apps and games although the less said about instagram the better but not just that they're also fantastic as a learning tool for kids and students the apple pencil means they're great for digital artists and designers and if you pair it with a keyboard particularly the magic keyboard they become a pretty good laptop alternative okay so let's start with what is probably the most significant new addition and also the smallest ipad the 6th gen mini in my last ipad roundup which as i say was only a couple of months ago i pleaded with apple for a new mini which would basically be a shrunk down ipad air and that's pretty much exactly what we've got and while then i had a hard time recommending the mini this one is a whole other story because an ipad you can use one-handed is incredible and so if you don't need a huge screen or you just want something that easily slips into your bag or even your pocket well just this should be the top of your list it gets the same slim bezels and squared off design as we see on the larger air in pros as well as stereo speakers the touch id power button on top here along with the slightly odd new placement of the volume buttons and while overall it's about the same size as the last mini the display is actually a fair bit bigger 8.3 inches versus 7.9 plus it's taller it's got less of a square aspect ratio so we're actually getting smaller black bars when you watch videos and movies on this it is still using a 60hz ips screen so no fancy oled or promotion here unfortunately but it's still sharp color accurate and it looks good and it's also packing the brand new apple a15 bionic chip which is the same one that we get in the new iphone 13s which actually makes this the most powerful ipad outside of the two pro models that come with the m1 chip other new stuff well we get improved cameras front and back including this very nifty new 12 megapixel ultra wide selfie camera which supports apple's center stage where the camera will crop in and track your face in video calls we also get an extra gig of ram up to 4 from the previous mini as well as apple pencil 2 support and a usb c port no lightning in sight downsides while we have lost the headphone jack the three and a half mil jack which we had on the old mini that is gone unfortunately so you will have to use wireless bluetooth earphones with this also while the a15 chip is a lot more powerful in my tests between sort of 18 100 faster than the previous mini in sort of everyday use you don't always see that benefit that extra performance although when it comes to loading bigger games or doing more demanding tasks then yes this is significantly faster now the entry level 64 gig version of the mini will cost you about 480 pounds or 500 which is a pretty hefty 150 pound premium over the regular ipad with the same storage and if you want to go up to 256 gigs of storage it's 619 pounds plus if you want 5g as well to make it the sort of ultimate portable device add another 140 onto that as well and that's before we even consider a case or a pencil so things can start to get pricey but for the base 64 game model the compact size the new design and the extra speed makes this mini a great choice and i think it actually might be my new favorite ipad now quick side note because every single ipad here except this one the regular ipad supports the apple uh pencil gen 2 which actually in terms of responsiveness and latency is pretty much the same as the first one but it's a bit more comfortable because we have this flat edge so you can sort of get a better grip it also stops it from rolling off your table all the time and crucially it's a whole lot more convenient because you don't have to plug it into the lightning port like we do here so you have a giant very expensive lollipop which is just the worst design ever so really the reason you'd want the gen 2 pencil is because it does well not that it does it does that it magnetically attaches to the side of the ipad and then wirelessly charges which is just i think about a billion times more convenient than this thing to be honest with you i don't really use the pencil that much so i probably wouldn't buy one but for proper drawing note taking or a bit of doodling it's a great option to have okay next up we have the brand new 9th generation ipad just the ipad and it's definitely a case of meet the new ipad same as the old ipad because design wise this has barely changed in the past five or six years with the same chunky bezels top and bottom that touch id home button which i know some people prefer and also the older less versatile lightning port the thing is though there's nothing wrong with it it's functional and importantly it's a lot cheaper than the others but it does feel a bit well very last last gen especially now that we have this new redesigned mini but i would argue you should look beyond that because this will do 95 of what most people want their ipad to do even the top end pro and for about 330 pounds or 350 dollars for the base 64 gig version and actually even less if you're buying for education reasons you're getting pretty much the full ipad experience here for almost half of what you'll pay for the similarly sized ipad air front and center is this 10.2 inch screen and it's big it's bright it's sharp and just like the rest of the range we also get true tone which adjusts the screen's white balance to match your lighting and it's a little bit more comfortable for your eyes however the only downside is the display isn't laminated so there's a very small but just about noticeable air gap between the glass and the actual screen although it's not the end of the world and it's still more than fast enough and actually apple claims it's 20 quicker than last year's model with the a13 chip that we get now also like the mini in fact every ipad now except for the air we get the new 12 megapixel ultra wide selfie camera with center stage so if you want something for browsing watching movies and tv bit of gaming facetime calls or i think actually ideally for a child for educational apps my nephew oliver absolutely loves this thing ha i got the key then this is more than up to the task i did chat yes it looks a bit older and it's not had quite the same update that the mini has but who cares for 330 pounds this is incredible value for money and it is also compatible with the smart keyboard which is still a little bit pricey although nowhere near as much as the magic keyboard but it protects it obviously it gives you that keyboard functionality and it's quite nice extra actually okay moving on and in the middle of the group we have the ipad air so this is the 4th gen air which actually came out almost a year ago now so while it is just like a scale-up mini the lack of a 2021 update means the air actually has a previous gen a14 chip and also gets the older facetime camera without center stage although the main camera on the back is a little bit better on the air but really who uses that it also costs about 100 pounds or 120 dollars more than the new mini but for that you are getting a much larger 10.9 inch screen and an almost identical look and feel to the more expensive 11 inch ipad pro and the air is just a lovely thing to use with this big color accurate screen it's thin and lightweight i love the color options and unlike the regular ipad this gets usbc stereo speakers touch id and the power button and wi-fi six but for me one of the big reasons you might want to go for the air actually and pay that bit extra over these two is because it works with the magic keyboard the air and the pros are the only compatible ipads with this but it just transforms it almost into a proper laptop replacement however if you don't really need the keyboard that much then things are a little bit trickier because versus the base ipad the air does all the same stuff albeit with a smarter design slightly faster chip usb-c and pencil 2 support and the thing is this costs a good 250 pounds more than the regular ipad for the same amount of storage 64 gigs and also near enough the same ips 60 hertz screen so the problem is less that the air is too expensive it's that the basic ipad is such good value and does pretty much everything the air can also jumping up to 256 gigs on the air makes even less sense because while obviously more storage is great for having more games and movies at 729 pounds you're then only 20 quid short of the 128 gig 11 inch ipad pro which comes with plenty of other advantages of its own but just going back to this magic keyboard for a second and if you are serious about working on your aero pro then i can't recommend this magic keyboard enough while ipad os 15 didn't give us uh some of the rumored sort of desktop app support like proper final cut pro which many of us had sort of wished to the apple guards we do get much better multitasking and paired with this magic keyboard which gives us a really good size comfortable keyboard along with a touch pad and an extra usbc port which means you can actually charge using one of them and then use the other for plugging in peripherals like extra storage it also acts as a protective case you can adjust the angle and because it attaches magnetically you can just grab the ipad to take it off you can save a little bit of money and go with the smart keyboard folio but this loses the trackpad the extra usbc port and the nicer keys and layout of the magic keyboard so finally let's talk about these two the big dogs the ipad pros and we've got the 11 and the 12.9 so the 11 is much more of a tablet size experience whereas the 12 9 looks and feels a lot more like a laptop size screen now both of these were refreshed not long ago mid 2021 and the big news is that they get apple's fantastic m1 processor which is the same chip used in the new macbooks and imax albeit in a slightly lower power form as well as more ram and storage and on the 12.9 exclusively we have this gorgeous mini led screen honestly the m1 chip in this is just ludicrously fast and actually compared to the next fastest chip the a15 and the mini it's still a good 50 to 100 faster so realistically this is overkill for most of us but if you are a power user working with maybe 10 bit 4k video or high megapixel images or 3d design then this is probably the one to get now between the two other than the screen and the size these are basically identical and in basic terms we get the sleek aluminium design similar to the air in the mini although this improves on those models slightly with even thinner bezels but crucially one of the big upgrades is we get promotion which is apple's fancy marketing term for a 120 hertz refresh rate screen and so everything you do from swiping between home screens using apps or even the more responsive pencil you do definitely appreciate having that smoother refresh we also get insanely good quad speakers the truedepth face id scanner instead of touch id as well as an ultra wide camera lens and a lidar sensor so you can measure your uh well rooms i guess the pros also now get 8 or 16 gigs of ram depending on the storage option as well as a faster usb 4 port that supports thunderbolt 3 as well as a 5g option and the cameras also benefit from the m1 chip which actually helps reduce noise and gives a more sort of natural white balance plus we do get that 12 megapixel ultra wide facetime camera with center stage so obviously if you can have any ipad you'd want one of these but they are very expensive with the 11 inch starting at about 750 pounds going up to a grand for the 12.9 and that's with 128 storage if you bump it up to 256 and then maybe add the keyboard and pencil you're suddenly up to about 1600 pounds which is premium laptop money interestingly though the ipad pro 12.9 actually costs the same as the base spec macbook air this is actually the pro but you know what i mean and actually then when you add in a magic keyboard this gets more expensive so at this point it might be worth considering if a macbook air or pro is actually a better option although of course you don't have a touchscreen but with the latest mac os software we do now get support for some mobile apps so i still don't know if an ipad can really be a proper laptop replacement yet not until i can get full final cut or premiere pro for me at least so if i did have a grand or 1200 to spend then i would probably go with a laptop downsides well price obviously and also while the m1 races out ahead in terms of benchmarks the reality is this doesn't feel much faster in regular apps than even demanding games so this is really a case of untapped potential it's future proofing to the max so instead a more visible upgrade is this mini led screen that's exclusive to the 12.9 inch pro and side by side well you can judge for yourself but the led lcd's blacks look like a washed out gray versus the more contrasty proper inky blacks that we get on the mini led having said that for non-hdr apps and content the difference isn't as obvious as they both peak at 600 nits of brightness although when you do jump into some properly good hdr video you do get a thousand nits on the mini led with areas peaking up to 1600 and it makes a big difference it's a lot more vibrant although on the downside there is some blooming around brighter objects which is made more obvious thanks to the much darker black areas so whether mini led is worth paying the extra 250 quid or so over the 11 inch it's down to your use case really if you're watching a lot of movies or you're doing sort of really color sensitive work photo video editing then probably yeah plus of course you are getting a bigger more laptop sort of experience size screen but for regular non-hdr content then i don't think it's as big of a deal but having said all that maybe you shouldn't buy any of these because no one needs an ipad you kind of need a phone you probably need a laptop these are more of a sort of luxury nice to have item and even then while you get some really nice upgrades with these latest ones there's nothing wrong at all with a used or refurbished ipad from the last one to two years refurbs are great plenty of companies do them although official apple ones can be a bit pricey but if you can find some good deals on outgoing 8th gen regular ipads or perhaps seeking out a used ipad air 4th gen or ipad pro from 2018 or 2020 they're fantastic and will probably save you a whole bunch of money okay let's wrap up and i've got three big takeaways firstly storage apple price gouges on storage they know that the 128 is probably what you want which is why they give you 64 and 256 gig options it's a pain in the backside but they know what they're doing so really if you're streaming everything you're not downloading a ton of big games 64 gigs is absolutely fine don't go crazy particularly on the cheaper models secondly unless money is no object or at least less of an object you probably don't need an ipad pro yes the pro motion is nice the extra cameras and that m1 chip but it's not really fully taken advantage of and i would probably just go with the air if you're considering them and thirdly even if it doesn't make it a full laptop replacement if you're going for an aero pro i would highly recommend getting the magic keyboard or even just the smart keyboard case on the regular ipad it makes a big difference to how usable they are so between them i would probably say while it's harder to recommend than it used to be the ipad air is still the best all-rounder in terms of value for money a hundred percent all day long the regular ipad and actually for kids 100 go for this one for me i have to say i think the ipad mini this new sixth gen is probably my favorite new ipad if you already have a big iphone like a pro max then maybe it's not really worth going for this and you want a bigger one but if you have a regular sized phone even though you don't get proper keyboard support with this outside of bluetooth separate keyboards this is such a fun ipad to use for reading for bits of gaming doodling with the apple pencil it's a little bit pricey but i really like this thing but if you've got any questions at all or you think i've missed something then do let me know in the comments below a cheeky like and subscribe would be very much appreciated if you did enjoy it and i'll also leave links to all these in the description below thank you so much for watching guys and i'll catch you next time right here on the tech chat\n"