DECEMBER 2019 MACWORLD 93technically narrows the gap in
performance between the two models.
There’s also no real need to worry
about changes in battery life with this
model. As you can see with our
Geekbench 4 test, it managed to last for
6.6 straight hours with the brightness set
at 200 nits on a white screen. That’s
roughly the same performance we saw
from last year’s model, and I see no reason
to dispute Apple’s claim that this device
will reach 10 hours of battery life through
normal use. Using the tablet as I normally
would, I’d end the day with plenty of
battery life left over.
As for everything else, little has
changed. You’ll still find two speakers
along the bottom, a 3.5mm headphone
jack along the top, a Lightning port, and
802.11ac Wi-Fi. You’ll also still find the pitiful
1.2 megapixel FaceTime camera and a
decent 8 megapixel rear camera—just
enough to have a video chat with mom or
scan some documents and little else. The
cameras in particular serve as one of the
few remaining reminders that this isn’t a
“Pro” device.THE MOST ENTICING
REGULAR iPAD YET
All of which brings us to the question: Just
who is this iPad for? It’s certainly not for
people who bought last year’s iPad, which I
said was “pro enough for many of us”—and
I still think that. This model performs about
the same, the previous version has more
established keyboard case support, and its
smaller size even makes it slightly more
portable. If
you’re new to
the iPad and
you just want to
play Apple
Arcade games,
browse the
web, or watch
videos, I’ll even
go so far as to
say you should
get that model
instead. It’s not
that uncommon
to see it sellingI didn’t retest the battery with iOS 13.1.1, so it’s possible the improvements
are related to operating system efficiency. The battery size hasn’t changed.
0 100 400 50010.2-inch iPad
(2019)GEEKBENCH 4 BATTERY (200 nits of brightness)
Higher scores are better9.7-inch iPad
(2018)
iPad Air
(2019)200iPad mini
(2019)
12.9-inch iPad
Pro (2018)
300