FEBRUARY 2020 MACWORLD 47It even beat the Pros!
THE iPAD AIR WEIGHS
(SLIGHTLY) LESS
Even with all the power and storage Apple
has packed into it, the Wi-Fi-only iPad Air
still weighs just a single pound. Meanwhile,
the 10.2-inch iPad weighs 1.07 pounds.
That’s not a huge difference, but as a
person with a nasty habit of overstuffing
his backpack, I can attest that lighter is
usually better.
THE iPAD AIR’S BATTERY MAY
LAST LONGER
Here’s an iffy one. Like the 9.7-inch iPad
before it, this year’s 10.2-inch model has a
32.4-watt-hour battery, while the iPad Air
has a 30.2-watt hour battery. In both cases,
Apple says that will get you around 10
hours of browsing or watching videos.
But the Air might do you better,
although we won’t know for sure until
we get our hands on a unit. When we
did our benchmarks for this year’s Air,
though—importantly, while it was
running iOS 12–the iPad Air performed
the best out of all iPads, clocking in at
eight hours and 19 minutes while the
regular iPad ran for six hours and eight
minutes.THE iPAD AIR COSTS
MORE, BUT...
...you’re getting a lot more for a device
that’s roughly the same physical size.
The seventh-generation iPad starts
at $329, while the iPad Air starts at
$499. If you just want an inexpensive
tablet, the regular iPad will do fine—
more than fine, in fact! But if you want a
device that comes close to the speeds
of some older iPad Pros, has more
storage space, comes with a better
FaceTime camera, and can tackle more
intensive app apps, you’ll want to spend
that extra cash.
On the bright side, prices have already
gone down a bit for the iPad Air now that
it’s been out for a while—you can typically
find it selling for around $460 on Amazon.
The regular iPad typically also sees
discounts a couple of months after
refreshes launch, but we likely won’t see
those for several weeks considering how
new the 10.2-inch iPad is. ■0 100 200 300 400 500iPad Air (2019)
iPad mini (2019)
12.9-inch iPad Pro (2018)
9.7-inch iPad (2018)
10.2-inch iPad Pro (2017)BATTERY LIFE
HIGHER SCORES ARE BETTER368341499461467