Macworld (2019-06)

JUNE 2019 MACWORLD 77

It’s a lot faster than the iPad, but doesn’t come close to the

iPad Pro.

0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000

iPad Air (2019)

iPad mini (2019)

iPad Pro 12.9 (2018)

iPad 9.7 (2018)

iPad Pro 10.5 (2017)

GEEKBENCH 4

(CPU performance)

Longer bars are better

11,554

18,281

11,468

9,585

21,692

42,982

20,560

12,877

30,580

CPU – Single-Core

Compute – Metal Performance

CPU – Multi-Core

3,991

3,475

6,071

5,050

4,827

4,814

tasks like gaming or video editing, though

normal everyday activities like email and

web browsing are already so fast you

won’t notice much of an improvement.

Let’s not forget that the A12 has Apple’s

second-generation Neural Engine to

speed up machine learning and AI

computation, while the A10 has none.

so similar that this new iPad Air is meant to
use the same Smart Keyboard as the
10.5-inch iPad Pro from 2017.
Sticking with the old iPad Pro 10.5-inch
design means a couple of other things of
note. One, you still have a headphone
jack, which the new iPad Pros do not.
Two, it has a Lightning connector for
charging and accessories, rather than the
new iPad Pro’s USB-C. That’s either good
or bad, depending on what other gear
you have. I do wish Apple would make up
its mind and standardize
around one connector.
Inside, the changes are
more significant. The iPad Air
has an A12 processor, 3GB
of RAM, and starts at 64GB
of storage (a 256GB option
is $150 more). That’s an
enormous improvement over
the iPad’s A10, 2GB of RAM,
and 32GB of storage (with
128GB option for $100 more).
In performance
benchmarks, the new iPad
Air runs circles around the
9.7-inch iPad. CPU and
graphics performance are
both between 75 percent
and 100 percent faster,
depending on the test. It’s a
difference you can really
feel when running intensive

VIDEO: iPAD AIR (2019)

REVIEW

Watch now at go.macworld.com/a1r