The 12.9-inch size is a bit awkward to use in your hands; it works much better
ergonomically in its keyboard case. Apple didn’t send me the 11-inch model, but
at 1.04 pounds, I know it’s going to be a lot easier to hold and use as a tablet.
There’s no headphone jack, nor is there a Lightning port—the only port here is a
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connector that leaves the USB-C connection free. The iPad works with the
second-generation Apple Pencil stylus, which attaches and charges by snapping
magnetically onto the side of the tablet.
The screen is a beautiful 2,732-by-2,048, 120Hz panel with 600 nits maximum
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the older tablet.
PREDICTABLE POWER
Apple’s A12Z processor still relies on the year-old A12 architecture—the same
that’s in the iPhone XS, the current iPad Air, and the 2018 iPad Pro—but amps
it up with yet more GPU power to deal with rendering augmented reality scenes.
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The benchmark tests tell the tale. On Geekbench 5 and the 3DMark Ice Storm
test, the new iPad scores just like the 2018 one. But on the Geekbench 5
Compute test, which digs deep into the latest Metal GPU APIs, we got 9,829 to
the older model’s 9,310. Both devices performed about 20 percent better than
the iPad Air.