iPad Air and iPad mini 2019 review: Apple’s tablets strike an ideal balance

These are clearly more appealing to most people than Apple's 2018 iPad or iPad Pro.

Read the whole story

 

[pitmonster]

Minor rant incoming!

The benchmarks are great but one major iPad model is missing : the 2017 10.5" Pro that the new Air is mostly based upon.

Why is it relevant? Because a refurbished 10.5" Pro can be picked up from Apple for $469, which is $30 less than a new Air.

Sure, the the two aren't identical, and each model has specific advantages over the other :

Advantages of the Air :
* Newer A12 processor
* Neural engine
* May get iOS updates for longer
* Bluetooth 5.0

Advantages of the refurbished Pro :
* ProMotion display with up to 120Hz
* More RAM
* 4 speakers (specifically mentioned in the review)
* Better rear camera
* Camera flash

But the two are similar enough (same dimensions, same laminated screen, same keyboard connector etc) that some buyers will genuinely consider a refurbished Pro 10.5 over a brand new Air 10.5, or at least will want to compare benchmarks before making a decision.

When Samuel posted the teardown story, I actually asked for the 10.5 Pro to be included in the comparisons, and plenty of people agreed with me:

So is there any chance that the article can be updated with benchmarks for the 10.5" Pro?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pitmonster]

The benchmarks are great but one major iPad model is missing : the 2017 10.5" Pro that the new Air is mostly based upon.

I wouldn't normally include a product in the benchmarks that is both no longer part of the current lineup, nor a device a reader is likely to be considering upgrading from. But the refurb store/aftermarket is kind of an edge case.

I'll share them with you here though... here are all the benchmark slides with the 2017 iPad Pro included. That said, just note that these results are from our benchmark database and were done in iOS 10.13.2, not iOS 12.2, which could have an impact. (I don't have a 2017 iPad Pro to test presently, I'm sorry.)

Geekbench single-core: https://meincmagazine.com/wp-content/uplo ... ingle.jpeg
Geekbench multi-core: https://meincmagazine.com/wp-content/uplo ... multi.jpeg
Geekbench Compute: https://meincmagazine.com/wp-content/uplo ... mpute.jpeg
GFXBench Metal: https://meincmagazine.com/wp-content/uplo ... Metal.jpeg
Browser (Octane): https://meincmagazine.com/wp-content/uplo ... ctane.jpeg
Browser (Kraken): https://meincmagazine.com/wp-content/uplo ... raken.jpeg

Thanks Samuel, that's very interesting data. Thanks for providing the updated graphs.

With the caveat that the 2017 Pro was tested on a different version of iOS, the new Air beats the Pro 10.5 by a healthy margin in most tests, losingout only in OpenCL, and the memory tests (likely due to the Pro's extra RAM, but it's close)

I guess it shows that the gains in processor more than offset the small reduction in RAM, and the new Air is likely the better machine for most people. Unless you really want the 120Hz display and 4 speakers.