Poll: *** The official 2022 iPad Air thread (it has an M1, 5G and everything!) ***

[Feek]

iPad Air lets you immerse yourself in whatever you’re reading, watching or creating. The 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display features advanced technologies like True Tone, P3 wide colour and an anti‑reflective coating.

Touch ID is built into the top button, so you can use your fingerprint to unlock your iPad, sign in to apps and make payments securely with Apple Pay. And iPad Air comes in five gorgeous colours.

The breakthrough M1 chip is now in iPad Air. An 8-core CPU delivers up to 60 per cent faster performance than the previous generation, making iPad Air a creative and mobile gaming powerhouse. Multitask smoothly between powerful apps and play graphics-intensive games. And with M1, you can go even further with your creativity with apps like SketchUp.

Join superfast 5G wireless networks when you’re on the go. Download files, play multiplayer games, stream movies, check in with friends and more.

 

[Zeebedy]

Recently upgraded to a 12.9" iPad Pro so no Air for me this year..

 

[Raymond Lin]

I think I will get a base one this time round, I can see a use for it at home. Couch surfing, books (i really don't like the Kindle Paperwhite...), Manga, Media, sheet music on piano. M1 chip meaning it should be fairly future proof.

 

[martin363]

The issue for me is I care less about the M1 in an Ipad, and more about the 120hz screen. 5g is of no interest either. I have a 2020 Pro, and it is more than I need, but the screen is better and that is what I look at all the time. I will only get an Ipad with 120hz, the m1 in the Ipad is no draw for me.

 

[robfosters]

My Air 2 is well past it’s best now, so a good time for an upgrade.

It would have been great though if they could offer it without the M1 for about £480

 

[Maccy]

The lack of Face ID is putting me off but I need to get something, a Pro is bit overkill for me though.

 

[malachi]

Trying to work out if moving from an 2018 iPad Pro would be a degrade/sidegrade going to the M1 Air?

 

[robfosters]

I think I will get a base one this time round, I can see a use for it at home. Couch surfing, books (i really don't like the Kindle Paperwhite...), Manga, Media, sheet music on piano. M1 chip meaning it should be fairly future proof.

Talking of comics, do you know any way I could get Asterix comics on iPad please?

 

[Raymond Lin]

Talking of comics, do you know any way I could get Asterix comics on iPad please?

Sorry i don't, but I know Amazon do have some manga in their Kindle store.

 

[Raymond Lin]

My Air 2 is well past it’s best now, so a good time for an upgrade.

It would have been great though if they could offer it without the M1 for about £480

I expect you will see some stores off load current stock now with that amount of discount.

 

[dannyjo22]

I think I will get a base one this time round, I can see a use for it at home. Couch surfing, books (i really don't like the Kindle Paperwhite...), Manga, Media, sheet music on piano. M1 chip meaning it should be fairly future proof.

My son has an air 2 (2013 iirc) that still copes with everything with no issues other than the battery is now shredded. He’s still getting updates too. So yeah an M1 would last you years!

I have an early iPad Pro (2017) that I could carry on using for years but will pass down to him. I can’t make my mind up on this Air or the Pro because once you have used an iPad with 4 speakers it’s hard to go back, the sound quality is so much better with 4 speakers.

 

[malachi]

My son has an air 2 (2013 iirc) that still copes with everything with no issues other than the battery is now shredded. He’s still getting updates too. So yeah an M1 would last you years!

I have an early iPad Pro (2017) that I could carry on using for years but will pass down to him. I can’t make my mind up on this Air or the Pro because once you have used an iPad with 4 speakers it’s hard to go back, the sound quality is so much better with 4 speakers.

Yeah, completely forgot about the better speakers!

 

[dannyjo22]

Yeah, completely forgot about the better speakers!

Yeah I've just been trying an air previous gen against my 10.5 old pro to see if I could take the reduction in sound quality and I can't. Normally when I'm using my iPad with speakers people usually comment on how great the 4 speaker sound is. Now I can hear why they say that.

 

[GMac11]

Trying to work out if moving from an 2018 iPad Pro would be a degrade/sidegrade going to the M1 Air?

I changed from a 2018 Pro to a 2020 Air and the only thing I noticed was a significant improvement in battery life. This is to be expected given the newer and much more efficient A14 over the A12X. Performance wise I'd be lying if I said I noticed any difference - and don't forget you'd be losing the ProMotion display. Personally I don't miss it but it's worth considering.

More generally, I thought the Air refresh was disappointing (although from a personal POV I was happy as I have absolutely no need to change from the 2020). 5g aside, it's a 2020 model with an M1 inside which is total overkill for what is essentially a sofa surfing device. I do use mine for reviewing documents (Pages and PDFs) quite extensively and I much prefer to do that with the comfort of the iPad over sitting at a desk (when the opportunity allows).

 

[No-One]

Air 2 user here. I doubt it’ll get this years iPad OS. Those who are going to get the air 5, which capacity are you going for? I’d have liked a 128Gb option but it’s only 64 or 256. I can’t help thinking that if I was going to get the 256 I might as well get a 128GB 11” pro instead

 

[dannyjo22]

Air 2 user here. I doubt it’ll get this years iPad OS. Those who are going to get the air 5, which capacity are you going for. I’d have liked a 128Gb option but it’s only 64 or 256. I can’t help thinking that if I was going to get the 256 I might as well get a 128GB 11” pro instead

That was my thinking too. Honestly for what I use an iPad for either are way more power than I need. With so much being cloud based I don't really need the storage anymore and I rarely take pictures with it. But if I decide to go pro I may as well wait until October for the latest version. Prices haven't gone up that much, I checked my receipt on my 10.5 pro and it was £699 almost 5 years ago.

Just so you know the Air 2 gives you £75 on trade in. I will probably do that as well. £125 with music magpie but less faff with apple.

Are the 4th and 5th gen the exact same size? So you can use the 4th gen cases?

 

[dannyjo22]

Picked up a Pro today, was going back and fourth on just getting a 64gb air but when I upgrade I pass them down to my son who gets another 3 or 4 years use out of them and he's struggling at 64gb. The extra storage costs just made the 128GB more sense.

I actually had a play for the first time with the pencil and was surprised how much I liked it. Might put that on my shopping list or try a buy a second hand one.

 

[Will Lucky]

That was my thinking too. Honestly for what I use an iPad for either are way more power than I need. With so much being cloud based I don't really need the storage anymore and I rarely take pictures with it. But if I decide to go pro I may as well wait until October for the latest version. Prices haven't gone up that much, I checked my receipt on my 10.5 pro and it was £699 almost 5 years ago.

Just so you know the Air 2 gives you £75 on trade in. I will probably do that as well. £125 with music magpie but less faff with apple.

Are the 4th and 5th gen the exact same size? So you can use the 4th gen cases?

My feelings exactly.

If it was 128gb i’d have probably bit the bullet, so going to wait on the next Pro I think and see what happens there.

 

[dannyjo22]

My feelings exactly.

If it was 128gb i’d have probably bit the bullet, so going to wait on the next Pro I think and see what happens there.

Yeah I did think about waiting until October, but my sons Air 2 is coming up to 8 years old and the battery is done. He can only use it really with the cable. So we needed it now and as I hand them down chances are it will be in the family for 6 or 7 years again anyway. I use mine all the time so I couldn’t hold off any longer.

 

[HACO]

I have the 2020 Air and it's definitely underpowered. A14 is not enough to power this thing if you do any multitasking and 4GB of ram is annoying as apps get reloaded all the time. The upgrade to M1 sorts out both of these issues as it now has 2x the cores and 8GB of ram.

Quite disappointed that it doesn't have ProMotion like the Pros but then there'd be really almost no difference between this and the 11-inch Pro. Will probably wait until the next Pro to upgrade my iPad though.