iPad Air 2020: The best option if you're looking for an iPad to last for years

Choosing which iPad to buy used to be such an easy process — just get the newest one and be done with it. 

If only it was that simple these days. Tablets have gotten way more powerful since, and they’re now good enough to replace laptops. The 2020 lineup for iPads hasn’t made things easier because there are three to pick from: the basic entry-level iPad, the iPad Pro for power users, and now, the redesigned iPad Air that sits somewhere between the former two. 

I’ve been using it for more than a week now and I’m convinced that this is my favourite iteration of Apple’s all-purpose tablet. Fun fact: a 2020 iPad Pro is lying around somewhere in my apartment that has largely been forgotten because the fourth-generation iPad Air is just as good, albeit without all the fancy bells and whistles.

Featuring a rectangular body with flat edges — this year’s hottest design language apparently, judging from the iPad Pro and the iPhone 12 series — the significantly revamped iPad Air boasts a nearly bezel-less, symmetrical format fitted with a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display.

It just looks nice, especially now that there are five colour finishes to choose from. A helluva lot nicer than the vanilla iPad that came out last month, which at this point, seems boring and outdated. 

In fact, there’re many other interesting dimensions to iPad Air that would make people wonder why they’d even need to splurge for an iPad Pro. You get a lot of the same features, like support for newer iPad accessories, including the awesome second-generation Apple Pencil and compatibility with the snap-on Magic Keyboard. 

What that means is that, yes, an iPad Air with the complete keyboard-and-mouse setup can be an optimal laptop alternative or replacement. It only comes in one size, but the perfect one, in my opinion — compact enough to tote around easily and hold up while reading. 

The A14 Bionic chip within helps. This is Apple’s latest homegrown processor, and it powers the new iPhone 12 lineup. Surprisingly, it’s not in the pricier iPad Pro. But between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro, I haven’t felt any noticeable differences in processing speed, even while running two apps side by side and a video playing in picture-in-picture mode. 

What’s missing in the iPad Air is the 120 Hz display refresh rate in iPad Pros. My wife, who frequently sketches on Procreate, noticed a discernible lag between the two displays when using the Apple Pencil to draw or write. Things just don’t feel as natural or sensitive on the 60 Hz screen of the iPad Air, so it all depends on your usage.

If you’re gonna be using the Apple Pencil frequently to illustrate or take down notes, I’d wager the iPad Pro to be the device of choice. 

Interestingly, there’s Touch ID on the iPad Air, in lieu of face unlocking. While not as lighting-fast than the ones we’re used to on the fingerprint sensors on old iPhones, it still works efficiently. I like this, actually.

Face recognition, in general, is still a bit of an iffy tech for me, and having the fingerprint sensor built into the narrow power button is pretty convenient whether the tablet is on portrait or landscape mode. Imagine if this was built into iPhones! Get rid of notched displays, I always say. 

Speaking of features that should be extinct in 2020, I’m happy to report that the iPad Air has a USB-C charging port. Removing the Lightning port entirely from its entire line-up of products is what Apple should have done years ago, and letting this tablet juice up or connect to other devices using a common, universal USB-C cable is a positive step forward. 

Around the back is a single rear camera that Apple claims to capture better videos (thanks to better stabilisation) and better photos (thanks to improved low-light quality). There’s no LiDAR scanner, too, like on the iPad Pro or the Pro versions of iPhone 12. None of these should matter that much because (a) why would you use an iPad for serious content capture and (b) why would you care about LiDAR if you’re not in the geospatial industry? 

Now with all things Apple, the thing we have to talk about is the price. By itself, the iPad Air costs $879 for a 64GB Wi-Fi model, and it easily pushes into a territory that's over $1,000 if you want better specs. 

That’s not even including the Apple Pencil 2 at $189 and the Magic Keyboard at $439, marking the grand total for a complete set up at $1,507. Which doesn’t make it as enticing anymore as a laptop alternative since a decent MacBook Air costs just a wee bit more and does a lot more, too. 

But sometimes you just don’t want to lug a laptop around. You want to use a tablet for tablet-y things, like watching movies while lying on a couch, reading digital graphic novels in bed, or playing games on the go. The iPad Air makes all that a nicer, fuss-free experience in an alluring design. 

Then again, it might not be the best iPad for professional artists. For everyone else (with the means, of course), the latest iPad Air should be the default tablet that will keep anyone very happy for many years to come. 

ilyas@asiaone.com