A new iPad is here!
Yep, that’s the regular 10.9-inch model. Not Air, though there is a new one of those. Just the regular iPad.
So, what’s changed compared to the previous version from 2022? Well, it’s got an A16 chipset – that’s the same one found on iPhone 14 Pro models and the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. You also now get 128GB of storage on the base model, rather than just 64GB. And that’s it.
Okay, so hardware upgrades have been kept to a bare minimum. So what about software?
Well, the new iPad runs iPadOS 18, the tablet version of iOS 18. However, it’s just the standard version of Apple’s latest software, meaning it doesn’t support Apple Intelligence.
Apple
When I first heard this, I couldn’t quite believe it. Why would Apple release a mobile device in 2025 without AI, the word on basically every tech company’s lips right now?
Even if the company wanted to only do a minor refresh, surely Apple Intelligence was the most important feature to add? If you’re even remotely interested in AI, there’s no point buying the regular iPad.
Unlike rivals such as Samsung, Apple appears unwilling to make a more limited AI feature set available on its more affordable devices.
Instead, the company assumes that when you’re paying as little as £329/$349 for an iPad, you don’t care if it has AI features or not.
While that might be the case for most people right now, a tablet is a device that most people keep for several years. In 2028 or 2029, when AI has become much more advanced, will consumers still be happy to make do without it?
That remains to be seen. In the meantime, the new 7th-gen iPad Air is a better buy for most people, despite it starting at £599/$599. And if you want a more affordable iPad which gets Apple Intelligence, just look out for deals on the 2024 model instead.
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