THE 5th generation iPad Air (RM2,699 for the base model with 64GB storage, RM3,349 for 256GB) is positioned to be between the vanilla iPad and the all-powerful iPad Pro. Its sleek design and feature set skews it closer to the Pro model.
When equipped with Apple’s full range of accessories (or their 3rd party equivalent) it comes close to matching the abilities of a laptop computer, though with the obvious limitations of a tablet running iPadOS instead of a conventional operating system used by computers.
Generally speaking, tablets occupy a weird space in the tech ecosystem where they are supposed to be a jack of all trades. Are they supersized phones? Mobile entertainment devices? Office productivity machines?
The latest iPad Air is an attempt to be good at just about everything – while looking good. The selection of colours, such as space grey, pink, purple, blue, and starlight. The blue iPad with a marine blue Smart Folio case makes quite a presentable combination.
Like last year’s version, it features a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, allowing it to put up good looking high definition content. Disney+ Hotstar, YouTube, and AppleTV content look great and the stereo speakers do a good enough job.
Once again, it lacks the high refresh rate of the iPad Pro’s display – which can be a benefit in games and general usage – but for most people, this would probably be the nicest looking screen they’ve seen on a tablet. Perhaps next year’s iteration of the Air will see this addition.
The biggest improvement to the Air that Apple is touting is the addition of their top of the line (for now) M1 chip that powered last year’s Pro models and iMac. With this upgrade, the Air should be plenty capable of multitasking between resource-intensive apps – but the chip in last year’s model was not exactly a slouch.
Having such a powerful chip gives the device some futureproofing, but the vast majority of users are not going to be able to tell the difference. It’s also unclear whether consumers get excited by chip updates. But for those who spend a lot of time on content creation, the increased horsepower will probably be helpful.
Unlike the iPad Pro, the Air does not come with Face ID and instead uses Touch ID, which is located on the power button. You need to leave your finger over the button for about a second, but other than that it is pretty responsive.
A new addition that was first seen in last year’s iPad Pro and the iPad mini is Centre Stage, a feature that uses the front-facing 12MP Ultra Wide camera to make video calls. The camera focuses on the faces in the frame, following them while they are in the field of view and expanding when multiple people are in the frame. It’s great for video calls, which are still a thing, despite the worst of the pandemic being in the rearview mirror.
This newest model of the iPad Air is very impressive and will likely impress many prospective users who don’t necessarily need the extra power of the Pro model but want more than what the base model provides.
As a portable media device, it is very impressive, and as a productivity machine, it is almost equally as impressive. – The Vibes, May 25, 2022
