iPad (8th Gen), was unveiled in September and was made available in October. After using it for two months as my daily driver, I am impressed with its capabilities, but is it enough to replace my laptop?
Unboxing
Within the box, we have our iPad, and surprisingly it has the new 20 W USB-C, power adapter included for charging. Whereas, coming to the new iPhone, consumers have to shell out Rs 1900 for the same adapter. I'm delighted to receive it within the box with the USB-C to lightning cable.
It also comes with a one-year free Apple tv+ subscription, that can be redeemed after you have set up the device.
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Design
Apple is still betting on a decade-old design, which is certainly not bad but having the modern boxy, industrial designs from the Pro and Air would have been nice.
The body is made of aluminum and like any other Apple product it is well built.
It has a smart connector on the left side of the device that can be used to connect to Apple's smart keyboard.
It has two speaker grills on the bottom for audio, which are loud, clear, and have a nice thump to its bass. It also has a headphone jack on the top and let's take a moment to appreciate its existence on an Apple device. You never know when they might remove it, in the name of solving a problem.
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It has dual microphones, one on the top of the device and the other on the top back.
It has a lighting port to juice it up, but it's late 2020, USB-C is the future and they are the only ones who pushed the industry in 2016 with their Macs, and yet this iPad is still on the Lighting Wagon. *Facepalm*
It still has a touch id for authentication, which is secure, reliable, and convenient.
It comes in three colors - Space Grey, Gold, and Silver.
You can also opt for free personalized engraving on the back of the device if you purchase it from Apple's new online store.
Display
The display has been one of the strongest suits for all the iPad's, and this one is no exception. It sports a 10.2-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology, 2160x1620-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch, 500 nits brightness, fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating and it also supports Apple Pencil (1st generation).
Colour reproduction is also on point, but there's always room for improvement, and they have chosen a non-laminated display.
The difference between a non-laminated display, and a laminated one.
Laminated
- Thin screen
- No separation - Unidesign
- No air gap between the top and bottom layer
- Clear image compared to the same non-laminated display
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Non-laminated
- Separate top and bottom layer.
- Air gap between the top and bottom layer.
- Image quality can be a bit soft, compared to the same resolution laminated display.
You won't notice it until unless you're looking for it and the only device which comes closer to its display is the Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6 Lite which retails for Rs 27,999 for the base model, and if we talk about laptops then there is no one around the same price point.
Camera
The front camera sports a 1.2MP sensor with a ƒ/2.4 aperture. It allows the device to capture HDR photos and shoot videos up to 720p 30 FPS.
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For the rear camera, we got few good things going such as an 8MP sensor with a ƒ/2.4 aperture, HDR, and auto image stabilization. It allows the device to shoot a video up to 1080p 30 FPS.
Few things which I dislike about the front camera is that when you are using the device for a video call ( landscape mode), you are not in the center of the frame because of its design. Also, the cameras are just sub-par, they could have gone for a bigger sensor for better results.
Battery
It has a 32.4‐watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. I'm getting nine to eleven hours of battery life and my usage includes a couple of hours of Zoom, few hours of binge-watching, website surfing, few sessions of Call of Duty, and more.
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Battery life is impressive over here, if you are intending to use this as your secondary device, you can easily reach two or maybe even three days worth of battery life in one charge, and it takes around three hours to fill it up from 0 percent to 100 percent.
Performance
It's powered by an A12 Bionic chip, which is an Apple-designed 7nm, 64-bit ARM-based chip (SoC), it is paired with 3 GB RAM, and you cannot really tell that this chip was released two years back. It is still very capable by today's standards as it delivers a great performance, hence games are fluid and detailed. You can pair an Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth, PlayStation DualShock controller, or MFi game controller with your iPad to create a portable game console.
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I never encountered any performance drop or hiccups, and it blazes through anything that you throw at him. Nothing comes closer to this performance, not even a laptop around the same price point.
SoC's are really something where Apple always outperforms competitors, because of their tight integration between their software and hardware.
Software
This came out with iPad OS 14. iPad OS is the refined and optimized version of iOS which can take advantage of the iPad's bigger screen and multitasking capabilities.
I never faced any major bug which hampered my experience, as of now, it has been very stable.
Speaking of multitasking, it still doesn't have resizable windows for the apps, and it can improve the multitasking capabilities of the device by a long shot.
Much like every other Apple product, we can predict software updates for the next five to six years and this device will last that long for you.
Conclusion
If you're looking for a tab or a secondary device, to pair up with your existing workstation, then there's no question just go ahead and purchase it.
If you're someone who's looking to replace your existing laptop with this iPad, then are few things to consider, the base 32 GB (Wifi) model retails at Rs 29,900 which is mind-boggling. If you're considering stepping up to the 128 GB (Wifi) model it will cost you Rs 37,900.
Let's assume you're pairing the device with Apple's Smart Keyboard which costs additional Rs 13,900, it brings your total to more than Rs 50,000.
We haven't added the Apple Pencil yet --- for that price point you can purchase a good laptop, which will give the iPad a run for its money. Although you can opt for a third-party keyboard cum cover case which will range around Rs 2,000 to 4,000 to bring the total down.
iPad's have always been the best tablet around and no one can dethrone it for what it is, but in order to place itself next to Macs and Windows, the iPad OS needs to go far.
The author is a blogger and tech enthusiast
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