The new iPad for 2018 is designed to achieve one thing: deliver the best of Apple’s tablet efforts at a more affordable price.
Note that we say more affordable, rather than cheap – because the cost is still higher than many other tablets out there – but the new upgrades bring a lot to the iPad, bridging the gap between a ‘standard’ slate and the more impressive iPad Pro range.
Support for the Apple Pencil adds another dimension to the tablet, enabling a new method of interaction and bringing with it a slew of new apps to interact with, and the upgraded chipset inside – the same one that powered the iPhone 7 – offers more power than many will know what to do with.
The upshot? You’ve now got a hugely capable tablet, one with more power and offering more possibilities, at a fairly reasonable price point.
You may be thinking that this is a ‘student’s iPad’, as Apple has made a big deal about the new tablet’s classroom credentials, but in reality most of the people who buy it will be those who want something to use on the commute and around the house – and as you’ll see, it fares pretty well in those respects.
While this might all sound impressive, it’s still not the full picture, as all these features are combined with the best tablet platform out there, iOS – there’s a reason the iPad has sat atop our best tablet rankings for so long.
The new iPad was launched in March 2018, and comes with a range of storage and connectivity options.
The new iPad 2018 price starts at $329 (£319, AU$469), but schools will get a discount in the UK and US of around 10%.
At $329 (AU$469) the new iPad price is exactly the same as the starting price of the new iPad (2017) – and both come with 32GB of storage – in the US and Australia, while in the UK it looks like consumers are being treated to a discount, as currency fluctuations mean the basic 32GB version is actually £20 cheaper than last year’s iPad.
That’s for the Wi-Fi only model, with the 32GB slate with cellular connectivity setting you back $459 (£449, AU$669).
The 128GB version begins at $429 / £409 / AU$599 for those who want more storage, with an extra premium to pay if you want some bytes of data floating in on the go.
The Apple Pencil… it’s tough to work out whether it’s a genuinely innovative tool or not. We’ve been using it for a few years now, and have found that it’s great for some things, but useless for others.
Also, let’s not forget that it costs £99 / $99 / AU$145, which means you need to pay around 33% of the price of the new iPad, on top of the cost of the slate itself, in order to access the key new feature.
It’s cheaper for those in education, and there is the Logitech Crayon available in the US for half the price (and less functionality), but it’s worth bearing in mind when buying the new iPad.
OUR VERDICT
The new iPad is great tablet for those that want just that: a tablet. It’s shorn of the power and performance of the iPad Pro range, but the addition of Apple Pencil compatibility and the A10 chipset bring it pretty close, and for a lot less cash. You need to buy the Pencil separately to unlock a key feature, and design-wise we’re seeing something pretty old-school here… but for the price it’s hard to criticize too much, and this is still the best tablet on the market.
Good
More affordable
Good screen quality
Powerful for the price
Bad
Apple Pencil costs extra
Design unchanged
