iPad Buying Guide (2024) - Don’t Waste Your Money!

six iPads four Apple pencils a whole bunch of different keyboards and a ton of different options to choose from buying an iPad is actually kind of confusing and also if you're not careful it can get very very very expensive now I've been making these iPad bind guides for three or four years now I'm literally seeing myself age here it's kind of scary but I'm back again with all new iPads new options new Apple intelligence which we'll talk about later on and if you've got any questions at all drop a comment below if you find this video helpful a cheeky like And subscribe would be fantastic and also a big thank you to paper like for sponsoring this video okay so let's kick off with a bit of a lightning round there are sort of seven things right off the bat that you need to know and the first one being nearly every app will run on all of these iPads even the cheapest 349 10th gen iPad here versus the top end iPad Pro you can watch all the same streaming apps and B a handful play the same games and use the same productivity tools and they all support at least one version of the Apple penc and they all have USBC ports no more lightning cables since they've stopped selling this the older 9th gen iPad with those chunky bezels the home button and the headphone jack so now we have the base model the 10th gen iPad the mini which hasn't been refreshed in like 3 years uh the two airs and the two Pros but number two what are you actually going to be using these iPads for why are you buying it just keep that in mind during the video when we'll come back to at the end number three and you don't need to buy a new new iPad it is absolutely worth looking at older or refresh models as well you could save a chunk of money maybe even get more storage as well and while Apple do have their own certified refurbs it is also worth shopping around Amazon has some really good deals although make sure you check the warranty number four the extras choosing which iPad you want is like the first step you then have to consider the storage do you want 4G or 5G cellular connectivity do you want a pencil do you want a keyboard do you want it engraved and the answer to that is no because it's much harder to resell although you can still always trade it in but I would avoid Engraving I think in order of importance I would say storage first because that is the only thing you can't change afterwards yes you can't also change whether it has a Mobile Cellular plan but I don't think that many people really use it businesses perhaps but generally for me I'm either on Wi-Fi or I can Hotpot for my phone so if you think you need to maybe increase the storage because you can't upgrade this you're stuck with it then decide if you also need a keyboard for a more laptop like experience and then perhaps the apple pencil number five and I know this is kind of obvious but is a really the best option for you and would a laptop actually be better suited considering MacBook airs and Pros aren't that much more expensive than the iPad Air and Pros especially if you up the storage and add a keyboard but of course the iPad gives you this lovely big touchcreen with the fantastic apple pencil and keyboard accessories there's Apple's app store we get long battery life cameras front and back and also just the incredibly slick iPad OS software that's about to get even better with iPad OS 18 all in a beautifully crafted thin and light form Factor but of course as lovely and slick and fast and nice to use iPad OS is this is not going to be a full laptop replacement it comes close in some ways and in other ways it's actually better but you are still by and large getting the mobile versions of apps and also the file management and the desktop and home screen and all that stuff still feels a bit kind of clunky compared to a regular desktop with that said though tip number six for my money these are the best tablets you can buy especially if you're already in the Apple ecosystem if you already have an iPhone or a Mac or know use airpods if you're in that lovely cozy prison ecosystem it is very very convenient although bear in mind you do have other options Samsung Galaxy Tab series you got pixel tablets you got the surface Pros especially now there's one with the Snapdragon X Elite chip or if you just want something cheap and cheerful for reading or maybe for the kids then consider a Kindle Fire and lastly tip number seven iPad OS is launching later this year around September is and we'll add some really cool new features like customization for the home screen finally a calculator app with truly magical math notes also much improved handwriting tools and of course Apple intelligence is coming although for that with the supercharge Siri you will need an iPad that has an M chip whether it's an M1 M2 or M4 so out of this lot just these right so with that quick lightning round out the way let's look at the lineup for 2024 and figure out what are the differences and which one you should actually buy and we have four iPad models to choose from with two of them having larger options and if you want a full spec bre down then definitely check out Apple's comparison tool it's actually quite useful but let's start with what is known as the iPad it's the base iPad the 10th Generation model this is the cheapest one now that Apple's discontinued the old ninth gen and given this's a price cut this used to be like $499 for 349 I think this is terrific value for money I mean for goodness sake it's the same price as the magic keyboard for these guys that's nuts to me and this may be the base model but it's great and it does all the usual iPad things like watching movies playing games reading and browsing effortlessly the only thing I miss from the outgoing ninth gen is the headphone jack and a lot of people especially with kids and schools did appreciate having that and of course you can still buy them from third parties just not new from Apple but this 10th gen iPad has a lovely slim design with four very snazzy colors we get the A14 bionic processor which has more than enough performance for 99% of apps in games we get Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5. 2 there's a 5G sell option and like pretty much the rest of the lineup we have about 10 hours of battery life so this is a 10. 9 in 60 HZ LCD screen and it is very nice the only downside the the one sort of thing that I miss about some of the higher end models uh even the air and the mini is it doesn't have the anti-reflective coating you can see if I bring up the iPad Air and shine it at my little Studio light if I can get the angle right that's kind of hard to do in Reverse you can see quite a big difference there and like its predecessor the ninth gen this is still the only iPad that doesn't have a a laminated screen so uh you can see just a tiny bit of a gap between the glass and the screen underneath but it's not really a big deal most people wouldn't care as I say there's USBC for charging and plugging accessories we get stereo speakers top and bottom Touch ID fingerprint login and we get the selfie camera on this side here which is the better position for it using it horizontally and only just got updated with new pros and it supports the apple pencil although it is only the first gen model uh but with the USBC charging the only issue as I say really is that the screen isn't quite as nice as the other ones and it does only come with 64 gigs of storage as standard now a quick word from today's sponsor paperlike drawing on a glass iPad screen never feels quite as good or as easy to control as drawing on actual paper does which is where the paper like comes in I'm using the paper like for iPad screen protector here and to be honest this is the first time I've used it and it's been a genuine surprise just how much this feels like real paper when I'm studing and drawing and writing and it's all down to paper like's unique Nano micr bead Tech which gives the texture the feel and the feedback like your pencil is Gliding Over a paper surface which helps you judge your movements more precisely meaning fewer mistakes and better results and a big one for me is your wrist also moves more smoothly across the surface without sticking to the screen like it does on the glass and it also gives this lovely matte look which also minimizes glare kind of like the nanotexture option you get on the pros except this is a lot cheaper and you can take it off if you want to and it doesn't dare more distort the colors plus it works as a screen protector and it is only slightly thicker than a human hair and if you're still not sure there is a 100 day satisfaction guarantee so if you don't love it paper like will offer a free replacement or refund within 100 days can't argue with that and it's not just for iPads so definitely check out the full paperlike range and I will leave a link in the description below all right next up we have the iPad Mini which unbelievably is the 2021 model this hasn't been updated for like 3 years still very nice though it is still the most compact option here and I think really the best if you just want something that can literally fit in your pocket or for reading books or if you just simply don't want a huge screen the trouble is it's quite expensive $499 so it's 150 quid more than this guy which obviously has the bigger screen as well uh also 60 HZ also starts with 64 gigs of storage however it does get the anti-reflective coating it is a laminated screen very nice but still 8.

3 in it's a very nice screen size and it is also obviously the lightest iPad among the lot so I suppose on paper this kind of makes the least sense given the specs and the price uh but there is something nice about this size and my wife Sarah absolutely loves this she has it propped up on her makeup desk watching shows she takes it to work and hands it to clients to show pictures it's a really nice size for that I do kind of like it I just wish they'd refresh it cuz this is nearly 3 years old maybe drop the price a little bit and also I use an iPhone 15 Pro Max and when you're watching a TV show or a movie with a letter boxing you're getting near enough the same amount of actual usable screen size when watching a show on this performance also gets a small bump over the basic iPad with the a15 bionic chip and it supports both the apple pencil USB and the more capable second gen apple pencil but then again because of its size it doesn't really have a great keyboard option although of course you can just use Bluetooth keyboards and uh put it on a smart foldy case thing and it's not deal breaker but I would say the iPad Mini has the worst battery among these guys not significantly uh more like 9 hours rather than 10 hours but would I pay £150 more for this over this I don't know if I would all right we're moving up on the world let's talk about the newly refreshed 2024 iPad Airs we have an 11 and a brand new 13-in version which I was going to try and let's just do it let's try and pick up both side by side and see if I can make that work and now the screens are too bright okay I'll cut to b roll so technically these are the sixth generation iPad Airs and on the outside except for this larger model not much has really changed versus the previous airs really this is a bit of a spec bump as we get the M2 Chip which was previously in the iPad pros and finally finally they have doubled the base store to 128 gigs on the iPad Airs for the longest time forever they've been 64 gigs same as these guys but now 128 I still think that's a little stingy for 2024 given the prices but I'll take it because for my last two or three iPad buying guides it's always been well the iPad Air is great but you're going to want to double the storage to 128 and at that point you're pretty close to the uh Pro iPads so then it became a bit confusing but that makes it easier to recommend the Air's now or does it because the air is still in a kind of awkward place it's significantly more expensive than the regular the 10th gen iPad which does pretty much everything you'd want an iPad to do and while also missing out on some of the cool tricks and 120 HZ and OLED screens of the iPad Pros I think the question a lot of people will be asking is should they buy the iPad Air and spend extra money over say the Bas 10th gem model while the air does get the much faster M2 Chip with its medor engine which makes it much faster for video editing and because it is an M series chip it will be fully compatible with the new Siri and all the Apple intelligence stuff when it becomes available there's also much faster graphic and it can play a handful of console level games uh we get faster USBC transfer speeds we get double the base storage Wi-Fi 6E a wider P3 color gamut with the anti-reflective laminated LCD screen and also larger storage options and we have some lovely pasty colors it also supports Apple stage manager feature and gives you more of a desktop feel when moving and resizing apps although it can still be a bit fiddly and it's not my favorite thing in the world and it also supports the fantastic but very expensive magic keyboard as well as both the apple pencil USB and also the brand new apple pencil Pro and Al together pencil pro magic keyboard the air becomes a hugely capable almost laptop replacement and without costing an absolute Fortune like the iPad Pros oh and good news both the new Air and the new Pros have had their front-facing camera moved to this landscape position rather than at the top which makes a lot more sense as now you are centered for your video calls but realistically just Everyday Use you're not going to feel that much difference really between the 10th gen and the iPad Air as I say both LCD screens both 60 HZ General performance is pretty much the same unless you're video editing or playing high-end games both have the landscape selfie cams with Center Stage stereo speakers USBC Touch ID 12 megapix cameras 5G options and around 10 hours of battery life but even with all that performance under the herd because we have that 60 HZ screen it just doesn't feel as fast as the pros and if the apple pencil support particularly the pro is really important to you and you want the absolute best pencil experience you'll want to with a pro because it has a high refresh rate as well it's not a bad experience by any stretch on the airs but that is a little bit just more responsive for £250 more than the 10th gen iPad it is a little bit hard to recommend the iPad Air I think what makes it really stand out is the 13inch model of this and you can see my pet friend's memory from 2021 we got sby the cat there if I was going to go for the air I think I would actually go for the 13-in version because you're getting this really lovely big screen but it is 500 cheaper than the similar sized iPad Pro and the bigger screen is just so much more immersive for movies and games and the extra space makes multitasking and using the keyboards feel less cramped and while we are certainly into laptop money territory at this point especially if you bump the storage and add a keyboard and pencil but if you do just want a big screen iPad that does everything you need skip the pro go for this now before we finish with the pros let me just take a second to talk about the accessories the keyboards and the pencils because it is a bit confusing so there are four apple pencil options and put simply all new iPads will work with the entry-level apple pencil with USBC which attaches magnetically but lacks wireless charging and also you don't get pressure sensitivity but it is the cheapest one but now we have a new pencil on the scene this is the pencil Pro which just launched alongside the refreshed airs and pros and despite the pro name this will also work with the new iPad Airs and it adds features like haptic feedback and it lets you squeeze and do barrel roll controls which artists I've spoken to actually seem pretty excited about plus there's find my support in case you lose it now the iPad Mini as well as previous gen iPad A's and Pros use the older apple pencil second gen and has full pressure sensitivity in while charging and therefore is better than the basic apple pencil USBC but it's a bit more expensive and finally the basic iPad the 10th gen one here also supports the older first gen apple pencil but has the awkward charging because you need a lining adapter so for the basic iPad I would go with the apple pencil USBC and apparently if you leave the battery completely discharged for a number of weeks or months then it will just die which is not ideal so um make sure you keep yours tued up and then we have the keyboards and just in terms of official keyboards as I mentioned the iPad 10th gen gets this lovely magic keyboard folio where the touchpad and function row although it doesn't hold the iPad as high as the regular magic keyboard does making it a little bit trickier to use on your lap and also misses out on back click keys but you can split it into St mode if you don't want to use the keyboard the new iPad Airs as well as the last couple of gens of airs and Pros are compatible with the original magic keyboard which is still fantastic and lovely to type on but it is very expensive as is the new magic keyboard exclusive to the new pros and it's kind of like a second gen magic keyboard with a bigger glass trackpad with haptic feedback along with a full set of function keys making it look and feel almost identical to a MacBook Air keyboard and trackpad but at £349 it is an awful lot of money as I say it's the exact same price as the 10th gen iPad but I would say if you are going to buy an a pro the keyboard does make it significant difference to the functionality of it it really can be close to a laptop replacement with a keyboard and it's just lovely to type on if you can stretch your budget that far all right so that's the accessories let's talk about these new iPad Pros just refresh for 2024 with a pretty big upgrade actually thinner lighter we have the new M4 chip and not only does it come in 11 and 13in sizes this is also the first time that we have an OED display on a laptop the A's the mini and the regular one all use LCD the previous 12 9 in iPad Pro did have a mini LED screen which is very nice but this tandem OLED is even nicer uh with no light bleed or blooming with deeper blacks better contrast uh same brightness up to 1600 nits 120 HZ so it feels incredibly fast and the best bit is you get the exact same screen uh on the small 11 in as well previously that had to make do with a crappier screen while you had to spend the extra money to get the high-end mini LED with the new Pro lineup it's the same screen on both just a different size it's also ludicrously thin at 5. 1 mm for the 13in or 5.