Apple M1 chip supercharges iPad Air
The middle child of Apple’s iPad range exudes power but falls short on storage options.
Apple’s iPad Air is the middle child of the range. On one side, there’s the older 10.2-inch iPad sibling with an older A13 chip that’s good for media consumption and would suit your kids. It costs from $499. On the other side is the smart young upstart iPad Pro with top-of-range features for professional content makers. The 11-inch model is priced from $1199, the 12.9-inch from $1649.
Middle children are said to be trustworthy, team members and good mediators. So should you go for the middle child in iPad costing from $929? My answer is an ambivalent yes and no.
The “yes” case is based on the iPad Air offering much of what the Pro offers. This fifth generation Air has Apple’s M1 chip used in the Pro, it’s powerful enough to perform similar content creation, whether it be sketching, photo or video editing, or graphics design with similar responsiveness to Pro models.
Air and Pro models have a USB-C connector, although the Pro’s is faster with Thunderbolt-4 support, and a 12MP front facing camera. Both support the second generation Apple Pencil.
More than that, by having the same M1 chip, the Air models can use the same content creation tools developed for iPad Pro.
There’s not only Adobe apps such as the Fresco sketch and drawing app, Adobe Premier Rush video editing and Photoshop sketch, there are also rich offerings from the competition such as Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo available now and the coming Affinity Publisher.
I was impressed by a preview of 3D design tool SketchUp where you can literally drag a 2D object to create a 3D representation. You can transform 2D scenes into 3D environments at the touch of a button and view them in augmented reality.
The sketching app Procreate is to offer video editing where you can add special effects and animations frame by frame although it’s not full blown frame editing.
The apps I tested were responsive and ran smoothly; a testament to Apple’s fast yet affordable M1 chip as much as iPad Air.
Memo to Apple: Why is the iPad Air screen size (10.9 inches) just one tenth of an inch shorter than the 11-inch iPad Pro screen?
There’s one particular app that photographers should enjoy coming to iPad: Capture One and its tethered capture mode, where you can shoot images on a full-sized camera and view them fully sized almost directly on iPad.
You can adjust the aperture, ISO, shutter speed and other attributes on the fly, retouch them and upload to iCloud. This sounds promising for simplifying workflow in the field. It’s currently available for Windows and Macs but also shortly for high end iPads.
Apple released software for the M1 chip on iPads almost a year ago, so in 2022, there is no shortage of creative software options.
One question – should you buy an Air or a Pro if you are a creative type? iPad Pro does have several advantages, such as a better XDR (extreme dynamic range) professional quality display, Apple Pro-motion, where the screen refresh rate adjusts up to 120 Hertz for fast action gaming and editing, and two back-facing cameras. The Pro also has LIDAR for scanning and more accurate depth photography. Pros offer up to 2TB of storage and the larger Pro has a bigger screen than Air.
If you don’t need those, the Air could do the job.
There are a couple of reasons in the “no” column. First, size can matter. I do like the larger 12.9-inch screen size on the bigger iPad Pro and that size is not available with iPad Air.
Second, I believe Apple has erred in only offering 64GB and 256GB storage options on the Air. That’s not necessarily a lot if you are into downloadable games where some are 3GB-4GB Gigabytes or routinely editing large multiple streams of high resolution video.
The 64GB option is ridiculously low except if the iPad is used totally for content consumption, and while the 256GB option is better, you pay $1159 for it. That’s not far short of a basic Pro model.
In contrast, both iPad Pro models offer 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage options which is more realistic for content creators. The limited low storage options for iPad Air is the biggest argument for the ‘no’ case.
Performance wise the iPad Air lives up to expectations. The AnTuTu benchmark returned a score of 1,108,461 with CPU and graphics performance at 264,437 and 553,615. In comparison, a 12.9-inch iPad Pro scored 1,286,436 with CPU and graphics performance at 270,085 and 645,505.
These scores place both iPads in the top three performing iOS devices as at February 2022.
The most dramatic change is the score between iPad Air 4 and 5, with the swap to the M1 processor. iPad Air 4’s score was just 752,036 compared to 1,108,461 with Air 5.
We also tested battery life, running a 1080p video continuously at 50 per cent brightness. iPad Air 5 ran for 10 hours, 7 minutes on a single battery charge. That’s good but less than on the last iPad Pro we reviewed.
Overall, the addition of Apple’s highly successful powerful M1 chip to iPad Air offers faster processing at an affordable price, if you can do without the extra bells and whistles offered by iPad Pro.
You get the benefit of software that’s already optimised for the M1 chip on the Pro, so a broad range of applications await you. If you like a bigger 12.9-inch screen for drawing and editing, or have any doubts about the iPad Air’s meagre storage options, iPad Pro is a better option.
iPad Air comes in space grey, pink, purple, starlight (white) and blue. Note that minimum prices are the starting point. Cellular connectivity, larger storage options, Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard cost extra.