What's the Best iPad for You?
New versions of the iPad Pro and iPad Air add some shine to the iPad lineup
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Apple just gave its iPad lineup one of the biggest updates in a long, long time.
In its latest product announcement, the company unveiled significantly revamped iPad Air and iPad Pro models, a new Magic Keyboard, a new Pencil Pro stylus, and a slew of well-received app upgrades. It also dropped the price of the entry-level iPad from $450 to $350.
We hope to have test results on the new models in the coming weeks. Available for preorder now, they arrive in stores on May 15. But in the meantime, we have a good idea of what to expect and how these changes will affect the age-old question: Which iPad is best for you?
On the whole, the upgrades don’t change our thinking too much. Consumers in search of an iPad for “tablet-y” activities like browsing the web, watching videos, and reading e-books should seriously consider the entry-level iPad or the iPad Air.
For more demanding users—those who view an iPad as more of a laptop replacement, a tool for editing hi-res photos and videos—the iPad Pro makes more sense. Not only is it more powerful, but the larger, higher-quality display makes working with apps like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro easier and more enjoyable.
Best All-Around iPad
Here in mid-2024, Apple’s entry-level iPad still provides the most bang for your buck, especially when you factor in the price cut from $450 to $350 and the number of high-quality apps and services available for the iPad operating system.
The model in our ratings has a 10.9-inch display and 64GB of storage (you can pay for more), and it records HD video (though the cameras don’t score quite as well as those on other iPads). In our web-browsing test, the device delivers 9 hours of battery life; in our video test, it delivers 13.4 hours of battery life.
Price drop aside, though, the iPad is still pricey compared with many other tablets. If you’re simply looking for a tablet that lets you roam the web and watch the occasional Netflix show, it might make sense to consider an option from Amazon’s Kindle Fire line, where around $120 will get you the 10-inch, 32 GB Amazon Fire HD 10. An 8-inch model costs $100.
A More Powerful, Less Expensive iPad
The iPad Air is somewhat like the midlevel trim of a car: better equipped than the entry-level model but not quite high-end. For that reason, the iPad Air is a good choice for someone who wants a nicer experience than what they would get with a plain old iPad but without paying iPad Pro prices for the best of the best.
Again, it’ll be a few weeks before we have test results on the new iPad Air, but the previous model certainly impressed our testers and it’s likely to go on sale in the days ahead.
Powered by the M1, the earlier model has very good performance for even the most demanding tasks (like, say, editing video in apps like iMovie), though it’s perhaps overkill if you’re merely watching “Ted Lasso.” It has a fully laminated LCD display, producing clearer images than the entry-level iPad but not as whiz-bang-wow as the Mini LED display of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (nor does it have the ProMotion high refresh rate). Battery life of around 7 hours while browsing the web is less than what you’d find on both the entry-level and Pro models.
We suspect that the 2024 iPad Air will be more of the same, albeit with the option for a 13-inch display this time around.
Best iPad for Portability
Although it’s a few years old, Apple’s 2021 iPad Mini is still our top pick for those who wish to travel light. (The Kindle Fire is another good choice if you don’t mind stepping outside the Apple ecosystem.)
The 8.3-inch iPad Mini has a bright, sharp display with a large viewing angle, meaning you don’t need to hold it directly in front of your face to see it clearly. Doing things like browsing the web and watching movies is smooth and stutter-free. The battery life is impressive, too. Our testers clocked it at 10.7 hours for web browsing and 12.4 hours for movie playback. Other attractive features include a USB-C port, solid cameras, and optional 5G compatibility.
The smaller size and lighter weight (just 0.6 pound vs. 1 pound for the iPad Air and the 11-inch iPad Pro, and 1.1 pounds for the regular iPad) make the tablet easier to hold for extended periods of time.
How CR Tests Tablets
Every year Consumer Reports tests tablets from top brands like Amazon, Apple, and Samsung. The goal is to help you pick the right tablet for your needs and budget.
We rate tablets across a range of criteria including performance, display quality, and predicted reliability. They’re scored on an ascending scale of 1 to 5, making them easy to compare and contrast with other models. A display with a score of 5, for example, is one that’s sharp, gets bright enough to view in direct sunlight, and can accurately display colors. And a tablet with a performance score of 5 can easily handle demanding tasks like editing video or playing high-end video games.
We also subject tablets to rigorous battery testing, spread across three separate trials. One measures how long the tablet stays powered while cycling through a series of web pages, which is meant to simulate what casual usage of the tablet is like, while a second measures how long the battery lasts while screening a video running on a loop. Finally, we see how long a tablet runs after being charged for just 30 minutes.