iPad 2022 review: Minor improvements to an Apple classic

Our Verdict

The Apple iPad 2021 is a well-fabricated tablet with a dated design that offers a great screen, smooth performance, and proficient battery life for a reasonable price.

For

Bright, vibrant screen
Great front-facing camera
Speedy performance thanks to A13 Bionic
Good bombardment life

Against

Design feels dated
No support for Magic Keyboard/second Gen Apple Pencil

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The Apple iPad 2021 is a well-fabricated tablet with a dated pattern that offers a great screen, shine performance, and proficient battery life for a reasonable price.

Pros

+
Vivid, vibrant screen
+
Smashing front-facing camera
+
Speedy operation thanks to A13 Bionic
+
Good bombardment life

Cons

-
Pattern feels dated
-
No support for Magic Keyboard/2nd Gen Apple Pencil
-

iPad 2021 specs

OS: iPadOS 15
CPU: A13 Bionic
Storage: 64GB, 256GB
Display: 10.2-inch (2160 x 1620 pixels) Liquid Retina
Rear photographic camera: 8MP wide (f/2.iv)
Video: Up to 1080p at upward to 30 fps
Forepart camera: 12MP Ultra Wide (f/2.4)
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6, optional 4G LTE
Battery: 32.iv watt-hour
Battery life: 11:59 (tested)
Size: nine.8 x 6.8 x 0.29 inches
Weight: 1.07 lbs (Wi-Fi), one.09 lbs (Wi-Fi + Cellular)
Price: $329

The Apple tree iPad 2021 (starting at $329) is fiddling different from its predecessor, offering the same winning combination of beauty and speed in a slim, relatively affordable package. Information technology's all the same i of the all-time tablets you tin can buy, and this yr's model sports a faster A13 Bionic chip and an impressive new front-facing camera that set information technology apart from earlier models.

Yet, I could stand to run into Apple do a little more than to improve the base iPad's design. It withal has thick blackness bezels around the screen, especially around the top and bottom, and it'due south still limited to charging via Lightning cable when about iPads now support USB-C charging. On the vivid side, information technology nevertheless has a headphone jack too, which for some people will brand this the simply iPad worth buying.

But is information technology worth your hard-earned coin? Should you upgrade if you already ain an iPad? This iPad 2021 review aims to assist you answer those questions, so you tin brand a more informed purchasing decision.

We've likewise outlined the differences between the different types of iPad in our dedicated guide to Which iPad should you buy? iPad vs. iPad mini vs. iPad Air vs. iPad Pro, so accept a await at that if you want more information.

Apple tree iPad 2021 review: Price and release date

Upgraded storage chapters brings the dark days of 32 GB iPads to an end
Look to pay between $329 - $609

The Apple iPad 2021 is available for purchase via Apple's website, in your local Apple store and at 3rd-party retailers. Stock is currently hard to come by, though, and then make sure yous bank check out our where to buy the 2021 iPad guide.

Like the previous model, the iPad 2021'southward price starts at $329 for the Wi-Fi model and $459 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular version, though anyone working in teaching tin can get a discount that brings the starting price for the Wi-Fi model down to $299.

Apple has doubled the storage capacity of the iPad compared to previous generations, bumping the entry-level $329 model up from 32 to 64 GB and the $479 upgraded storage model up from 128 to 256 GB. If you splurge for the iPad with cellular connectivity and the upgraded storage, you're looking at a $609 price tag. The storage upgrade is a significant and welcome change, as information technology's difficult to enjoy all the functionality of an iPad when y'all have less than 32 GB of storage for all your photos, movies, apps, and games.

Of form, the cost of upgrading to the model with more has storage also increased, up to $150 instead of the $100 it used to toll. All the same, we recommend paying the upgrade toll if you plan to exist downloading a lot of apps and HD media, every bit 64 GB even so isn't an impressive amount of storage space.

Accessory-wise, the iPad 2021 is, like its predecessor, compatible with Apple's $159 Smart Keyboard and the $99 1st Gen Apple Pencil and non the company's more-contempo accessories. They're decent add-ons, but it would have been nice to see Apple detect a fashion to brand the iPad compatible with its improved Magic Keyboard and/or the 2d Gen Apple tree Pencil.

Our testing unit is a Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad 2021 with 256 GB of storage, which we used with a Smart Keyboard and 1st Gen Apple Pencil. To buy it all directly from Apple, you'd spend about $867 plus taxes and fees.

Apple tree iPad 2021 review: Design

Blueprint feels dated, with glaringly thick bezels and outdated accessories
Silver lining: this is the only iPad that still has a headphone jack

The new iPad looks the aforementioned equally the old iPad, which looked roughly the aforementioned as the iPad before information technology. Apple seems uninterested in updating the await and experience of its entry-level iPad, making it experience similar an almost charming throwback to the early on days of tablets.

Still, I can't help simply wish Apple would redesign the base iPad to take the same flat edges, rounded corners, and thin bezels of siblings like the iPad mini 6 or the iPad Pro 2021 (12.ix-inch). Of course, those tablets are hundreds of dollars more expensive than the iPad 2021, and it's hard to quibble too much with what you become for that price: the iPad is still a thin, light tablet, weighing just over a pound and measuring nine.8 x 6.8 x 0.29 inches. It withal sports the same machined aluminum chassis, and comes in the same two familiar colors: silverish and Space Greyness.

When held in the portrait orientation, the Home push is all the same prominently featured in the eye of the lesser bezel, with a TouchID sensor built in so you can unlock the device with a fingerprint.

Along the right edge you'll detect the volume buttons and the SIM card slot on cellular models, while the power/wake button sits at right side of the meridian border. On the far left of that elevation edge you'll find a headphone jack, making the iPad 2021 the merely iPad model which supports wired headphones.

This is too now the but iPad to still rely on a Lighting port for charging, rather than USB-C. As overnice as the upgrade to Lightning was from Apple'south onetime 30-pin proprietary connector, information technology'south starting to feel silly to accept to dig out a Lightning cable to charge the iPad instead of grabbing a ubiquitous USB-C cable.

Apple iPad 2021 review: Display

10.two-inch brandish notwithstanding delivers vivid, vibrant prototype quality
Glare renders it nigh unusuable in direct sunlight

Look down at the iPad 2021 and you'll find yourself staring into a x.ii-inch, 2,160 x 1,620-pixel panel that's quite similar to the screen in last year'south model. It's still rated for upward to 500 nits of brightness, but this year the iPad's panel has gained support for Apple'due south True Tone tech, which automatically adjusts the screen'south white balance in response to ambient lite.

In person, it's an middle-catching brandish that looks bright and vibrant. While streaming Good Omens the slight color variations in outfits worn by Aziraphale and Crowley actually popped, and even while streaming older works like the original Dune, the iPad delivered a sharp, bright picture. There is a bit of glare if you're under brilliant lights, and it gets bad enough to return the iPad nigh unusable if you're outside at high noon on a sunny day.

When we tested the iPad 2021 in our lab nosotros constitute the screen'southward brightness maxes out at 494 nits in the centre of the display, but it gets significantly less bright nearly the meridian and bottom, delivering an average maximum effulgence of 473 nits across the whole console. That'south a chip worse than the panel on terminal year's iPad, which achieved an average maximum brightness of 484 nits in the same test. It also falls a flake short of the Samsung Milky way Tab S7, a more expensive Android tablet that maxed out at 499 nits of brightness in our lab testing.

Every bit far as color accuracy goes, we pointed a colorimeter at the iPad 2021 and found it delivers 105.3% of the sRGB color gamut. That's pretty good (100% is typically the ideal for accurate color reproduction), and comparable to the 97% covered by final year's iPad.

Apple iPad 2021 review: Operation

Upgraded A13 Bionic processor delivers respectable performance
Playing games, editing photos, and multi-tasking feels bang-up

The Apple iPad 2021 has an A13 Bionic fleck under the hood, the same chip that drives the iPhone 11 family unit of devices. It's an improvement over the A12 Bionic in final year's iPad, and what it means is that you should observe near no lag when playing the latest games, noodling around in apps, or editing photos.

I happily spent way too much fourth dimension playing games like Cobblestone 9, Genshin Impact, and World Flipper, with no noticeable slowdown or missed inputs. Editing and retouching photos in Darkroom feels nice and snappy on the iPad 2021, every bit does the process of quickly swapping back and along between apps.

When we put this tablet to the test using the Geekbench 5 multi-core CPU benchmark, which measures CPU performance, the iPad 2021 and its A13 Bionic scrap earned a score of 3,387.

That'due south a good score, and a notable comeback over the 2,685 its predecessor earned in the aforementioned test. It's also meliorate than competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 (three,074), though fifty-fifty the iPad 2021 tin't quite match the operation of the A14 Bionic-powered iPad Air 2020 (4,262) or the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (iv,878), with its 10th Gen Intel CPUs. Of course, the Surface Pro is more than expensive than the iPad 2021, fifty-fifty subsequently you cistron in the toll of optional Apple tree accessories similar the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.

Apple iPad 2021 review: Audio

Speakers sound good but go tinny at high book
Headphone jack lets you lot plug in high-quality cans

The speakers forth the bottom border of the iPad 2021 audio skilful plenty that I didn't mind watching movies or playing games without good headphones. They get surprisingly loud, too, though to my ears the audio quality gets very tinny when you crank the volume upwards.

However, you tin can definitely enjoy a amend listening feel if you lot plug in a practiced pair of headphones via the headphone jack, a uncomplicated pleasance that feels like a luxury at present that Apple's removed the headphone jack from all other iPad models.

Apple tree iPad 2021 review: Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil

Smart Keyboard feels mushy and cramped, but good in a pinch
1st Gen Apple Pencil nevertheless a great stylus

Speaking of which, the optional Smart Keyboard ($159 extra) and 1st Gen Apple Pencil ($99 extra) work likewise as they e'er have with Apple'due south entry-level iPad. The Smart Keyboard is versatile, serving every bit a forepart cover for the iPad when closed and a decent stand for the tablet when open up.

If you lot're anything like me yous'll probable find yourself using information technology as a stand up more than than anything else, since the small membrane keys aren't very satisfying to blazon on and they're so shut together that typing for long periods feels cramped and uncomfortable -- at least, for my oversized mitts. Still, information technology's nice to have in a pinch, and those with more reasonably sized hands may find the Smart Keyboard renders the iPad a reasonable laptop replacement.

The 1st Gen Apple Pencil is more comfy to utilize, and having i turns the iPad into a pretty decent digital canvas for doodling and painting. There are a bunch of intriguing iPadOS features that accept advantage of the Apple Pencil too, including Scribble, which lets yous write into any text field and see it converted into text right there on the folio. Information technology's a small-scale but neat feature that works in apps similar Safari, Gmail, and Slack, making communicating across the Cyberspace feel a bit more tactile.

Such small-scale only useful features brand the Apple tree Pencil a decent investment if yous're planning to use your iPad regularly, specially if you like to doodle. Equally I tested the stylus by writing emails (literally) and painting digital art (badly), the Pencil felt precise and I never noticed any lag or missed inputs. The but meaningful drawback is its dated pattern: unlike its successor, the 1st Gen Apple Pencil charges via Lightning port, which can exist a hurting since you have to popular a plastic cap off one end and plug the Pencil into either a charger or the iPad itself, while trying not to lose said cap. There'due south also no convenient identify to stow the Pencil when you lot're not using information technology, and so y'all just have to tote it around with y'all every bit best you can.

Apple tree iPad 2021 review: iPadOS xv

iPadOS 15 makes the iPad feel more than useful
New multitasking card is a welcome addition

Apple launched iPadOS 15 the same week every bit the iPad 2021, and the new operating organisation deliver some valuable new features that make the iPad a little more versatile.

As yous can read in our iPadOS 15 review, Apple's latest tablet Bone delivers some welcome improvements. Most notably, you can now put widgets anywhere on the home screen, just like on iOS, and there's a helpful new multitasking menu accessible via a small-scale icon at the top of every app. It looks similar iii minor gray dots in a horizontal line, and when you tap it a little window pops up with icons for viewing the app 3 dissimilar means: in fullscreen, divide view, or slide over view.

Split view does what y'all might expect, splitting the screen downward the middle and putting one app on either side, while Slide Over view fullscreens 1 app and displays the other atop it in a thinner window. While it's been possible to pull off tricks like this in prior iPadOS iterations, the new multitasking menu makes it much easier to do, which is great since having ii apps open at one time in mural mode feels like something the iPad 2021 was built for.

Apple iPad 2021 review: Cameras

eight MP rear camera all the same decent for taking photos
Upgraded 12 MP selfie camera works great, and Center Phase is a peachy improver

The Apple iPad 2021 has the same eight MP rear camera as its predecessor, and it does a similarly solid job of capturing details and color. It works well enough to capture skilful photos both indoors and out, though if you own a contempo iPhone or premium Android smartphone, information technology probably takes better photos.

No, the really heady camera news most the iPad 2021 is the fact that Apple's upgraded the forepart-facing camera from the beggarly 1.2 MP sensor on terminal year's model to an first-class new 12 MP TrueDepth ultrawide camera with back up for Apple'south new(ish) Center Phase feature.

As seen first in the iPad Pro 2021, Centre Stage is a novel feature that kicks in during video calls using the front-facing camera and uses machine learning to try and ensure the face up of whoever is speaking stays on photographic camera. It does this past capturing an ultra-broad video feed and then digitally panning and zooming to center on the face of the speaker, ensuring you can prepare it up for a call and then walk around a bit without worrying nigh going off-screen; if someone else enters the camera's field of view it will also effort and keep them in the frame.

I tested this out a few times, perching the iPad 2021 in my kitchen and taking calls with friends and colleagues while walking around preparing meals. Information technology works well, and the photographic camera can follow you lot out to a surprisingly wide angle — I had to most walk backside the iPad before it stopped tracking me. It's a groovy play a joke on that seemed to impress folks on the other end of the telephone call, but beyond that it doesn't really offer much practical benefit: the people I was video calling with could hear me just as well whether I was on camera or off. If you don't relish the feature, you tin can switch it off from within apps similar Google Meet and Zoom.

Apple iPad 2021 review: Battery life

Lab-tested 12-60 minutes bombardment life beats Apple's ten-hour estimate
Information technology charges apace, likewise, gaining 40% battery in an hour

Apple advertises the iPad 2021 every bit lasting upwardly to 10 hours of utilise (surfing the web or watching video) on a full battery, or upwards to 9 hours if you're on a cellular connection. But as is often the case, the company is commendably conservative in their battery life promises: in our tablet battery exam, which tasks the slate with endlessly surfing the web over Wi-Fi with its display set to a brightness of 150 nits, the new iPad 2021 lasted a good eleven hours and 59 minutes.

12 hours is very respectable bombardment life for a tablet, though it's virtually an 60 minutes less than last year'southward iPad 2020 achieved (12:57) in the same test and over an hr less than the runtime of Samsung's Galaxy Tab S7 (13:16). However, this yr's iPad delivers improve bombardment life than the Apple iPad Air 2020 (10:29), which ran out of juice virtually 90 minutes sooner in the aforementioned test.

Plus, the iPad 2021 charges pretty quick: I plugged information technology in at 9% power, and an hour later the battery was charged to 50% capacity.

Apple iPad 2021 review: Verdict

Apple'southward iPad 2021 is, similar its predecessors, a well-made tablet that offers a dandy screen, shine performance, and expert battery life for a reasonable cost. It's the cheapest iPad Apple tree sells, but it doesn't feel cheap, and the upgraded internals and selfie photographic camera are meaningful improvements over the prior iPad.

Yet, I don't think they're meaningful plenty to merit upgrading from last year'south iPad to the iPad 2021. Apple'southward latest iPad is one of the all-time tablets you can buy, but if you already own the iPad 2020 the performance improvements over final year'due south model aren't worth the cost of upgrading — unless you do a lot of video calls (thank you COVID) and want to endeavor out Center Stage, simply don't want to beat out out for an iPad Pro 2021.

But if y'all're shopping for a new tablet, it'southward hard to find something meliorate than the iPad 2021 in the same price range. If you're open to Android, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 is a more expensive tablet with a great screen and better bombardment life than the iPad 2021, plus it comes with a stylus packed in. If you'd like to ditch the dated design of the iPad, upgrading to the $599 iPad Air 2020 gets you a speedier Apple tablet with support for the Magic Keyboard and 2d Gen Apple Pencil, merely information technology costs hundreds of dollars more and offers slightly less battery life.

Alex Wawro is a lifelong tech and games enthusiast with more than a decade of experience covering both for outlets like Game Programmer, Black Hat, and PC World magazine. He currently serves as a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering all things computing, from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/ipad-2021

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