Gadgets & Technology: iPad 2018

Apple’s ipad for 2018 may not look very different from the iPads in the years before it, with the weight, materials and overall form factor staying unchanged. It is a familiar design targeted at first-time buyers and students, with the thinned-out bezels and insanely fast 120Hz ProMotion display reserved for the pro-oriented iPad Pro. Under the hood, the iPad now has the 64-bit A10 Fusion processor, which offers improved graphics and augmented reality capabilities and brings the iPad closer, performance-wise at least, to the rest of Apple's product lineup. So, everything you would expect an iPad to do – play heavy games, stream Netflix, browse the web or run your favourite apps in split-window mode – the new iPad will do better, and still last past the 10-hour mark.  

Yet, one subtle tweak on the iPad display this time around opens up a bunch of creative possibilities, taking the iPad into an ‘entry-level iPad Pro’ territory. The addition of full support for the Apple Pencil (Rs 7,600) digital stylus now lets you use  drawing features in creative apps or scribble comments on iWork documents or take notes in Evernote or OneNote in meetings. Not to mention the growing list of apps for kids, both fun and coursework related, that are designed to take advantage of the Pencil and the iPad's camera.

Which begs the question – with the cheaper iPad, why go Pro? Well, the Pencil experience on the iPad is almost the same as the Pro – the latency (lag) with the Pencil drawing on the screen is only barely noticeable, and then there is the mildly discernable air gap between the tip of the Pencil and the pixels below, something you would notice only if you are doing detailed line drawings. Professionals who obsess about latency and accuracy should certainly stay Pro, but everyone else can buy this iPad, spend a lot less, and be perfectly happy with the decision. You will miss the Pro’s proprietary docking mechanism for keyboards (Smart Connector) but any regular Bluetooth keyboard will do just fine for typing duties.