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amazon Apple iPad 10.2 inch reviews
There are two notable changes in Apple’s latest iPad: a larger screen and a Smart Connector, so you can connect it to Apple’s Smart Keyboard.
However, these changes are not what makes it retain its status as the de facto tablet most people should buy. That’s helped by iPadOS, an intuitive and beautiful operating system that makes the 7th-generation iPad not only a great tablet but a powerful productivity machine that won’t break the budget.
Old design, smart keyboard support
The iPad looks like an iPad. Its look isn’t too far off from the original 2011 model. It’s Apple’s most affordable version yet, and it’s still packed with functionality — but reducing the bezels around the screen even a bit would make it look more modern. Take a look at what Samsung has done with its $400 Galaxy Tab S5e – it looks great and is affordable.
Apple has a modern and beautiful tablet called the 2018 iPad Pro, but you have to shell out hundreds of dollars for it. The company should start refining the design for the rest of its tablets, which extends to the latest 10.2-inch iPad and the iPad Mini and iPad Air 2019.
None of this means the iPad feels cheap. It doesn’t, even with the 100% recycled aluminum housing. It has a nice, substantial weight and feels like it costs over $330.
Speaking of iPad Air, the 10.2-inch iPad has a body almost like it. Take a look at the dimensions, and you’ll see that the length and width are the same, just the thickness and weight are a bit different, with the true Air being a bit lighter and thinner. Despite using the same body, Apple decided to keep the bezels thicker around the edges of the iPad.
You still get Touch ID, not Face ID, only available on the 2018 iPad Pro. It doesn’t make sense to add it to this iPad because the latest iPad Air and iPad Mini don’t have it, but that doesn’t mean it is that I don’t miss it. After using Face ID on Apple’s latest phones and iPad Pro, it felt slower to bring my thumb to the screen to unlock Touch ID than just looking at the tablet to unlock it.
While using the Smart Connector might be more elegant, I think Apple’s keyboard is too expensive at $159.
The most notable addition is support for the Smart Connector, which rests on the tablet’s left edge when held in portrait orientation. You can connect it to Apple’s Smart Keyboard – the same one used for the iPad Air (sold separately).
While using the Smart Connector might be more elegant, I think Apple’s keyboard is too expensive at $159. I’m not the biggest fan of the keys, and it only provides an angle to position the iPad, which can feel limited when using the iPad and the Smart Keyboard on your lap or some other uneven surface. There are more affordable third-party options out there.
A bigger screen
The other big change is the increase in screen size, from 9.7 inches on the predecessor to 10.2 inches. It sounds like a small bump. You won’t see much of a difference between last year’s iPad and this year’s model. However, I appreciate a larger screen for multitasking.
It’s an LCD screen with 2,160 x 1,620, slightly better than the 2018 iPad. However, the pixel density is the same at 264 pixels per inch due to the bump in screen size. It looks sharp, the screen is colorful, and it’s very bright. Outdoor use at a coffee shop poses no problems for the iPad, which has a peak brightness of 500 nits. I even watched a few episodes of Dark on Netflix. I could easily follow the show, although it was dark.
What about the sound? You’ll find stereo speakers at the bottom near the charging port. The bass is weak, and the music isn’t loud enough to fill a large room. It’s not as impressive as the four-speaker setup on the iPad Pro, but it’s more than enough for movies.
Unlike the iPad Pro, which has a headphone jack, I want to look at the Pro’s features. I’ve never had to hunt for a 3.5mm to Lightning jack, as I did with my iPad Pro when my Bluetooth headphones ran out of juice.
Powerful performance
Strangely, the iPad didn’t hit the mark. It’s powered by the A10 Fusion, the same processor in last year’s iPad and the chip in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus from 2016. As an iFixit teardown revealed, Apple increased the RAM from 2GB last year to 3GB.
Is the chipset still on? Correct. Any problems? There was a time when I felt the iPad could use a little more power. I managed to multitask with several apps open without a hitch and navigating around iPadOS felt fluid. Will it be as smooth as the iPad Pro? There’s a noticeable difference in power between the two, but I never felt hindered by the chip in the iPad.
Here are a few benchmarks:
AnTuTu 3DBench: 211.454
CPU Geekbench 5: 760 single core; 1,425 multi-core
These scores are better than results from Samsung’s flagship tablet from 2018, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, which scored 196,419 on AnTuTu.
Apple Arcade games like Towaga: Among Shadows and Where Card Fall ran without issue, and apps like Adobe Lightroom gave me no trouble when I used the Apple Pencil to make some edits to the game.
The biggest disappointment is the 32GB of storage in the base model. Most phones in the $300 price range, like the Nokia 7.2, Galaxy A50, Moto G7, come with 64GB, which should be the basic storage option with the iPad. Make sure you choose the 128GB model instead.
where can you get a Apple iPad 10.2 inch online
2020 Apple iPad (10.2-inch, Wi-Fi, 32GB) – Space Gray (8th Generation): Buy it now
Apple iPad (10.2-inch, Wi-Fi, 128GB) – Space Gray (Previous Model): Buy it now
(Renewed) Apple iPad (10.2-Inch, Wi-Fi, 32GB) – Space Gray: Buy it now
Apple iPad (10.2-inch, Wi-Fi, 128GB) – Silver (Latest Model, 8th Generation) (Renewed): Buy it now
iPadOS: replace your laptop
You can have well-designed hardware and powerful internals, but the whole experience can be ruined without software. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6 is a great example. I love it, but I only recommend it to people looking for a laptop experience powered by Android. The $330 iPad should be more than enough for most people looking for a 2-in-1 laptop. That’s thanks to iPadOS, the new spin-off operating system based on iOS 13.
iPads previously ran a slightly altered version of iOS. The new iPad isn’t entirely new, but we can expect even more differences to the tablet interface in the future. The biggest improvements in iPadOS include the ability to use multiple apps in the Slide Over menu, a revamped home screen layout that includes Today View widgets, desktop-level Safari, and multitasking Windows apps.
Apple tablets have long supported multi-window apps through Split View, but now you can use Split View on the same app. Have two Google Docs you want to open side by side? No problem. Want to see two pages in Safari? You can open two tabs in Split View. Perhaps you want to reply to an email while referencing an older email? No problem.
I also love Slide Over. It sits on the right side of the iPad in landscape view, and you can pull out these iPhone-like apps at any time by swiping left from the edge. I mainly use it for messaging apps, but there’s no limit to how many apps you can have in this view, making it powerful for multitasking.
Using Slide Over and Split View is intuitive, but the gestures, animation fluidity, and ease of use make it fun. It’s not like multitasking on the Samsung Galaxy Fold, a little messy and a little chore. Anything that can be dragged in iPadOS can be placed into its window, and that’s powerful.
What makes iPadOS feel like a desktop operating system is Safari, which now pulls the desktop versions instead of the mobile view.
I’ve been using the iPad as a laptop for the past week; I feel not need it anymore. All the services and apps I use are available through the App Store. Apple easily has the most tablet-optimized apps compared to Windows and Android. I have my phone data connected to this to use on the go, but a cellular model is available if you want to pay a monthly fee for the connection.
As I mentioned earlier, my biggest gripe is the Smart Keyboard, which doesn’t make it the most comfortable laptop replacement. I love Samsung’s keyboard on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, and Apple’s option is gone. I’d say go with a third-party keyboard.
Apple Pencil is better.
You can’t better use the second-generation Apple Pencil, so you’re stuck with the first. But it offers reduced latency – from 20 milliseconds to just nine milliseconds. I didn’t notice a significant difference in my day-to-day use or drawing with the Pencil, but it’s still a great and responsive tool.
An 8-megapixel camera at the back takes good photos during the day and poor photos at night. Seriously, use your smartphone to take pictures. I wish Apple would improve the front camera, which I use more on tablets, but only has a 1.2-megapixel camera. The A-Zoom video call I made for a meeting was not the best quality.
Battery life
The iPad managed to last three days of intermittent use, during which I used the tablet for three to four hours a day to write, browse social media and the web, and play a few games. Using it constantly as your primary device should get you through a full workday without a problem.
In our standard YouTube video playback test, playing a 1,080p video with brightness set to maximum, the iPad lasted 4 hours and 35 minutes. For reference, the Galaxy Tab S6 lasted 11 hours in this test. However, this isn’t a great measure of real-world usage, and the tablet’s battery life shouldn’t pose much of an issue for most people.
While Apple has improved charging speeds on its iPhone 11 Pro range by including a fast charger in the box, that’s not the case here. It took me more than three hours to get the iPad from 20% to 90%, and it was way too long.