Last year’s iPad will stick around, but there’s a new model on the way sporting the flat-edged look found on the rest of the iPad range.
With barely a little over a week left of the tenth month of the year, you’d be excused for thinking that there’s no more new stuff on the way, because so much has already arrived. September was a massive month, and after the launch of Google’s new gear, Apple’s iPhone 14 and 14 Pro range, a new Apple Watch or two, and new Microsoft Surface tablets and laptops, you might think things would just sit still for a second.
And you’d be wrong. In fact, if you’ve been waiting until October to buy a new iPad because a tech journalist might have hinted that something was coming, or maybe you just had an inkling that Apple still had something on the way, your patience may well have paid off. It’s near the end of October, and Apple has something new.
Specifically, it’s an update to last year’s 9th-generation iPad, an iPad we loved and that will still stick around at a reduced price, playing second fiddle to a new model sporting a design borrowed from the rest of the iPad range.
Flat-edged and metal-bodied, 2022’s 10th-generation iPad looks like a more colourful version of the M1 iPad Air we liked so much, and it even looks like a bigger version of last year’s flat-edged reinvention of the iPad Mini… because it basically is.
The tenth-gen iPad will see a screen size jump moving from the 10.2 of the 9th-gen to the 10.9 of the new model, which actually appears to be pretty similar to the 10.9 inch found in the iPad Air. They both sport the same 2360×1140 resolution and brightness, and they’re both Liquid Retina displays featuring Apple’s white-balancing True Tone technology, though the main difference is the iPad misses out on the P3 colour gamut and anti-reflective coating of its more expensive Air sibling.
They’re pretty similar looking, though, with a flat metal edge and back, plus the fingerprint sensor moved to the top button on the iPad, just like the iPad Air. It will also come in colours, arriving in silver, pink, yellow, and blue.
The differences are inside, because while the Air gets the M1 chip, the 10th-gen iPad sports the Apple A14, the same chip used on the iPhone 12. The camera on the back also jumps up from an 8 megapixel wide to a 12 megapixel wide, adding 4K video capture, while the front camera is still 12 megapixels and still supports Apple’s frame-centring technology Centre Stage, but it’s been moved to the landscape edge.
That new design also means old folio cases and keyboard covers won’t work, but Apple is making a new Magic Keyboard Folio to snap on, complete with a gesture-supported trackpad built into the keyboard’s design. It will still support the 1st-gen Apple Pencil, missing out on the magnetically held and charged 2nd-gen model the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro all support.
There’s also a change to the connection options in the 10th-gen iPad, with 802.11ax WiFi 6 an upgrade over the 802.11ac WiFi 5, and mobile options will see support for 5G, as well, using sub-6 5G in Australia.
And there’s a change to the charging port, as the iPad adopts Type C USB.
That change means every new iPad now supports Type C USB, with the remaining gadgets using Lightning being Apple’s range of phones, computer peripherals, and AirPods options. Practically everything else is on Type C, it seems, as Apple prepares itself for the EU requirement of a Type C charging world.
“We’re so excited to bring the completely redesigned iPad to our most advanced iPad lineup ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple.
“With a large 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, powerful A14 Bionic chip, a first-ever landscape front camera, fast wireless connectivity, USB-C, and support for incredible accessories like the new Magic Keyboard Folio, the new iPad delivers more value, more versatility — and is simply more fun,” he said.
Interestingly, the 2022 iPad will sit alongside the 2021 iPad, which will still be made available. Locally, you’ll find the 2021 9th-gen iPad priced from $549 for 64GB, while the 10th-gen will cost $200 more, priced from $749 for the WiFi-only 64GB. That keyboard case will cost extra, priced at $399 locally if you want to add the keyboard to the mix. Apple’s new iPad models are set to arrive in Australia next week from October 27.
