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Much of the hype surrounding the release of the 10th generation Apple iPad has focused on how messed up Apple’s tablet lineup has become – and it’s easy to see why. With this latest addition to the family, Apple now has six different models in its iPad range, four of which have very similar screen sizes and three that look similar but all look the same.
For a company that normally prides itself on the clarity of its product range, each model has its own unique appeal that doesn’t fit any particular character. And if nothing else, it makes buying an iPad more complicated than ever.
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Apple iPad 10th generation (2022) review: What you need to know
So where does the 10th generation iPad sit in this particular sub-range of 10-11 inch Apple tablets? If you think of the list as a (short) league table and sort it by price, the new iPad is third, with the 9th generation iPad in fourth and the iPad Air in second. Of course, the 11-inch M2 iPad Pro tops the table.
There is a £130 to £170 difference in price between each model; The differences in specification are subtle. Paying more gets you a faster CPU, better quality screen and improved accessory compatibility.
Visually, the new iPad doesn’t break the mold. It looks almost identical to the iPad Air, but it comes in different colors: blue, pink, silver, and yellow. It has a 10.9-inch display like the Air – 2,360 x 1,640 – the same resolution (264ppi) and a 60Hz refresh rate. The difference is that the top of the LCD panel is not laminated to the glass. Like the cheaper 10.2-inch iPad, there’s a small gap between the two that can affect image quality in certain conditions.
Inside is a slightly slower A14 Bionic chip, where the Air has an M1 chip, and the new iPad only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil, where the Air supports the second generation.
Last but not least, Apple also introduced a new Magic Keyboard Folio case for the 10th generation iPad. It consists of two parts, the back has a step that magnetically attaches to the back, while the separate keyboard and touchpad attach to the three-pin smart connector on the front lip of the tablet.
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Apple iPad 10th Generation (2022) Review: Price and Competition
As I mentioned earlier, when it comes to price, the 10th generation iPad is the third most expensive of Apple’s 10-11-inch tablets. Prices start at £499, which is £130 more than the 9th generation iPad and £170 less than the iPad Air.
As with most of Apple’s iPad range, there are a variety of options, determined by how much storage you want and whether or not you want cellular connectivity. The base price is £499 for the 64GB model, while the 256GB model costs £679. Cellular adds another £179 to the price.
And don’t forget to factor in the price of the keyboard: the Magic Keyboard Folio is £279 and the Apple Pencil (1st generation) is another £109. Note that if you don’t want to pay Apple’s high price, Logitech’s Combo Touch keyboard works equally well for £180.
All this brings the total price for the 10th generation Apple iPad to £778 for tablet and keyboard and £887 for tablet, keyboard and Apple Pencil. That’s a healthy chunk of cash and £240 more than buying a 9th generation iPad with a Smart Keyboard Folio – without the touchpad.
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As for the alternatives, they’re mostly from Apple’s own lineup, and the 9th-generation iPad provides the toughest challenge. It comes with a slightly smaller display and a slower, year-old A13 Bionic chip, but functionally, you can do everything you can on the redesigned model, and it’s £130 cheaper.
As for Android tablets, this situation remains the same. There are some manufacturers that build decent productivity tablets, like Samsung and more recently Xiaomi, but the Android tablet operating system still lags behind iPadOS in terms of its maturity and availability of tablet-specific apps.
At £649, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is the strongest opposition. This price includes the stylus, and if you want the official Samsung keyboard cover (Keyboard Slim Book Cover), you’ll need to pay an extra £119. That’s cheaper than the 10th generation iPad plus the Tab S8 that comes with an OLED screen.
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Apple iPad 10th Generation (2022) Review: Design and Key Features
You may be familiar with the “all-new” design of the 10th generation iPad, as it follows the design guidelines originally laid out in the 2018 iPad Pad Pro redesign. the bezels are the same width, the rear edges are completely flat and the device has a single camera on the back.
The speaker grills are placed on each short edge of the tablet so they light up to the left and right when using the tablet in landscape orientation, and the power and volume buttons are located where they’ve been since the first iPad. If you hold the tablet in landscape mode, the power button is on the left side, and the volume buttons are in the corner, on the top edge, on the left side.
It’s worth noting that, like the iPad Air, the 10th generation iPad doesn’t have a Face ID camera. Instead, there’s a Touch ID fingerprint reader built into the power button. I’m not a fan of its placement, and you need to register at least two fingerprints to use it comfortably in both portrait and landscape orientations, otherwise you’ll end up in all sorts of awkward positions to unlock the tablet.
Another thing that isn’t exactly perfect — actually, no, it’s, to put it kindly, surprisingly pointless — is that the new iPad only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil, even though it’s upgraded from the outdated Lightning connector to USB-C. I’m a big fan of going USB-C, but this weird halfway house means that if you want to charge your Apple Pencil from the tablet itself, you’ll have to use the supplied Lightning to USB-C adapter, which is a tricky solution. .
Whoever authorized this particular move is responsible for some of the most user-unfriendly design work Apple has done in the last few years. Fortunately, this is also the worst feature of the 10th generation iPad, and the updates elsewhere are largely positive.
I especially like that Apple has moved the front camera from the short edge to the long edge. This means you can finally participate in video calls in laptop mode without the camera looking at you from the side. This is something Apple should have done a long time ago and the picture quality is very good.
The 12MP f/1.8 rear camera is equally good. Images captured with it are definitely a little on the noisy side in low light, but overall, images captured in good light are clean, sharp, detailed, and well-defined. Video can be shot in 4K resolution at up to 60fps with full stabilization, though not in Dolby Vision HDR, which Apple’s iPhones can’t do.
And, aside from its significantly higher price, the new keyboard is also very well made and designed. Unlike previous cases, this is a two-piece design, with the back panel/socket and keyboard attached separately. It has its advantages and disadvantages. The good thing about it is that the keyboard can be removed and rotated, allowing the keyboard to be stored flat on the back of the iPad without the keys being exposed. What I don’t like is that with the folding step on the back, the iPad is quite cumbersome and difficult to use on your lap. The one-piece Magic Keyboard is a more compact and elegant design, but it’s not compatible with the 10th generation iPad.
That being said, the keyboard itself is very pleasant to type on. It’s illuminated, has a light action with a fairly positive click, and I found myself typing fast without much adjustment. The layout makes reasonable compromises between compactness and usability, and the significantly smaller keys are the keys you use less. The touchpad also works well, giving enough room for comfortable swiping, scrolling and pointing without being too bulky.
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Apple iPad 10th Generation (2022) Review: Display
One of the main reasons you should choose one tablet over another is the display, but not here. The 10th generation iPad screen is slightly larger than the older 9th generation model and may have a resolution of 2360 x 1640, but that’s where the difference ends.
Elsewhere, there are many similarities: it has exactly the same 264ppi, has a 60Hz refresh rate and only outputs up to sRGB. The iPad Air’s display is more vibrant and capable of producing a wider color gamut than the P3.
In testing, the display produced 89.5% sRGB color accuracy, with an average Delta E color difference score of 1.27 (lower is better). A contrast ratio of 1,097:1 rounds out a decent but not stellar display; if you’re looking for the best display performance, I recommend you go for the iPad Pro 12.9 inches with a mini-LED screen (if you can get the M1 model for less, go for it) or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 with an OLED panel.
Otherwise, the specs are similar to the older tablet, with a peak brightness of 500cd/m2 (I measured it at 520cd/m2) and Apple’s excellent True Tone technology that monitors eye strain. Simple peak brightness and limited color gamut means you can watch Netflix, Disney Plus, etc.
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Apple iPad 10th generation (2022) review: performance and camera
The 10th generation iPad is powered by Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, the same chip used in the previous generation iPad Air and iPhone 12 generation smartphones.
It’s a hexa-core chipset with a quad-core GPU, and surprisingly, it performs exactly as you’d expect: slightly faster than the 2021 iPad 9th generation and slightly slower than the M1 iPad Air.
It may sound a bit old hat, but it still holds its own and performs very well for most tasks. The biggest issue, if you call it a lot, is that the 60Hz display feels a little slower in transitions compared to the 120Hz display on the iPad Pro.
Speaking of battery life, it’s about what I’d expect from an iPad. In our video playback test, with the display set to 170cd/m2 brightness and airplane mode enabled, it lasted 11 hours and 52 minutes. That puts it behind the standard iPad, ahead of the iPad Air and in line with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8.
Apple iPad 10th Generation (2022 Review): Verdict
Whether or not Apple should launch another 10- to 11-inch tablet is debatable, but the 10th generation iPad does a pretty good job of justifying its existence. It’s good enough for everyday apps and productivity tasks, it’s well made, the screen is great, and the cameras are good, especially on the front, and it’s finally moved into the right place for a productivity tablet.
It is not without its problems. I’m not a fan of using an adapter to charge the 1st generation Apple Pencil. What’s more, when you boil it down, it’s not quite as accomplished as the 9th generation model before it, and it’s not particularly given the £130 premium.
It’s not a bad tablet, by the way – far from it, it’s very good – but if you’re looking for a cheap iPad, I’d recommend buying the 9th generation model while they’re still available.
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