The best iPad that would recommend for most people would be the iPad 9, the iPad Air 4 or the 2018 iPad pro 11 . My reasoning behind this is because you would be able to get the most value out of the iPad while still getting access to the most features.
Key Fea
Yes, Apple comes out every year with a new iPads . Most of the time they upgrade the processing chip, the ram, wifi, the camera, and sometimes the design. But the thing that remains the same with almost any iPad, is the access to the same software.
This is true no matter which iPad that you buy. Every iPad made in the last 5 years will have no problems running iPad OS and do it smoothly as well. This goes for most the Apps in the App Store as well.So if for some reason you are worried about performance for or the IPad not being able to do everything that you might want it to do. I would say that is highly unlikely.
For the far majority of people the iPad would be able to do anything a basic laptop would do while still having a much better touch screen and battery life. On top of being way more versatile than most laptops.
Now there are specific use cases that the iPad may not be good for , but the solution for that problem is more than likely already available in the App Store. You can explore some my favorite apps my post here.
When considering which I pad you should get. The best question you should be asking yourself is what you will be using your iPad for?
A few things you can use a iPad for…
web and video browsing
music and video streaming
Content creation
writing or typing (with the addition of a keyboard but is possible to type directly on the screen)
creating digital art
photo editing
illustration
video editing
education
Second display for a MacBook
Accounting
Gaming
Books and Reading
Face Time
Web development and management
Multitasking
Content Management
PDF Viewer and Editor
Animation
Mobile Car GPS
3-D Modeling
Coding
Music Production
You would be able to do all that and more using any of the 3 iPads mentioned here. There are a few differences between the 3 iPads that may be a make or break for you depending on what you are looking for.
iPad Air 4th Generation compared to 9th Generation
- A14 Bionic chip
- Fully laminated Display
- Antireflective Coating
- Wide Color display (P3)
- 12 MP Wide Camera (ƒ/1.8 aperture)
- Smart HDR 3 for photos
- 4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
- Two speaker audio landscape mode
- 10.9-inch (diagonal) LED backlit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology1
- Apple Pencil (2nd generation)
- Gigabit-class LTE (up to 30 bands)2
- USB-C
A14 Bionic Chip – Was the chip that replaced A13 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 11 line up. It boasts 30% faster graphics than the A12 and the 16-core neural engine that gives you better machine learning.
The purpose of machine learning is that your device will become better over time at predicting what you want from it. For example, say that you start your day every morning by opening up your email and have to scroll through different inboxes using different programs. Then you have FaceTime or zoom calls after you do that. Next you take a break with a few YouTube videos and do some video editing at the same time.
Machine learning would predict the pattern so that certain apps are already open in within your memory while giving lower priority to other Apps that you don’t use that often. This would save save you both time and battery life while at the same time giving you features only seen in Pro model iPad’s.
Fully laminated display – This eliminates the air gap between the screen and what is being displayed. This also increases the cost of repair. So purchasing apple care, or outside insurance would be a great investment in the longevity of your device.
Antireflective coating – A coating applied to the screen that partially reduces light reflectivity. But this does not completely eliminate the reflection.
A matte screen protector would provide less reflection if the coating is not enough for you.
Wide color display (P3) – RGB color space commonly found in digital movie projection. More colors can be seen in the color spectrum when compared to sRGB
2nd Genreration Apple Pencil support – My favourite accessory for the iPad Pro which adds more to the iPad experience that magnetically attaches to the iPad . It can be used from everything from hand writing notes and Ideas to creating art and illustrations with precision.
The Apple Pencil is available with the on the iPad 9 , but only on with the Apple Pencil 1st Generation. It should also be noted that 1st gen Apple Pencil can only be charged through the lighting port on the iPad.
The 2nd Gen Apple Pencil can only be used with the iPad Pro or Air and not the iPad 9th Generation.
12 MP Wide Camera (ƒ/1.8 aperture) – Gives the IPad Air 4 a high resolution camera with a shallow depth of field. The 1.8 aperture allows for a lot of light to come through but, you may have problems when trying to focus on a far away subject or landscape.
However, this camera is best at taking pictures of documents, portraits , and for subjects that are close enough that you would not need to use the zoom. The zoom tends to add more blur and grain to photos.
Smart HDR 3 – smart high dynamic range is the process of taking “buffer” shots before and after you press the shutter button that then uses machine learning to stitch the photo together. This gives a photo that is a bit more saturated and has a better separation between light and dark.
4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps – Even though the iPad Air can record in 4K, you would have to move the footage over to a display that has a 4K resolution to view it in 4K. So if you record a video in 4K and you watch it on your iPad Air. You would not be watching the video in 4K, but in 1080p.
You are also able to change and the frames per second based on what size you want the video to be.
Two Speaker audio landscape mode – Produces sound on both sides of the device when used in landscape mode. This is a major upgrade for sound quality when compared to the iPad 9 can be blocked by your hand.
10.9 inch display – This is pretty much the same display as the 11inch iPad Pro. The cases would work for both devices as well.
Bluetooth 5.0 technology – This adds better power saving when using Bluetooth as well as improvements in speed, range, and amount of data that is being transferred.
Bluetooth 5.0 is backwards compatible with any other Bluetooth device that you may happen to use, but offer new features for devices that are 5.0 as well. One of those features is being able to cast to 2 different pairs of headphones at once without having any noticeable signs of lag or delay between the 2 headphones.
Wi-Fi 6 – This a hardware upgrade that allows data to be transferred between your iPad and router to be more efficient. This means that the time it takes to download large files is reduced or to stream content is smoother.
It should be noted that to take full advantage of a wi-fi 6 device that you should also have a wi-fi 6 router as well. Without this upgrade, buying a wi-fi only device without upgrading your network would not mean you would be getting faster speeds. However, it does mean your wi-fi 6 device would be more capable.
Touch ID – Super reliable convenient way to unlock your device, make payments, store passwords and logins. It is built into the power button which is weird at first and you end up locking your screen. But, doesn’t take too long to get used to.
USB-C – This adds more versatility to the iPad while taking advantage of dongles which come with numerous different inputs. For example you could use a dongle and connect a SD card from a camera to edit photos or video directly on the iPad. It could have input for a headphone jack so that you would be able to plug in a headphones directly to the Ipad.
This would also allow for faster transfer speeds than with a lighting port. So say you had a 1TB portable hard drive and you wanted to use that as expandable storage space for your iPad. The USB-C port on the iPad allows for this to happen with little to no headaches.
iPad Pro 1st Generation compared to the Air 4th Generation
- 600 nits max brightness
- ProMotion technology
- A12X Bionic chip
- Quad-LED True Tone flash
- Audio zoom
- Stereo recording
- Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
- Animoji and Memoji
- Four speaker audio
- Face ID
600 nits of max brightness – The iPad pro only adds 100 more nits of brightness but, this is a plus not a need. I typically only increase my brightness while in direct sunlight and that is only for a short period of time .
Using your iPad on max brightness tends to produce more heat and puts the most drain on the battery. So this only really matters depending on your situation. But this is a feature that can be manually or auto adjusted in the iPads control panel.
Promotion Technology – This is only available to iPad Pro but it increase the screen refresh speed to 120 hertz. This gives the feeling that everything on the screen moves and transitions a lot smoother. It’s more of a experience than something that would be absolutely necessary to have.
A12X Bionic – A variant of the A12 Bionic chip widely used in early iPads and iPhones, but this version of the chip has to extra cores that further helps to boost performance and multitasking power.
The A14 is a more powerful chip that is faster and better than the A12X but, that’s only if you are comparing the numbers. When you compare normal everyday experience between the iPad’s , you might not notice that huge of a difference between the two devices. In fact , in my use of both devices, the most noticeable difference is how I unlocked the device.
Quad-LED True Tone Flash – Flash on the iPad, that is also a flashlight. I use it when my phone is not present. A nice feature but not something that’s life changing.
Audio Zoom – A feature that can be more used when using the iPads camera to record. It focuses in on the subject in the cameras focus rather than the ambient noise that may be present.
Stereo Recording – Is technique of using 2 microphones to record one subject. Since the iPad Pro get the addition of studio quality microphones. You can record things the same way that we hear them.
One side recording the left and the other the right. This adds more depth to the recording and appreciated more when I played back the same recording with headphones.
Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and depth control – Bokeh is the “look”, style, aesthetic of a photo. It is also the only mode where you are able to adjust the camera’s aperture.
Note that this mode may used with the front facing camera for taking pictures and not recording video.
Animoji and Memoji – A fun feature for the iPad. Not something that anyone would need but really cool to see and use. You would also have access to this feature on your iPhone as well.
This is a feature that is not available on the iPad air 4 or regular iPad.
Four Speaker Audio – This would also be the best sounding iPad out of my 3 pics. Movies, videos, and any other media is as loud as external speakers. The sound quality from the four speakers is excellent and produces a much fuller sound than the iPad Air 4.
Face ID – Is always great and reliable to use, but there are times where I found it easier just type in my code. This is only because I wanted to unlock it with a mask on or if I was in a environment that was too dark for Face ID to read my face.
New features on the iPad 9th Generation
- A13 Bionic
- 12MP Ultra Wide camera
- True Tone display
- sRGB display
- Center Stage
- Extended dynamic range for video up to 30 fps
A 13 Bionic – The successor to the A12 chip giving better efficiency and lower power consumption when compared to the A12. Even though it is a chip from 2019, it is not slow by any means. Especially when you compare it to other chips of the time.
However if you do feel like you really do need more power, I would look more towards the A14 chip in the Air. The A14 would be the next chip that apple has produced.
12 MP Ultra Wide Camera – A pro feature that only on the Pros, but is now found in base model of the iPad. This is great because it allows you to get more than what you are paying for.
This feature alone allows you to makes FaceTime , video recording , or zoom calls to be of a much higher quality than before. Especially when you compare it the quality of webcam available on the majority of laptops today.
True Tone Display – Using sensors that measure the ambient light and brightness. The screen will auto adjust brightness based on the external conditions that you may currently be in.
For example, say you are at the park and you want to read a book on your iPad. The instead of you having to manually adjusting the screen yourself. True Tone does this for you and you can turn this feature on or off anytime that you want. I have never found myself wanting to do so.
sRGB Display – A standard way that colours are being displayed on the iPad.
If you are getting this IPad specially for lots of photo editing I would suggest either of the other 2 iPads. Because when you view the same photo on the 9th gen iPad and the iPad Air or iPad Pro. You would notice a subtle difference in the vibrancy of the photo.
This not to say that the iPad 9’s display is bad, but does not display as many colours compared to the other devices. As for digital art, this display is more than adequate for that use.
Center Stage – Another feature tied into the front facing 12MP camera. It keeps you and whom ever you are with in frame without you having to reposition the iPad. Or without you having to remain in the same spot.
Center stage can be used with social apps like face time , video recording, and zoom call
Extended Dynamic Range for video – This feature doubles the amount of frames that switch between standard exposure and short exposure. This results in a more polished looking video.
Why get I would choose these iPads instead
- Price
- Features
- Performance
- Longevity
- Cost of Accessories
- The iPad is not your main device
The iPad for creative Pros 
The Best iPad for most people The iPad for students
The price of the regular iPad is one of the most attractive things about the base iPad when compared to the entire iPad line up. $329 for 64GB or $459 for the 256GB giving you some the best value for what you are getting.
The 9th Generation iPad is great for almost anyone, but the only real downside is the way that the Pencil charges. The cap can be easily lost and without a good case the pencil can be lost or damaged as well.
The iPad Air 4 will give you more modern design, just being a cut above the base level iPad. While at the same time being slightly below the pro level iPads. Giving you pro level features at a more reasonable price.
The iPad 11 Pro 1st Generation gives you everything you would want in a pro device, but at the price of the Air 4. This is great also great for those who might be interested in the 12.9 3rd generation iPad Pro. It’s the same thing as the 11 just with a much bigger screen.
Don’t fret I’ll be sure to give my view on newer devices as well, but for now in my opinion, the average person is paying for way more than they might need. Awesome devices, but not absolutely necessary for getting the iPad experience.
In fact, I would not even consider getting a newer iPad unless the iPad was my only device. That’s really the only time it would make sense to spend more on a iPad.
The IPad Air 4, IPad 9 and the 2018 iPad Pro 11 or 12.9 will be great for almost thing that you might do on a iPad. I hope this post helps you make a more informed decision.