This new iPad Air, on the surface, isn't anything groundbreaking. It's a bit faster, a bit thinner, a bit lighter, and a bit shinier than all the tablets I've used before. But, taken altogether--and taken along with the second-gen Apple Pencil--it feels like an entirely new experience. I haven't been this struck by a new device in a while.
Over the years, I've owned three or four iPads, a few Android tablets, and a few convertible touchscreen laptops running various OSes. I've always been partial to Samsung because of the S Pen, and I've owned a couple of Galaxy Tabs and the Chromebook Pro: I love taking handwritten notes during meetings, and I like writing my first drafts by hand.
But this device, with the Pencil, is leaps and bounds better than any other tablet I've used. Writing and drawing on it feels completely intuitive and fluid. The responsiveness of the interface with the pencil is amazing--it reproduces my handwriting (chicken scratch that it is) perfectly. And more than that, the built-in handwriting recognition in the OS is frankly astounding. Either using the Scribble feature to handwrite form entries or using the Notes app's feature that lets you search your handwritten notes, everything works FAR better than I expected them to. Let me reiterate: my handwriting is atrocious. And yet, this iPad is able to decipher my hieroglyphics with a frequency that actually makes the feature really useful--I was expecting it to be little more than a gimmick, as in the past handwriting recognition apps have been completely useless for me. There've been a few times where I actually giggled out loud when the iPad recognized something I'd written that I could barely read myself.
Outside of how perfectly the iPad, iPadOS14, and Pencil have all integrated into my workflow, the design of the device itself is very nice, and the build quality is excellent. The tablet feels oddly light while still feeling very sturdy. And it's thin--even Apple's marketing images really don't do it justice. And obviously the new processor is nice, though I won't pretend to have done enough to even come close to pushing its limits. But the entire experience has been very smooth, even playing around with video editing and trying to find the most graphically-intensive games on the App Store I could. Haven't seen any lag or stuttering at all.
All that said, it's not perfect. I do wish Apple was finally putting OLEDs into more of their devices outside of the iPhone. The screen on this really is gorgeous, don't get me wrong. And the blacks aren't awful or anything. But given how great everything else is on this device, having a backlit screen--as advanced and pretty as it is--just feels weird. And I'm kind of ambivalent about the power button TouchID. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled the Home button is gone, but I think I'd kinda prefer FaceID. The TouchID on this iPad works great, and it does work very quickly, but I'm spoiled by being used to just tapping the screen on my iPhone and having it unlock itself automatically.
Anyway, those minor gripes aside, this is a great little device, it fit itself into my workflow immediately. I think the highest praise I can give it is that it's amazing how quickly it effectively disappeared: within a couple days of using it, I stopped noticing it, because everything about writing and taking notes with the iPad and the Pencil felt second nature, it felt like it had always been there. Couldn't be happier with this purchase.
| Product Dimensions | 9.74 x 7 x 0.24 inches; 1 Pounds |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 1 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Apple Computer |
| ASIN | B08J61FCVN |
| Item model number | MYFQ2LL/A |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Date First Available | September 15, 2020 |
