Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I don't think either the the 10.5 Air or the 10.5 Pro refurb is a slam dunk decision for everyone though.

I agree with what you say here. I didn't know anything about Pro Motion so I Googled it and I can now see why that would be very desirable especially with quad speakers.

If you are primarily looking for a content consumption device (TV shows, movies, music) I think the 10.5 Pro refurb is definitely the way to go. If you are looking for something for business productivity use like e-mail, taking notes primarily through typing or reading books or .pdf's I think the new 10.5 Air is the way to go.
 

I just love the helpfulness of some people in here...

So what I and someone else in this thread are wondering is if the newer Air is going to stick with 3gb of RAM and if so, how would that performance be against the slower A10 w/ 4gb in the Pro? I know this will greatly depend on end user's use cases.

Man, that 120Hz just got me crazy for the Pro!

EDIT: In fact, my Air 2 just went up on OfferUp. Hoping I can beat Apple's recycle program offering, which is way too paltry...
 
  • Like
Reactions: raybo
I had a 10.5 Pro and "upgraded" to the 11 Pro. FaceID is driving me crazy as I seem to always be blocking the stinking camera. So glad to see they haven't abandoned the TouchID design altogether.

They didn’t abandon it because they are reusing an old design. I doubt we’ll see any new design with Touch ID ever again. Maybe on future Macs, but even there I expect Face ID with the next redesign.
 
I agree with what you say here. I didn't know anything about Pro Motion so I Googled it and I can now see why that would be very desirable especially with quad speakers.

If you are primarily looking for a content consumption device (TV shows, movies, music) I think the 10.5 Pro refurb is definitely the way to go. If you are looking for something for business productivity use like e-mail, taking notes primarily through typing or reading books or .pdf's I think the new 10.5 Air is the way to go.

I had (and just bought another just today) iPad Pro 10.5 2017 before this announcement - given the choice I’d have taken this Air 2019 as the A12 will pull ahead of the A10X over time. The Air 2 which was plenty fast enough for me for years is feeling slow when I go back to it now. But ProMotion is really fluid and smooth and the quad speakers sound great but I can achieve the same with a Bose Soundlink Mini/Colour or JBL Go.

I bet for Apple it was the obvious choice, they don’t even need to retool to build these new iPads so it’s very cost-effective. The mini 5 has a 4-generations faster CPU, that’s a massive deal!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3.5jackandairpods
The Apple iPad lineup is utterly confusing. It's not straight forward the difference between an "AIR" and a "PRO" iPad to me right off the bat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sakurarain
Kind of a pointless iPad and just one more set of 6 SKU's the stores need to stock. Gotta be a pretty crowded backroom in some of them!
 
At first I thought this would be a decent value, but with 3GB of RAM, no quad speakers, and no 120hz display, I'm not so sure. At least they kept the headphone jack.
 
  • Like
Reactions: karthik02
Nope, the opposite is true / the old one is far superior and 120 is pro motion is great for everyday use

I would prefer the new features in iOS rather than a feature I cannot see an advantage of.

Considering the specs are better on the 2017 pro in terms of ram ... a10x vs a12 should not make much difference?

I would guess both will support iOS updates for many years.

iPad mini 2 released in late 2013 supports iOS 12.

I am not sure if it is only about the ram. No matter what, I would always prefer getting the newest model, but, as I said earlier, people are different and it would depend on the person's needs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3.5jackandairpods
The only significant difference that I can see is the loss of 4 speakers. I can use my 10.5" iPad Pro as a mini sound system or entertainment system. Those speakers are fantastic. Otherwise the new iPad Air looks like a good deal.

Also why does Apple place the speakers at the bottom when there are only dual speakers? This drove me crazy when using my old iPad Air 1. If you are watching something in portrait mode the speakers are completely blocked by your lap. So irritating and the number one reason (more so than having stereo sound) that I appreciate the 4 speakers on my iPad Pro.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3.5jackandairpods
I keep thinking I'm going to grab a MacBook pro 2015 for my next portable (I have a great iMac) but honestly, I may just grab one of these instead. I have a magic keyboard, and with the right case stand, this really does suite most of my portable needs, and it's looking like a great device to replace my iPad air 2.
 
At first I thought this would be a decent value, but with 3GB of RAM, no quad speakers, and no 120hz display, I'm not so sure. At least they kept the headphone jack.

Is it confirmed it’s 3GB RAM now? It’s actually enough I’ve found as the 2GB units are still doing fine day-to-day, it’s the 1GB ones and less that struggle.

I’m sure the headphone jack isn’t for your and my benefit (though I’m pleased it’s there), it’s literally because it’s already in the chassis they’re reusing, likely it would be more effort to remove it. You can guarantee if Apple could remove it, lower their BoM and sell you more of their wireless stuff or charge you £9 for a dongle (given they didn’t even put them in the box of the XS Max...) they would do it in a heartbeat.
 
This product has Tim Cook written all over it. It makes sense to reuse the existing supply chain.

The iPad Air 2 was discontinued because people didn't want to pay $499 for a media consumption iPad. So the $329 iPad was born. There's a similar group of customers who don't want to pay $649 for an iPad Pro. This iPad Air fits the bill perfectly.

I agree and I hate it! I thought that Apple had truly dropped this old design with the home button. Using an old and tired design in 2019 does not make a good product!
[doublepost=1552948893][/doublepost]
How oftern are you someplace where you can use the external speakers?

I can only speak for my own personal use case, but I hardly ever use the external speakers on my iPad. If I am ever in a situation where I can use external speakers, then chances are that I am watching something on a television screen.

To me, this new iPad Air seems to be targeted at business. It has everything a business person would need. Those options which a business person would not find useful, like quad speakers, have been removed.

I disagree. A business person would go for the latest iPad Pro. Far far superior modern design, Face ID and my God, once you've expired the ProMotion display for video use, you'l never go back to jerky 60hz!
 
I agree and I hate it! I thought that Apple had truly dropped this old design with the home button. Using an old and tired design in 2019 does not make a good product!
[doublepost=1552948893][/doublepost]

I disagree. A business person would go for the latest iPad Pro. Far far superior modern design, Face ID and my God, once you've expired the ProMotion display for video use, you'l never go back to jerky 60hz!

I did go to the latest iPad Pro 11 and hated it. I had it swapped with Apple once but basically it has touch sensitivity issues - seemingly worsened if you use a case (allegedly to do with grounding issues with not being in contact with the metal body) and worse still if you use a screen protector - both things you can reasonably expect to do on a ridiculously expensive tablet. Gone back to the Pro 10.5 2017 now, had none of those issues. I admit ProMotion on the later iPad Pros is a treat as is having 4 speakers that actually output decent sound at volume without distorting.
 
What about the touchID? Is it gen 1 or gen 2? I just upgraded my mini 4 to ipad pro 10.5 and the gen 2 touch id works so much better (i have very dry hands and had allways problems with gen 1). And I noticed difference with promotion, it´s just soo smooth when scrolling web pages etc compared to Ipad mini 4.
And it looks like it´s missing smartconnector also, I prefer smartkeyboard without Bluetooth.
Remember that the gpu is still far more powerful in ipad pro 10.5 than new ipad air (it has same chipset with iphones using a12 so I believe metal scores are same)
 
  • Like
Reactions: JXulo
Good grief, what penny thrifters. Why buy this thing and not a 10.5" refurb? Is the A12 that good of a tradeoff?
I think marketing is going very very strong here even in “tech-savy people”...people saw A12 and A10 and thinks the new AIR will be way better but it is really? Let’s analyze the numbers to see what we can find.

On benchmarks the A12 (NOT A12X) only gain in single and multi core by a small margin over the A10X (not the non-x version). In the graphics department the A10X is in fact SUPERIOR to the A12 and the extra 1 or 2GB of RAM will probably be more important than this differences anyway so...where is really the so called superior of the A12 over the A10X?

Considering the RAM etc the performance will be that different? I don’t know...in my country the difference is now 80€...by such a small margin i advice anyone to buy the old pro while they still can.

They only difference...MAYBE...is the superior performance of the air...almost everything else is superior in the PRO so if the model is on stock off or promotions or whatever it is the better choice in my opinion.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: immortalwind
The mini looks amazing. I wish it had faceID but the fingerprint is still good stuff.

If the mini included Face ID, that would only increase the price point. That’s why Apple likely continued to use/retain touch ID, but in regards to an iPad, I would rather have touch ID anyways, because I find it more consistent, when I don’t necessarily want to hold the iPad up to my face to unlock it like I do my iPhone.
 
The display is a killer for me. This isn't the entry level iPad, Apple penny pinching with this is foul to me.
 
iPad Pro 11"
iPad Air 10.5"
iPad 9.7"

OMG, Apple, what the heck are you thinking?!? Talk about thoroughly confusing the customer. Has the lessons of Steve been forgotten already? Keep the product line SIMPLE. If you can't explain what the heck each of these things does then why are they there???
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.