I guess I’m blind. Where can I find an M1 MacBook Air for $399?
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iPad 10 vs. iPad Air Buyer's Guide: Is the $250 Difference Worth It?
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I was confused when I logged in and had 5 more 👍 on a 2 year old post.
I agree anyone buying an iPod today is dumb!
That is a deal though for $400 for someone who’s not an old or a young. I think for the youngs and olds, or very casual users if they discount the 10th gen the way they did the 9th….the iPad 10th gen will be a screaming deal at $2xx
The issue I have with the new iPad Air and the last version is when holding it with a normal grip I can see my finger pressure transferring onto the screen's digitiser because there is flex in the back of the chassis. This would concern me long term as internal components must be coming into contact with the screen.
Shapr3D runs well on an A-series processor. If you want to knock up engineering drawings or models for parts its brilliant. You can export 2D drawings as dxf for laser cutting from AutoCAD.
iOS is a better gamng platform than ,many give it credit for. It has a lot of exclusive titles not available on Android. Titles such as Hades, Braid, Sonic Mania and SaGa Emerald are all brilliant on the iPad. The iPad 10 runs any emulator without issue. Delta and PPSSPP offer a plethora of older titles. Connect two controllers and you can split-screen on a train with a friend on titles like Super Mario Kart and GoldenEye. Its a good way to kill a long journey!
For native apps Apple offers custom profiles, full keybind support on a per-title basis, persistant progress between games and free cloud saving.
USB-C connects straight to an external display for gaming on a TV too.
This is an old thread from 2022 that's been resurrected. So the comment you responded to was relevant to that year's pricing.
In all seriousness, I rarely replace an iPad unless it can no longer run the current iPadOS. (Recent exception: I bought a new iPad Pro M4, because I wanted an iPad with an OLED display.)
So for me, the usable lifespan of the iPad is quite important. The current iPad mini has been out for almost THREE YEARS. The current iPad has been out for almost a year and a half. The iPad Air M1 has been out for quite a long time. To me, these are not good investments at any price, as I would have to replace them sooner than I would a current model iPad Air (the new M2). I really would like to buy a lower-cost iPad or iPad mini for other tasks (which I can already perform otherwise), but not when they are so long in the tooth.
The wrench in that machine is that for $349—iPad 10 comes with only 64 GB of storage—any more storage and you're near iPad Air (2024) price with 128 GB storage.
An iPad mini is what I would really like to buy right now to help me consolidate some functions that I have scattered across a few different devices.
But I ain't buying something that's almost 3 years old. That reduces the usable lifespan of the device by the same amount of time.
I'd be more concerned with the 4GB of RAM in 2025, 2026 etc.
I'd the storage that gets you. I would purchase the iPad 10 but then you realise it only comes with 64GB, and the next storage size is 256GB which is £499 although I only actually need 128GB which the base Air now comes with.
Throw in the laminated display, better speakers, double the RAM, magnetic Pencil charging etc and you might as well just pay the extra £99 and get the Air.
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That’s the same quandary I had. Was tempted by the 10 at £349, but 64GB won’t do it for me. 128GB would. To get more storage in the 10 bumps it up to £499. Meanwhile, Apple are selling refurb M1 iPad Pros for £549 - just £50 more. I now have an M1 iPad Pro and love it.
The 9 was even better when the basic one was on sale for $250 or less. Just looked and Micro Center no longer has stock of 9s, and Best Buy has the 9s for $329 and the 10s for $349. There's still people who just need a basic iPad for kids or simple media consumption, emails, etc., so the 10 looks like either a bargain upgrade compared to the 9, or just the cheapest in-stock option out there.
I'm sure nobody really expects to do this, but it's not worth upgrading from the 9 to the 10.
When I looked a couple days ago, Best Buy's website said it could offer me $185* in trade for my basic iPad 9 in good shape. As my first time ever trying to resell my old Apple gear, that seemed shockingly great to me at first glance; I bought it for $250 last February after the 10 came out, so I'd have effectively been paying about $4.34 a month to rent it. But trading up to the basic 10 would cost me $165 plus tax. Luckily, the first gen Pencil I bought later would still work with the 10 (I bought the SKU where they threw a tiny USB-C adapter into the box, so I don't even have to worry about that, assuming it's still in the box and I haven't lost it), but that still doesn't seem like enough of an upgrade to be worth ; I wasn't willing to pay the price difference for the 10 over the 9 back when it was $449, or $199 more than my $250 sale price, and now the 10 line is a year older. The iPad Air 5th generation starts at $499, so that would be $314 plus tax to upgrade. I'd still be stuck at 64GB storage for either of these upgrades. I guess getting the Air for less than the cost of a 10 is a good deal, but that storage size... a 256GB Air 5 would be $465 to upgrade (It's $650 on sale), a whopping $151 premium for an extra 192GB.
*I haven't yet checked to see if the price has changed again; it was only a couple days after the discontinuation was announced so I wouldn't be surprised if they were just lagged. But hooray for build quality and residual ecosystem effects.
*I haven't yet checked to see if the price has changed again; it was only a couple days after the discontinuation was announced so I wouldn't be surprised if they were just lagged. But hooray for build quality and residual ecosystem effects.
edit: please note I didn't realize someone necro'd a 2 year old thread before I replied, ugh
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I would probably have bought the "current" Mini last year instead, if it had been $250 or even $329, like the 9 was on/off sale. But even then I knew it was old. Now it's ridiculous. The remaining OS updates are going to give out before I'm ready to obsolete it, and it's still a ridiculous price, $500, the same as the current basic Air on sale.
edit: please note I didn't realize this thread was revived from 2 years ago before I replied, ugh
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Not having promotion is a deal breaker for me on anything. If the Air had that I would of gotten it.