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Apple iPad review (2018): A little better, a little less competition
The tablet business has been tough in recent years, but last year Apple found a hit in its low-cost iPad. Its admirable performance and battery life made up for its lack of frills, and that $329 price tag certainly didn't hurt, either. Apple saw its iPad sales grow year-over-year for the first time in ages after its release, all but ensuring we'd get a sequel — and here we are. Apple spent most of its time at a launch event in Chicago lauding this year's $329 iPad ($299 with that education discount) as a great machine for kids in classrooms. I won't dig into that too much in this review — there are people far more qualified than I to explore the relative merits of iOS versus Chrome OS in schools. While the iPad's announcement explored its use almost exclusively as a classroom tool, it's a lot more than that. In fact, just like the iPad we got this time last year, Apple's latest is the best budget tablet you can buy right now.
The new iPad vs. the competition: Teaching tools
Thanks to its generous discount program Apple was the king of the education market for decades. Some schools even straight up gave their students iPads. However, many institutions are increasingly adopting Chromebooks as their system of choice, which offer up kid-friendly features at a much lower price. Last year gave us the first budget iPad, and today Apple gave it a slight update and unveiled a host of education-focused features. But even Pencil support and a ton more iCloud storage might not win over educators in right away, especially with products like Acer's Chromebook Tab 10 on the horizon. So we've stacked up the new iPad versus the Tab 10 as well another budget tablet, the Fire HD 10, to see which might be worthy of stowing in your kid's backpack this year.
How the 'new' iPad compares to the rest of Apple’s tablets
The iPad line has diversified a bit the past few years, with Apple introducing two sizes of its "Pro" model in addition to a more basic 9.7-inch device. But, while last year's tablet offered some decent specs at a friendly $329 price point, it lacked few of Apple's more modern flourishes. Apple's "new" 9.7-inch iPad rectifies some of that by upgrading to an A10 processor and (most importantly) adding Pencil support. The hope here is it can go toe-to-toe with affordable Chromebooks that have taken over classrooms. It helps that schools can buy an iPad for $299, but the price hasn't budged for consumers -- you'll still need to cough up $329. So, how does it compare to its iPad siblings? Check out the table below to see all the most important specs.
