by post_break on 3/4/25, 2:53 PM
I just want an 11" Macbook air again. Even with the M2 it would fly. iPads with this horsepower just don't make sense. It's like a V8 Miata with 4 donuts for tires.
by notesinthefield on 3/4/25, 2:18 PM
Were it not for constantly updated buying guides from tech news sites, Im not sure anyone even Apple employees themselves would know which iPad to recommend to anyone.
by criddell on 3/4/25, 2:58 PM
The most annoying thing for me about the iPad lineup is that Apple hasn't released an iPad compatible version of their Journal app. IMHO, it's the perfect device for Journal. I want to write by hand and doodle and do all the other things you do in a paper journal.
There's some reason they haven't done this and I'd love to know what it is. IMHO, it should have been iPad-first and then ported to the phone later.
by Ajay-p on 3/4/25, 2:25 PM
I love my iPad because of the pencil. I got rid of an office overflowing with paper, and I write everything in an app on the iPad. It then gets saved up into the cloud. That alone has made iPad worth it for me. Sometimes I watch movies on it.
by antomeie on 3/4/25, 2:16 PM
iPad is a product I want to love, but still never find a reason to use.
by acc_297 on 3/4/25, 2:31 PM
I had been hoping that apple would one day produce an M-series chip powered version of the 12 inch retina macbook air. They discontinued those in 2017 and I have one of the last ones that were sold but the battery is very dead and it has stability issues now. I may consider this product if the keyboard is solid and the screen doesn't shake when typing.
by eknkc on 3/4/25, 2:31 PM
I owned multiple iPads and never found a compelling use case for them. I don't know why I keep buying them but they have been great computers for my parents so it's not like I buy to shelf them.
Are there any use cases (apart from drawing maybe. I can't draw a stick figure if my life depended on it so that's not for me) for developers?
by choxi on 3/4/25, 3:25 PM
I’ll know Apple is really in trouble when people stop complaining about each new product announcement
by simonsquiff on 3/4/25, 2:24 PM
Is it still a 60hz screen? If so, pass. I’ve got an old gen 1 pro, which has 120hz and can’t go back to 60hz - it’s even more needed in an iPad than a phone. All the other Pro features are not worth it for me, and really this mid tier should have 120hz. I’ll hold on to my current iPad until that’s that case (I can’t justify paying the high price for a new pro)
by antithesis-nl on 3/4/25, 3:36 PM
> iPad Air is built for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that delivers helpful and relevant intelligence
OK, so the predominant opinion of HN seems to be that Apple is really good at marketing. So, which target group are they, brilliantly of course, addressing with this repetitive word salad?
by jandrewrogers on 3/4/25, 3:38 PM
It is ironic that the M3 Air is heavier than the M4 Pro even though they are essentially identical in size.
by yalogin on 3/4/25, 3:03 PM
How often do people upgrade airpads? I am not even sure who the target audience for them is anymore. Most people are comfortable with their phones and if it cannot be done on a phone, most people go to a desktop/laptop.
by alberth on 3/4/25, 3:54 PM
Apple pricing strategy is a masterclass lesson.
For the iPhone, there once was a time that $600 was the cost of the highest end phone. Now Apple has created a pricing architecture (and laddering) where $600 today only gets you the entry level iPhone.
Similarly with iPad. They have been able to get consumers now to buy effectively a 2-year old components inside an iPad Air and still command a premium price ... and making it feel "new".
I'm not knocking Apple.
I'm genuinely impressed with their pricing architecture and strategy they have been able to execute on over the years.
by siavosh on 3/4/25, 5:27 PM
Ok so if I just want to watch movies and do a bunch of Procreate sketches with the pencil, is the new 13" Air sufficient, or will i regret not spending the extra $ for the pro?
by llm_nerd on 3/4/25, 2:53 PM
The base model is $599 in the US, or $799 in Canada. Which is odd as Apple usually screws Canada and has worse-than-exchange prices in Canada, and in this case it's actually
better than exchange prices. In contrast is the release of the 16e just two weeks ago, where the pricing is $599 in the US, $899 in Canada. Weird.
I wonder if US tariffs on China have something to do with this, and the US price is more than it would have been.
by mholt on 3/4/25, 2:15 PM
I still don't understand the iPad lineup.
What is the point of iPad Air? It's compatible with the latest Apple Pencil, but iPad isn't, but iPad Pro is, and the Pencil Pro is only compatible with iPad Pro, iPad Air (not M1), and iPad ... MINI (not iPad). (Edit: Actually the Apple Pencil for our iPad Air M1 isn't even sold anymore, I guess?)
The Apple Pencil USB-C compatibility matrix is even more confusing.
Why is this division of Apple run like Google's messaging apps?
by dlivingston on 3/4/25, 2:27 PM
> M3 brings Apple’s advanced graphics architecture to iPad Air for the first time, so users can enjoy graphics-intensive games like Where Winds Meet, coming later this year.
Look at the demo video that goes with this blurb. Graphical artifacts and pop-in everywhere.
by scarface_74 on 3/4/25, 2:27 PM
What really surprises me is that they introduced any new M3 based devices.
Common knowledge was they wanted to move away from the M3 quickly because it was on TSMCs first gen 3nm processing technology that had lower yields
by daft_pink on 3/4/25, 4:43 PM
Kind of a yawner without faceid.
My 13” M4 iPad Pro Cellular is like a Mercedes. I could have bought a nice laptop instead. No financial analysis can justify it, but it’s luxurious and totally worth every penny.
by Seanambers on 3/4/25, 2:26 PM
I bought an iPad in 2020, its very practical the 5 times a year I use it.
by ios-sux on 3/4/25, 4:03 PM
I bought ab 11" ipad air and keyboard... it's kinda fun but struggling to see where it fits between my phone for portable/casual and my mbp for getting stuff done.
by mixmastamyk on 3/4/25, 5:01 PM
I have the starlite tablet with phosh and while not perfect it is already great and improving monthly. Don’t think I’ll go back to Apple’s golden straitjacket.
by WesolyKubeczek on 3/4/25, 3:18 PM
Will an older Magic keyboard, that went with an iPad Air of a previous generation, work with these new iPad Airs?
by tosh on 3/4/25, 2:28 PM
re iPad lineup afaiu
Pro has the strongest differentiation:
120hz ProMotion, LiDAR, Thunderbolt, least weight, Face ID, studio microphones, wide lens camera, …
unique to Air compared to "iPad":
M-series chip (Stage Manager) and Apple Intelligence, Pencil Pro support
Mini:
smaller
?
by Applejinx on 3/4/25, 2:24 PM
Gonna be annoying when the newest iPad is more powerful than my mac studio :)
by dzonga on 3/4/25, 3:23 PM
maybe iPads are for creatives.
but for regular office-work they're not good at all. bad UX throughout. My mum tends to use for her regular work tasks e.g writing, spreadsheets etc everything is just bad - things that could be easily done on a macbook - take ages on an ipad. the file system is bad.
the reason she doesn't like using the macbook is due to lack of touch.
so either apple needs to make an iPad with full macOS but which supports touch. Not the half-assed product that's currently available now.
by asow92 on 3/4/25, 2:41 PM
Why can't Apple just sell native macOS support for iPad at a rate where they wouldn't cannibalize their other offerings? I'd pay around $300-$400 for it without hesitation.
by mocmoc on 3/4/25, 2:55 PM
No MacOS no fun
by fabiofzero on 3/4/25, 3:40 PM
More importantly: no Apple Intelligence, which makes this an actual upgrade.
by gunian on 3/4/25, 3:09 PM
booo fix airdrop from mac to ipjone
by solardev on 3/4/25, 2:15 PM
I'm so confused by their lineup. I'm in the market for a new iPad, but I can never remember the difference between an iPad, iPad Pro, and Air. What's the difference between this an a 13" Pro or Non-Air? I wish they'd just have a single line of iPads with different screen sizes but the same CPU and stylus support in every generation. I'm so tired of having to play the "compare every permutation" game when shopping.
Edit: I just want a big screen for drawing and watching movies on the plane with.
by amelius on 3/4/25, 2:54 PM
Wake me up when I can install Linux on it.
by 42772827 on 3/4/25, 2:24 PM
Here’s a guide for quick decision making re: iPad purchase:
* iPad is for kids/edu
* iPad Air is for adults (most people)
* iPad Pro is for adults who want to flex or who have a company credit card.
by bamboozled on 3/4/25, 2:41 PM
Then get stuck using iOS so your device is basically useless.