1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,000 This is the new iPad Air, and the big surprise for me is that it now has an M1 chip. 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,920 So that's got a lot of people curious about whether it's worth upgrading to. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:19,480 Oh! Like my friend Nicole here. 4 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:27,480 Well, let's find out for her. And what I learned in doing so is that there's actually an iPad performance tier list. 5 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:39,280 And if you're in the beat here, this may or may not be worth upgrading to. 6 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:44,800 When I reviewed the $800 M1-powered iPad Pro last summer, I felt that its price and its 7 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,520 power were higher than its utility, even for professionals. 8 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:53,120 Because iPad OS is still quite limited, and it's really easy to run into workflow walls. 9 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:57,040 In fact, I called it a luxury device. 10 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:02,320 It really is one, so I don't think that the iPad Air needs all that power. 11 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,120 The upgrade from the Pro that I think would best trickle down to this is the high refresh 12 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:15,880 rate ProMotion screen. An M1 processor might make your device faster, but ProMotion makes your device appear faster. 13 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:25,360 But I don't work at Apple, and besides, Nicole's iPad Pro already has ProMotion. 14 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,480 So why did you reach out to me? 15 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:33,920 I reached out to you because I have the 2018 iPad Pro, and it's the 11-inch. 16 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:39,160 The 2022 iPad Air is a similar form factor. 17 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:46,080 It is also more reasonably priced. It has the M1 processor, and it has more RAM. 18 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:51,680 So on paper, looking at those specs, yeah, I was like, ooh. 19 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,680 So you're just using your iPad really intensely? 20 00:01:54,680 --> 00:02:00,760 I guess subtle for an average casual user, just using it to browse. 21 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,520 I think you're more than an average casual user, from what you've told me. 22 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:10,800 I'm an average casual user, and then hearing how you use it, I'm like, oh, maybe some people 23 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,960 are using it more intensely than I thought originally. 24 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:19,320 Well, I came from a MacBook, so I wanted to use it for everything I did on the MacBook. 25 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:24,160 OK, so I wanted to show me how you use your iPad. 26 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,000 Above first, how's your battery? Ah, it's not looking too good. 27 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,000 Oh, 3%. Oh, perfect. Oh, awesome. 28 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:43,040 Thanks, Jamie. Wow. Nicole's A12X-powered iPad Pro from 2018 has always confused me. 29 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,720 It's in the A12 processor generation, which is old. 30 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,680 But if you look at the processor itself, it looks an awful lot like an M1. 31 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:57,080 In fact, the Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kit was essentially powered by one of these. 32 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:03,480 And so if there were an iPad performance tier list, I wouldn't know where this would go. 33 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:10,320 So how many apps do you run at the same time? Because like, do you sometimes have two apps open, the YouTube app video playing, slide 34 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:14,080 over? Yeah. OK, so YouTube is playing. 35 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:19,880 You can open up the comments as well. I'll usually open up something like my journal. 36 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:24,240 I'll open up Instagram, which is pretty gross on this app. 37 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:28,880 Zuckerberg let Instagram make an iPad app. It's not running on so many levels. 38 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:34,240 Oh! OK. So then I end up having to like, you know, slide back and forth, back and forth. 39 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,560 And then I'll usually open up something like Reddit. 40 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:40,560 Oh, and then there it goes. Oh, but it's reloading. It was playing before. 41 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:44,200 It was playing before. OK. Oh, now it won't even. 42 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:48,000 Oh! We had just, this was just open a second ago. 43 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,000 It was. I know it's, but that is annoying. I can't see the cute cat thing anymore. 44 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,320 See, and then this will just kind of like, oh, OK, well, how am I going to see the cats 45 00:03:56,320 --> 00:04:01,800 now? How am I going to find this post again if I reopen this, you know? 46 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:10,040 I think that RAM might be the biggest issue here. The way iPadOS manages RAM is that it purges apps that you haven't used in a while from 47 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:17,240 memory as you open more. This prevents slowdowns in open apps, but it also means that when you do go back, you're 48 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:20,600 going to have to wait for those apps to reload. 49 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,200 This is not the same video. Yeah, it isn't. Oh, no. 50 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:27,760 And now. It stopped playing and you can't get it to play again. 51 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,760 So I just. It changed the progress bar. Oh, it did change the progress bar. 52 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:33,760 But it's the wrong video. It is. And then I'll have to disconnect it. 53 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,760 You have to disconnect. And then I have to reconnect it. 54 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,760 And we are. Oh, now it's resetting the whole app. Yes. 55 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:45,040 So what happens? This is what can happen if you fail your iPad's RAM. 56 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:53,000 Nicole's iPad Pro only has four gigabytes. So there's a chance that the eight in the iPad Air might make the difference. 57 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:59,440 They do. 58 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:04,440 It looks so fast. It's so much like that's crazy how that fast look at this. 59 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:07,440 Wow. See. See, do you do you go? 60 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,440 I mean by like it feels snappier. It does feel snappier. Okay. 61 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,440 Let's let's rotate it. So this is how I'd usually use it. 62 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,440 Yeah. Okay. So, okay. 63 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:20,720 Yeah, it is snappier. So how does it compare to your iPad? 64 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:25,360 If I were to have multiple apps open and I'm just scrolling through them, it will still 65 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:30,800 like give it a little moment to reload, but it'll be much snappier. 66 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:38,320 I felt one difference that I noticed, but I don't think it would be as emphasized is 67 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:49,480 the 120 Hertz refresh rate. Personally, I don't watch a lot on my iPad, but the area I did notice it the most is switching 68 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,560 between apps. 69 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:58,320 It seems that the M1's extra RAM doesn't seem to be making all that much of a difference 70 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:04,880 here. So what is? I did a bunch of testing to compare all the recent iPads to each other and that's how 71 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,480 I came up with the iPad performance tier list. 72 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:12,600 They're weirdly grouped together and not according to processor number. 73 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:18,360 F tier is easy. It's all those iPads that don't support the latest iOS. 74 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:27,640 Above it in the E tier is those powered by an A8X chip, A9, A9X chip and A10 chips because 75 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:35,600 of the similar results in Geekbench. D is anything powered by an A10X chip or a 12 chip. 76 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:40,040 C tier, which is quite close to D, is the A13 powered iPad. 77 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:45,120 The reason for this was when I did my Lightroom raw export test, the new iPad was around two 78 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,120 minutes faster than the D tier. 79 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:51,160 And those numbers showed what was most interesting. 80 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:59,920 The B tier. It contains Nicole's iPad Pro, the 2020 model of the same, the outgoing A14 powered iPad 81 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:03,840 Air and the A15 powered iPad Mini. 82 00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:08,360 If you look at all their Geekbench scores, you can see that they're quite close. 83 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:12,400 Single cores are slower in the older devices, but multi-core and graphics are virtually 84 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:18,200 the same. And when exporting raws, they're all within 15 seconds of each other. 85 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:25,680 So what's in the A tier? Well, it's this iPad Air and yeah, while I made these tiers up, it explains why Nicole 86 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:33,680 might not be compelled to upgrade. This is only one tier away from her iPad, despite being almost four years newer. 87 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:38,680 Now, this list focuses mainly on processing power, but we could reorganize the list with 88 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:43,080 an emphasis on RAM. It's different, but not by much. 89 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:47,540 Because of the way iPad OS works, it's hard to feel the impact RAM capacity makes. 90 00:07:47,540 --> 00:07:51,440 So I think the performance tier list is probably more pertinent for more people. 91 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:55,400 Alright, so what's in the S tier though? 92 00:07:55,400 --> 00:08:01,440 It's the M1-powered iPad Pro if you get 1TB of storage or more, because those models 93 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:15,080 get 16GB of RAM. So S means stupid expensive. 94 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:21,160 Now while the iPad Air is in the A tier in performance, it's really a B plus compared 95 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:23,840 to the iPad Pro, all things considered. 96 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:30,280 This $600 price tag is very close to the iPad Pros, which for about $150 more differentiates 97 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:35,600 itself with exclusive luxury features like Face ID instead of Touch ID, which is more 98 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:41,760 convenient, two rear cameras with flash and LiDAR, Thunderbolt support, and the high speed 99 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,120 Pro motion screen. That's a really nice feature. 100 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:51,080 On the flip side, the basic iPad is almost half the price with less than half the performance. 101 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:55,200 And that's become a much bigger gap with nothing in between. 102 00:08:55,200 --> 00:09:00,680 Otherwise, apart from the M1 chip, the iPad Air gets very little in additional improvements. 103 00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:04,680 Storage tiers stay stubbornly at 64GB and 256GB. 104 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:08,520 The front camera is now an ultra-wide unit with center stage. 105 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:12,960 Cellular models have 5G radios, and there are different colors with the abandonment 106 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:19,080 of green and the new darker blue and the addition of this purple, which I do kind of like. 107 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:23,440 What would you recommend then to perhaps iPad users? 108 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:31,000 I feel like if you are currently on a 2018 iPad Pro and you're looking for a step up 109 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:38,120 in performance, for example, if you are a professional user and using this for a main 110 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:44,640 device to create things, then it would be beneficial maybe to look into the new line 111 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:51,720 of iPad Pros, whereas if you are a new user in the world of iPads and you're looking 112 00:09:51,720 --> 00:10:01,400 to go into using iPadOS, then I would highly recommend looking at the 5th Gen iPad Air lineup. 113 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:11,120 So would you upgrade? If I didn't already have an iPad, I would definitely get the 2022 iPad Air. 114 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,320 There are two things that surprised me when evaluating this new iPad Air. 115 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:19,200 The first is that I'm finding an emerging group of people who are switching to the iPad 116 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:25,200 as their mobile computing device. In fact, on the day I picked this up, I talked with a guy who switched completely away from 117 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:28,840 his MacBook to two iPads, a mini and a big pro. 118 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:35,880 And then of course, there's Nicole too. This means that despite iPadOS' limitations, these people are finding ways to push their 119 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:43,160 tablets. The other surprise is how close and how clear the performance tier list is. 120 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:48,760 I was not expecting to see four completely different models released over four years 121 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:55,520 virtually perform identically. It's good to know because you can see how much of an upgrade you'll be getting between 122 00:10:55,520 --> 00:11:03,320 the models. The iPad Air then is a buy for people in the D tier or below. 123 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:07,680 Thanks for ranking this Mac Address. If you think this video is A tier, give it a like. 124 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:11,920 And if you think this is S tier, then why not subscribe? 125 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:16,240 Then in the comments, you can do a tier list of all Mac Address videos. 126 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:20,680 You know, F tier, S tier, I hope there's a lot on the top, right?