iPad 8 (2020) Unboxing + Review: the best value iPad! By 9to5Mac

What's up guys miles here with nine to five mac and the iPad 8 has been out for a few weeks now, and I've gotten the chance to daily drive it and really put it through the ringer, and I've essentially concluded that as far as value, this is the best tablet you can buy, and I'm going to tell you why. But first, a word from our sponsor 9.5 mac on YouTube is sponsored by Zulu case featuring a deceptively thin but highly protective design. The alpha case is built to give you stylus features and the most functional and protective design for the iPad Pro. The alpha case features not one but two slots for your Apple Pencil at the top for charging or on the back. You've got a built-in adjustable stand with eight magnetic angles, which is going to give you a super secure, viewing angle on any surface. The alpha comes with a free 2 year.

No questions ask warranty, has sleep weight functionality and is awesome for traveling office work or anyone looking for a sleek and protective case click the link in the description to get your iPad Pro alpha case today, and thanks again to Zulu case for sponsoring 995 macs on YouTube. So, ladies and gentlemen, here we have it. This is the eighth generation iPad uh. This is the Wi-Fi, only version with 32 gigs of storage uh in the space gray, color just figured I'd, go for the space gray and yeah. Let's unbox this thing.

So, let's open up this box here and the first thing we're going to be greeted with when taking off this cover is the iPad itself feels just the same as the iPad 7 on first impressions and let's just take a look at what else we have in the box here. So, firstly, I'm going to pull that out, and we have our standard documentation uh. You know just the user manual, all that good stuff, how to use your Apple Pencil, how to use iOS 14, and then you've got your classic apple stickers. As far as what else you get in the box, you get this lightning, the USB, cable and then to pair with your lightning USB cable. Is this 20 watt USB charger straight from apple uh, the clean, simple USB-C charger? We all know and love.

Let's talk about the design physically speaking, this iPad 8 is identical to the 7th generation model. Thinness weight feel in the hand it's essentially all the same. There are no new color options, either just space gray, gold or silver. Normally I'd talk about how I'm kind of tired of this physical home button design, but the cost is always something to factor in here: you're paying 329 dollars for the base model, iPad 8, which is an amazing deal overall. You also have to consider the fact that a lot of older people like using iPads because they're lightweight with nice big bright displays they can easily view, but also because of that physical home button.

That makes usability so much easier for people who aren't down with apple's new gesture based navigation system. There's no way to get really excited about the iPad 8's design, but its proven reliability is definitely comforting and anyone buying or looking to buy. This probably already knows that the iPad 8 features the same 10.2 inch retina display found on the iPad 7. So it's got a 1620 by 2160 resolution and a 264 PPI. So just like the iPad 7, it's got a perfectly fine display.

It's got the same PPI as the 11-inch iPad Pro, so it nearly looks just as sharp. It definitely doesn't look as smooth, though, as the iPad Pro's got that 120hz refresh rate display. That's not something we've got here, but it's perfectly usable for the everyday content. Consumption and creation performance is the hallmark feature here with the eighth generation iPad, as this model has gotten the upgraded a12 bionic chip- and this is the same CPU found in the third generation iPad Air in the fifth generation iPad Mini, as well as the iPhone 10r and the 10s. So if you've ever gotten to use any of those devices expect this iPad to perform.

Similarly, to those devices and in my usage, the iPad 8 does perform substantially better than the 7th generation does applications load up a tad faster gaming is a lot better and general multitasking has seen an increase here. Is it on par with the iPad Pro or upcoming air? Absolutely not, but I'll tell you what for the 329 you're going to pay for this? This is probably going to be the best performing option you can buy. When taking a look at geek bench 5, you can see that there's been a huge increase in performance from the previous generation iPad. The 7th generation iPad pulled an average single core score of around 750 and a multi-core score of 1400 this year, we're looking at scores of around 1100 for a single core score and scores as high as 2600 for multi-core, which is a huge jump as the a12 bionic is supposed to bring improvements over the a10 for things like photo and video editing. Let's take a look at suffusion, which is probably one of the best options for editing video on iPadOS and, as you can see here, I can edit this 4k video with no problems at all.

When scrubbing through the timeline. I can jump from one point in the project to another and play back the clip with no drop frames or hesitation, which is nice to see granted. This is just from an iPhone, but if you're someone who's bought an iPad 8 for editing high-end video, then you might want to look into other options. So it only took me six minutes and 30 seconds uh to export this 10 minute, 4k video, with some transitions and effects, which is honestly impressive for sub 400 iPad and definitely going to be a reliable option. If you need to whip up some quick video edits on the go, so I wanted to test out gaming performance here on the iPad 8th generation.

So here we are playing forza street. This is a free to download game for iOS and iPadOS, a small little mini-game, essentially made by the developers of the forza game. Everything looks spotless, uh all the graphics. The motion is super smooth and, although you don't have the 120 hertz refresh rate that you're getting on the iPad Pro overall, I had a really nice experience here, and I feel as though you're going to have a very similar experience to what you get on the iPad Pro, because not all games are going to run at that full 120hz refresh rate, I had zero drop frames. I had no weird artifacts issues overall, a really smooth experience playing a semi-intensive game like forza street.

This is a game I'm much more familiar with. This is super phantom cat 2. You can get this on iOS and on android, it's a nice little 2d platformer, and I like it because everything is just so colorful and shiny, and it's really easy to play because I suck at video games. So, as you can see here, everything is running really smoothly, and I know this isn't a graphically intensive game by any means. This isn't meant to stress test the iPad in the same way that Call of Duty mobile was.

I just want to give a general sense of what gaming would be like on this 8th generation iPad. The 7th generation iPad with the a10 chip really stood out to me as the weak link amongst the rest of the iPad lineup, but this year with the a12 and the 8th generation uh we're seeing a lot better performance across the board. Another improvement that the a12 bionic brings into play is improved AR experiences on the iPad. The processor is doing a lot of the heavy lifting as far as supporting the camera and the other sensors within the iPad, and as you can see here, I've got an AR basketball app running right now, and I like the way it feels to play generally speaking, while Apple did not add a LIDAR scanner to this iPad, like they did on the pro it's good to see that they've slowly but surely started making improvements to the AR experience across all of their lineup. Who knows what the 9th generation will bring in that regard? Overall, though, this is the fastest tablet I've ever used under 400, and while this wasn't designed for the speed demon power user per se, the new processor upgrade definitely makes the iPad 8 capable enough to get some legitimate work done.

The previous generation iPad in combination with iPadOS 13, had pretty good Apple Pencil performance, but it could be better and that's what we're looking at right here. This is much better. The Apple Pencil is noticeably more responsive than on previous models running older versions of iPadOS. You don't really feel that delay the same way you could on the previous iPad model- and this is something that's extremely important for artists, religious note, takers or perhaps, if you're playing some kind of game using the Apple Pencil it sucks to have that kind of delay. But that's not something I'm experiencing here.

It's been great for me to take notes or even scroll through twitter, occasionally and, of course, you've got all the awesome iPad. Os 14 features like being able to draw in any text field, copying handwritten notes as text and generally having more precision when drawing or writing. If you're a student who's constantly needing to take notes or are looking for an inexpensive, iOS device for illustration, then this is the best way to go and if the Apple Pencil is a bit more than what you're willing to spend, I've got some cheaper alternatives linked down below, as there are a handful of solid third-party pencil options. If there's anything I want for the next generation iPad, though it's definitely to get rid of this Apple Pencil design and either support the second gen or come out with a new model that doesn't charge like this. When it comes to the cameras here in the iPad 8th generation, there definitely isn't a lot to get excited about.

Uh you've got an 8 megapixel camera here on the back that I can shoot either 1080p or 720p video at 30 frames per second, which obviously isn't very exciting, but most people using an iPad shouldn't really be concerned about the back camera performance. What's honestly, more disappointing to me is the fact that they didn't update uh the front-facing FaceTime camera on the iPad 8 at all. It's still using the 1.2 megapixel, potato cam and yeah. It is awful. Furthermore, it is really, really bad and a lot of people, especially students, are going to be looking at this to use for productivity work, doing a lot of zooming and so having a potato cam, probably wasn't in apple's best interest as far as putting that in this new iPad.

But once again you know you got to put price into perspective, this isn't their highest in iPad. This is their lowest end iPad. So you can expect the lowest in hardware. Don't get me wrong! I'm fully aware that the smart connector isn't a new feature on this 8th generation iPad, but it's still one of the best things about it. The smart connector is going to allow you to hook up keyboards uh that are powered directly through a smart connector, so you don't have to worry about charging an extra device.

The magnets are fairly strong too. So, as you can see here, I can lift the iPad fully off of the surface and the keyboard is staying connected. Even when I wobble it a little right here. I've got the Logitech combo touch keyboard, and this is, in my opinion, the best alternative to the Apple keyboard for the iPad, because this one's got trackpad support. It comes as two pieces as a case with a magnetic keyboard that you can attach and detach with ease.

The trackpad here is very spacious and tactile, and it feels perfect to use generally speaking, because mouse support is in its early stages in iPadOS, you don't have right, click controls or anything like that, but this keyboard makes it really easy to never have to interact with the display itself outside using touch ID. Occasionally, you've got a home button right here in the corner and the keys are backlit, so you don't have to worry about not seeing the keys in the dark overall. The combo touch is a great example of what the smart connector is capable of, and it's only going to get better with future hardware and if you're interested in checking out the combo touch, it'll be linked down below. Probably one of the best-selling points of the entry-level iPad is the battery life, and this year the a12 bionic has brought even more improvements to the 8th gen iPad. With this processor upgrade, there's been an improvement in general efficiency, so apple's claiming here that you can get up to 10 hours of use out of the 8th, gen iPad and I can definitely attest to that battery life has been great.

Generally speaking, I don't like to base my opinion purely on the numbers, though I like to get a general sense of how the device hangs throughout the day when doing a lot of my typical daily tasks, note-taking using social media watching YouTube videos or using the iPad as a logic remote for recording videos, and I can easily end the day with around 30 to 40 percent battery life. Depending on how hard I push it and once again, when you put the price into perspective, you're paying 329 dollars for a device that you can take off the charger in the morning and essentially use all day if you'd like the iPad, 8 was never meant to be. This huge update. Uh that was supposed to revolutionize the baseline iPad model, but I think this is still easily the best value tablet. You can buy the performance, the reliability with its great battery life and the Apple Pencil functionality.

Everything you see here, including the keyboard and pencil, was 550 before tax. Quite honestly, I can't think of a better value package than that, and so I'd highly recommend. You pick up the iPad 8 if you just need an inexpensive tablet to buy. Today, that's going to last you for three to four years easily, if you're interested in picking up the iPad, 8 or any of the accessories I talked about in this video, make sure to click the link in the description below and give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and subscribe. If you want to see more stuff like this, thank you all for watching, and I'll talk to you in the next one featuring a deceptively thin but highly protected design.

The alpha case by Zulu is built to give you stylist features in the most functional and protective design for the iPad Pro. The alpha case features not one but two slots for your Apple Pencil at the top for charging or on the back. You've got a built-in adjustable stand with eight magnetic angles, which is going to give a super secure, viewing angle on any surface. The alpha comes with a free 2 year. No questions ask warranty, has sleep, wake functionality and is awesome for traveling office work or anyone looking for a sleek and protective case click the link in the description to get your iPad Pro alpha case today, and thanks again to Zulu case for sponsoring nine to five mac on YouTube.

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Source : 9to5Mac