iPad Air 4 vs iPad 8: The Student Experience! By Harris Craycraft

When, it comes to cars. Of course, you can get a tesla or an Audi or a beamer or whatever you want. But all you really need is an example of a great synecdoche, a set of wheels. You don't necessarily need self-driving or heated seats or stereo sound system or any modern luxuries of a car if you're just trying to get from point a to point b without the rain slowing you down, and so in the same vein, if you are a student looking to digitize your notes and just simplify and streamline your experience as a student, you don't need an iPad Pro 512 gigabytes with cellular, though you can get something similar with the iPad Air 4, but for a cheaper price tag or much cheaper price tag with the iPad 8. In this video we're going to go over both these devices and see if you really need to spend almost twice as much money to get the iPad Air 4 or if you could be good with just the iPad 8th generation and this video is presented by paper like screen protectors. The best way to take your iPad to the next level when using a stylus, apple, pencil or anything similar.

Now, if you know me, you know that I like to jump to conclusions quickly in my videos, so I don't have to waste your time. With that being said, the iPad 8th generation is totally adequate for almost all of a student's needs in the classroom and outside the classroom. There are a few circumstances and a few individuals who can take advantage of what the iPad Air 4 offers, mainly if you're creative, if you're an artist if you're a producer of some sort in those types of fields who are going to be able to take advantage of the nicer screen, the faster design and the USB c port, but otherwise, if you're, just looking to take notes, write documents, watch Netflix play games, use iMessage text scan documents. All of those things you only need to spend about 299 bucks, sometimes even cheaper, to do all of those things. So, first, let's go into the different types of people that might be able to actually benefit from the iPad Air 4 with its bigger screen.

It's faster processor, it's better display, it's USB c port and more so. The first type of person is going to be video and photo editors both because the iPad's display is just going to be a little nicer, a little brighter and a little more accurate, but also just because it is more powerful. So the iPad 8 is not a slow device, but it's definitely not blazing fast you're, not going to notice how quick it is, but you might not notice how slow it is or is not the iPad Air 4, on the other hand, you're going to notice how quick it is, and there is that difference, and it's going to come through when you're doing things such as editing, video using iMovie or suffusion, or whether you're using procreate or photoshop mobile or any other animation or design, apps, and you're going to be able to take advantage of the power of this iPad. I don't think most people who are looking for iPads are going to use those applications, and you can still totally use them on the iPad 8. But it's just not going to be ideal and long term, you're, probably going to be wanting the better investment of a faster device.

That's going to keep up with 4k video, editing, animation, design stuff, like that, it's just more enjoyable on the iPad. Additionally, if you're doing something like audio production, the USB-C port at the bottom is actually going to be really handy. The USB-C port allows you to plug in a great variety of different hubs and docs, and things like that, just like you could plug into your MacBook or your PC or kind of more professional computer or device you can plug in USB, adapters and HDMI, and all this kind of different adapters and hubs, and this will allow you to connect microphones and a lot of other accessories, a lot more easily to the iPad. But again on the iPad, 8th generation, you are going to be able to get lightning to SD card and HDMI and USB for connecting other devices, but you're not going to be able to connect anything USB to USB, like you can on the iPad Air and just hubs with more versatile selections for input and output. So, if you're, using it for producing for audio for video for anything like that, the iPad Air 4 definitely has the benefits and for me, just being able to use.

USB is a big part of my workflow on a day-to-day basis with USB hubs and more additionally, just in terms of video creation. The iPad Air 4 does have a little better camera on the back. It is capable of shooting 4k video. Now not many people use iPads for serious video purposes, but if you needed to and just needed an extra camera angle or whatever you're doing, this does have that advantage of having a 4k video camera on the back, whereas the camera on the iPad 8 is going to be pretty mediocre. However, both of the front-facing cameras on these two devices are pretty mediocre, so you're not missing out much in terms of doing a Zoom chat or a FaceTime, or anything like that with the front facing photo and video quality, and they're both sideways when you're doing Zoom calls instead of up top like a traditional laptop.

Would here is the front-facing video quality on the iPad Air 4, with some vents underneath me, blowing some air up and the front facing video camera on the iPad, 8th generation again with the vent below me blowing air up, and you see what that video quality looks like, but to be fair when you get into lower light environments, when I close the blinds, the iPad Air definitely does step up over the iPad 8. So you can see that when I get into lower light environments, the iPad 8 does deteriorate in quality, so they're not identical, but just neither are great, and here is the rear camera recording in 4k at 30 frames per second and then the rear camera. With this 1080p video I can already tell this- is just not good come on focus. Uh much grainier and not quite as wide of a shot either and then, in addition to these, both having mediocre front facing cameras, neither of them have face time. They both have touch ID.

Instead, the iPad 8, obviously having it in the home button like you're used to, whereas the iPad Air 4 has it up top in the power button, which is interesting and maybe a little nicer. But up to you, the iPad 8 actually does have a headphone jack. So that's one advantage of this cheaper device. They both have 60 hertz displays, which, if you don't know what that means, it probably won't be a big deal for you, but basically they have the same refresh rate, so you're not going to get that extra level of snappiness that you get on the iPad Pro and including that extra level of precision with the Apple Pencil. But a big difference in terms of note-taking is that this iPad does have a laminated display.

That means that the pixels underneath the glass and the glass itself are pretty much one layer, whereas on the iPad 8 the pixels, underneath the glass and the glass have a slight gap which gives you a slight hovering and even a slightly louder effect when you're writing using the Apple Pencil on this iPad, it's not a huge difference day-to-day, and you can totally get used to it on the older iPad. But if you do come to the newer iPad, the laminated display both helps reduce glare, but also just is a better Apple Pencil writing experience now with both of these devices. If you want to have a stylus with it, but you don't want to pay the full 99 with the Apple Pencil first generation on this iPad or the 129 dollars for the Apple Pencil 2 on the iPad Air 4 and both of these. Of course, you can actually get the student discount on both the iPad and the apple pencils to make it a little cheaper. But both of these you can use the cheaper third-party stylus options that I have reviewed in a separate video.

You can get them for most of the same functionality, but much cheaper, like 20 to 30 dollars, and they work pretty decently, but there's obviously not quite as good as apple's offerings. When it comes to the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil one is still a really phenomenal pencil. It's just not as cool and nice as the Apple Pencil 2 that you're going to be able to use with the iPad Air 4. It includes magnetically attaching to the side of the iPad, so you a never lose it and b it's always charged.

Furthermore, it also has a double tap feature to quickly get to the eraser and honestly, the Apple Pencil 2 is pretty nice and if I was to consider upgrading just because note-taking the Apple Pencil, 2 does actually make a big difference, just in terms of convenience features again totally usable on the iPad 8th generation with the Apple Pencil one. Furthermore, it's a good experience, but it's a perfect experience on the iPad Air 4 with the Apple Pencil second generation. Now before we go any further. I want to talk about paper like which is a matte screen protector. That goes on your iPad's display.

It reduces glare, reduces those oily nasty fingerprints and gives a great texture to your Apple Pencil or any stylist when you're writing on the iPad. If you want to check it out I'll leave a link down in the description to check it out. I've been using it on my iPads for the past few years and I do love it and then the iPad Air 4, of course just offers a sleeker cooler, nicer, design with different colors and just that full screen display and effect, and it looks really cool and just a fun device to hold and use. This is totally adequate and, if you're throwing it in a keyboard case anyway, it's going to be about the same, and both of these devices do support different keyboard cases with trackpads, and you can use mice with them so such as Logitech's case. Both of these are supported, and you can use a trackpad.

However, the iPad Air 4 does allow you to use apple's, really expensive magic keyboard, which is going to add a lot to the price tag and kind of defeats the purpose. But you can use that which is really incredible now. It's also important to note that this starts at 32 gigabytes, and neither of these have expandable storage, of course, so you're probably going to be wanting to get the 128 gigabyte model for an extra hundred of this device. Unless you really just don't have many photos and videos and too many apps at all, then you can use 32 gigabytes, and this starts at 64 gigabytes. But if you want to upgrade to 128 well you can't, you have to go to 256 gigabytes for 150 more, so neither of these have great storage configuration options, you're, probably going to want to upgrade from 32 on this and 64 gigabytes is kind of iffy on this device.

But if you want to upgrade, you have to go all the way up to 256 gigabytes. So at the end of the day, these are both really excellent iPads. If you're just looking to take notes, watch media maybe do a little of production if you're going to be doing a lot of production or a lot of creation, and you need USB a nicer higher quality display. As well as just a faster device and a modern design, the iPad Air 4 is going to be for you. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below thanks, so much for watching make sure to check out paperlike.

Source : Harris Craycraft