iPad Air 4 vs iPad Pro // Save or Spend? - Full Comparison By Noah Herman

If, any of you wonder why I wear a hat half the time. It's because um, but anyway, welcome to my full comparison between the new, more affordable iPad, air 4 and the current iPad Pro line, including the last gen 2018 models, because, let's face it, they're not much different from the newer ones um. But of course before we continue here, I'd appreciate it. If you leave a like, if you want to I'm not forcing you know if you like the video, any engagement is helpful, leave a comment. If you have any questions, suggestions or opinions and, of course subscribe to if you want and if you are already subscribed- click the bell icon, as it does help the channel out a lot so design wise. These tablets are very similar in their overall aesthetic look and feel obviously the iPad Air 4 takes after the iPad Pro line, especially the previous gen 2018 model.

The resemblance is just very strong here, especially with the camera modules, which are identical by the way, but I'll go over that later. In this video we have the same placement of the Apple logo, the iPad branding, the smart connector. We also have second gen Apple Pencil support. So now the Apple Pencil will stick to your iPad without charging. As I said like an awkward unicorn and yeah, I mean overall, the look and feel and just weight of these devices are similar apple, wanted to bring the iPad Pro look and feel to the mid-tier iPad um, which is great.

So many people are excited about that. There are a few minor differences, though, for example, there is no antenna line with the iPad Air, whereas we have one with the 2018 iPad Pro and the 2020 iPad Pro. Also, there are different colors available iPad Pro is currently available in silver and space gray, although previously it was available in gold, there has not been a gold version of this tablet. Yet with this design and then with the iPad Air 4, you get more fun, colors opposed to the iPad Pro, so on top of the silver and space grid which are more typical, you also have sky, blue, green and rose gold which are all gorgeous. I think another design difference I want to highlight is with the display bezels the bezels with the iPad Air 4 are slightly thicker, so think of like the iPhone 10r to the 10s.

It's just a little chunkier a little less pleasing to look at, but it doesn't really make a difference at the end of the day, and as I use this tablet by itself, I noticed that difference less and less. However, I think apple does this: to differentiate these two tablets just a bit and also the display with the iPad Air 4 is slightly smaller, so it makes sense, but of course, I'll go over that in the designated display category of this video. Another difference I want to highlight has to do with biometrics and security. As we know, the iPad Pro features face ID, which is very convenient and accurate. However, with the iPad Air 4, I think apple decided to omit this, because it is a pro feature and also, I think, it's a bit more expensive to implement.

So they decided to put a touch ID sensor in the power button, and it works beautifully. I've never had an issue with it and I think it's equally um convenient, if not more convenient than face ID, especially now that we're all wearing masks. So, if you're out in public- and you can't pull your mask down, then this is going to be convenient and, of course it's just as quick and easy to use. The speaker setups within these devices are also a bit different here, while the iPad Air 4 features a similar design like grill wise to the iPad Pro, it doesn't pack, four individual drivers, only one on the top and one on the bottom, which makes for a great stereo experience. I will tell you opposed to the iPad or three and previous models which just had down firing speakers, but yeah I mean, I think that the setup is inferior.

I will let you decide how much worse or how much better the iPad Pro is. With this. You know test I'm about to perform here playing some non-copyrighted music. So you, let me know how much better the iPad Pro is and how much worse the iPad Air is. If, at all I mean, I think, the speakers within the iPad, air 4 are great, but the pro definitely has a bit of an edge here, and I'll just show you why? Okay, so even with that, I will say I'll, give the iPad Air for credit.

It has a great sound setup, maybe even improved in some ways over the iPad Pro but having the extra two drivers. I think it just makes the overall sound. You know a bit more intense, more loud, possibly more clear. You know like more clarity, if that makes any sense, but yeah I mean I'd, say both are pretty close here, but yeah. The iPad Pro at the end of the day is gonna, have a better sound experience, especially with the iPad Pro 12.9 inch, which I found to have an even better experience than that of the iPad Pro 11 inches, because the drivers have more room to reverberate and just vibrate and give you know your sound, I'm not an audiophile, so I'm just going to stop talking now. Next up.

Let's talk about displays here. So iPad Air 4 comes in one standard size which is 10.9 inches diagonally, whereas the iPad Pro comes in two sizes and 11 inch model, which has a slightly bigger display, as you can tell 0.1 inches, which makes the bezels a little slimmer. Again, that's a very negligible thing. I wouldn't worry about that and of course we have the gargantuan 12.9 inch, basically 13-inch iPad, which I daily drive. This is my personal iPad Pro that I love, and it's much bigger, and I do definitely enjoy it, for you know, screen real estate reasons, but I have a whole video going over this form factor compared to this form factor, which is basically this form factor, so I'll link that down below.

So I won't have to get into that in this video, but beyond the display size differences. There are other similarities and differences to be found in the panels within these tablets so yeah, while the iPad Air 4 has a fantastic 10.9 inch, liquid retina display or whatever apple calls it with great colors and brightness and sharpness, etc. It is inferior compared to that of the iPad Pro and the iPad Pro 12.9 inch that I just showed you here for a couple of reasons, but in regard to the similarities, both these displays have effectively the same resolution. I mean a little less because this is a smaller display, but the PPI is the same between the two 264 265-ish, so one panel is not sharper than the other, and also these displays feature p3, color and true tone, which are nice touches uh. However, the iPad Pro panel gets 100, and it's brighter max, so 600 nits max brightness here compared to 500 it's max brightness with the iPad Air 4.

And also the big one, is the difference in display refresh rate so with iPad Air 4. We get a nice 60 hertz panel. However, with the iPad Pro, we get a really buttery, crispy 120 hertz panel apple calls that promotion, and this feature is something that is loved among what dave2d calls the sweaty tech nerds. I am definitely one of them and I noticed the difference between these two here. You can probably see it on camera as well.

Um. You just can see that the iPad Pro is just a little smoother with scrolling and stuff, like that. I think it makes a difference in regard to you know, drawing and note-taking a little. It isn't the end of the world and a lot of people don't notice this. So I highly recommend you go into the store and see if you care about this feature, but if you do, you'll probably go with this tablet anyway or wish you could but yeah.

That's just a difference that I have to highlight here. That's one of the features that is missing within the iPad Air, 4 and also missing within the iPhone 12 and 12 pro. A lot of people were upset about that. But once again it's not the biggest feature. It's not a make or break feature.

However, it's one that is important to me, and I say this because I am an avid note taker with the Apple Pencil and while both these tablets have excellent low latency when it comes to actual you know, drawing and sketching and whatever having you know, the refresh rate being double with the iPad Pro. Just makes things seem a little more life like a little more realistic um, which I do enjoy, but again it's not the end of the world. You know you might be able to notice a difference, but if you don't care enough, I would totally go with the iPad Air. It definitely offers a comparable if not identical, experience in most ways, also I'll quickly mention here. Paperlike is a channel sponsor and I use their screen protectors for all my iPads that I use you know frequently.

I have one on my daily driver, 12.9 inch, which I put on the floor here. I can bring it back. Furthermore, I mean, like I use this every single day to take notes in my college classes, whether I understand them or not, but that's not the point um. Furthermore, I love these screen protectors because they make the experience you know comparable to that of writing. On actual paper I mean hence the name paperlike, so I really encourage you to check out my link in the video description.

It is an affiliate link, so if you end up buying one um, you do help the channel as well so yeah. I highly recommend that, and you know consider buying one. If you are somebody who is going to get into you know digital note-taking whether you buy an 8th, gen iPad or an iPad Air 4, or even an iPad Pro next up, let's quickly touch on battery life with these devices, so I will say, generally speaking, newer iPads, you know the iPads I've experienced in the past like year or two have been fantastic at getting me through the day. You know with standby times, so they all perform within the ballpark of each other. However, I think the iPad Air for from my sort of eyeballing, you know non-scientific testing or anything, performs a bit better, and it makes sense because a a14 is, you know, of course, smaller five nanometers, it's you know more efficient and not only that it's accompanied by a 60 hertz display, which is your know, less power consuming.

So the iPad Pro is a bit more taxing in regard to its older, less efficient processor and higher refresh rate display. So you might squeeze out a couple of minutes out of this device, if not an hour. Maybe I would recommend looking up some specific statistics. I have not I'm just kind of telling you my own, you know sort of anecdotal but still relevant. You know observation between these two devices, but anyway yeah.

I think the iPad Air 4 has slightly better battery life. However, both are going to get you through the day, no problem, but you're going to have to plug in if you are doing anything intensive which we'll talk about in the performance aspect of this video. But next up. Let's talk about camera or cameras to be more accurate here and, as you can see, between the iPad Air 4 and the 2018 iPad Pro, the camera modules look to be the same, and that's because they are apple, took the camera setup within the 2018 iPad, pro minus the flash, which is kind of a nice thing, if you're taking pictures or scanning documents in the dark. But you know they took the same capabilities and module or sensor and slapped it into here.

So you get great 12, megapixel photos and 4k 60 video and of course the same can be said about the 2020 iPad Pro, which has the addition of you know an ultra-wide lens and sensor and also a LIDAR scanner. So you know you get a more advanced camera with the iPad Pro, although in my comparison between these two tablets and in my full review, I don't think I make quite you know full use of that tech there. Although it is nice to have- and I know, people who definitely use the LIDAR detector for their own, like profession within apps that involve AR. So, if you need that that might be worth it, but yeah I mean across the board you're getting really great tablet photo and video. That is something I'm not super keen on, or I don't need, but yeah, I would say the iPad Air 4 has a really decent camera.

More than anything, I would use more than anything I think most consumers would use. But if you are into tablet photography or videography, this is going to perform great, just like the module did in the iPad Pro 2018 and also really quick here. The front facing cameras are very similar, if not identical. They have a sensor size. A resolution of seven megapixels, however um the iPad Air 4, lacks the face ID text, so you don't get front facing on portrait mode, which I never use with my iPad anyway.

But if you want to you, can you also lack like animal, because you don't have the tech in there too, but uh yeah once again pretty much the same front-facing camera quality for FaceTime calls and also selfies. If you do that, and finally, let's touch on performance between these two devices here, and I actually did a whole like in-depth performance test between the a14 and the a12z and effectively the a12x, because they're the same yesterday. So I highly encourage you to watch that video. If you want to see you know how these devices perform synthetically and in real world performance oriented situations that is so wordy. I don't know why.

I said that like that, but anyway um in this video, I want to kind of draw on some of those conclusions that I made to give you more of a brief overview as to what you can expect between these two devices so yeah, essentially within the iPad Air. We have the newest gen a14 processor, which is based off of a brand-new five nanometer architecture, meaning that each individual core of the six cores in this processor are more powerful. As you can see, the single core scores with the iPad Pro are around 1100, whereas with the iPad Air, it's around 1600, so there's a jump there. However, the a12z within the iPad Pro and effectively the a12x um. Although the processor architecture is older and each individual core is less powerful, there are more of them.

This is an eight core processor which has a better GPU by the way and two more gigs of ram. So with that said, you get a higher multi-core score here substantially, so, where the iPad Pro lacks in single core scores, it makes up for in multi-core scores and vice versa, with the iPad Air. So what does that mean? Well in everyday tasks, the iPad Air is going to seem a little more snappy, despite the fact that it doesn't have 120 hertz, although that does make animation seem nicer on the iPad Pro. It doesn't actually translate into better performance, so apps will definitely open a bit more quickly with the iPad Air, as I demoed in my in-depth performance test yesterday and other you know, daily tasks might seem a little more snappy. As I said, I noticed the same thing with my iPhone 12 and 12 pro compared to that in my iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 10s max that I had before that.

However, when it comes to heavier stuff like gaming and video editing, the iPad Pro is going to pull ahead because once again, even though it has an inferior processor architecture or an outdated one, it has two additional cores and a beefier GPU. It's just a beefier processor, the x and z variants of the a know. Whatever chips are always more powerful, and you know the a12x and z are just pushing and chugging along just fine, even though the architecture is now two years old. So with that said, yeah once again, both are going to perform very comparably in pretty much every regard. However, if you want a slightly snappier device, you might want to go with the iPad Air, whereas if you want a more pro oriented device good for you, know, high-end gaming- and you know- high-end, big, 4k, video, editing and stuff, like that, the pro is still the way to go, but even with everything set, even though the iPad Pro is going to continue to be my daily driver.

The iPad Air 4 is just a fantastic value, and a lot of people are saying this, and I can agree, it might be the best value iPad. Ever they took everything that consumers care about with the iPad Pro and brought it into a more affordable and attainable iPad, and I'm telling you this is going to be really popular among college students if I was doing tech you tubing for a living. This would be my tablet because it offers a full screen display and the Apple Pencil second gen and the overall slab tab look also USB type-c. I almost forgot to mention this. That is a very important feature.

If you were, you know, concerned about connectivity, and you want to connect like dongles and stuff. It is a very convenient feature and great for creative professionals or aspiring ones. This is a great tablet for that, because, even though it's not as fast with video rendering compared to the iPad Pro, you can still do it beautifully with the iPad Air hell. You can even do it with the iPad 8th gen. So I mean this is a very capable tablet.

Do not doubt that but know the iPad Pro has a slight edge on it in regard to display and performance, but other than that I mean this tablet might be the one to go with. I highly recommend it, and you know, look for some discounts that are coming with this. I know that the know cheaper iPads, tend to have better discounts on the pro ones, but also the pro ones do two, and also something to consider the iPad Pro 2018 is going to be cheaper than the iPad Pro 2020. Obviously so, if the promotion is important to you- and you know, a higher and eight core processors is as well try to find one of these used for a comparable price, and if you can find it in a capacity that you want, then you might want to go with this as well, and that about wraps things up here. I hope this video was helpful once again.

I'd appreciate it if you leave a like comment and of course subscribe for more content like this and click the bell icon. If you do, I plan on covering the iPad Air for more in depth, so stay tuned for that during the next coming weeks, and I also am planning some iPhone 12 and 12 pro content. You know maybe a review, probably some comparisons and stuff like that- really excited about the 12 mini by the way when that comes out in November. But that's just a random thought for you. Anyway, it is now 1 like 15.

I have to shoot the entire comparison itself that you've already watched and edit it and stay up till 6, so other than that I am Noah, and I will catch you all in the next one.

Source : Noah Herman