iPad (standard model)

About iPad (standard model)

The standard iPad is the model with no surname. Apple sells iPad Air, iPad Pro and iPad mini alongside it, and this is the one left when you take all the qualifiers away: the cheapest, the plainest, and by a wide margin the most sold. It is the tablet that ends up on a kitchen counter, in a school bag, on a hospital ward trolley and clamped to the back of a car headrest.

Nothing about the line is ambitious. That is the point. It runs the same iPadOS as the expensive ones, takes the same accessories in most cases, opens the same apps from the same store, and lasts about as long on a charge. What you give up sits in the details: a display without the laminated finish, a chip a generation or two behind the Air, less memory, and a shorter list of features that are locked to the newer silicon. For a great many buyers none of those gaps is felt even once.

Where does the standard iPad sit in the range?

There are four iPad lines. The standard iPad is the floor. iPad Air sits above it with a laptop-class M-series chip, a laminated and anti-reflective screen, and support for Apple Pencil Pro. iPad Pro sits above the Air with a better display again, more memory and the accessories aimed at people doing paid work on it. iPad mini is a sideways move rather than a step up, aimed at anyone who wants a tablet they can hold in one hand.

The useful way to read the ladder is by what each rung is bought for. The Pro is bought to replace a computer. The Air is bought by people who suspect they might want to. The standard iPad is bought to be an iPad, and it is very good at that.

What the current generation is

The line is now the 11-inch iPad built around Apple's A16 chip, with 128GB of storage at the entry point and options up to 512GB, in Wi-Fi and cellular versions. The display is an 11-inch Liquid Retina panel with True Tone. Charging and accessories run over USB-C.

It works with Apple Pencil (USB-C) and with the first generation Apple Pencil through an adapter, and it takes the Magic Keyboard Folio and Smart Folio. GSMArena's specification listing records 6GB of memory and an LCD panel rather than OLED.

One omission is worth knowing before you buy: this generation does not run Apple Intelligence. If the artificial intelligence features Apple advertises across the rest of the range matter to you, they are not on this model and cannot be added later.

Who is it for?

Households, mostly. It is the shared device that does reading, streaming, homework, recipes and video calls without anybody having to justify the purchase. It is also the standard choice for schools and for any organisation buying tablets in quantity, because the price difference multiplied across a hundred units is the whole argument.

It suits a first tablet for a child, a second screen for an adult who already has a laptop, and anyone who mainly consumes rather than creates. Drawing and note taking work well enough with the USB-C Pencil for casual use.

It also suits people replacing an old iPad. If the one you have is five or more years old, the base model today will feel considerably quicker than the model you are retiring, and the money saved against an Air is real.

How does it compare with iPad Air?

This is the decision most buyers face, and the honest answer is that the Air is the better machine and the standard iPad is the better value.

The Air brings an M-series chip with more cores, a laminated display with an anti-reflective coating and a wider colour gamut, Apple Pencil Pro support, a 1TB storage option and Apple Intelligence. The laminated screen is the difference most people notice first: on the base model the image sits fractionally further from the glass, which is obvious side by side and easy to forget alone.

Weigh it this way. If the tablet is going to be used for a few hours a week, mostly for watching and reading, the extra money buys advantages you will rarely meet. If it will be used every day for drawing, editing, or as a laptop substitute with a keyboard attached, the Air earns the difference back in comfort within a month.

What the line leaves out

There is no ProMotion high refresh rate display, no OLED, and no laminated glass. There is no Face ID; the sensor is in the top button. The camera is adequate for video calls and document scanning and not much beyond that.

Memory is the constraint that will age this line fastest. Six gigabytes is enough for the way most people use a tablet and thin for heavy multitasking with several large documents open at once.

None of this is hidden. Apple prices the model where it does because of these gaps, and the specification pages state them plainly.

Who should buy something else?

Anyone who wants Apple Intelligence should buy an Air or a Pro. That feature set is not coming to this generation of the standard iPad.

Artists and illustrators should buy an Air or a Pro for Apple Pencil Pro support and the laminated screen. The gap between drawing on glass that sits directly under the image and glass that does not is felt on the first stroke.

Anyone planning to write for hours with a keyboard attached should look at the Air, or at a laptop. A tablet with a keyboard folio is a compromise at every price, and the compromise is easier to accept on hardware with more memory behind it.

Anyone who wants a tablet for one hand, on a commute or in bed, should look at iPad mini instead. It is not a lesser device, just a different shape for a different grip.

And anyone who needs a computer should buy a computer. The standard iPad is an excellent tablet and a poor substitute for a Mac, and no accessory changes that.