Daniel Rotar

June 12, 2020

iPad Pro vs MacBook Pro 13 (2020) - Which One's the Real Laptop?

Daniel Rotar

June 12, 2020

Over the past few months, there have been two devices that I’ve been using a ton. The iPad Pro with the brand new Magic Keyboard, which has actually now become my home computer and a full Laptop replacement for when I’m on the go. Also, I’ve also been using the new 13” 2020 MacBook Pro, which has now replaced my 15” MacBook Pro from 2019.

The Full In-Depth Review of the 13” 2020 MacBook Pro is coming out the week following this video but until then, here’s the answer to the question that a lot of you have been asking. Should you buy an iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, which is finally a true Laptop replacement now, or should you get the MacBook Pro 13”?

Well, get all those snacks ready and buckle up because this is going to be a very detailed comparison. We’ll be covering everything from the Design, Display, Keyboard, Trackpad, Camera, Microphones, Speakers, Performance, Battery Life and the Value!

Design

Starting off with the Design, these two devices couldn’t be any more different. The MacBook Pro was born to be a Laptop, while the iPad Pro was born to be a Tablet, which then became a Laptop.

In terms of which one looks better, this is very subjective because if you’re looking for a more traditional Laptop, the MacBook Pro is the winner here. You get a full Aluminium and Glass Unibody build, which is extremely sturdy and premium. But, if you’re looking for something that’s a bit more versatile, the iPad Pro is indeed the winner here. With that floating design, the iPad Pro definitely looks more futuristic. But with the Magic Keyboard itself, it doesn’t feel as premium as the MacBook Pro does. I’m not referring to the actual Keys, but the material that surrounds them.

On the iPad Pro we have this Silicone/Rubber material, while it does indeed protect the iPad, you don’t get that ultra-premium feel that the MacBook Pro gives you. Also, this material gets smudged extremely easy, after even just a few hours of use. So, the iPad Pro will look very used, in a matter of hours, while the MacBook Pro will keep on looking brand new for years as it has a full metal body. So overall, the MacBook Pro does look and feel like a more premium device.

The iPad Pro 12.9” weighs roughly the same, and is slightly thicker than the MacBook Pro 13”. But it is much more versatile.

But which one is more usable? Well, the iPad Pro has a significant advantage here. You see, not only does the iPad Pro support Touch Input, but you can easily remove it from the Keyboard Case and use it just like a Tablet in Landscape or even Portrait mode, whenever you wish. You can use the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil as well, you can use it as an External Monitor for your MacBook Pro, none of which you can do with a Mac. You also have FaceID, compared to the TouchID unlock on the MacBook Pro and I have to say, FaceID is significantly superior. The moment you tap the screen or even a Key on the Keyboard, the iPad instantly unlocks.

Same goes for when you’re filling in passwords or using Apple Pay, the iPad Pro is a massive improvement over a MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro is just a traditional Laptop, whereas the iPad Pro is this brand new modular device that you can use in any shape or form you want, it’s a magical device.

When it comes to the Portability, the iPad Pro comes in two sizes, the 11” and 12.9”. The MacBook Pro comes in 13” and 16”. So, if we compare both 13” sizes of both devices, the iPad Pro on its own weighs 641g, while the MacBook Pro 13” weighs 1.4kg. However, if we add in the Magic Keyboard to the 12.9” iPad Pro, it ends up being 1.35kg, almost as heavy as the MacBook Pro is. The 11” iPad Pro, with the Magic Keyboard, weighs 1.07kg, so that’s much lighter. However, both iPad Pro’s are actually slightly thicker than the 13” MacBook Pro. So, just because of how much more versatile and flexible the iPad is to use, I have to give the design award to the iPad Pro.

Display

So now, what about the Display? Well, both the iPad Pro and the MacBook Pro have an outstanding Display Panel.

They’re both LCD displays, but they’re IPS Panels, meaning that they have an almost 180 Degree viewing angle. They both have a DCI P3 Panel, which can display around 25% more colours, when compared to a standard sRGB Display. They’re very good Displays, the best LCD Displays that you can find on a Laptop or a Tablet. But, the iPad Pro’s Display is actually superior in three ways.

The iPad Pro’s biggest advantage, with the Display, is definitely that Dynamic Refresh Rate.

Firstly, the Bezels are much thinner on the iPad Pro. This means that the iPad Pro’s Display not only looks better and more futuristic, but if you get the 12.9” iPad Pro, it would be noticeably smaller than the Display on the MacBook Pro 13”, even-though they’re almost the same physical size.

Secondly, the iPad Pro’s Display is actually brighter, with a peak brightness of 600 Nits, compared to around 500 Nits on the MacBook Pro. This means that if you plan on using either of these outdoors, the iPad Pro is a much better option.

Lastly, the iPad Pro also has a ProMotion Display, which can adjust its Refresh Rate from 24Hz, 30Hz, 60Hz and all the way up to 120Hz, depending on the content that you’re watching. The MacBook Pro has a fixed 60Hz Refresh Rate Display. I have to say, this is by far the biggest advantage of the iPad Pro. Everything that you do on the iPad Pro feels so smooth. The thing is, my MacBook Pro does drop a lot of frames when scrolling and navigating through the UI. The animations don’t always run at 60FPS, so when they drop to 50FPS or even 40FPS and then you compare that to the iPad Pro, which always runs at 120FPS in the UI, the difference is just gigantic. Because of this, I have to give the Display win to the iPad Pro.

Keyboard & Trackpad

Next up, we have the Keyboard and the Trackpad.

When it comes to the Keyboard, both of these devices now feature Apple’s brand new Magic Keyboard. Long gone is the disastrous Magic Keyboard that had almost no Key Travel and Apple refused to replace over a period of five years, even-though it constantly broke. This Magic Keyboard is very similar to the one that we get on the iMac Keyboards, which is also called…the Magic Keyboard. They’re also very similar to the amazing Keyboards that we used to get on all the MacBooks up until 2015.

The difference is some areas is not quite as black & white as it might seem.

The difference here is that we do get larger Key-Caps and a more stable Keyboard. Both of these Keyboards are actually much better than on the 2015 MacBook Pro and even better than the current Magic Keyboards on the iMacs. But which one of these is better?

Well, the MacBook Pro definitely has a better Keyboard, which you probably expected, as this is..you know…an actual Laptop. But the thing is, it’s not actually that much better. If the MacBook Pro has a 10/10 Keyboard, the iPad Pro probably has around an 8.8/10. At least when it comes to the 11” iPad Pro, which does indeed have a much smaller Keyboard overall. I do find it to be a bit too crammed and some of the Keys also have a much smaller size in order to fit in this footprint.

The 12.9” iPad Pro has a full-size Keyboard, just like the MacBook Pro and that one’s much more comfortable to type on. But, aside from the size difference, the typing experience is almost identical between the two sizes of the iPad Pro and the MacBook Pro. You get the same 1mm of Key Travel, I actually ended up scripting almost all of my videos off of the iPad Pro, until I got this 13” MacBook Pro. The moment I started scripting on the iPad Pro, I couldn’t go back to my 2019 15” MacBook Pro, which still comes with that Butterfly Keyboard. So, the typing experience is excellent!

One advantage that the MacBook Pro has over the iPad Pro’s Keyboard is that we do get a function row of keys. We have the Escape Key as well as the TouchBar, which gives you virtual controls based on the App that you’re using. The iPad Pro however, has none of that. If you want to adjust the volume or the brightness, you have to go into the Control Centre, which takes noticeably longer, compared to the MacBook Pro.

Both Keyboards are Backlit but the iPad Pro does not have a Key, or even a software toggle in the Control Centre, to adjust its brightness. In order to do that, you have to go all the way into the Settings and adjust it from there, which is very inconvenient. On the MacBook Pro, you just have a toggle for the Backlight built into the TouchBar, it’s very quick and convenient to adjust it.

Interestingly enough, I do find typing on the iPad Pro do be somewhat more comfortable. This is mostly because, since it is a much thinner device when open, the Chassis doesn’t hurt on your Wrists as much as they hurt on the MacBook Pro. We also have a soft rubber Chassis, compared to a full metal Chassis on the MacBook Pro, so the iPad’s Magic Keyboard is much easier on the Wrists.

The MacBook Pro does win in both departments, but that doesn’t make the Keyboard & Trackpad on the iPad Pro bad by any means.

The tilt is greater on the MacBook Pro, so you can lean the Display further down, compared to the iPad Pro. The MacBook Pro is also more stable, compared to the iPad Pro, which when tilted all the way backwards, does have a tendency to tip over. Overall, the MacBook Pro does have a better Keyboard. So, what about the Trackpad?

Well, the MacBook Pro takes this one as well. Not only is the Trackpad on the MacBook Pro much bigger, but it also doesn’t physically click. Instead, there’s a Vibration Motor inside it that gives you the impression that you’ve clicked the Trackpad. This way, you have two levels of pressure, with the second one being used for the Force Click, which gives you more options when pressing on an item.

The iPad Pro uses a much smaller Trackpad, which does indeed physically click. However, unlike the Trackpad on most Windows Laptops, you can press the iPad’s Trackpad anywhere, even on the top. So, this is not a diving board mechanism but instead, the entire Trackpad can click. The Gestures are very similar on both of these, however, the iPad does have a few that are different, such as taking you Home or displaying the Notification Centre.

Overall, the MacBook Pro has a better Keyboard, as well as a better Trackpad. But, the iPad Pro still has a better Keyboard and Trackpad than most other Laptops on the market, so they’re still very, very good.

Camera, Microphones & Speakers

In terms of Cameras, the iPad is the clear choice.

Moving on to the Camera, Microphones & Speakers. Firstly, the Camera is a massive win for the iPad. Not only do we have a 1080p, 60FPS Front Camera, compared to the 720p, 60FPS Camera on the MacBook Pro, but the iPad Pro also comes with an actual Camera on the back. This Camera is capable of taking some breath-taking photos, 4K60 video and overall, images and videos that are pretty much just as good as on the iPhone. Not only that, but we also have an Ultra-Wide Angle Module as well as a LiDAR Scanner for AR Apps, on the 2020 iPad Pro.

In case you’re wondering what the Microphones sound like, be sure to check out the test in the video. In terms of the Speakers, they’re both very good. The MacBook Pro is better as it is a larger device, but we also tested both in the full video linked at the top.

Performance

Moving on to the Performance, this is probably going to be shocking for most of you. On paper, the MacBook Pro smokes the iPad Pro. My model has an Intel 10th Generation, Quad-Core Processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of Storage. The iPad Pro, on the other hand, has Apple’s A12Z Processor, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of Storage. Also, the MacBook Pro has two Cooling Fans and some pretty big Air Intake and Outtake Vents, whereas the iPad Pro has no Fans, or Vents, at all.

In a lot of ways, the iPad can go toe-to-toe with the MacBook Pro.

So, you would expect the MacBook Pro to just murder the iPad Pro when it comes to performance. But, to my surprise, it was actually the other way around! In GeekBench 5, the iPad Pro scored 1114SC and 4654MC, while the MacBook Pro 13”, with the i5 10th Generation Intel Processor, scored 1128SC and 4370MC, quite a bit lower on the Multi-Core side. Interesting, so what about the GPU?

Well, the iPad Pro 2020 scores 9547 points, while the MacBook Pro scores around 8374 points, sometimes as high as 9960 points. Long story short, it seems like they’re both pretty much identical when it comes to raw performance. In fact, the iPad Pro even appears to be slightly more powerful. If you compare it to the baseline 13” MacBook Pro, the iPad Pro is clearly more powerful when it comes to both the CPU and GPU.

How does this translate to some real world usage? Well, in our video we had the same 4K video timeline, with the same exact 4K60 shots taken from our Panasonic GH5, and they’re pretty demanding on both of these machines, I also added some transitions and titles. This five minute timeline took 2:53 to export on the iPad and 7:27 to export on the MacBook Pro, which is a significant difference. The iPad Pro was more than 2.5x times faster than the MacBook Pro. Obviously, if you have longer and more complex projects, the iPad Pro would have an even bigger advantage.

Now, if you’re into Gaming, and you’re wondering which of these machines is better, the iPad Pro, strangely enough, is a significantly better option. Most of the games on the App Store are Mobile Games, but you do get millions of those and they’re extremely well optimised to run on the iPad. On the MacBook Pro, there are barely any games available. This is because Apple now prefers games to use Metal instead of openGL, macOS Catalina and 32-bit games have been dropped as well. Meaning that those very few games that we had on Steam are now barely even supported, as most games were dropped.

Let’s take a look at Fortnite for example. A game that runs on both platforms. Which machine can run it better? The iPad Pro can run Fortnite in Native Resolution at 2388x1668, on EPIC settings and we’re getting just about 30FPS. That’s extremely impressive because this is literally fully maxed out. If we drop the graphics to Medium, we’re now getting around 76FPS, if we drop them all the way to Low, we’re getting 120FPS. Since the iPad has a 120Hz Display, it means that we can actually see all those individual Frames. The experience running this game on the iPad is just unbelievable, everything is crazy fluid and smooth. Even on Low Settings, I still have the 3D Resolution scaling set to 100%, so this is still running in Native Resolution.

Now, taking a look at the MacBook Pro, I’m running the game in Native Resolution again, so 2560x1600 in this case, which is slightly higher than on the iPad Pro, but not by a lot. It seems like even on Medium Settings, we’re only getting around 17FPS. The game is fully unplayable and even if we drop to Low, we’re only getting 25FPS compared to the 120FPS that the iPad Pro was getting. That’s extremely impressive for the iPad Pro, a Tablet that’s miles thinner than the MacBook Pro and also has no Cooling Fans at all. All the Cooling is done passively and we get significantly better performance for both Video-Editing and Gaming, on the iPad Pro.

But, probably the biggest advantage to the iPad Pro is that it can run both Mobile as well as some Desktop Apps too. These include iMovie, GarageBand, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Lightroom and more, while the MacBook Pro can only run Desktop Apps. There are a few iOS Apps that have been ported to macOS, thanks to Apple’s Catalyst Tool. So, we do have Apps such as the Home App, News, Apple TV, and more, but the UI still sucks, they’re not that easy to control as they were designed for Touch Input first. The iPad does a much better job at running Desktop Apps such as Photoshop, especially now that we have full Keyboard and Trackpad support.

The iPad Pro is not capable of properly running External Displays.

In this case, the iPad Pro is a much better Computer, and it has replaced my MacBook Pro, right? Well...not really.

You see, there are things that the iPad Pro still cannot do. For example, if you plan on connecting multiple Monitors, the iPad Pro is just a mess, the video output doesn’t scale properly and you can only connect one Monitor. With my MacBook Pro, I have a 5K Monitor, a 4K monitor and I’m also running its internal 2K Display, all through a single Thunderbolt 3 Cable, which the iPad does not support at all. Not only that, but I can directly connect to our Thunderbolt NAS and get some insane 1-2GB/s transfer speeds, wheres the iPad is limited to using a wireless connection, via SMB, with significantly lower speeds of just around 10MB/s.

If you want to do any App Development, there is no XCode on the iPad. Same goes for Video-Editing. Whilst LumaFusion is very good, FCP X on the Mac is still better. Plus, you can run a lot more Pro tools on the Mac, such as LogicProX, Ableton, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects, all alongside a ton of their plugins. So, if you need any of those, the MacBook Pro is the way to go.

Now, remember when I said that I felt that my MacBook Pro 13” dropped Frames when scrolling through the UI? Well, I can use a tool called Quatrz Debug, which allows me to measure the drops. The iPad Pro on the other hand, has no way to actually measure that unless you open up the Xcode Viewer, but I couldn’t notice any lag or any slow-down whatsoever.

Battery Life

Next up, when it comes to the Battery Life, they both claim up to 10 hours of usage, which neither of these machines can achieve, unfortunately. With my usage, my MacBook Pro gets around 5-6 hours, while my iPad Pro gets around 6 hours. So, pretty much the same.You can detach the Magic Keyboard from the iPad Pro and actually get a better Battery Life that way.

Value

Finally, having said all of this, which one is worth it the most?

The MacBook Pro starts at $1300 and for that you get a 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 Processor (8th Generation). You also get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of Storage. My MacBook Pro model is the higher-end $ 1800 model, which gets you the more powerful 2.0GHz Intel Core i5 Processor (10th Generation). With this, you get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of Storage.

The iPad Pro could end up costing you more than a baseline MacBook Pro 13”, but it could be just as good, for a lot of people.

The iPad Pro 11” starts from $800 for the 11” model or $1000 for the 12.9” model. If you add the Keyboard, which I’m assuming most of you will, that would bring the price of the 11” to $1100 and the 12.9” to $1350. So, the 12.9” iPad Pro, with the Keyboard, is actually more expensive than the baseline 13” MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, you only get 128GB of Storage. If you need 256GB, that would make the 13” $1200 and the 12.9” $1450.

Is the iPad Pro really worth it over a MacBook Pro? Especially considering that it is even more expensive? Well, for 90% of people, it actually is. If you don’t need to do any App Development or any high-end Video-Editing, the iPad Pro is actually a much better device than a MacBook Pro. You get a much more versatile device that supports Touch Input and Vertical or Landscape Orientation. It’s great for reading books, it’s great for browsing the web and it’s perfect for Photo-Editing and Graphic Design, thanks to the Apple Pencil.

On top of all this, it will feel way more fluid than the MacBook Pro does. I strongly believe that the iPad Pro is indeed the future. It seems like Microsoft was right from the very start!

ZONEofTECH

October 19, 2019

Reviews

iPad 10.2" (2019) - FULL Review!

ZONEofTECH

October 19, 2019

Reviews

This is iPad. Not the Air, or the Pro, this is the entry level iPad. I know that this might be a bit confusing to some, so let me explain.

Back in the days of Steve Jobs, Apple only had 1 single iPad, unsurprisingly called the iPad. Then came the iPad 2, the iPad 3, the iPad 4 and then, instead of Apple releasing the iPad 5, they revamped the entire naming scheme, and called it the iPad Air. So then we had the iPad Air 2 and then Apple killed the iPad Air naming scheme as well, releasing the iPad Pro. And then they actually brought back the iPad Air in 2019 with the iPad Air 3rd generation, and back in 2017 they also brought back the original iPad naming scheme, by launching the iPad 5th generation, and this was essentially the entry-level iPad. It didn’t have any other name, such as Air or Pro, it was the essential iPad, the one for everyone that just needed a very good tablet. In 2018, Apple released the 2nd entry level iPad, the iPad 6th generation, and now in 2019 we have the 7th generation

So, here’s my final thoughts on this iPad, covering the Design, Display, Camera, Performance, Special Features, Battery & Value!

DESIGN

Starting off with the design, and this is a bit of a weird one. The 5th gen iPad, the 1st entry level iPad from 2017, actually had the exact same design as the iPad Air 1 from 2013. We had the same thick body and the same non-laminated display, so it was really a pretty big step backwards. Then in 2018 the 2nd entry level iPad, or the 6th gen, had the exact design as the 1st one and now the 3rd entry level iPad, or the 7th gen, now finally gets a brand new design, kind of.

We still have the same 7.5mm thickness as the previous two entry-level iPads and the iPad Air 1 from 2013. So this is a fairly bulky tablet. It’s noticeably thicker than the 2019 iPad Pro which is 5.9mm, or the iPad Air 2019 which is 6.1mm. And it’s also quite heavy as well, at 483g for the WiFi only model, making it the 2nd heaviest iPad since the iPad Air 1. Only the iPad Pro 12.9” is heavier that this iPad. So using it in one hand isn’t necessarily impossible, but for me at least I found it quite uncomfortable and tiring.

Also, the design itself is very outdated, as we still have the same thick top and bottom bezels, the same fairly thick side bezels which are even thicker than on the iPad Air 2019, and the good old home button.

Now, I did mention that this iPad got a design upgrade from last year, and that’s true. We did get a larger display. We now have a 10.2” display up from the 9.7” one that we had before. What this means is that the actual dimensions of this iPad are identical to the ones of the iPad Air 2019, same 25.6cmm height and the same 17.4cm width. The only difference between the two is the thickness difference. The Air does have a slightly larger 10.5” display, and the Pro has an 11” display, but this means that the entry level iPad does have the thickest bezels out of the three.

DISPLAY

So there is a display increase but what about the actual quality of the display?

Well, resolution wise it’s pretty good. We have a 2160x1620 resolution panel, which has the same 264PPI as all the other iPads, aside from the Mini which has 364PPI. So it’s a very sharp and clear panel. The brightness is very good as well. It’s 500 nits, so the same brightness as on the iPad Air. It’s not as bright as the Pro’s which get up to 600 nits but it’s still very good. However, that’s where all the positives end.

The difference between the laminated display of the Air and the non-laminated display of the 10.2”

This display is unfortunately far behind what we get with the Air or the Pro, and that’s because it is not a laminated display. What this means is that there’s a gap in between the glass and the actual LCD panel underneath it. So it will always feel as if you’re touching a display that’s behind a windshield or a very very thick glass screen protector. This not only breaks away from the immersion but it also means that you’ll get much more reflection that you would on all the other iPads.

Aside from this, there is no True Tone display, that both the Air and the Pros have, which automatically adjusts the colour temperature to make it easier on the eyes, and we also lack a Wide Colour DCI-P3 panel, that both the Air and the Pros also have. So if you’re into professional colour grading, whilst this is a pretty good panel overall, the Air and the Pro would be much more suited for any work that requires colour accuracy.

So, the design is indeed quite outdated but the display is the worst part about this iPad. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad display, it’s just that it’s noticeably worse than even what the iPad Air 2 from 2014 had.

CAMERA

When it comes to the camera I know that this isn’t an important feature of an iPad, since we all have smartphones with a much better camera anyways, but a camera on an iPad can be useful in cases where you want to FaceTime your family and friends, when your phone’s battery is dead and you really need something to take a photo with.

This iPad has a 1.2MP front facing camera, which is pretty bad when compared to the iPad Air, the iPad Pro, or the iPhone 11. Video recording on the front is capped at 720p so again, they all compare. It’s obviously not the best but considering the massive price difference between these devices, it’s pretty good.

The back facing camera is a bit better. This is essentially the same camera that the iPhone 5 had, back in 2012, 7 years ago. So it’s an 8MP sensor, f/2.4 aperture, and it can do 1080p video recording in up to 30fps.

The pictures do actually look better than on the iPhone 5, thanks to a better image processing, and yes, while this camera is so much worse than the one on the iPad Air 2019 or the latest iPad Pro , it’s still perfectly usable for that time when you do need an emergency camera to just capture a scene.

PERFORMANCE

Moving on to the performance, this is also a bit of an odd one. You see, this 7th gen iPad comes with the Apple A10 processor, the same exact processor that the iPhone 7 from 2016 came with, and the exact same chip that the iPad 6th gen from last year got. So unfortunately, we don’t get any processor upgrade with this year’s iPad, which is pretty disappointing.

Considering that the iPhone 6 got dropped from iOS 13 support, the iPhone 6s, which comes with the Apple A9 processor, is the last supported iPhone. So, the A10 could be dropped in iOS 15, which would mean that this iPad will only get 2 years of updates, compared to 5 years for example, that the iPad Air 2 had.

Now, we did get 1 upgrade performance wise and that is 3GB of RAM, up from 2GB. This means that you can now keep more apps open in the background, and this also helps a ton when it comes to split screen multitasking.

SPECIAL FEATURES

At this point in the article I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that this iPad isn’t that impressive. It’s an iPad with a six year old design, a slightly larger display, but a non-laminated one, a seven year old camera and three year old specs. But you see, even though it looks bad on paper, the remaining three sections of this review is where it really excels.

In terms of the Special Features this iPad, same as the one from last year, supports the Apple Pencil. It doesn’t support the 2nd generation one that the 2018 iPad Pro got, and it does not have that very smooth 120Hz refresh rate Pro-Motion that the iPad Pro has, so the overall experience isn’t as good as on an iPad Pro. But at least you can use it. I’ve seen comments from actual graphic artists that were using the entry level iPad from last year to make some amazing drawings so this can actually be used for professional work. It’s just that it’s not as good as a Pro is for drawing but it’s definitely usable.

With the smart connector you can now connect keyboards like the Apple one to type with

And something new this year, is a smart connector! Like with the iPad Air 2019, and all the iPad Pro’s, we have a smart connector which allows you to connect apple’s 1st party keyboard. Now this is actually the exact same keyboard that the 2nd gen iPad Pro 10.5” or the iPad Air 2019 use, so if you already have a keyboard for those iPads, it would work perfectly on this one. However Apple’s keyboard is very expensive, coming in at $160, pretty much half of what this entire $330 iPad costs. Not only that but there are so many better keyboards out there that work via Bluetooth, and also have a better typing experiences, such as ones from Logitech and Brydge. The Apple one is also very mushy, and aside from the fact that it’s very slim and you don’t have to charge it since it gets its power from the iPad itself through that smart connector, it doesn’t do anything extra that a 3rd party keyboard doesn’t do. However, the fact we now have Apple Pencil support and a smart connector on this entry level iPad, which used to be a key selling feature of the iPad Pro is a huge deal!

Moving on from the keyboard, we wouldn’t be talking about special features if we didn’t talk about the biggest one out there, iPadOS. This is essentially iOS 13 but as it is on the iPad it has a new name, iPadOS, just because of how big the changes are. With iPadOS we can load full desktop pages in Safari by default, rather than getting that mobile view, which means that Google Docs on the web is now fully usable with full comments on the side, which wasn’t possible at all before on an iPad. You can now use multiple slideover apps for an even better multitasking experience, and also use multiple windows of the same app side by side, such as multiple instances of the notes app for example. There is even on-screen widgets now when you’re on the home screen in landscape, which is something that I’ve been wanting Apple to include for years.

Like with the Pro, the 10.2” will allow you to connect a games console controller to play games on it

If gaming is your thing, you can also use a PS4 or Xbox controller with this natively and play games such as Fornite, or even use the PlayStation Remote app and literally play your very own PlayStation games directly on this iPad, how insane is that! And now that Apple has launched Apple Arcade, their subscription gaming platform, you can play console quality games such as Oceanhorn 2, directly on this iPad with ease. This makes this entry level iPad pretty much a Nintendo Switch. It’s actually better than the Switch in so many ways, from raw performance to app support and the things you can actually do with this. Once Apple Arcade grows even more, we’ll get some even more high end games on this, so it’s just a matter of time.

And probably the best part about iPadOS is that if you have a Mac with MacOS Catalina, you can also use it as a secondary monitor for your Mac, and Apple Pencil support will work as well!

So there you go, from both a productivity and a gaming side, this iPad is an amazing tool to have.

BATTERY

Moving on to the Battery, Apple claims up to 10 hours of web browsing on this which fun fact, has actually been their claim for every single iPad model, ever since the original iPad in 2010.

So, Apple has kept that same battery life and made the iPads thinner over the years, made the displays brighter and the chips more powerful, while mentioning the same battery life over the years. I’ve never really had a battery life issue with any of my iPads over the years, but I also never got 10 hours. I mostly get around 7 hours or so, but battery life does depend on how you actually use the iPad. But do expect at least 6-7 hours out of this.

VALUE

And finally we have the value, is this iPad worth it? And my answer is yes! Definitely!

Even though it has a 6 year old design, a 6 year old display, a 7 year old camera and a 3 year old processor, it can actually do every single thing that an iPad Pro can, it’s just that it will do those things slightly slower, that’s it. And at $330, this iPad costs less than an entry level Apple Watch Series 5, which starts at $400. It’s $180 less than the iPad Air 2019 which starts at $500 and $470 less than the iPad Pro 11”.

And because of this and the fact that like I said, this iPad can do everything that the iPad Pro can, just not as fast, I highly recommend it to everyone that just need a base iPad and doesn’t really care about any other extra features. I mean hey, you even have the exact same navigation gestures like you do on the iPad Pro. So even though that home button is there, you still have the same functionality that the iPad Pro has.

Whether you’re a student, an elder, a kid or someone new to iPads in general, this is the right iPad for you.

ZONEofTECH

April 20, 2019

Reviews

iPad Mini 5 Review

ZONEofTECH

April 20, 2019

Reviews

Apple has revived their iPad Mini line up after 4 years of everyone, including myself, thinking it was dead. This is the brand new iPad Mini, and here are my thoughts on Apple’s smallest and most portable tablet!

HARDWARE

The Mini 5 starts at $400, which is $70 more than what the original iPad Mini used to cost back in 2012. It’s currently not the cheapest iPad that you can buy, there’s the entry level iPad which is larger, but it also comes with weaker specs and a significantly worse display.

What the iPad Mini offers compared to the Air and Pro for example, is a very compact form factor. In fact this thing is so compact that I can hold it in one hand and if you have some fairly larger pockets or a hoody it would even fit in those. I would highly recommend this if you travel a lot as it is the perfect iPad to carry on a plane or a coach trip.

Design comparison between the original iPad Mini and the Mini 5

My only complaint here is that whilst it is extremely portable, the design basically hasn’t changed since the first iPad Mini was launched back in 2012. The Mini 5 retains the small improvements that the Mini 4 got, like the laminated display and the thinner overall form, whilst also getting a darker shade of space grey, which does look really nice.

The edges are not reflective anymore, they’re not matte, but that’s it. We do have the exact same thick bezels as the original, which you can argue is good to have on a tablet, since you have something to hold it by, but that’s not necessarily true. The 2018 iPad Pro for example, had some insanely thin bezels and the accidental touch rejection was so good on that thing that you could hold it by the display and still use it! Now the Mini itself does have some incredible accidental touch rejection but only on the sides. So it is no problem at all if you accidentally touch the display when using this in portrait due to the thin side bezels.

Now I have seen a lot of reviewers and tech websites say that the iPhone XS Max is almost as big as an iPad Mini is, and there’s no point in getting a Mini anymore, which isn’t correct at all.

You see the Mini has a 4:3 aspect ratio display compared to 19.5:9, which means that you can read full sized pages of a book or even comic books, without having to scroll or zoom in on the Mini. So if you’re into reading books and pretty much browsing in general, the Mini is a significant upgrade from even a large screen smartphone.

Speaking of reading, the display itself has been improved significantly over the years. We got a Retina Display with the Mini 2 and that laminated display I mentioned earlier with the Mini 4, but with the Mini 5, everything got even better.

A comparison in brightness between the iPad Mini 5 (Left) Mini 4 (Right)

The colors are more vibrant, with the inclusion of a DCI-P3 panel, just like on the iPad Pro so everything just pops, and the difference between the 5 and the 4 is definitely noticeable. It’s also a brighter display, which I do like a lot! It can now go up to 500 nits compared to the 350 or so we had before, so this would be a great tablet to use outdoors and on the go. At 326PPI this is also the sharpest iPad, with all the others having which 264PPI, and it does have to be that way since the Mini is smaller and you would therefore be holding it closer to your eyes.

Overall it’s a great display, I just wish that the display was larger. There’s so much room on the top and the bottom that Apple isn’t utilising which I really hope changes with the next generation’s design.

For those of you who like taking pictures with iPads the camera’s pretty good, for an iPad Mini that is. It’s nowhere near the capabilities of the iPad Pro’s camera but the front camera is now a 7MP sensor, from the horrible 1.2MP one that we had on the Mini 4. Unfortunately the back camera isn’t that great, it’s an old 8MP sensor from a few iPhone generations ago and can only do 1080p video but the Apple A12’s processor does make a pretty big difference in terms of image processing. So if you would be using it for scanning documents and occasional photo taking, it’s more than good enough.

PERFORMANCE

Now in terms of the iPad Mini 5’s performance and fluidity, every single iPad Mini came with the same processor that the iPhones came with a year before. The Mini 1 released in 2012 came with the Apple A5 CPU, same as in the iPhone 4S from 2011 and so on.

But the Mini 5, instead of coming with the Apple A11 from the iPhone X, it actually comes with the A12 from the iPhone XS! Which means the performance on this thing is incredible! Everything is buttery smooth, it maybe even more powerful than your own laptop!

I think that the best thing about having this much power in such a small tablet is that becomes literally the perfect portable gaming console. iOS games are not only the best ones on any mobile platform, in terms of graphics and how well they run on older devices, but on the Mini 5 for example, thanks to the power of the A12, you can play games such as Fortnite in native resolution at high settings and you can even attach a controller!

Editing 4K video may be difficult with such a small display

With this boost in performance you can do video editing on this, even 4K video editing, but I wouldn’t really recommend it because of the small display size, but what I’m getting at is that whatever you throw at this it can easily handle it!

In terms of how well iOS runs on this, it’s still iOS so you’re very limited in terms of functionality but since the iPad Mini runs on the iPad UI rather than the iPhone UI, you can actually run multiple apps at the same time.

Apple does offer you years of day 1 updates too, the iPad Air 2 from 2014 is still fully supported 5 years after it was launched. So expect to be able to see this for many years!

It’s worth noting that iOS 13 would be coming with some major iPad UI overhaul and I am 100% sure that some, if not all of those features would be coming to the Mini 5 as well. Even with iOS 12 we got full gesture support, just like on the 2018 iPad Pro, so even if the home button is still there you can indeed use the same gestures as on the iPad Pro 2018 and fully navigate the UI which is a real plus!

ACCESSORIES

Now this section is something that has to be discussed, and I am really happy about this, and that is that the Mini 5 now has support for the Apple Pencil.

But this is a bit of a weird one because the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard have both been exclusive to the iPad Pro, as Apple’s been selling the Pro as a professional grade device. Now that they added both Apple Pencil and Smart-keyboard support to the iPad Air 3, and Apple Pencil support to the Mini, Apple is clearly moving away from the idea that only the iPad Pros should have the best features.

I mean, it’s not the 2nd generation Apple Pencil that the iPad Pro comes with, it’s still the 1st gen one which connects very weirdly, but it is an a mazing thing to have. Unfortunately you do have to buy it separately and yes, it does feel weird using the pencil on such a small display, especially considering that the pencil itself is bigger than the entire length of the display. But it’s perfect for things such as taking notes, and drawing professional art if you so wished.

CONCLUSION

Ok so in the end, while personally I do use an iPad Pro every single day and don’t intend to switch to a Mini anytime soon, the Mini 5 is not only the best entry into the iOS ecosystem, but it is also the best small form factor tablet on the market by a wide margin.

There’s absolutely nothing that even comes close in terms of the performance, the massive app selection, the software support and the best mobile gaming experience on the market right now, especially if you connect a controller.

ZONEofTECH

April 19, 2019

Reviews

iPad Air 3 Review

ZONEofTECH

April 19, 2019

Reviews

This is the brand new iPad Air! It’s just called the iPad Air but essentially this is the 3rd generation iPad Air.

It has been almost 5 years since the iPad Air 2 was released so we should see a pretty big upgrade in every single way!

It stands in between the entry-level iPad which hasn’t been updated since 2018, which starts at $329, and the iPad Pro 2018 which starts at $800. The iPad Air starts at $500, more than half the price of the iPad Pro. But is it more than half as good?

HARDWARE

The entire iPad Air design is based of the iPad Pro 2nd gen design from 2017. This means that, when compared to the iPad Air 2, there is a noticeable design upgrade. We get a 10.5” display compared to 9.7”, and we also get significantly thinner bezels overall in a form factor that’s just a tiny bit larger.

Design comparison between the Air 3 and the 2018 iPad Pro

It’s not as good as the 2018 iPad Pro’s design, with those really thin bezels and no home button and FaceID, but it’s still not bad. It is still one of the best looking tablets on the market and it now comes in an even darker shade of space grey than before, which I really like.

The display is surprisingly good. It’s almost as good as on the iPad Pro 2nd generation. We get the same DCI-P3 color gamut, so everything is incredibly vibrant, and a True-Tone display that automatically adjusts its color temperature based on the lighting conditions around it. In addition we also get the same 1.8% reflectivity, so watching videos on this looks incredible. The Air is also really easy to read outdoors as it goes up to 500 nits, the same as a MacBook Pro. It’s not as bright as the iPad Pro 2nd or 3rd gen that can go up to 600 nits, but it’s still more than enough. Overall though, I do feel that this is indeed one of the best displays on a tablet at the moment.

Now the Pro does have that Pro-Motion technology which makes everything twice as fluid, up to 120Hz fluid, but this is missing from the Air. It is a pretty big downgrade if you’re coming from a 2nd gen iPad Pro or newer, since only those have Pro-Motion, but if you’re not then this display is as fluid as any other Apple device out there.

It’s speakers are also great. They’re not quad speakers like on the iPad Pros, but they still sound great nonetheless.

The front camera has been upgraded so it’s the same 7MP one found in the iPad Pros, meaning your selfies and facetime calls would look better. The back camera isn’t that bad either. Unfortunately it’s not a 4K sensor like on the iPad Pros, but for 1080p 30fps videos, scanning documents and occasional shots it’s more than good enough.

Also, I do love the fact that even though we do have a home-button on this iPad, which is the same clickable one as on the iPad Air 2 from 2014, you can still use the same gestures as on the iPad Pro 2018. Swiping up to go home and opening the multitasking makes you forget that this iPad even has a home button.

PERFORMANCE

When it comes to performance this thing is just incredible! Games run great on this. Fortnite for example runs in native resolution at 60fps and you can even pair a controller with this thing and turn it into a portable gaming console, thanks to its 3GB of RAM.

You can also edit full 4K video on this thing if you want to. It’s not as fast as exporting video as the iPad Pro is 2nd gen or 3rd gen, but let’s be honest, even the majority of people who get an iPad Pro, don’t use it for video editing anyways. The Air isn’t even considered by Apple to be a Pro device, yet it does offer even better CPU performance than the 2017 2nd generation iPad Pro. It’s got the Apple A12 processor inside of it, the same one found in the iPhone XS so it’s even more powerful than most PC laptops out there.

ACCESORIES

But definitely the biggest advantage of the iPad Air is support for both the Apple Smart-Keyboard and the Apple Pencil, which were previously exclusive to the iPad Pro. It is the same Smart-Keyboard as on the 2017 iPad Pro 2nd gen so it’s a decent keyboard, but there are better ones out there like the ones by Brydge.

To charge the 1st Gen Apple Pencil you have to insert it into the port on the bottom of the iPad

Now the Apple Pencil we get with this is not the 2nd generation that we got with the 2018 iPad Pro. We actually get the 1st gen one that was released in 2016, which isn’t bad. However, it does charge quite weirdly and since the display refreshes at 60Hz vs 120Hz like on the Pro, it doesn’t feel as fluid as drawing on an iPad Pro. But for taking notes and even occasional drawing this is an amazing tool to have, so much better than the iPad Mini 5, since you have a much larger display.

I just wish that the display had a bit more resistance to it since it honestly feels like drawing on a glass window.

CONCLUSION

So in the end the iPad Air is pretty good! It costs significantly less than an iPad Pro and it offers significantly more than the entry-level iPad!

However, my Pro tip would be to get the iPad Pro 2nd gen instead. You can actually find it really cheap now, even cheaper than the iPad Air. While the CPU performance is weaker than the iPad Air, the GPU is better so it’s faster at exporting videos, the camera is better on the Pro and you get a flash as well. You also get the Pro-Motion display so everything is twice as fluid, and the Apple Pencil is also a much better experience on the iPad Pro. It also offers quad speakers, so watching and listening to content is a much more enjoyable experience on the Pro.

ZONEofTECH

January 31, 2019

Reviews

Google Pixel Slate Review

ZONEofTECH

January 31, 2019

Reviews

Now I’m actually a really big fan of Google myself. I absolutely love what they are doing as a company. Pretty much all of their software products are entirely free to use, their Google Home products are definitely the best ones overall and although the Pixel’s had some issues, for the most part they’re brilliant!

But Google has recently released a tablet, well kind of. The Pixel Slate is Google’s new 2 in 1 and it’s not that great at all. Here’s why.

HARDWARE

The Pixel Slate comes with a 12.3” display, the same as on the Microsoft Surface Pro 6. It’s a 3000x2000 resolution LCD panel at 293PPI, so it’s actually sharper than an iPad Pro’s display. I would say that the display was better than that of the Surface Pro 6 as it’s brighter and the colors just pop. However, it’s not as color accurate as the iPad Pro’s display, nor does it have the 120Hz refresh rate. Overall though, it’s a great display.

The difference in bezels between the Slate (Left) and the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 (Right)

Whilst it is a better design then the Surface Pro 6, having smaller bezels and thinner frame, the iPad Pro is even better with noticeably thinner bezels, and a much thinner, smaller form factor too.

I like the fact that there’s no camera bump and there is 0 branding aside from a slight ‘G’ logo in the top left corner. Speaking of cameras, the Pixel Slate comes

with two of them. The one on the back is an 8MP f/1.8 aperture and 1.12μm, that can record 1080p video at 30fps max and the one on the front is an 8MP f/1.9 aperture larger 1.4μm pixels. So yes, the front camera is better than the back one, but overall they’re both only ok.

The Pixel Slate also comes with dual front stereo speakers which are also ok, but they do crackle at high volume, which is something I would expect to see in a $100 tablet and not one that starts at $600.

But something that I do really like about the Pixel Slate, is that it comes with 2 USB type C ports, one on each side, which means you can charge it whilst also connecting it to an external monitor for example.

SOFTWARE

So instead of the Pixel Slate running Android, it runs on ChromeOS. Now I personally prefer this over Android, because it’s a bit more capable and it also supports all the Android apps that your phone or Android tablets do, so it’s a win-win in my books. You can play your favourite games, you can download Photoshop and Lightroom CC, and any app that you use on your Android smartphone or tablet. Overall ChromeOS is more desktop-like than iOS is on the iPad, which does not support external HDD’s at all or extended monitors in extended mode.

However there are 3 very big issues with ChromeOS on this specific tablet.

The first is the app layout. So if you have an Android tablet you probably know how poorly Android is optimised for tablets. I found that most of the apps on the Slate would not scale properly and I ended up with a massive UI.

The second big issue is that even though ChromeOS is a more similar to a full desktop OS rather than a mobile one like iOS and Android are, there are still no high end professional apps. There is no Adobe Premiere, no Photoshop, no 3D modelling apps literally zero of the high-end tools that you would get on Windows or macOS. So while ChromeOS can do more than iOS on the iPad Pro can, most Android apps have a completely unoptimized layout and the only version of Photoshop that you can get is the mobile version.

And finally the third big issue in terms of ChromeOS on this tablet, is the performance.

You see, the Pixel Slate comes in a ton of configurations.

You can get; a Celeron CPU with 4 or 8GB of RAM, an Intel Core m3 variant with 8GB of RAM (which is the one that I have), an i5 with 8GB of ram and an i7 with 16GB of RAM.

The i5 and i7 are still m5’s and m7’s, it’s just Intel’s naming scheme which is very misleading, so these are still those low power Y series processors.

Now performance wise, you would expect these to be really good but honestly, even the highest end Pixel Slate (the i7 model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage) which costs a whopping £1,550 in the UK scores less than an iPhone X from 2017 in both Single-Core and Multi-Core!

Comparative Single and Multi-Core scores between the Pixel Slate and iPhone X

So now you’re probably wondering if the top of the line £1,550 i7 model is so weak, how weak is the baseline £550 Celeron model?

Well we’re talking 1,941 for the Single-Core and 3,045 for the Multi-Core.

Nope, that’s not a joke, this is for real! The Celeron Pixel Slate has a worse performance score than an iPhone 6S from 2015! It’s just a tiny bit more powerful than a 2014 iPhone 6, but weaker than a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge.

Now, Google sent me the m3 model, not the Celeron. But I have to say even the m3 lags like crazy! The lag on this thing reminds me of my Samsung Galaxy S4 running touchwiz and a ton of bloatware, definitely not something you should be seeing on a stock Android tablet made by Google that costs £750.

On top of all of this it also has bugs, and a lot of them at that. The Pixel Slate is the glitchiest, buggiest device I’ve had in years! For example, I was stuck on the app drawer and the Slate would not go to the desktop, no matter what I did. The back button wasn’t doing anything and neither were the gestures. I had to restart the Pixel Slate in order to fix it and guess what? It started happening again shortly after!

So why hasn’t Google included a Qualcomm processor, like the Snapdragon 845 that we have in the Pixel 3 XL to get a significantly better performance. I don’t know, honestly I have no idea. If any Google engineers are reading this, I would love to hear why you didn’t go with ARM processors as you would’ve gotten significantly better performance on this.

There’s also a couple of other things that the Pixel Slate didn’t get right, like the fact that there’s no double tap to wake on this which is a must on such a large tablet. It also doesn’t have a home button, so the only button to unlock this is the power button which also acts as the fingerprint sensor, which is cool but this means that unlocking this thing is a pain!

ACCESORIES

By now you can probably tell that I would not recommend the Pixel Slate to anyone. But are the accessories good enough to make me change that opinion?

Well, kind of.

The keyboard itself is much better than what you get with the iPad Pro. The keys are actual physical keys that you can feel, and typing on this isn’t bad. Aside from this, it is backlit with brightness and volume controls which you don’t get on the iPad Pro’s keyboard.

It also has a trackpad which works great, but probably the best part about is it the magnetic back which gives the Pixel Slate unlimited adjustability so you can place this at any angle that you want. This makes it light years ahead of what Apple’s offering on the iPad Pro which is not backlit, has no volume or brightness controls, no trackpad, no actual physical keys and only two adjustable angles.

The Pixel Slate Keyboard does costs £190 compared to the £179 that the Apple one costs but I personally feel that that’s okay considering that the Slate Keyboard is so much better.

The comparison in design between the Pixel Slate Keyboard (Left) and the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 Keyboard (Right)

However, when you compare it to Microsoft’s Surface Pro keyboard, the one that only costs £100, it doesn’t hold up. The Surface Pro’s keys feel better, the trackpad is more sturdy, and you can raise it if you want, rather than just having it lay flat like the Pixel Slate one .

There are also no magnets on the bottom of the Pixel Slate keyboard so it doesn’t even close properly. It just slides around which isn’t the best design.

But what about the Pixelbook Pen? Is this Pen better than the competition?

The 2nd gen Apple Pencil magnetically attaches to the side of the iPad and the Surface Pen does the same. The Pixelbook Pen however, does not do that. The Apple Pencil charges automatically when it’s connected to the side of the iPad. The Pixelbook Pen, as well as the Surface Pen, both require an actual battery which I’m not a fan of at all. And the Surface Pen has a eraser on the top, whereas the Apple Pencil and the Pixelbook Pen does not.

Surface Pen (Top), Pixelbook Pen (Middle), and Apple Pencil (Bottom)

So you can probably tell that the Pixelbook Pen offers the least amount of features of the three. It’s quite chunky, it doesn’t attach to the Slate, it has no eraser, and no automatic charging, it’s worse than both and whilst it costs less than the Apple Pencil it is more than the Surface Pen.

CONCLUSION

So in summary, the top of the line Pixel Slate cost more than an iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 6 whilst also being the worst one out of the three! It’s glitchy, slow, and has such a messed up app layout system going on. Sorry Google, I usually like what you’re doing and if this was £200 I could maybe overlook the issues and recommend it. But considering how expensive this is and all the issues that is has I wouldn’t recommend you pick one up.

I am hoping that Google makes the 2nd gen Slate better by putting in a better processor, a Qualcomm one and optimises ChromeOS, fix all the glitches, improve the accessories and heavily drops the price.

If you need a 2 in 1 the best one out there is still the Surface Pro 6, and if you need a great tablet, the best one out there is still the iPad Pro.