[imagesource: The Verge]

There’s a case to be made for your iPad to be your primary machine, replacing your laptop.

It’s a case Seth made many moons ago and he’s sticking to his guns.

Of course, this depends on what kind of oomph you need to get your job done and what software you tend to work with.

When it comes to power, however, the iPad Air 2022 (or fifth-generation) comes packing a serious punch.

A recent review from The Guardian awarded the tablet five stars and called it “a compact powerhouse that’s just as happy manipulating images in Photoshop as it is binge-watching the latest series of Star Trek: Picard“.

Star Trek? It’s 2022, we binge on true-crime now. Back to that review:

The M1 chip and 8GB of RAM give the small tablet desktop computer-level processing power. It’ll fly through all the usual tablet tasks such as browsing, email, updating your Premier League team or watching TV. But, as with the latest iPad Pro, it also has unrivalled performance to handle complex image manipulation in Affinity Photo, the drawing and rendering of 3D worlds in SketchUp, or the creation of a cinematic masterpiece in LumaFusion.

Outside of gaming, most will not need that much power on a regular basis, but having a more powerful chip hasn’t hurt battery life. The iPad Air still gets a reliable 10 hours of browsing, light app use or offline video.

Great power and great battery life – noted.

The webcam also gets a shoutout (Zoom meetings are here to stay), as does the sustainability. The iPad has a 100% recycled aluminium body, as well as 100% recycled tin in the solder of its mainboard.

Tech website The Verge scored it an eight out of 10:

It’s got a modern design, more performance than most people will know what to do with in a tablet, and an excellent screen that works equally well in portrait or landscape orientation…

The Air technically doesn’t have as advanced of a speaker system as the [iPad] Pro, with just two speakers instead of four. But the two speakers it has are on opposite sides of the tablet (left and right in landscape, top and bottom in portrait) and are able to provide a stereo experience that is clear, loud, and great for anything I wanted to listen to on it.

Any review worth it’s salt is going to talk up that M1 chip, which “offers an industry-leading blend of performance and battery efficiency”.

Regarding whether to go for the iPad Air or the Pro, this might help you decide:

A lot of people will be wondering if they should get the Air instead of an 11-inch iPad Pro, and I think the choice is easy — buy the Air…

What you get with the Air is the same performance, capability, portability, and operating system, plus compatibility with the same accessories.

The iPad Air fifth-generation comes in either 64GB or 256GB on Digicape, South Africa’s largest independent Apple retailer, and starts from R11 499 with various finance options available.

Still on the fence? CNET scored it a very precise 8,8/10:

I love how the iPad is a relatively lower-priced versatile computer in Apple’s lineup, but it all depends on what you’re looking to get out of it. I’d still recommend the basic iPad for a lot of people, but this iPad Air is a solid step up, and the one I’d probably want to buy the most…

The Air the best high-end iPad for its price. And if you’re looking to treat yourself to an excellent iPad that feels future-proof for a while, at least as far as its processor goes, this may seem like the choice.

In my experience, it’s always worthwhile spending a little extra to ensure you get a solid lifespan out of your tech and don’t need to upgrade too soon.

Those of you with old smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches, as well as Apple TVs, laptops, and desktop computers, can also trade them in at Digicape to score a discount on a new device.

That way, you may not need to choose between an iPad or a laptop. Have both, and you can use the iPad to keep the kids off your back while you’re working from home.

Small mercies.

[sources:guardian&verge&cnet]