Apple iPad 9 2021 256 GB Wi-Fi + 4G: the complete test – 01net.com – 01net.com

The “historic” iPad is a special object in the Apple world. Its ancestral design could make believe that it is abandoned, whereas it is one of the products which is updated every year, with a metronomic regularity. But, it is above all its price that sets it apart. Among Apple’s capital products, it is the cheapest, the one that endorses, even more than the iPhone SE, the role of entry point into a range.

If some will blame it for its borders, its screen, its Lightning port, a certainty has emerged in recent years, Apple is making it evolve in small steps, never revolutions, but always steps in the right direction. Not the one that makes the iPad the best tablet from Apple, but the one that makes it the tablet offering the best value for money in the range, and perhaps even on the market. And in these times when money still doesn’t grow on trees, that’s one hell of a point.

Let’s see what is changing this year, and what is not. But beyond these points, let us also consider the proposal, with regard to what we may need.

The outside night?

Since September 2019, the iPad has grown, abandoned its original 9.7 inches diagonal. The 10.2-inch panel now offers a larger surface area, and allows you to consider using the iPad for more than just browsing content, and sometimes even as an extra laptop. But the design has not changed, or very little, since 2010 and the birth of the device, to the point that we do not even dare to consider requesting a switch from Lightning to USB-C for the instant. Some annoyed minds cringe and point to this lack of renewal to disqualify the Apple tablet. It is a mistake. It is above all to take the problem upside down and forget what it brings.

Yes, it is true that the wide borders and the unchanging Touch ID button have something of a snub, at a time when the design of the iPad Pro, Air and mini looks much more modern.

But let’s focus, not on an expected design, but on what we have in our hands, on the Retina panel. Its definition of 2160 x 1620 pixels, for a resolution of 264 ppi, is decent and comfortable enough for surfing the Web, gaming and watching movies. Its measured brightness is close to the 500 cd / m2 advertised, since it was found at 489 cd / m2, and its contrast reached 1511: 1. It’s clearly not the best that iPads, and even the competition, can offer, but it’s good enough for most purposes, if you can’t find yourself using the iPad in direct sunlight.

With the arrival this year of True Tone technology, the panel adds in any case a new string to its bow, in order to ensure more comfort of use, depending on the ambient light in which you operate.

Ultimately, the only real criticism that we will make to this iPad screen is not to be laminated. It is undoubtedly quibbling, but that would reduce the somewhat unpleasant reflections, and would also remove this impression of disconcerting space between the display and the touch surface. This is just a detail, but it detracts a little from the immersion, it creates a distance between the user and the interface with which he interacts.

A13 Bionic, iterative ramp-up

Now let’s take a look at the interior of the iPad. Apple has decided to replace the A12 Bionic (from 2018) by its successor the A13 Bionic, which made its first steps in the iPhone 11, in 2019. The chip is therefore only two years old, and power at resell.

If the infographic above is not displayed, click here.

On a daily basis, the iPad 2020 was not lacking in fluidity and already made it possible to play all the titles available on the App Store, or via Apple Arcade. This is obviously still relevant today. You can even get started in creating audio with GarageBand with even more resources or in editing your video creations.

The above results, obtained with Geekbench 5, show quite clearly that the A13 Bionic brings a nice extra power. Over 25% better in multicore mode, and nearly 40% better for Compute results, which measure a chip’s abilities to process calculations required to process heavy photos, edit videos, or display 3D graphics.

The two results provided by 3DMark WildLife correspond to what emerges from a stress test, including a long test which tests the ability of a chip to maintain its effort over a fairly long period (between 20 and 30 minutes).
The larger number gives an idea of ​​the performance of the chip when it has not yet heated too much, while the lower number corresponds to the worst loop, often when the throttling is most important, when the chip reduces its performance because it gets too hot.

For the best score, we see that the iPad 2021 is about 38% more efficient than its direct predecessor, while for the lowest score, the new iPad is 60% more efficient. This gap, which marks an indisputable domination, is explained by the ability of the A13 Bionic to maintain a constant and high effort for longer. the stress test, from 3Dmark WildLife, gives the 2021 iPad a performance stability index of 87.8%, compared to 75% for the 2020 iPad.

In other words, more power and for longer. It’s hard to say no.

Autonomy, the best, but not only …

“Power without mastery” is nothing, said a great sage or an advertiser. Is the arrival of this chip accompanied by an increase in autonomy or on the contrary by a regrettable decrease?

If the infographic below does not appear, click here.

The answer lies between the two. Our versatile battery life test, which simulates intensive daily use until the battery dies, gives the new iPad an extra 22 minutes of battery life. Suffice to say that there is no big progress, and that the traditional autonomy of Apple tablets is maintained. When we turn to autonomy in video streaming, the trend is reversed: we note a drop of 39 minutes.

Contrasting results, but which allow the iPad to do better than the iPad Air, which does not pass the ten hour mark (9:59 am in general purpose, and 9:45 in video streaming), or even that the iPad mini in sixth grade generation, which has just been released. Ultimately, the iPad at 389 euros only gives way to the iPad Pro. Not bad is not it ?

A kind of revolution … for Apple

Before going any further, let’s welcome a small revolution. As on iPhone 13 and 13 mini, Apple has decided to double the storage capacity offered with its iPads, without touching the price of the first model. Goodbye to the 32 GB which made us systematically recommend the 128 GB model to you.

Now, the first iPad model sold from 389 ships 64 GB. This can still be short if you keep a lot of data locally, install a lot of applications or regularly store a lot of movies or series. But for those who use it primarily as a “thin client”, a cloud-connected device, 64 GB may be more than enough.
The second storage option, meanwhile, is increased to 256 GB. Much more comfortable in everyday life and in the long term – it is this capacity that we would recommend to you for the longest peace of mind. Remember that Apple provides updates over several years to its installed base – we are about six years away for the moment.

iPadOS and uses

Let’s talk about the new iPadOS available recently. Its use on the iPad is pleasant, and despite the presence of a physical button to return to the home page, we quickly get used to interacting with the interface of the iPad with the many multigests available. Whether it’s showing all open windows, swiping a minimized app to the side, or swiping a second app that will share the screen with another – the 10.2-inch slab is wide enough to work that way for a few hours, or in addition.

For the management of the distribution of applications on the screen, welcome the small menu that allows you to quickly activate the Split View, or the rows of applications that make the use of the tablet more fluid on a daily basis.

If you have decided to add a keyboard to the iPad, sold separately, let yourself be tempted by a model compatible with Smart Connectors, whether by Apple or Logitech. It’s the guarantee of greater ease of use on a daily basis, really.

iPadOS 15 also paves the way for new uses around FaceTime, to watch content via Apple TV + or Netflix, with friends and remotely. Apple’s videoconferencing service is also gaining in interest because it allows, via links, to organize video calls with contacts who use Android smartphones. This will then be an opportunity to test the new 12 Mpix camera placed on the front. It is equipped with a wide-angle lens, which serves the Center Stage function, or Frame centered in French. Basically, it’s about making sure you’re in the center of the frame, even as you move or lean a bit to one side or the other while talking. Of course, the optics are not motorized, so tracking has its limits, however, at a time when videoconferencing has taken up a lot of space in our life – even family and friendly – this upgrade and this feature , introduced with the iPad Pro, are more than welcome.

We will ignore the rear camera, 8 Mpix, which provides honest shots in bright light, but not very flamboyant when the sun goes down. Apple clearly does not rely on this function, the iPad is content to shoot in 1080p, at 30 frames per second, maximum, while slow motion peaks at 120 frames per second in … 720p.

Among the new features that we like in iPadOS 15, and that we enjoy using with this new iPad, we will mention the Quick Notes. This is a good way to always have a citation, reference or extract from a document on hand. Handwritten note taking still has a way to go in iPadOS in our opinion, although there is a feature that allows those with legible handwriting to scan and turn their notes into typed text. This small downside is, in our opinion, especially true for this iPad, which is only compatible with the first generation Apple Pencil. The stylus has a few ergonomic flaws that would almost make us recommend the alternatives on the market, including the one offered, once again, by Logitech.