A lot going on in terms of Apple hardware this week: In addition to new MACs of the MacBook Air and Mac Studio series, Apple also introduced two new tablets. The chip equipment occurred. Users now ask themselves whether the purchase is worthwhile.
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iPad Air M3 as usual
The iPad Air M3 is probably the least controversy of the two tablet innovations. It is simply the logical continuation of the previous model: Instead of the M2 from 2024, a 20 to 30 percent brisk M3 now plays, which is more graphically doing – although you rarely notice this on the iPad. It remains with variants with 11 and 13 inches and there is a new Magic keyboard, nothing more is. A solid update, which, however, remains a processor generation behind the iPad Pro M4 (which may soon end up with the M5) that Apple wanted to provide the necessary distance from the air.
The iPad 11, which Apple only mentions in passion, is very different: depending on the target group, it oscillates between disappointment and purchase recommendation. A hard blow to the account is that Apple donates a processor upgrade to the device, but only on the A16 from 2022. This means that the iPad 11 is now the only device in Apple's current computer/tablet/smartphone line-up, the Apple Intelligence does not master. If you consider how much the group pushes its AI system on other devices, it is surprising.
iPad 11: good and bad
Apple installed the A16 for the first time in the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, then in 2023 in iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. Apple should have given the iPad 11 the A17 to make it compatible with Apple Intelligence. There are 8 GB ram standard; The A16 is only available with a maximum of 6 GB. Apple's advertising saying that the iPad 11 with A16 is now 30 percent faster compared to its predecessor (and 50 percent compared to the ancient A13), little helps.
On the other hand, users have to ask themselves whether they need Apple Intelligence at all. The AI system only comes in German in April and the range of functions with writing assistants and image generators is clearly behind what Chatgpt, Anthropic and Co. can. Only the deep integration into the system is useful. The improved Siri also comes late. So if the user is a sniffing of Apple Intelligence, he gets a lot for money with the iPad 11. So it starts at 399 euros with 128 GB mass storage – not really much, but better than the earlier 64 GB. The hardware is well equipped with USB-C and other ordinary standard features and the A16 is completely sufficient for most activities.
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