New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold Latest model MW792LL/A

Apple has many, many iPads now. Big ones, small ones. Expensive ones, cheap ones. Ones that have Face ID, ones that don’t. Ones with Lightning ports and ones with USB-C. Picking through them is kind of a nightmare. For instance: The smaller iPad Mini has a better processor (and costs more). The iPad Pro is fantastic, but for its big cost bump (and with maybe a newer version coming), you probably don’t need it. And Apple hasn’t yet made it into a full Mac alternative, even with iPadOS’ laptop-like advancements.  In this article, find everything you need to know about New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold Latest model MW792LL/A.

Specifications – New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold Latest model MW792LL/A

• Dimensions (Overall): 9.8 Inches (H) x 6.8 Inches (W) x .29 Inches (D)
• Weight: 1.07 Pounds
• Camera Features: Slow Motion Recording, Face Detection Technology, Auto Focus, Five Element Lens
• Includes: DC Power Adapter, Lightning-To-USB Cable
• Battery Charge Life: Up to 10 Hours
• Electronics Condition: New
• Electronics Features: Front-Facing Camera, Fingerprint Reader, Retina Display
• Megapixels: 8 MP
• Operating System: Apple iPadOS
• Data Storage Drive Capacity: 128GB Hard Drive Capacity
• Connectivity: Apple Lightning Connector
• Screen Size: 10.2 Inches
• System RAM: 4 gigabyte
• Data storage type: HDD
• Battery: 1 Non-Universal Lithium Ion, Required, Included

Price & availability – New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold Latest model MW792LL/A

That said, even if you’re thinking you want more than 32GB of space, we’re not sure we’d choose the 128GB version of this tablet – for £479 (just £30 more), you could get a 64GB iPad Air, which is a pretty good amount of storage, and has a bunch of other improvements too, which we’ll come to in a moment.

For the £349 base price of the new iPad 10.2-inch, you get 32GB of storage built in (there’s no microSD expansion in any iPad). You can step that up to 128GB of storage for £449 total. This might be a good idea if you plan to use it very heavily for photos, but as a light media tablet, the 32GB base level of storage should be fine.

The iPad 10.2-inch comes in a Wi-Fi only version, which are the prices given above, but you can also get it with 4G connectivity. That costs £479 for the 32GB model, or £579 for the 128GB option. When you look at the lower end of the iPad line-up, you’ll see a bunch of models that come very close, and even overlap, in price.

This iPad is the starting model at £349. The next model up is the iPad mini, which starts from £399. For that £50 extra, you get a more powerful processor (the A12), a wide colour display with True Tone tech (see the next section for details) that’s sharper, and 64GB of storage. 

Compare New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold Latest model MW792LL/A

New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold Latest model MW792LL/A review

Display

That, in turn, translates into a boost in the size of the display size for the new iPad, as the unlaminated LED display comes with a resolution of 2160 by 1620 pixels compared to last year’s 2048 by 1536 pixels, although both have a pixel density of 264ppi. (The iPad Air’s 2224 by 1668 display is a tad larger than both.)

Size

The biggest outward difference in the two models is that this year’s iPad is simply larger than last year’s. At 6.8 by 9.8 inches, the new model sits directly on top of last year’s refreshed iPad Air with only an extremely minimal thinness advantage in the Air’s favor to distinguish them. (Last year’s iPad measured 6.6 by 9.4 inches.) They look so similar, in fact, that I kept accidentally picking up the iPad Air while preparing this review. iPad Air review: Apple finds the sweet spot.

The 10.2-inch iPad also has a lot in common with the slightly more expensive 10.5-inch iPad Air. It’s bizarre that these two iPads are available at the same time. The 10.2-inch iPad is thicker, but its body is the same length and width. It also uses the same Smart Connecter Keyboard Cover and Pencil accessories from Apple, which together will cost nearly as much as the iPad itself.

Processor

The iPad Air has a faster A12 processor (same as an iPhone XR/XS), instead of the A10 in the 10.2-inch iPad, which is the processor the iPhone 7 used. To me, that matters. Is the A10 fine in the basic iPad? Yes, it’s fine. Weirdly, I miss the iPad Pro’s Face ID and its touch-to-turn-on display. This basic Touch ID-enabled iPad doesn’t access stored iCloud keychain passwords or make payments quite as quickly.

Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard

What really makes the iPad stand out from its predecessor is support for Apple’s Smart Keyboard cover. The keyboard attaches magnetically to the Smart Connector port on the right side of the tablet, so there’s no need to pair or charge it. It may look smaller than a regular keyboard, but we were hard-pressed to feel a difference after typing on it for a few minutes. The chiclet-style keys have nice travel and are firm to the tap.

If you plan to use the iPad for drawing or marking up documents, iPadOS will greatly improve your experience with the Apple Pencil. For instance, you can now use it to swipe vertically from the bottom right corner of the display to capture and annotate screenshots.

We tested the new iPad with an Apple Pencil alongside a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The iPad Pro line has a higher refresh rate and works with the second-generation Apple Pencil, which supports double tap gestures and is easier to hold for extended periods of time. While using the first-gen Pencil on the standard iPad isn’t quite as silky smooth as using the second-gen Pencil on the iPad Pro, it’s a surprisingly similar experience, so you’re really not missing out on much.

The only downside to the Smart Keyboard here is that it only supports the iPad at one angle, compared with the iPad Pro keyboard, which has two angles.That said, we much prefer it to third-party keyboard cases due to its slim profile and build quality.

A Smart Connector without many connections

Unfortunately, the Smart Connector isn’t as useful as it could be. Four years on, Apple’s Smart Keyboards are the only accessories they’re really good for, and we’ve yet to see the flood of compatible accessories Apple suggested we’d see.

Now that the new iPad has a Smart Connector, you also also hook up the iPad Air’s Smart Keyboard (which also works with the 10.5-inch iPad Pro). The “origami” design takes a little getting used to and it only allows for one tilt angle while typing, but it’s pleasantly thin in a way most third-party keyboards are not. I also prefer keys with a little more key travel, but the chiclet design makes for easy typing and I admire how the canvas-like coating keeps crumbs, grains of sand, and similar objects from working their way under the keys.

You may still want a third-party Bluetooth keyboard case from a company like Zagg (once they start appearing) because the Smart Keyboard costs a whopping $159. Once you combine that with the 32GB starter model, you’re looking at a $488 price tag—$587 if you get the Apple Pencil. You’re getting into laptop prices at this point. Heck, you’ll end up paying $717 for all that if you get the 32GB Wi-Fi and Cellular model.

iPadOS 13

With iPadOS 13, fortunately, that’s a little more palatable than it used to be. When I reviewed the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I was disappointed that I still didn’t feel like it was a true “laptop alternative” even with all its power. With Apple’s new operating system, though, you can freely plug external drives into your iPad and arrange files and folders with an improved Files app. You have access to a Today panel on the home screen that allows for widgets with important information at a glance, and the icons aren’t so spread far apart. When Catalina rolls out, you’ll be able to use this iPad as a secondary display for your Mac. The implementation is wonky, but you can even use a mouse.

The iPad still isn’t as versatile as a Mac, but iPadOS makes it easier to interpret the iPad as Apple’s “low-cost laptop line,” which I get the impression Apple has been wanting us to do for a while. All the better reason to release a device like this at this point in Apple’s history.

Camera and Audio

The iPad has an 8MP rear camera with an f/2.4 aperture and supports 1080p video recording at 30fps. It’s decent for scanning documents, barcodes, and QR Codes, and even does a good job with AR games and apps.It’s not, however, going to be your first choice when it comes to taking photos or video. In our tests, we noticed that images are aggressively sharpened, and even in bright light, there is significant noise when zooming in.

The front-facing camera comes in at 1.2MP with 720p video. It’s fine for FaceTime and Skype calls, but whomever is on the other end can expect to see lots of noise in low light. As for photos, images have significant noise and some minor background blurring.

Audio, on the other hand, is solid. The bottom-firing speakers max out at 85dB, which is loud enough to fill a room. Sound quality doesn’t compare with the iPad Pro, but you can connect headphones or a speaker via Bluetooth 4.2 or the 3.5mm headphone jack (yes, there is one) if you want to upgrade your audio experience.

New Apple iPad (10.2-inch Wi-Fi 128GB) – gold performance review

Normally, the processor performance would get more attention in a review like this, but there’s not a lot to say here. It still supports the A10 processor, and as you can see from the benchmarks, it still performs about the same on iPadOS 13.1.1. On the charts, they’re virtually identical, and in fact, by sheer numbers the 9.7-inch had a (minuscule) edge in both single-core and graphical performance, which I’m tempted to attribute to its smaller screen size.

If you’re going for raw power (and future-proofing), the A12 Bionic chips in both the new iPad Air and iPad mini will serve you better and for longer. That’s not to say the 10.2-inch iPad is a clunker: I played several graphically intensive Apple Arcade games on the new model (such as Sayonara Wild Hearts) and never noticed a dip in performance. I don’t think an iPad like this will be adept at handling the full iPad version of Adobe Photoshop—if it ever comes out—but for almost every app it should serve you fine for a few more years to come.

A recent iFixit teardown showed that Apple increased the RAM from 2GB to 3GB, but as you can see from the benchmarks, I can’t see where that translated into a noticeable spike in performance. On the other hand, the iPad Air also only has 3GB of RAM, so this technically narrows the gap in performance between the two models.

As for everything else, little has changed. You’ll still find two speakers along the bottom, a 3.5mm headphone jack along the top, a Lightning port, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. You’ll also still find the pitiful 1.2 megapixel FaceTime camera and a decent 8 megapixel rear camera—just enough to have a video chat with mom or scan some documents and little else. The cameras in particular serve as one of the few remaining reminders that this isn’t a “Pro” device.

There’s also no real need to worry about changes in battery life with this model. As you can see with our Geekbench 4 test, it managed to last for 6.6 straight hours with the brightness set at 200 nits on a white screen. That’s roughly the same performance we saw from last year’s model, and I see no reason to dispute Apple’s claim that this device will reach 10 hours of battery life through normal use. Using the tablet as I normally would, I’d end the day with plenty of battery life left over.

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