The edges look good on him: The iPad Air has become quite Pro

The new iPad Air is very different from its predecessor, but still doesn't have a new design. Because it now looks like an iPad Pro and can do almost as much as Apple's most expensive tablet. In the test, it proves to be a successful combination of fun and productivity.

The first iPad Air came out seven years ago and for a long time it was next to nothing to look good. But now Apple has changed that. The aged, but still usable design is now reserved for the affordable entry-level model and the new iPad Air looks largely like a current iPad Pro. But there are not only visual parallels, the newcomer also has almost as much technically as Apple's most expensive tablet.

Chic and modern

The angular housing made of recycled aluminum suits the iPad Air extremely well and despite the narrower display bezels, you can still hold the device, which weighs around 460 grams and is 6 millimeters thin, with one hand. There is no longer a home button, instead you can control the device like a newer iPhone using swiping gestures. Like the design, it looks much more modern and you really have the feeling of using a new iPad Air. The device does not have face recognition like the Pro, but that doesn't really matter. A fingerprint sensor that reacts quickly and precisely is located in the top right of the power switch.

Very good: Apple has also said goodbye to the Lightning connector on the Air and now uses a USB-C input instead. It offers faster data transfers and you can connect cameras, hard drives or displays. In addition, the tablet establishes connections via WLAN ax and Bluetooth 5.0, with a SIM card or eSIM also via LTE.

The 10.9 inch display not only looks great, it is also hardly inferior to the Pro panel. Among other things, it is beautifully sharp with a pixel density of 264 ppi and offers excellent colors and contrasts. In addition, it adapts to the ambient light, has very stable viewing angles and can shine brightly. The only thing missing from the Air screen is the high refresh rate of 120 Hertz (Hz). The fact that the Air Panel only works with 60 Hz can be seen, for example, from the trembling of the writing when scrolling through websites. Most users will not miss the higher refresh rate.

Stronger than a pro

As far as the inner values ​​are concerned, the iPad Air 2020 is even clearly superior to the Pro, as it is already equipped with Apple's new A14 chip. This means that there is practically no app that even comes close to using the device. Video and image processing also work smoothly in very high resolutions and with many levels, and the new neural processor allows on-board AI applications that would otherwise only run on powerful PCs. All of this is hardly at the expense of the mileage, it feels like the device lasts about as long as the previous iPad Airs.

The tablet only has one camera on the back, but it is the same 12-megapixel camera as it is in the Pro. It takes beautiful photos and produces handsome 4K videos. It is also more than good enough for AR applications. The fact that there is no ultra-wide-angle camera on board hardly matters with a tablet.

Sometimes a PC replacement with accessories

The new iPad Air is also fully equipped with accessories. Because it supports the second generation Apple Pencil, which docks magnetically to the case. Together with a Magic Keyboard, the device can also replace a notebook if necessary. However, in terms of price, you then come into the regions of good ultrabooks. The iPad Air alone costs at least 632.60 euros with a meager 64 gigabytes (GB) of storage, while the 256 GB version costs almost 800 euros. The pencil costs around 132 euros, and the Magic Keyboard costs around 330 euros.

The bottom line is that the new iPad is exactly the right tablet for users looking for a device that they can work with seriously, but also have a lot of fun. The design is chic and the accessories offered are extensive and useful. The pleasure is quite expensive, but you know that the performance is easily enough for the next five years.