The Apple iPad line of tablets are most well-designed and robust on the market. Google hems and haws on their tablet direction, sometimes they take it seriously and there are years when they simply don’t care. The Apple iPad 5th Generation has many things going for it. It has speakers on the top and button of the display panel, previously this was only reserved for the iPad Pro line, which cost way more. This device is also using the M1 system on a chip, which has all of the RAM, GPU and CPU on a single processor, which keeps things speedy. The tablet is also compatible with the Apple Pencil 2, which is good for those of you that like to jot down notes, freehand draw or edit PDF files. However, Apple Pencil support only works with select apps that officially support it and it won’t work with every app.
The Apple iPad Air 2022 edition features a 10.9-inc LED‑backlit Multi‑Touch display with IPS technology. It has a resolution of 2360×1640 at 264 PPI. It can play HDR content at 500 nits brightness. It has wide color display, True Tone display, antireflective coating and fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. The screen is very high quality.
Underneath the hood is an Apple M1 Processor with 8-core CPU, 8-core graphics, 8GB RAM and either 64 or 256GB of internal storage. It has USB-C, Bluetooth, WIFI/5G optional internet. The camera is superb, with the rear facing one having 12MP snapper. It can shoot 4K video and all the way down to 720P. The front-facing camera is also 12MP, which is good to use with Facetime or other video communication apps like Zoom. It can shoot video at 1080p HD video recording at 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps. There is also dual microphones for communication.
Good e-Reader is primarily looking at this tablet as an ebook reader, audiobook player and how it works with the second generation Apple Pencil for our eventual hands on review. The only app that basically lets you purchase audiobooks and ebooks is Apple Books. This comes preloaded on all phones and tablets. It is a great way to buy content and have all purchases synced with other Apple products via iCloud, which is one of the huge draws. The giant 10.9 inch screen fits a ton of text on the screen at any given time and there are lots of ways you can change the reading experience, such as selecting different font sizes, font types, margins and line spacing. Apple does not overwhelm you with a ton of supervises options, it is sort of like Amazon Kindle in this regards. The Audiobook player is rather basic, only having options to increase the playback speed or decrease it, jump to another chapter or skip ahead by 15 seconds. To be honest, I prefer the Audible Player better, however you cant make purchases on the app, you have to visit their website, make a purchase and then sync. The two speakers on the bottom and 2 at the top, provide excellent audio quality. My daily driver is an iPad Pro 2nd generation, and I primarily got it because of the better sound. I find the iPad Air 5th Gen really gives my iPad Pro a run of its money. You basically don’t really need to ever pair any of your Apple branded headphones to the iPad, because the onboard sound sucks. You might have to do this if you like listening to audiobooks, podcasts or music late at night and you don’t want to disturb anyone. I mainly use my Apple AirPods Max.
I have not used Apple Pencil very much, because I tend to use E INK devices for this purpose, such as the Remarkable 2 or the Bigme B1 Max+ Color. Finding good quality apps that are compatible with Apple Pencil can be a challenge. I like Evernote, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Fresco, Adobe Acrobat, Procreate or Astro pad.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.