Been a pretty eventful week for Apple, from the quiet updates of the iPad, iMac and AirPods, to the Apple 25th March “It’s Show Time” event, there is a lot that has been announced and released.
This post will serve to consolidate everything new that has been released in the Apple store, and some of my opinions of them.
iPad Air 3
The new third-generation iPad Air has the same 10.5″ display and is updated with the A12 Bionic Chip and Neural Engine. It also has True Tone display, supports Apple Pencil (1st Gen only) and is compatible with Smart Keyboard.
The iPad Air seems to be for people who want the iPad Pro but do not want to pay the extra price for some of the Pro features. Same old design and this device comes in at S$749.
iPad Mini 5
The new fifth-generation iPad Mini has the same 7.9″ display and is updated with the A12 Bionic Chip and Neural Engine. It also has True Tone display and supports Apple Pencil (1st Gen only). Nope no compatibility with Smart Keyboard (but really you don’t need that on such a small device), but it’s compatible with other Bluetooth keyboards.
Upgrades seem to be similar to the iPad Air 3, just packed in a mini size, which is good. I like a smaller size tablet – easy to bring around, nice to hold to read books, and great on flights to watch videos. Prices though, start at S$599.
iPad Lineup
You can choose an iPad from 7.9″ all the way to 12.9″. Prices kinda go up proportionately to the size, except for the iPad. The iPad announced last year, starts at S$498, around S$100 cheaper than the iPad Mini despite having a larger screen size. This bottles down to the processor, with the iPad using a 9.7″ display.
My thoughts on the new iPads is that they feel overpriced. Well, the tablet industry is kinda dominated by Apple. Android or chromeOS tablets still don’t feel good enough, and so Apple is commanding a huge premium on their dominance. I just can’t see myself paying almost S$600 for the iPad Mini when I’m going to be using it mainly for media consumption. Unless you really feel like you need the power of the A12 Bionic Chip, I think is worthwhile to buy a used iPad Mini that fits your needs.
And I cannot believe that they refreshed both the iPad Mini and iPad Air with the SAME OLD BEZEL DESIGN. Like come on Apple, they could have used the iPad Pro design but instead they want to sell us recycled parts at a premium. At the headphone jack is alive so that’s great.
But then again Apple products are always expensive, so if you feel like it’s time to upgrade or need the added features, go on.
iMac (2019)
Well they finally refreshed it. They now come with Intel’s 8th Generation processors (quad core on i3, six cores on i5, i7, i9) and AMD’s Radeon GPUs. The display is now the beautiful Retina display which comes in at 4K (21.5″) and 5K (27″) resolution. The upgrades look amazing but then again it’s kinda expected from a desktop computer in 2019. Prices for the 21.5″ start at S$1,899 for the i3 and S$2,199 for the i5, while the 27″ starts at S$2,599 for the i5 all the way to a whopping S$3,299 for the i9.
What many people are looking forward to is to see design changes. But in this aspect, Apple really fell short. The new iMac look almost the same as its predecessor. With so many monitors going towards the bezel-less design, I can’t believe Apple still released the new iMac with such a dated design. Perhaps not to “cannibalise” the iMac Pro? The iMac looks great on its own, but those bezels in 2019, paying huge money for it just feels not worth it.
Another letdown is also Apple’s decision to use HDD. There are SSD upgrades, but the costs will go up. Perhaps most iMac customers are satisfied with HDD so that’s why Apple decided on that, but it’s always nice to see SSD as a base.
I think if you have been waiting for an iMac refresh, this might be the one – only if you are ok buying into the same old design. For me, I think it’s more worth buying the Mac Mini and getting a 4K monitor which is probably going to look way better.
AirPods 2
When they first came out, people mocked how they looked. But they very soon became one of the most popular truly wireless audio option for people.
The new AirPods 2 has a new H1 headphone chip, which Apple says will deliver a faster and more stable wireless connection to your devices, and reducing latency as well. The H1 chip will also allow an always listening Siri, so you can go “Hey Siri”. Battery life is rated at 5 hours which is pretty decent. Oh and there’s a new wireless charging case – but you gotta pay extra for it (what’s new)
Prices are the same as the 1st Generation AirPods – S$239 for the AirPods with the normal charging case, S$299 for the AirPods with wireless charging case. And if you just want to get the wireless charging case, it’s a ridiculous S$119.
All you got is spec upgrades on the AirPods and a new wireless charging case. No new color option, or anti-slip design like what many people. Matte black? Hopefully AirPods 3 will feature that.