Lugging heavy textbooks across campus and juggling multiple notebooks and binders for each course was the last thing I wanted in college. So, I did what I saw countless students on social media and my own circle doing — I bought an iPad. What I didn’t realize, though, was that deciding which iPad to buy would be far harder than the actual decision to buy one in the first place.
After asking colleagues and friends who already had an iPad, watching countless YouTube videos, and obsessively comparing tech specs, I finally settled on the 5th-gen iPad Air. At the time, it felt like the smartest choice. However, after recently buying my sister a cheaper model, I realized I might have made the wrong call.
The iPad (A16) gives you double the storage for $100 less
Who doesn’t want to save money?
I bought my 5th-generation iPad Air nearly two years ago, and the starting price for the base model was $599. The base model came with 64GB of internal storage, and given that I was a student on a budget, I decided to go with it anyway. I figured I could make it work by offloading most of my files to cloud storage and keeping the iPad focused strictly on studying.
Of course, that ended up not being the case. Between downloading lecture slides, annotating PDFs, installing the apps I needed, and storing the occasional offline video for classes, the storage filled up faster than I expected.
Not only would I constantly be greeted by the “iPad storage full” prompt, my iPad also started feeling sluggish when I was taking notes or multitasking. The base standard iPad that comes with the A16 chip starts at $499, and the base model comes with 128 GB of storage, double of what the Air offers for $100 less. Even if there wasn’t a price difference, I’d still pick the A16 over the Air simply because of the storage factor.
The difference in performance isn’t even noticeable
Fast chips don’t matter if you’re just taking notes
The biggest difference between the 5th-gen iPad Air and the iPad (A16) when it comes to specs is the processor. The 5th-gen iPad Air comes with Apple’s M1 chip, the same one found in some of its entry-level Macs, while the standard iPad runs on the newer A16 chip. I took notes on the iPad (A16) for over a week and have been taking notes on the iPad Air for years, and I’ve noticed no difference in performance between the two.
The battery life on the standard iPad is excellent too, easily lasting me a full day of college classes. According to Apple’s technical specs for the M1 iPad Air and the standard iPad with the A16 chip, both can deliver up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, and 9 hours using cellular data. So, while Apple may position these chips differently, you won’t notice a difference in day-to-day use.
The Air is barely more portable than the cheaper iPad
Just a few grams thinner, barely
At this point, you’re probably thinking — if there’s no noticeable difference in performance, maybe the Air at least makes up for it in portability. After all, the Air lineup is supposed to be thinner and lighter than the rest of the lineup. But just like performance, the difference is barely noticeable here too.
The 5th-gen iPad Air weighs around 1.02 pounds, while the iPad (A16) comes in at 1.05 pounds. That’s roughly the weight of a pencil, and you won’t feel it when you’re carrying either one around campus in a backpack. Admittedly, the standard iPad does appear a lot thicker. However, that personally doesn’t bother me since the extra thickness doesn’t translate into any real inconvenience.
So, while Apple markets the Air as the lighter, sleeker option, the reality is that the difference is so minor you’d never notice it outside of a spec sheet. In day-to-day use, both iPads feel equally portable and easy to carry around.
The best Apple Pencils don’t work with the iPad (A16), but you’ve got alternatives
Third-party styluses to the rescue
Though the first-gen Apple Pencil and the USB-C variant are great, I’m personally not a fan of them. Needing to plug the pencil into the iPad port in such an awkward position feels outdated and outright inconvenient, especially when newer Apple Pencils charge magnetically.
Unfortunately, while you’ll find iPad Air models that support the newer Pencil Pro and the second-gen Apple Pencil, the standard iPad with the A16 chip only supports the older models I’m not a fan of. Though that might sound like a dealbreaker, there are fortunately plenty of excellent third-party styluses that offer similar functionality at a fraction of the price.
While I haven’t tested any that charge magnetically just yet, I personally use the Baseus Smooth Writing PS4. It’s not available in the US just yet, but its European price roughly converts to $46.91 USD, making it a far more affordable alternative to Apple’s options.
Though it attaches magnetically to the iPad, it still needs to be charged via USB-C. That said, its battery life is excellent, and I only need to charge it once every two or three days.
It also offers a Double-Tap–like feature that you can map to any shortcut you’d like, giving you a lot more flexibility compared to Apple’s styluses. If I didn’t have the second-gen Apple Pencil for my iPad Air, I’d pick this Baseus alternative any day and ditch my original Apple Pencil completely (which I now regret purchasing).
Trust me, you do NOT need an iPad Air or Pro
At the end of the day, it all comes down to performance. Some people might prefer buying a model from the Air or Pro lineup, and that’s not a problem — I preferred it too. But after going hands-on with a cheaper iPad, I realized that for most average users, the standard iPad with the A16 chip offers everything you need at a lower price.
