For the first time in more than two years, there’s a new base-model iPad on the market. Apple just announced the 11th-generation iPad with a press release, but unlike the new products Apple has launched lately, this one doesn’t come with Apple Intelligence.
Instead, the new iPad comes equipped with an upgraded A16 chip, along with “double the starting storage” at 128GB. It starts at $349 and will be available on March 12th in an array of colors, including blue, pink, yellow, and silver.
The 10th-generation iPad, this new device’s predecessor, was a somewhat confusing entrant in Apple’s tablet lineup. Apple launched the device in 2022 with a more modern design, a faster chip, and a bigger screen than the 9th-gen iPad, but it also cost $449 instead of the long-standing $329 base price. (Just to make things more complicated, Apple kept selling the 9th-gen model for $329 — so which one was really the base iPad is hard to say.) Since then, we’ve gotten a new iPad Pro, a new Air, and a new Mini, which left only the base model feeling out of date. All Apple had given it was a price cut, down to $349.
The iPad lineup has been confusing for a while, but as ever, the good news is that there are no bad iPads. And minor upgrade or not, the base iPad is still likely the right iPad for most people.
