An iPad that does all the things an iPad has to do, better than the previous one at a price for everyone. The philosophy around which Apple built the launch, or rather the relaunch, in 2017 of the tablet (the so-called fifth generation) in its basic version after a three-year break spent with mini, Pro and Air, is also repeated in 2020 with 8th generation iPad.
The presentation of the new version took place during the Times Fly event when both Apple Watch 6 and Apple Watch SE debuted; unfortunate one could say because the two smartwatches have unfairly cast a shadow over the 2020 iPad. If you have the patience to read this review thoroughly, you will understand why.
iPad 2020, how it's done
The iPad 2020 of the eighth generation comes from the choice or ability, put it as you like, of Apple to use for its lower cost products, components and proven devices, progressively modernizing the puzzle to keep up with the times. It happens with the iPhone SE, with the Apple Watch SE and also with the iPad which is not called SE, but which may have this name.
In the tablet this time the piece that changes , unlike last year, is neither the outside nor some connectors, but the processor . This is why the iPad 2020 is externally identical to the 7th generation iPad and has all the advantages of iPad 2019 such as the 10.2-inch display , rather convenient for browsing, watching movies and the use of an Apple Pencil and the Smart Connector which expands the potential of the tablet for compatibility with the Smart Keyboard. Obviously it also has all the design limitations of the previous iPad including the lack of a system to put the Apple Pencil to rest , the wide frames and one screen no longer in step with the times .
The design of iPad 2020
For all this of the eighth generation iPad design there is nothing to add compared to what was said last year, indeed compared to many previous iPad editions. We are in fact facing a superclassic that has remained identical (except for the modest increase in screen size) from 2015 to today, indeed a hawk eye would also be needed to distinguish the iPad 2 (launched in 2011 by Steve Jobs in person) from today's iPad …
Having overcome the positive familiarity effect and the fact that we are still faced with a product that is still today a well-balanced device, ergonomically valid, it becomes quite evident that the style is starting to look a little worn . While everything else in the lineup, including the upcoming iPad Air and probably the next iPhone as well, feature square edges and an all-screen front, 8th-generation iPad harks back to a generation of design today. represents a kind of exception .
The new 8th generation iPad out of the box
The Touch ID
The reason that Apple has left the design of the 8th generation iPad totally unchanged from even older models is mainly due to the fact that here Touch ID is still used as the authentication system, criticized by many, but not by us.
Were it not for the fact that the fingerprint reader contributes massively to the look of yesteryear, we would applaud the choice with enthusiasm. In a world that today and for who knows how long will have to wear masks on public transport, during a meeting and in various other situations, having a system that allows us to quickly access the device without typing the code is an advantage . The convenience is such that in these days of testing several times we have hoped that Apple can think about reintroducing the fingertip reading, perhaps in the most modern version through the power button of the device as in the next iPad Air, even in the iPhone …
The screen
Where, contrary to what happens with design, it is not easy to turn a blind eye is on the display . It is certainly convenient, as mentioned above, for use with Apple Pencil, but technically the panel now shows the rope .
We are not talking about the absence of Truetone and WideColor (functions of little relevance in a product intended for home or home use), of definition or of colors (for films, games or holiday photo slideshows we are faced with a component still very good), but the fact that this screen with a resolution of 2,160 X 1,620 pixels is not laminated and is also devoid of anti-reflective treatment.
Apple has been using laminated screens not only on MacBooks and iPhones but also on iPads for a long time. Only the original iPad, the non-retina iPads and those from the fifth to the current generation have had and have the non-laminated screen. We are talking about a screen that has the protective glass detached from the surface of the LEDs. This makes the display less responsive and less immersive because the LCD surface is further away from the fingertips. Plus it produces an annoying “knock” when you hit the display with a fingernail due to the blank space below the screen.
Finally, on the outside the display, lacking as mentioned, also of protection against reflection, is clearly legible only in the shade and the lighting level almost always goes to 100%.
The reflection of the screen is evident …
Apple Pencil and Smart Connector
7th generation iPad introduced Apple Pencil 1 support and Smart Connector . iPad of the eighth generation maintains these peculiarities; therefore our judgments remain unchanged from our previous review.
But perhaps it is worth pointing out that the Apple Pencil support is now even more interesting thanks to the introduction of Scribble , the function that transforms writing by hand into actual text. Currently for Italian there are some methods of use such as copying and pasting text from one application to another, but the conversion from handwritten text to typed text works perfectly. Rather, the annoying problem of not knowing where to place the pen at rest (no magnetic coupling like in the other pro models and in the future iPad Air) and the due criticism for the bizarre charging system with the Apple Pencil to be stuck in the Lightning port for charging.
The Smart Connector, which allows you to use keyboards such as the Smart Keyboard (the one for iPad 10.2 is the same one used for iPad Air and iPad 10.5 Pro) without pairing and without worries about charging the battery, further extends the potential use of the eighth generation iPad. It could be argued that there are currently not many alternatives to the inexpensive Smart Keyboard (only the Logitech Slim folio) and that Apple's desired materialization of an ecosystem around this connector has never occurred. But it is not a question that only concerns this iPad …
8th generation iPad with its Smart Keyboard
The A12 processor
The biggest news indeed to be clear, the only one of this iPad 10.2 of 2020 is in the processor. The one of the year course with its A10 could not be said to be slow at the time of the review, but it is no longer up to date. It is, moreover, the processor that was introduced for the first time with the iPhone 7, in 2016. Although the A12 Bionic of the iPad 2020 is not new , however, it is the same excellent processor that was used in the iPhone XS, iPad Air and fifth generation iPad mini. A chip (exa core CPU and quad core GPU) that in one of its variants is still in use today on the iPad Pro 2020. The comparison with the latter is not entirely correct because the A12Z has performances, especially in the multicore, far superior to those of the A12X which in turn was already faster than the A12, but it is useful to understand that we are talking about a decidedly more modern chip that allows the new iPad to handle every task to which it will be called in peace for a few years.
According to Apple it is 40% faster than the A10 in calculating and twice as fast in graphic tasks. It should make the iPad twice as fast as the best-selling Windows laptop, according to Apple, three times the best-selling Android tablet and six times the most popular Chromebook. It's hard to confirm or deny these claims in comparison with the competition, but from the Geekbench tests it seems that there really is a 40% increase that Apple is talking about when comparing the eighth generation iPad with the seventh generation iPad.
Indeed in multicore the new iPad seems to earn even more. However, it should also be said that the new eighth generation iPad despite using the same processor as an iPhone XS, according to Geekbench the phone is faster at least in multicolor . You might think that these are two different hardware, especially the different screen, but the 7th generation iPad which shared the processor with the iPhone 7 had a near perfect identity with the phone in terms of Geekbench performance. Let's say that the eighth generation iPad in terms of pure performance, generally looks more like an iPhone X than a Phone XS.
In any case what matters is that in the first days of familiarization with the Pad 2020, it proved particularly very snappy and responsive with videos, games and above all in the management of the iPadOs 14 operating system.
The eighth generation iPad benchmarks 
The seventh generation iPad test
The cameras
The cameras remained the same as last year . For this reason, what we wrote last year when we talked about this component as something mediocre and obsolete should also apply this year, underlining how they were “beginning to lose meaning even in a device like an iPad that is certainly not born to shoot. photos”. In reality we must say that this statement, despite the hardware being the same, must be corrected on one side in the positive and on the other in the negative.
The rear camera , in fact, produces images that look better to us compared to that of last year while the previous one is exactly the same and ends up being now even less acceptable due to the relevance of the video conference in the life we are living in the days of the Coronavirus.
The best definition , the superior color rendering, the greater shadow-light balance of the front camera is probably the result of A12 processor of which, at the time of the presentation, the power of the computational photography component was underlined. Mind you: no miracle, but taking some casual photos with an eighth generation iPad, gives us images that are less dull than those possible with a seventh generation iPad .
On the other hand, the 1.2 megapixel front camera , already inadequate last year, is all the more so in a period in which it becomes increasingly relevant and widespread use of software such as Zoom or Skype for videoconferencing. We know there are often sessions with ten or twenty people connected in postage stamp-sized boxes where it is difficult even distinguish the physiognomy of the speaker and that in many cases the worst problem in these contexts are the connection, the quality of the software and the interface, but none of these reasons justify the choice to mount in an iPad released in 2020 a component with specifications identical (if not perhaps the same compose) to those of an iPhone 5 released in 2012.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max 
… with octave iPad generation. Some difference but not too obvious 
Still shooting with iPhone 11 Pro Max 
Not despicable range of colors for iPad 
iPhone 11 Pro Max, front camera 
Blacks, shadows and definition of the 8th generation iPad front camera are pretty mediocre As for autonomy, nothing changes between the 7th generation iPad and the 8th generation iPad. Apple says it continues to fix the actual battery life in 10 hours and our first empirical tests of these few days of use also say so facts about browsing, listening to music and playing Netflix and Disney Channel content. Three days of use, the time it takes to do our tests and run out of battery, are really a lot, an almost epic duration when compared to other competitors and other devices, a true trademark for iPad since ever. The impression, pending a couple of other tests, is even that this iPad can have a greater autonomy than the previous one.
New charger
If nothing changes in autonomy, Apple with the launch of the eighth generation iPad instead does something it almost never does: update the power supply. In the package we find a 20W charger with USB-C port , a real novelty that no other Apple device currently offers and which is not even available yet. sold separately from the iPad itself. Thanks to it we can recharge the battery much faster than the old Apple USB-A 10 / 12W chargers were able to do it.The full autonomy is restored in about two hours and forty-five against the three and a half hours it required the old 12W Apple charger. Especially in about an hour the recharge went from zero to 60%, enough for a full day of work. Unfortunately, iPad 2020 does not have a USB-C port, but the classic Lighting port which has inherent limits in terms of power served. In the future, perhaps as early as next year, the 9th generation iPad could have a USB-C port like the iPad Pro and the next iPad Air and this could significantly increase charging speed even further to the iPad Pro's 30W.
The eighth generation iPad charger aesthetically identical to that of the iPhone 11 Pro 
The “plate” data, however, tell us that it has a power of 20W
Storage capacity
The second criticism, after the obsolete design, that we feel we can make to Apple in reference to the eighth generation iPad is the choice to continue to market the anemic 32 GB version . Even those who buy iPads just to browse or watch a few movies could easily find themselves running out of space with so little memory. Just use the tablet to take some pictures and make some movies and maybe download some content for offline viewing from sites like Netflix and the memory is over. This limitation is compounded by the fact that anyone who buys an iPad like this probably intends to keep it for a few years; this in any case will end up making 32 GB a totally insufficient amount of space. So even before reaching the conclusions we say it here: invest 100 euros more and buy the 128 GB version . Think about the 32GB one only if you really only use iPad to browse and stream movies.
Conclusions
8th generation iPad is in many ways the exact same 7th generation iPad from last year, same design, same screen. This from the point of view of the modernity of the design and the obsolescence of some components is a flaw. But the only novelty of substance, the new processor , changes the profile of the iPad 10.2 of the 2020.
The A12 processor increases its potential in use and flexibility; the iPad is now fully usable and enjoyable, also useful for playing games or for augmented reality functions. Above all the A12 processor makes the 8th generation iPad more suitable than the 7th generation iPad in use of iPadOs 14 . This means a significant advantage for those who want to use iPad as a “light” replacement for a laptop and especially for those who intend to use it to take advantage of all the functions of Apple Pencil. And the fact that Apple uses a 2018 processor in this iPad, the same one it used for the iPhone XS, is an important defense also against hardware obsolescence .
So if not it would be honest to recommend to those who have a 7th generation iPad an update to this version , anyone who has a fifth or sixth generation iPad should know that by purchasing this model will take an important step forward : new screen, Smart Connector, new processor, faster charging speed and a slightly better camera.
The eighth generation iPad also attracts the attention of all those who do not have particular professional needs but are only looking for a useful device for the home, entertainment or study or for those who have never thought of a tablet, but wants to replace an old laptop used to browse and watch movies. For this particular category of people, thanks to the support for Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, the eighth generation iPad is a serious temptation .
Perhaps someone could object that in addition to the Apple processor it could have introduced some other small refinements (a USB-C port, a higher quality sound, a new display) but even so the eighth generation iPad offers a relationship between price, performance and quality unmatched and probably unmatched by any other product, including those from Apple.
Benefits
Defects
Pricing and availability
iPad of the eighth generation is on sale in three colors, gray, gold and silver , at an entry price of 389 euros in the 32 GB version without cellular network. The 128 Gb version costs 489 euros. It is also possible to purchase a version with cellular network at a price of 140 more than the versions without it.
iPad is available for purchase from the Apple Store online, at Apple retailers, and also at Amazon.
Others' Reviews
iPad 2020 or better iPad of the eighth generation, the new cheaper model of the Cupertino tablet has been at the center of some contacts and reviews by several American sites that are quite in line with our impressions.
Engadget detects much smoother and more brilliant performance both in multitasking operations for work and productivity, as well as with video games and multimedia. For those who still have an iPad from several years ago in their hands and are not interested in the top features and functions of the iPad Air 4 and iPad Pro, consider the US site, this is the model to buy.
Of course, compromises emerge, such as the absence of the USB-C port to continue using the historical Lightning, and compatibility only with first generation Apple Pencil, as Cnet notes. But once again, everything here depends on the price / performance ratio: for those who have no special needs and want to get their hands on an Apple tablet that will work without problems for years and years to come, iPad 8 is the model to be taken into consideration. .
The Verge focuses on cameras, especially the inadequate front one. “This iPad – says the site in reference to the camera – is great for the” iPad stuff “, but the list of things we ask our iPads while we are stuck at home, is getting bigger and bigger”. He adds, “No other computer makes it this fun to go from editing photos to watching Netflix. And even if there is a learning curve, this iPad can also be used to work “
Tom's Guide particularly emphasizes the dated design, criticizes the lack of Face ID and the screen without TrueTone, but appreciates the cost and performance: “ten years later – the site closes – it is still the benchmark and the distant contender to reach”
All the news presented by Apple in the event on September 15 are summarized in a single article from macitynet. All the articles that talk about iPhone, iPad, Mace Apple Watch are available at the respective links. Everything you need to know about the upcoming versions of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, Apple Watch 7 and tvOS 14 is summarized in the macirtynet insights at their respective links.
