The new iPad vs. the competition: Teaching tools
The new iPad is aimed at schools, but it faces stiff competition from Chromebooks and more.
Thanks to its generous discount program Apple was the king of the education market for decades. Some schools even straight up gave their students iPads. However, many institutions are increasingly adopting Chromebooks as their system of choice, which offer up kid-friendly features at a much lower price. Last year gave us the first budget iPad, and today Apple gave it a slight update and unveiled a host of education-focused features. But even Pencil support and a ton more iCloud storage might not win over educators in right away, especially with products like Acer's Chromebook Tab 10 on the horizon. So we've stacked up the new iPad versus the Tab 10 as well another budget tablet, the Fire HD 10, to see which might be worthy of stowing in your kid's backpack this year.
Price | $299 for schools / $329 retail | $329 | $150 / $190 |
Dimensions | 240 x 169.5 x 7.5mm (9.4 x 6.6 x 0.29 inches) | 238.2 x 172.2 x 9.98mm (9.38 x 6.78 x 0.39 inches) | 262 x 159 x 9.8mm (10.3 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches) |
Weight | 469g (1.03 pounds) | 550g (1.21 pounds) | 500g (1.11 pounds) |
OS | iOS 11 | Chrome OS | Fire OS 5.6 |
Display | 9.7-inch Retina display | 9.7-inch IPS LCD | 10.1-inch IPS LCD |
Resolution | 2,048 x 1,536 (264 ppi) | 2,048 x 1,536 (264ppi) | 1,920 x 1,200 (224ppi) |
Aspect ratio | 4:3 | 4:3 | 16:10 |
Processor | Apple A10 | OP1 (Rockchip RK3399) | MediaTek MT8173 |
Memory | TBA | 4GB | 2GB |
Storage | 32 / 128GB | 32GB | 32/64GB |
Ports | Lightning | USB Type-C 3.1, microSD | USB Type-B 2.0 , microSD |
Front camera | 1.2MP, f/2.2, 720p video | 2MP | 0.3MP |
Rear camera | 8MP, f/2.4, 1080p video at 30fps | 5MP | 2MP |
Cellular radio | Optional | None | None |
WiFi | Dual band 802.11ac | Dual-band, 802.11ac | Dual-band, 802.11ac |
Bluetooth | v4.2 | v4.1 | v4.1 |
Battery | up to 10 hours | 34Wh, up to 9 hours | up to 10 hours |
Catch up on all of the news from Apple's education event right here!
