Table of Contents 64q43
The line iPad 2020 is experiencing its best moment in years, driven by the increase in demand for devices that facilitate remote work and learning, as well as entertainment and communication, in these times of social isolation. In Brazil, however, the tablet market has shrunk since 2015, with no signs of recovery. It is in this challenging scenario that the Apple launches in the country the iPad Air 4rd generation (iPad Air 2020), a model that proposes to bring advantages offered by the iPad Pro to a slightly wider audience. m70p
Design and Canvas 5e2t6e
O hardware do iPad Air 4th generation was heavily influenced by the Pro line, but with a more friendly finish thanks to the colors in which it is offered: green, blue and pink, in addition to the sober gray and silver. Apple has replaced the rounded sides, Home button and connector lightning of the 3rd generation Air by smooth sides, a reduced edge around the and the USB-C input, features of the iPad Pro.
The weight of 458 grams makes the iPad Air 4th generation the lightest among Apple's "large" tablets, that is, when you don't take into the iPad Mini (7 inches and 300g). The Air is a comfortable device to hold, and despite the thinner edges around the screen, it hardly s accidental touches.
Until then liquid retina 10,9 inches of the device is backlit by LED with technology IPS, which is responsible for the high refresh rate. While color reproduction is excellent, it doesn't quite match the black levels that devices with displays OLED deliver.
The display is also fully laminated and s the 2nd generation Apple Pencil (sold separately), which makes the iPad Air 4th generation a more attractive option for professional and amateur illustrators. However, a feature of that was restricted to the Pro line — and that is valued by designers — is the refresh rate up to 120 hertz (Hz). On the 4th generation Air it is still only 60Hz.
The USB-C connector can be used for both battery charging and data transfer and connecting accessories such as cameras, SSDs and even an external 4K display. And unlike the iPhone 12 and Apple Watches sold in 2020, the 4th Gen iPad Air continues to bring a 20W USB-C power adapter in the box, not just the cable.
Still on the outside of the tablet are the two speakers (competent, but not impressive) and the pine magnetic Smart Connector, used to connect iPad to accessories such as the Smart Keyboard and Magic Keyboard, both from Apple. The device does not have a headphone jack.
Cameras 353z5z
Finally, the cameras: the iPad Air 4th generation has a single 12 megapixel (MP) rear camera and a 7 MP front camera.
The rear camera is somewhat protruding, requiring the use of a CASE to level the device when placed on a table, for example. THE Quality of photos and videos is acceptable, but it doesn't quite match what Apple delivers on the latest iPhones, especially in the amount of detail and noise level. It also doesn't features like Portrait and Night modes.
The 7 MP front camera fulfills the role well in video calls, easily suring the webcams of many laptops. The only downside is the placement of the lens on top of the tablet, as when using the iPad horizontally, the 's face is off-center and at an unflattering angle.
touch ID 5o4e4g
The main novelty in hardware do iPad Air is fingerprint sensor position change touch ID. Since the technology's release on the iPhone 5S in 2013, Touch ID has been built into the Home button on the front of the device. On the 4th generation iPad Air, the button was removed to expand the screen space, but instead of including the technology Face ID — as it did on the iPad Pro — Apple integrated the sensor into the top button, traditionally used to turn the device on, off and lock.
The technology would possibly make the device more expensive, so Apple's solution to balance the cost of the tablet with the advantages of having a larger screen and smaller bezels is sensible. That said, if you're used to the touch ID traditional or with Face ID, adapting to the new sensor positioning is not so simple.
One of the most valuable features of the iPad is being able to use it in any position, but that also means you never immediately know which side the top button is on when you need to press it. An on-screen indicator aids discovery, but it's not as obvious as having a button right in front of you, or even the Face ID, which does not require any action on the part of the to activate it.
The standard unlocking process is also somewhat bureaucratic: touch the screen or press the top button to wake up the device, put your finger on the top button to authenticate via touch ID and finally, swipe up on the lock screen to get to the home screen. You can eliminate the last step by enabling an accessibility setting called “Keep Finger Open”.
Performance 58a2u
O iPad Air 4th generation has the chip A14 Bionic, developed by Apple itself, and that also equips the new iPhone 12. The chip has a 6-core processor (4 high-efficiency, 2 high-performance), 4-core GPU and the latest version of Neural Engine, the company's artificial intelligence engine used for machine learning.
What do these specifications mean in everyday life? That the iPad Air is fast, very fast. In some scenarios, because it has a more recent chip, it even outperforms the iPad Pro line and several PCs with Intel processors.
Opening apps is almost instantaneous and switching between them is super fluid. One of the activities where the performance seemed most significant to me was using the Safari browser. On many devices, clicking a link to open a web page means waiting a few seconds for the content to load. In Air, most pages finish loading even before the animation ends. It's a gain that may seem small, but it greatly improves the experience.
iPadOS 465q6g
O iPad Air comes pre-installed with iPadOS 14, officially launched last September. Contrary to what happened this year with iOS 14 and iPhones, however, the new version of iPadOS does not bring such impactful news to the tablet's experience.
Among the features that are shared with the iPhone are the compact interfaces for Siri and audio/video calling, additional privacy protections in the OS and Safari, and the new widgets.
A difference between the widgets of the iPad and iPhone is that, on the tablet, they remain restricted to a column on the first page of the home screen, while on the iPhone the is free to place them wherever they want. I believe this behavior is tweaked in iPadOS 15, but until then, if widgets are something you find useful, I'd suggest enabling an option to always make them visible, otherwise you'll have to swipe left to show them.
The iPadOS multitasking system is entirely handled by gestures, without many visual cues, so the learning curve is quite high. Once you get the hang of it, though, the ability to use two or even three apps side-by-side proves to be quite useful.
And speaking of gestures, the expanded version of the iPadOS virtual keyboard not s the Swipe to Type feature (swipe), something I missed a lot. Despite that, there's a way: by pinching the keyboard, it shrinks to the size of an iPhone (Apple calls it a floating keyboard), which enables swiping typing.
Battery 554u5p
The battery of the iPad Air 4th generation lasted around two days with moderate use (a lot of internet browsing, Twitter, several podcasts and some casual games), a result that is expected for a tablet.
In tests with videos by streaming, consumption varied greatly. With screen brightness at 50%, a 47-minute episode of the series The Crown Decreases the battery level by 11%. With the brightness set to 10%, a 55-minute episode reduced battery life by only 1%.
A somewhat inexplicable limitation of iPadOS is that the system does not have a battery saver mode, like iPhones, so it is up to the to manage consumption, reducing the screen brightness, turning off the GPS, Wi-Fi ou Bluetooth and disabling background apps, for example.
However, unless you intend to use your iPad as your primary device for long uninterrupted periods, and you're not willing to dim the , the Apple tablet is able to withstand days away from the outlet.
Conclusion 60664y
Although it is positioned between the entry-level and professional iPad, the iPad Air 4th Gen is actually much closer to the top of the line in its design, performance and features, but also in price. costing from R$6.999 (64 GB), the Air is not an easy device to recommend, no matter how positive the experience.
If the tablet will only be used for domestic consumption — series, games, internet — the traditional iPad (8th generation), which costs from R$ 3.999 (32 GB), may be a more interesting alternative. It has essentially the same features as the Air, but it doesn't offer as much performance and has a dated look.
Now, if you're looking to incorporate an iPad into your work routine and value features like 2nd Gen from Apple Pencil, USB-C port and a state-of-the-art chip, the iPad Air 4th generation becomes the best option of the line, considering that the iPad Pro does not offer such relevant advantages over the Air and starts at BRL 9.999 (11 inches / 128 GB).
There are specific professional scenarios that demand, for example, the Pro's camera system, but, in general, the iPad Air offers the best value for money in the price range above 7 thousand reais.
Technical Specifications: iPad Air 4th generation (iPad Air 2020) 67r2w
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 247,6mm x 178,5mm x 6,1 |
| Weight | 468 grams (Wi-Fi), 460 grams (Wi-Fi + Cellular) |
| Storage | 64 GB, 256 GB |
| Colors | Silver, Space Gray, Rose Gold, Green and Sky Blue |
| Fabric | 10,9-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology |
| Resolution | Resolution of 2360 x 1640 pixels at 264 dpi |
| Brightness | 500 nits |
| chip | A14 Bionic with 64-bit architecture Neural Engine |
| Back camera | 12 MP wide-angle camera ƒ/1.8 aperture 4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps |
| Frontal camera | 7 MP photos ƒ/2.2 aperture |
| Loudspeakers | stereo speakers |
| Microphones | Two microphones for calls and video and audio recording |
| Social | All models: Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax; two simultaneous frequencies (2,4 GHz and 5 GHz); HT80 with MIMO; Bluetooth 5.0 Wi-Fi + Cellular Models: UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); Gigabit-class LTE |
| authentication sensor | Touch ID on top button |
| Input for data/ loading |
USB-C |
