Apple’s $349 iPad 11 is missing a lot, but it’s still all the iPad most people need

Other iPads are nicer and faster, but I end up using all of them the same way.

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[betam4x]

I did not even know the iPad could mirror its display. I guess I haven’t kept up. When I was reading this, I plugged my iPad Mini into my Apple Studio display, and sure enough it gets mirrored in the display. That is actually pretty neat. I can definitely see myself using the feature in the future.

 

[Rector]

The biggest iPad issue for me is battery life. I don't remember when exactly it was, because it was two iPads ago, but some of those iPads from the 2010s had fantastic battery life, despite being very light. Newer iPads seem to be a little bit heavier, and have worse battery life. So anyway, my ideal iPad has 1) great battery life 2) larger screen (no mini) and 3) lighter weight. Processor speed is almost irrelevant.

Does this one fit the bill?

 

[Rector]

a file system that fights you all the way.

Could you expand on this? In the old days there was no user accessible file system, but since the files app appeared, I've had little trouble with using the file system on iOS devices. I have a big iCloud share for my family and we all use it frequently -- mostly though the files app.

 

[solomonrex]

This year it really feels like Apple is creeping into the old Detroit 3 building-to-a-price-segment philosophy. Meaning, "where can we cut costs to force upgrades?"

This is one of the richest companies in the world with a non-union workforce, mind you.

Everyone has to build different devices for different segments, of course, but are all the devices sincere? The Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla were sincere in ways that the old Cavalier and Escort weren't. Apple's adherence to 3+ models in everything (pencils?) seems increasingly artificial and phony.

I understand inflation, and that the home buttons were increasingly outdated, but they had options here and a lot of clever engineers without much going on it seems.

They always have the most powerful engines now, I notice.

 

[torp]

Considering the iPad isn't useful for productivity with the lone exception of graphics (and maybe some other niches i don't even know about), the cheapest iPad will always do for "content consumption".

I have one on my nightstand. I bought it last year (to replace a really old one in the household), but i think I bought the already obsolete model. I forgot what model year it is and I don't care enough to check, it's good enough for browsing and reading.

 

[tgt]

I was hoping they'd add AV1 hardware decoding. My iPad Air 2 (from 2014!) fulfils my very basic media playing needs and I don't think the iPad 11 is much of an improvement for that. I have no idea whether or not AV1 (or whatever competitors there are) is being adopted, but if I'm going to use it for a decade it'd be nice to have support. I'll wait for the 12.

 

[Brendan McKinley]

Although some of the design decisions seem odd, such as the non laminated display, they make more sense when you remember who this iPad was designed around. Educational institutions buying them in bulk. The first we did when Apple Intelligence was released was to disable it in MDM. The non laminated display makes it cheaper to replace all those broken screens. Schools have already invested in carts/cases/keyboards and third party pencils from companies like Logitech. Apple correctly doesn’t want to upset those customers with major changes too often.

Sure, Apple is happy to also sell this iPad to consumers, same as they eventually did with the eMac years ago, but it’s designed around the priorities of mass 1:1 deployments. Also note the timing of release. Several months before the big K12 refresh season, when budgets roll over July 1st.

 

[emag]

I’d really like to see some battery life benchmarks, particularly in comparison to the M3 Air (which does have AV1 hardware decoding and a significantly more powerful SoC).

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

While the new iPad's a useful thing, and has improved at the price point, I'm afraid I'm done with the ongoing infrastructure. Despite the great third party app ecosystem and great touch response, Apple's moves over the years have moved me out of their customer base.

First it was goodbye audio jack, through to the deletion of the home button. Along the way countless little troubling bits, and still a file system that fights you all the way. Well, if you are trying to do audio production anyway. Not their main use case, I admit, but with little consideration given it despite the great body of works being done on it.

I'll keep what I've got though, for as long as Animoog works on it.

I've an older first Gen iPad Air. We are talking 32GB storage old. Its noticeably slower when I update apps and use. It was mostly for news and watching my youtube subscriptions. Now it holds a charge no more than several days not using, and consumes 1/3 the battery to watch a 20min video. I can't think of watching Netflix series without being tethered to power cord which is contraining. While I would like a pencil/stylus to try some sketching, I understand that sort of work is best for the $$$Pro models with $$$$ storage cost. And A isn't just for Apple, its for Accessories. Because you can get a USB-C 3.5mm audio adaptor or move to bluetooth. The home button has become a slow, noticeably pressing, fail point. Getting back some viewing space is a plus. Also the feature as a second screen works for my WFH option.

But the price should still be about $50 less for this model. Which the way things go...if you wait out first adopters, places like Costco might sell it soon for discount at $299.

 

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This year it really feels like Apple is creeping into the old Detroit 3 building-to-a-price-segment philosophy. Meaning, "where can we cut costs to force upgrades?"

This is one of the richest companies in the world with a non-union workforce, mind you.

Everyone has to build different devices for different segments, of course, but are all the devices sincere? The Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla were sincere in ways that the old Cavalier and Escort weren't. Apple's adherence to 3+ models in everything (pencils?) seems increasingly artificial and phony.

I understand inflation, and that the home buttons were increasingly outdated, but they had options here and a lot of clever engineers without much going on it seems.

They always have the most powerful engines now, I notice.

I suspect that the low end ipad is sort of a weird hybrid on the sincerity/cynicism scale since being the cheapest option makes it both a very sincere statement of where Apple is willing to risk putting price of admission for things like EDU buyers who need a crate of 10,000 that will remain in service for the next 4 years; and quite possibly will just buy chromebooks if they don't like your price, not their problem that children think of ipads as nicer; and the most obvious cannibalization risk that the more expensive lines aren't necessarily thrilled about.

You certainly get a...distinct... "Ipads start at $500; there's also the stepchild" vibe from Apple's lineup; but there's presumably a very real reason why they haven't just compressed that to "Ipads start at $500, full stop."

 

[Daros]

Although some of the design decisions seem odd, such as the non laminated display, they make more sense when you remember who this iPad was designed around. Educational institutions buying them in bulk. The first we did when Apple Intelligence was released was to disable it in MDM. The non laminated display makes it cheaper to replace all those broken screens. Schools have already invested in carts/cases/keyboards and third party pencils from companies like Logitech. Apple correctly doesn’t want to upset those customers with major changes too often.

Sure, Apple is happy to also sell this iPad to consumers, same as they eventually did with the eMac years ago, but it’s designed around the priorities of mass 1:1 deployments. Also note the timing of release. Several months before the big K12 refresh season, when budgets roll over July 1st.

I mean, this is all true, but they still haven't fixed the pencil situation. Having to Frankenstein together a charging and holding solution for the pencils is a pain in the ass. The "fix" is to spend double the price on the Air and have the pencils charge by just sitting with the iPad in the first place, but that's doubling the spend which for a school adds up to a huge increase.

Honestly this was the one major change I was hoping for from the new iPad.

 

[macduff]

It's an iPad for kiosks and the K-12 market, so that Apple can satisfy the demand for a tablet at a low price point. But I think Apple would see the iPad Air as the default iPad that everyone who wants a tablet should own.

 

[LlamaLaBama]

Stage manager on my display is my only upsell for an Air. Otherwise, the base iPad's a great computer.

 

[tipoo]

M1 is still ahead in most everything else, but it's interesting that the A16 neural engine is now ahead of the M1, which should bode well for increasing use of it. Although it doesn't make the cut for Apple Intelligence, hm. They said back to M1 can support AI because they made a last minute change to support transformer neural networks, does A16? But if it does it may also be because it touches all parts of the chip and the GPU of the M1 is also still ahead, also 6GB instead of 8GB of RAM required where their foundation model can call on 4GB which probably would be a bad experience if all but 2GB of RAM were cleared every AI call lol.

https://9to5mac.com/2024/11/18/appl...ed-because-of-a-key-2017-decision-apple-says/

 

[Jimmy_James]

How do the built in speakers sound? My mom upgraded from an old iPad to the iPad 9 or 10, and the speakers were very tinny. Not something covered in most reviews, so it's a corner that Apple may be cutting on lower end models.

 

[Coriolanus]

I am going to buy one of these for my daughter when she starts Kumon, but the poor pencil support sucks. Having a pencil that is always charged whenever my son does his assignment is so handy, especially since he doesn't remember to charge things. For this, we will have to constantly monitor the pencil to make sure she can do her homework.

 

[Snark218]

While the new iPad's a useful thing, and has improved at the price point, I'm afraid I'm done with the ongoing infrastructure. Despite the great third party app ecosystem and great touch response, Apple's moves over the years have moved me out of their customer base.

First it was goodbye audio jack, through to the deletion of the home button. Along the way countless little troubling bits, and still a file system that fights you all the way. Well, if you are trying to do audio production anyway. Not their main use case, I admit, but with little consideration given it despite the great body of works being done on it.

I'll keep what I've got though, for as long as Animoog works on it.

Really begs the question why you're doing audio production on an iPad, and other than the audio jack and its relevance to that razor-thin edge case, why the lack of a home button or a fully fledged Finder is a dealbreaker.

 

[GaitherBill]

As long as it comes in pink, my mom will be perfectly happy with it.

 

[NOT_RICK]

I've really been wanting the latest 11 inch iPad pro to replace my 7ish year old regular iPad, but I simply don't use my iPad enough to justify buying such an expensive device. When you add the keyboard and apple pencil to the mix, you might as well just buy a laptop, considering the cost. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy this cheaper one, but I'm really lusting over that OLED screen.

 

[Louis XVI]

Considering the iPad isn't useful for productivity with the lone exception of graphics (and maybe some other niches i don't even know about), the cheapest iPad will always do for "content consumption".

I have one on my nightstand. I bought it last year (to replace a really old one in the household), but i think I bought the already obsolete model. I forgot what model year it is and I don't care enough to check, it's good enough for browsing and reading.

I don’t understand this reasoning. TVs and stereos are purely “content consumption” devices, but we don’t automatically buy the cheapest one. Sometimes it’s worth paying extra for a nicer experience. I’m sure I could get by with a base iPad, but the current iPad Pros are great at consuming content, and for me at least was worth every penny.

 

[Coriolanus]

I don’t understand this reasoning. TVs and stereos are purely “content consumption” devices, but we don’t automatically buy the cheapest one. Sometimes it’s worth paying extra for a nicer experience. I’m sure I could get by with a base iPad, but the current iPad Pros are great at consuming content, and for me at least was worth every penny.

Different people have different priorities or preferences for consumption. What's there to not understand?

The fact that there's a bajillion ultra cheap TCL, Vizio, Roku or whatever budget TVs tell you that a lot of people are okay with buying the cheapest. I have also never owned a stereo unless the cheap sound bar I had with my TV counts.

 

[Koobluh]

I work at a school district that is 1:1 with iPads. The reason for the lack of a laminated screen is specifically because of schools who repair these things every single day.

 

[limeos]

the headphone jack is gone

This makes it notably worse for a kids tablet. Its either adaptor or bluetooth. Does anybody know if you can connect multiple bt-headphones at the same time?

 

[ced_122]

Yeah, I'm not really seeing any reasons to upgrade my 10th Gen iPad, considering I barely use it anyway, and while the updated RAM is nice, I don't think it justifies the price for media consumption and basic browsing. Upgrading my 8th Gen to the 10th was a no-brainer simply for the USB-C, not this time.

Still a nice upgrade for work, where we use base iPads with LTE for our web app.

 

[Graeme K]

I know I’m at the extreme end of this, but I fully agree with the frustration with iPads being effectively fungible devices that you use the same way regardless of their “tier.”

I get a free iPad from my company. I can upgrade every two years, and I pick the model and accessories. When I onboarded in 2018 I picked the then-brand-new iPad Pro with the A12X, the type cover, the pencil, and cellular.

I’m still using it now, in 2025, because it still gets software updates and does iPad things. There’s not been a single iPad thing yet I need a new iPad for. They keep shoving more processing power in them but not doing anything with it, really.

 

[DancinginAshes]

Considering the iPad isn't useful for productivity with the lone exception of graphics (and maybe some other niches i don't even know about), the cheapest iPad will always do for "content consumption".

I have one on my nightstand. I bought it last year (to replace a really old one in the household), but i think I bought the already obsolete model. I forgot what model year it is and I don't care enough to check, it's good enough for browsing and reading.

Cheapest ipad is also a good option for a kid, because unlike all the garbage cheap android tablets, the ipad will be functional for 4-5 years assuming the kid doesn't smash the screen.

Even with a cracked screen, my son used his first base-model ipad for four years before the cat knocked it over and the screen hit an object on the floor that totally fragged it. We're hoping to get 5-6 years out of the newer one.

 

[Hagen]

Honestly about a month before the. new iPad came out, we bought 2 new iPads for the kids, a new one w/upgraded storage for me, and one for my gf's mom. I knew the new ones were coming, but we had money and honestly...it's not that big a deal. I even bought a Mini for my gf a couple weeks ago when Best Buy dropped them to 400. It's replacing her old kindle and she is in love w/it.

If I had the spare cas and a good reason to grab a 13" Pro I would. I'm sure music and movies sound nicer on it and it's surprisingly light feeling them at the store. I've owned a 1, 3, 8 and a 10. Kids had a Mini 2 and later 8 and 10 for iPads. Gf has had Airs before this round I think. My son got my old 8, which was an upgrade from his old one he was using (maybe an Air from his grandmother), but it still has double the storage of his sister's new ones so he doesn't mind.

 

[zogus]

I know I’m at the extreme end of this, but I fully agree with the frustration with iPads being effectively fungible devices that you use the same way regardless of their “tier.”

I get a free iPad from my company. I can upgrade every two years, and I pick the model and accessories. When I onboarded in 2018 I picked the then-brand-new iPad Pro with the A12X, the type cover, the pencil, and cellular.

I’m still using it now, in 2025, because it still gets software updates and does iPad things. There’s not been a single iPad thing yet I need a new iPad for. They keep shoving more processing power in them but not doing anything with it, really.

I agree about the iPad, but what about your other devices? What are you doing with your phone or your PC that weren't possible in 2018 because the apps didn't exist? Honest question, I can't think of anything myself. My current gear can do things faster, but the type of apps I use haven't really changed.

 

[salinmooch]

I did not even know the iPad could mirror its display. I guess I haven’t kept up. When I was reading this, I plugged my iPad Mini into my Apple Studio display, and sure enough it gets mirrored in the display. That is actually pretty neat. I can definitely see myself using the feature in the future.

Yeah, I use this to throw video on a slightly larger portable monitor we use in our tiny camping trailer when it's raining. Sometimes, the iPad mirroring wastes space depending on the monitor layout, e.g. doesn't fill the whole screen, but typically we are just sending video (there it works more like casting) and that works great.

The Dex-like stage manager looks like it makes IOS more useful for actual work, but it's only for fancier ipads

https://support.apple.com/guide/ipa...ws-ipad1240f36f/18.0/ipados/18.0#iPad515fef4b

 

[caramelpolice]

Grabbed one of these as a gift for a friend going through a rough spot. It really is all the iPad most people need. The Ars audience is savvy enough to care about things like a laminated display or M3, but a non-techie friend who just wants something bigger than their phone to read comics on and watch YouTube and play mobile games? This is plenty.

 

[crepuscularbrolly]

Just got one. I like the cheerful color. I like the improved performance over the 9th gen that I had. The $80 price for the simple cover feels like highway robbery. But the $125 trade-in value for the 9th gen iPad made the upgrade worthwhile. Also, front camera on the long side means I don't have to squint at my phone and appear to be looking away when I make video calls.

 

[gnasher729]

I did not even know the iPad could mirror its display. I guess I haven’t kept up. When I was reading this, I plugged my iPad Mini into my Apple Studio display, and sure enough it gets mirrored in the display. That is actually pretty neat. I can definitely see myself using the feature in the future.

That has been the case for years. I sometimes used it to show stuff to the whole family on my TV. (I have an old Apple TV, can’t remember if thats needed or if the TV does it on its own).

 

[Fred Duck]

I did not even know the iPad could mirror its display. I guess I haven’t kept up. When I was reading this, I plugged my iPad Mini into my Apple Studio display, and sure enough it gets mirrored in the display. That is actually pretty neat. I can definitely see myself using the feature in the future.

Wired mirroring has been around for a while. More than that, all the way back in 2011, the hit app Real Racing 2 allowed you to AirPlay to an AppleTV and it would display a map on your iOS device so it's not necessarily limited to mirroring.

https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/real-...yer-on-iphone-4s-and-ipad-2-video-06-10-2011/

I believe RR3 still allows you to do that.

For many years, iPads were very flexible multipurpose devices.

 

[DelvenDarcaine]

The only thing I use my iPad for is TV. It’s done a fantastic job replacing my TV set which I haven’t used since 2020.

So yeah, the base iPad (iPad 10 in my case) is all the iPad I need.

 

[torp]

Different people have different priorities or preferences for consumption. What's there to not understand?

The fact that there's a bajillion ultra cheap TCL, Vizio, Roku or whatever budget TVs tell you that a lot of people are okay with buying the cheapest. I have also never owned a stereo unless the cheap sound bar I had with my TV counts.

I believe he wouldn't really want to know how old my TV is either, in spite of me typing this message on the latest model of macbook pro

 

[the_frakker]

Just checked Apple’s refurbished store and you can currently get an iPad Air (5th gen) with an M1 for $379. Seems to me that the extra $50 would go along way in this scenario.

 

[LtKernelPanic]

Would I buy one? No, not after having an 11” Pro I wouldn’t but for the average person it’s still a great iPad at a reasonable price.

 

[aramando]

Really begs the question why you're doing audio production on an iPad, and other than the audio jack and its relevance to that razor-thin edge case, why the lack of a home button or a fully fledged Finder is a dealbreaker.

I think the reason is basically a big touchscreen. Music production (and performance, of electronic genres) benefits from having lots of hands-on control, and without spending an absolute fortune, you basically have two main routes to go down: a mappable hardware controller that doesn't display what the controls are currently mapped to do, and doesn't reflect the current parameter values, or a touch screen with controls that are virtual but don't have those other limitations. Still, you can set something up where the iPad is just the controller, and you do the real work on a laptop or even with hardware instruments, where the other shortcomings of the ipadOS experience don't matter.

Here's Orbital talking about their use of iPads in their live setup