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Apple iPad 9th gen, Wi-Fi +Cellular (A2604) with Smart Keyboard and Pencil (1st gen) review

Apple iPad 9th gen, Wi-Fi +Cellular (A2604) with Smart Keyboard and Pencil (1st gen)

CHOICE Expert Rating

69%
What is the CHOICE Expert Rating?
Good points

Good Points

  • Silent operation
  • Very good screen luminance
  • Excellent viewing angles
  • Very good screen
  • Very good touchscreen
Bad points

Bad Points

  • Keyboard is not backlit
  • Short power cord
  • No SD card slot
  • Long charge time to 80 per cent
  • Keyboard can feel cramped and has keys with shallow travel
  • No shortcut keys on the keyboard for system settings such as brightness
  • Poor storage read and write speed

Type

Ultraportable
Ultrabook
Tablet mode
Operating system
iPadOS

Recommended products

Recommended
Not recommended
Recommended for tablet use

Test results

CHOICE Expert Rating
69%
Performance score
52%
Tablet use score
79%
Ease of use score
72%
Battery life score
72%
Display score
81%
Audio score
65%
Wi-Fi score
70%
Storage write-speed (MBps)
494
Storage read-speed (MBps)
764
Wi-Fi speed (MBps)
32
Average battery life – heavy usage (hours)
5:04
Charging time to 80% full (h:min)
2:05
Expert tester comments
The 9th generation of Apple's standard iPad continues to show why this slate is the benchmark for this type of product. It's light, slim, solid, responsive, and comes with some great included software. It's not as good when used as a laptop, as the Smart Keyboard can feel quite cramped and awkward to type on, but the option is there to turn it into an everyday computer as long as it runs all the apps the you need.

Sustainability

Shop Ethical rating
D
Warranty (years)
1
Replaceable battery
Not collected
Replace/upgrade RAM
Not collected
Slots for additional RAM
Not collected
Replace/upgrade storage
Not collected
Slot for additional storage
Not collected
Replace/upgrade Wi-Fi
Not collected
Country of origin
China

Related products

Availability
Tested model

Cost

Price
$1,099.00

Specifications

Screen size (inches)
10.2
Native screen resolution (pixels)
2160 x 1620
Processor (CPU) type
Apple A13 Bionic
CPU frequency (GHz)
2.65
RAM (GB)
3
Video graphics type
Apple A13 Bionic
Storage capacity (GB)
256
Available user space (GB)
241
Storage type
SSD
Wi-Fi version
5
Weight of laptop (kg)
0.7
Weight of power supply (kg)
0.1
Size (mm, H x D x W)
14 x 180 x 250

Features

Screen finish
Glossy
Touchscreen
USB-C
USB 2.0 ports
0
USB 3.0 ports
0
USB 4 as USB-C port
0
USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1 or 2, not Thunderbolt 3 or 4) ports
0
Thunderbolt 3 or 4 (as USB-C) ports
0
SD card slot (full-size)
SD card slot (micro)
HDMI port
Gigabit ethernet port
Rear camera
Backlit keyboard levels of brightness
0

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