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Comment by solardev | Hacker News Reader

I'm so confused by their lineup. I'm in the market for a new iPad, but I can never remember the difference between an iPad, iPad Pro, and Air. What's the difference between this an a 13" Pro or Non-Air? I wish they'd just have a single line of iPads with different screen sizes but the same CPU and stylus support in every generation. I'm so tired of having to play the "compare every permutation" game when shopping.

Edit: I just want a big screen for drawing and watching movies on the plane with.

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There are a few big caveats that I looked at when I recently upgraded my iPad.

Screen. The Pro screens are better. How much that matters is up to you. Given I am into photography and wanted to have the nicer screen this mattered to me. You can also get the nano-textured glass on the Pro but I don't believe you can on the others. This is a super pricey option though.

Processor. The Pro has M4, Air has M3.

USB-C port differences. I believe the Pro line have faster USB-C transfer speeds. Not sure if this has changed but it used to be a thing.

I skipped the Apple Pencil this time around, I just didn't use it enough with my previous iPad Pro to justify getting it again. I've had it for two months, so far I am happy with the decision.

There are probably others, so your point is certainly valid, that it is a pain to find the legitimate differences that might matter without digging into the specs.

iPad (cheap ol reliable)

iPad AIR (pro lite)

iPad mini (mini with iPad tech)

iPad Pro (for artists or people who think they can replace their MacBooks with it but in the end they can’t)

I don't need to replace my laptop, but I would like to learn digital drawing on it. Is there a cheaper non pro version with a big screen and stylus support? Is the Apple Pen (or Pencil?) different between models?

You can check out the range at https://www.apple.com/ipad/

The new iPad Air has a 13" model and Pencil Pro support. Starts at $799. The main difference between it and the iPad Pro is LCD screen vs OLED screen.

The iPad mini is really an Air mini (better screen than the basic iPad, etc.), except for the SoC (A17 Pro currently), which may be for size (heat dissipation) reasons.

Yeah, it's a bit different with the mini and it's longer product cycle the first half it usually goes toe to toe with the air and in the second part of the cycle with the then newly released normal iPad.

Apple has a handy spec comparison page: https://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/

I agree that the lineup is a bit muddled, but going down the specs list you can check which differences are important to you.

It's a Good, Better, Best strategy. iPad is good, iPad Air is better, iPad Pro is best.

I think just think about the categories cheap, light, and feature packed. I'm sure these categories are studied for price, weight, technically possible. I believe Apple creates the iPad lineup based on usage demographics and designs to those specifications. Choose which of those categories is the most important and shop that line. If a feature in that model lineup is no good wait a year or prioritize that particular feature for shopping.

Weight is now very close to each other:

  iPad 477 g
  Air  460 g
  Pro  444 g

(11” non-cellular)

You are correct. Maybe the names will make sense when the next generation iPad Pro line is released.

It's pretty simple. Get the Air if for yourself. Get the Pro if for work or if you want a better screen. Get the iPad for kids.

Remember when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and simplified the product line? I feel like Apple needs that again.

That was for a company that was struggling and had a much smaller customer base. As your market grows you can afford to tailor your offerings to better match different customers needs.

For the iPad, they basically have the good, better, best product line with the addition of the Mini for special cases. It's not really that complicated.

I'd say that the main complications are that the Pencil Pro only works on the Air and Pro and the keyboards have to fit the exact case size so they are not as universal as ideal. Most people don't need the pencil and not everyone needs the keyboards.

People keep bringing up this tired trope without realizing even in 2010 when Jobs was still around, you had three segments of all of their products.

Desktops - Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro.

Laptops - Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro

iPods - Shuffle, Nano and regular iPod

Phones - 3G, 3GS, and iPhone 4

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