iPad Air M4 vs. iPad A16: Every Difference Explained! — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Is the iPad A16 enough for you or do you
2. 0:02really need to upgrade to get the M4? In
3. 0:04this video, we're going to compare both
4. 0:06of these iPads, see all the differences
5. 0:08between them, and help you decide if the
6. 0:09A16 is going to be sufficient for you or
7. 0:11if you should spend extra to get the M4
8. 0:13instead. At first glance, these look
9. 0:15very similar, but they're actually quite
10. 0:17different. So, both of them do have a
11. 0:18Touch ID button for unlocking them.
12. 0:19They've got volume up and down buttons.
13. 0:21There's the Touch ID button that you can
14. 0:22lock with. And then, on the bottom of
15. 0:24both of them, you've got the single
16. 0:26USB-C port. The USB-C speeds on the iPad
17. 0:28A16 is limited to USB 2, 480 megabit
18. 0:32speeds, and the M4 Air uses USB 3 for 10
19. 0:35gigabit speeds. Also, the Air is a
20. 0:37little bit thinner and lighter than the
21. 0:40iPad A16. With the iPad A16, you can
22. 0:42only get this one in the 11-in display
23. 0:44size, but with the Air, you can choose
24. 0:46to get it either in an 11-in or a 13-in
25. 0:49display size. So, if you want the
26. 0:51extra-large iPad, you can get that
27. 0:52without going all the way up to the Pro.
28. 0:54Also, both of these have a single camera
29. 0:55on the back, and I found the image
30. 0:56quality to be pretty similar on those,
31. 0:59and they also have very comparable
32. 1:01landscape cameras on the front, which
33. 1:03are very nice for video calls if you've
34. 1:04got this on a keyboard case or you're
35. 1:05holding it like this cuz you can look at
36. 1:07the top of the iPad instead of the side,
37. 1:10which feels a lot more natural. Let's
38. 1:11talk more about displays. The iPad Air
39. 1:13M4 features a fully laminated display,
40. 1:16which means the glass on the top of it
41. 1:18is actually fully laminated to the
42. 1:20display itself. So, it feels like you're
43. 1:22actually touching the pixels on it, and
44. 1:23there's no air gap on it. So, the iPad
45. 1:26A16 does have a small air gap, and
46. 1:29sometimes feel a little bit hollow when
47. 1:31you're tapping on it, and if you use
48. 1:32this with an Apple Pencil, it doesn't
49. 1:34feel quite as smooth and fluid as the
50. 1:36iPad Air. Also, the iPad Air M4 has a
51. 1:38better anti-reflective coating, which is
52. 1:40better for outdoors or if you're using
53. 1:42it in a bright room. They also have
54. 1:44completely different color spaces. The
55. 1:46A16 has sRGB, which is kind of the
56. 1:48standard. The Air features P3 wide
57. 1:50color, which just means that the blacks
58. 1:52are going to be deeper, and the colors
59. 1:53are a lot more vivid. It's hard to
60. 1:55explain, but when you look at them side
61. 1:56by side, you do notice that the display
62. 1:59on the Air looks better than the A16
63. 2:01even though they're both technically
64. 2:03rated for 500 nits of peak brightness.
65. 2:05The Air is quite a bit nicer to look at.
66. 2:07Also, talking a little bit more about
67. 2:08hardware, the speaker quality of the Air
68. 2:10is significantly improved over the A16,
69. 2:13and the microphone quality on the Air is
70. 2:15a little bit better as well. Both of
71. 2:16these are rated for up to 10 hours of
72. 2:18battery life, and I didn't notice one or
73. 2:20the other of these feeling like it
74. 2:21drained the battery faster, even though
75. 2:23my A16 is about a year old now. Let's
76. 2:25talk about the chipsets. The A16 has the
77. 2:27A16 Bionic chip, which was originally
78. 2:30released with the iPhone 14 Pro. The
79. 2:32iPad Air M4 has the M4 processor, which
80. 2:35really is the chip from a laptop shoved
81. 2:38into the body of an iPad, which is going
82. 2:39to support the full suite of Apple
83. 2:41intelligence features. The iPad A16
84. 2:43doesn't have most of the Apple
85. 2:45intelligence tools, but we're still
86. 2:46waiting for them to release most of the
87. 2:48ones they promised, so I'm not really
88. 2:49sure how much this actually matters. The
89. 2:51bigger deal, though, is the iPad A16 has
90. 2:53just 6 GB of RAM, and the M4 has 12 GB
91. 2:56of RAM, which makes this feel much
92. 2:57better for multitasking, moving back and
93. 2:59forth between applications. Really
94. 3:01appreciate the Air for that. Also, if
95. 3:03you want to use these with an external
96. 3:04display, you can, but with the A16, it
97. 3:06only supports mirroring, so it's going
98. 3:08to show the same exact thing as what the
99. 3:10iPad shows, and it's not going to fill
100. 3:12your external monitor. But with the Air,
101. 3:14this supports extended display, which
102. 3:15allows the second display to act as a
103. 3:18completely independent screen, so you
104. 3:20can move applications up and down that.
105. 3:21You could watch a video on one screen
106. 3:22while working on the other. This makes
107. 3:24it feel a lot more like using a desktop
108. 3:26computer with an external display. Both
109. 3:28of these also support multiple windows
110. 3:30and resizing the windows with iPadOS 26,
111. 3:32which is really nice, but I did find
112. 3:35that the Air performs significantly
113. 3:36better for resizing and moving windows
114. 3:38around. Sometimes it can lag a little
115. 3:40bit on A16. It's just not quite as fluid
116. 3:43as the Air M4. When you go to buy these,
117. 3:45you also have to choose how much storage
118. 3:46you want. Both of these start with 128
119. 3:49GB of storage, but the A16 only is
120. 3:51available with up to 512 GB. The M4 Air,
121. 3:54you can go all the way up to 1 TB, but
122. 3:56adding more storage definitely raises
123. 3:58the price significantly. Apple Pencil
124. 4:00support is one of the huge differences
125. 4:02in these. So, we already talked a little
126. 4:03bit about the laminated display, so
127. 4:05using the iPad A16 doesn't feel quite as
128. 4:07nice because of the air gap, and the A16
129. 4:10is either compatible with the original
130. 4:11Apple Pencil or with the newer Apple
131. 4:13Pencil USB-C that you have to charge and
132. 4:16pair with USB-C, which is a little bit
133. 4:18of an annoyance. There's also no
134. 4:20pressure sensitivity with the USB-C
135. 4:22Apple Pencil. The iPad Air M4 can either
136. 4:25use the USB-C Apple Pencil if you want
137. 4:26to save money, or can also support the
138. 4:28Apple Pencil Pro, which is really nice
139. 4:30because this one actually can charge and
140. 4:32pair magnetically, so you don't even
141. 4:34have to use a cable with this. It also
142. 4:36supports more advanced features like
143. 4:37squeeze, barrel roll, haptic feedback,
144. 4:40and of course, you've got the magnetic
145. 4:41charging. With the USB-C Apple Pencil,
146. 4:43it still can be magnetically attached,
147. 4:45but it's not going to charge, and it's
148. 4:46not going to pair. Connectivity is
149. 4:48another area where these are pretty
150. 4:50different. So, the iPad A16 has Wi-Fi 6
151. 4:53and Bluetooth 5.3. The iPad Air M4 has
152. 4:56Apple's new N1 chip, so it has Bluetooth
153. 4:586, which has lower latency, and it also
154. 5:00has Wi-Fi 7, which is going to give you
155. 5:02faster speeds, and it also handle
156. 5:03congested areas a little bit better.
157. 5:05Wi-Fi 7 is still pretty new in routers,
158. 5:07so this is definitely more of a
159. 5:08future-proofing feature. If you want a
160. 5:10keyboard case for these, you can get
161. 5:11Apple's Magic Keyboard Folio for the
162. 5:13iPad A16, which has a kickstand on it,
163. 5:15which makes it not as good for typing on
164. 5:17your lap. Also, the keyboard is
165. 5:19detachable if you want to use it with
166. 5:20the kickstand by itself, which is kind
167. 5:22of a nice feature. Or if you get the
168. 5:23iPad Air, it's available with the Magic
169. 5:25Keyboard, which has the cantilever
170. 5:27design, which makes the iPad float, and
171. 5:29it has a second port for charging it. I
172. 5:31like this one a little bit better. It's
173. 5:32a little bit more comfortable to type on
174. 5:34as well, and you can use it on a lap
175. 5:36easier because of the flat base on it.
176. 5:38Next, let's talk about the colors. The
177. 5:39A16 is available in some vibrant colors
178. 5:41like you can get it in blue, pink,
179. 5:43yellow, or silver. The M4 Air comes in
180. 5:46pastel colors like starlight, space
181. 5:48gray. Also, you can get it in the purple
182. 5:50and the muted blue. Also, you can get
183. 5:52either of these with a cellular modem,
184. 5:54which does cost a little bit more, but
185. 5:55the convenience of that is pretty cool
186. 5:57once you get it put on your phone plan.
187. 5:58The iPad A16 typically starts at about
188. 6:00$350, and the iPad Air M4 starts at
189. 6:04$600. If you get the 13-in version, the
190. 6:06price does go all the way up to $800. If
191. 6:09you want to get the keyboards and the
192. 6:11pencils, then the pricing on them also
193. 6:13ends up being even higher because all
194. 6:15the accessories really add up fast with
195. 6:17an iPad. My recommendation is get the
196. 6:19iPad A16 if you're on a tight budget,
197. 6:21and you really want something that's for
198. 6:23basic media consumption, light school
199. 6:25work, or if you just want to use it for
200. 6:27casual content consumption. Also, if
201. 6:28you're going to use it a lot with
202. 6:30AirPods, you're not going to care as
203. 6:31much about the worse speaker quality on
204. 6:33it. But get the iPad Air M4 if you want
205. 6:35to have the higher-quality display,
206. 6:37better pencil support without the air
207. 6:39gap, also better speakers, Apple
208. 6:41intelligence, and full external monitor
209. 6:43support. These all make great reasons to
210. 6:46upgrade to buying the M4 iPad Air. So,
211. 6:48which would you pick? The iPad A16 or
212. 6:50the Air? Let me know in the comments
213. 6:51below what you think. And if you're
214. 6:53interested in buying either of these, I
215. 6:54got links to buy in the description
216. 6:55below. If you need any personalized help
217. 6:56picking one out, go to my website
218. 6:58adamtalks.tech/ipad,
219. 7:00where I'm happy to give you some
220. 7:01personalized advice. Like this video and
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