Quick List
1. Best for most people
2. Best value
3. Best small
4. Best for power users
5. Best small for pros
How to choose the best iPad for you
Q&A
With Apple's May iPad refresh for 2024, the question of what is the best iPad is more pertinent than ever. With new models, price cuts, and more, the lineup is more stacked (and confusing) than ever. So what's the best iPad in 2024?
Well, now we have a brand new iPad Pro M4 and a new iPad Air 6 to choose from. There's a much cheaper 10th-generation model for budget users and the mini remains in the lineup. However, the super-cheap iPad 9 is no more, and Apple's iPad Pro is much more expensive than it used to be.
As is often the case, the best iPad depends on your needs. So whether you're a power user, need something portable, or you've got a tight budget, we've got the best iPad for you. Take a look!
Quick list
Best For Most People
The brand new iPad Air 6 is our choice for the best iPad for most people. It's the iPad Air 5 with a cherry on top, after all — a new M2 chip on the inside, a repositioned camera for improved face time, and some lovely new colors make for the best iPad Air yet. There's a new size this time around as well, in the form of a 13-inch model.
Best Value
With its most recent $100 discount, the iPad 10 becomes our pick for the best-value iPad. It's now just $349, making it the cheapest iPad on the Apple Store, and giving you great bang for your buck. It's a powerful little tablet for the price, with a great screen and some wicked colors — perfect if you don't need those more powerful M-series chips.
Best small iPad
The iPad mini is the most compact iPad in the lineup, with a smaller 8-inch screen. It's still plenty potent, however, with plenty of oomph to get you through the day. It sits between the iPad 10th gen and the Air price-wise, which means you get a slightly beefier processor than the budget option — perfect if you need some portable power.
Best for power users
The biggest and the most powerful iPad of all has had a big specs boost this time around, skipping the M3 of the MacBook Air and going straight for the brand-new M4 chip. That makes it one of Apple's most powerful portable machines, not just iPads, and if you add in one of the new Magic Keyboards you've got the recipe for a pretty stunning laptop replacement package.
Best for those who want Pro but smaller
The iPad Pro 11-inch, apart from screen size, is exactly the same as the larger 13-inch variant. That means the same M4 chip on the inside, the same keyboard add-on, and the same, mighty OLED panel on the front. Only, you know. It's smaller. This is perfect if you're on the go all the time and need loads of power, but don't want to cart around something massive.
The best iPad for most people
Unveiled in May of 2024, the brand-new iPad Air builds on the extremely successful formula of the previous model with a few distinct tweaks. First up, and most obvious, is a brand 13-inch size for people who want a larger, more expansive display without all of the bells, whistles, and cost of the iPad Pro.
The new iPad Air for 2024 comes with the M2 chip for powerful processing, making light work of even the most power-hungry apps, and beefing up AI performance thanks to the power of the Neural Engine. The new model also has faster Wi-Fi 6E for better connectivity compared to the old model.
The front-facing camera was upgraded to landscape orientation, too. Despite all of these upgrades, the iPad Air 6 holds the same starting price of $599 as its predecessor while offering twice as much storage (128GB) as standard. There are now more options too with 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB options to choose from.
Apple's new Apple Pencil Pro is also compatible with the new iPad Air, giving you access to the new haptic sensor and the gyroscope-powered gestures that make drawing and creating on iPad more intuitive than ever before.
The iPad Air 6 for 2024 is the perfect combination of power, a great design, and a price tag that isn't too expensive compared to the iPad Pro. With the cheaper iPad 10 now even cheaper, and iPad Pro $200 more expensive, it sits in a much clearer position in the lineup, even at $799 for the larger model. If you want an iPad that is perfect for content consumption, a bit of creation, and is future-proof, then this is the iPad for you, and probably everyone else too. However, the iPad Air 6 misses out on the M4 chip of the Pro, and more importantly that stunning OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. With the Air limited to 60Hz, the cheaper price tag comes with a distinct display trade-off.
The best value iPad
The iPad 10 has been our best-value iPad pick for some time, and now it's even cheaper. Alongside the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models for 2024, Apple unveiled a significant price drop for the base model in the lineup. It came at the expense of the iPad 9, but the iPad 10 is now just $349, arguably the price it should have always been. At that price, it's not only the best value pick, but also the best budget pick, as the cheapest iPad in Apple's lineup.
Apple redesigned the base iPad so you can say goodbye to bezels and hello to rounded corners. It also said goodbye to the Home button with a USB-C port instead of the Lightning port. It's all great to see but it's what's under the hood that's perhaps most important.
Powering the entire iPad (10th generation) is the A14 Bionic, an upgrade of the A13 Bionic found in the 9th-gen iPad. This marks a 20% increase in CPU and a 10% improvement in graphics compared to the iPad (9th generation). There's no doubt the M-series chips that you find in higher-end iPads are more powerful, but for 90% of users, the A14 will pack enough punch to get through everything you can throw at it.
There's also a better rear camera compared to its predecessor, now sporting a 12MP lens compared to the 7MP camera on the back of the iPad (2021). Apple Pencil (1st-generation) support is useful for drawing, sketching, painting, or taking notes.
However, there are issues for the iPad (10th generation). For instance, you need to decide between a USB-C Apple Pencil or the 1st generation with a dongle; there is no 2nd generation support here. Also, the non-laminated display isn't ideal. The familiar hollow sound when you tap on the display may be a fairly minor inconvenience, but it still exists. Also, Apple has removed the headphone jack, so wireless headphones are essential.
Overall, the iPad (2022) was a welcome change from the stagnant design of the iPad for the past decade, but that change comes with growing pains for both old and new users alike. A new price point makes this a much more enticing choice for 2024, and with no budget iPad 9 in the lineup, it's going to be the only option for a lot of people.
The best small iPad
The iPad mini 6 was the most significant update to the iPad mini line since the introduction of the first-generation model. In 2024, it is still a no-brainer pick for the best small iPad, mostly because it's the only small iPad.
Pretty much everything about it has been improved and the entire team at iMore is impressed with its portability and power blend. It has a larger display than before, a huge processor boost, and much more.
The tablet also has Apple Pencil 2 support so the iPad mini 6 is a fantastic drawing tablet. It's simple to take notes or sketch something out, while you can always merely control the tablet with the stylus. Alongside that, its 8.3-inch screen is a beautiful and larger display than an iPhone, making it excellent for watching videos or playing Apple Arcade titles on the goal.
With upgrades to the camera, storage options, and the updated design, it's impossible to pass up on the iPad mini 6 if you're a fan of small tablets. A word to those with an eye on the future, however. The iPad mini 7 is a rumored upgrade expected in the second half of 2024. If having the latest and greatest means anything to you, you might want to wait a few more months for that new tiny tablet.
The best iPad for power users
With an absolutely mind-boggling update for 2024, the new M4 iPad Pro 13-inch is absolutely the best iPad for power users. It comes with a brand new OLED display that leverages two displays in a tandem stack, creating what Apple calls the Ultra Retina XDR Display. The best tablet display on the market, the new display gives out 1000 nits of brightness, 1600 nits of peak HDR brightness, brighter specular highlights, more detail in shadows, and better low-light performance than ever before. True professionals can get a nano-texture glass option for $100 extra.
Under the hood, the iPad has Apple's most advanced mobile chip ever, the M4. Built on the second generation of the 3nm process, it features four CPU performance cores and up to six efficiency cores, as well as next-generation machine learning powered by the Neural Engine. Apple says the M4 is 1.5 faster for CPU performance over the M2. The GPU is the same 10-core beast from the M3, so the iPad Pro for 2024 now supports hardware-accelerated accelerated ray-tracing and mesh shading. Compared to M2, M4 uses half the power to deliver the same performance, delivering staggering efficiency.
The new Neural Engine is capable of 38 trillion operations per second, 60x more than the first ever Neural Engine from the A11. All of this is to say the new iPad Pro for 2024 will power wild levels of pro app usage, such as the new Final Cut 2 for iPad and Logic Pro 2 for iPad.
While you won't be taking photos on your iPad, the rear camera upgrade is nice. More importantly, the front-facing camera is now landscape-oriented for FaceTime and video conferencing. The iPad Pro M4 is also complemented by the new Apple Pencil Pro and a new Magic Keyboard. The former has new gestures, a haptic engine, and a gyroscope, while the latter is more premium and aluminum than ever before. This is hands down the best power-use iPad on the market, but you'll pay for the privilege. The new iPad Pro models are $200 more expensive than their predecessors across the board, starting at $1,299 for this larger model.
The best iPad for those who want Pro but smaller
An obvious pick, the best Pro iPad but smaller is the smaller version of the Pro iPad. The new 11-inch model for 2024 boasts one huge advantage over its predecessor. It's identical to the larger model in every way. Where the M2 iPad Pro 11-inch lacked the mini-LED display of its big brother, the M4 iPad Pro shares the same feature set across the board. That means you get the same M4 chip and the same OLED display no matter what size you choose.
The iPad Pro 13-inch is 0.2 mm thinner than the smaller model, but otherwise, the two are identical. They offer the same storage, display, chip, Apple Pencil Pro support, and even the same battery life and performance. For the first time ever the 11-inch iPad Pro is not a compromise compared to the 13-inch model. As such, the only consideration for prospective customers is its smaller size and its cheaper price point. That latter one is incredibly important given this model is $200 more than the old one cost, just like the 13-inch model.
How to choose the best iPad for you
For nearly everyone, the iPad Air 6 (2024) is the perfect blend of power, performance, price, and size. It's got the potent M2 chip, but it doesn't have the ProMotion OLED display of the Pro. It's much more capable than the base-model 10th generation, but it's not nearly as cheap.
If you want a budget iPad, or the best value for money, the 2022 iPad 10 is an easy winner thanks to its new price tag for 2024. The iPad mini 6 remains the only choice for those who want a small tablet, despite a potential looming iPad mini 7 on the horizon.
The Pro lineup is more powerful than ever thanks to the M4 iPad Pro, and the choice between the two sizes is much more straightforward now that there's no display divide between them. The only consideration you have to make is price and size.
Remember, the best iPad is almost always the one that suits you best, so think about your needs and what you'll be using your iPad for on a day-to-day basis. Better yet, get into your nearest Apple store and go hands-on with one so you can see for yourself the differences in size, weight, display, and responsiveness.
Q&A
When is the next iPad coming out?
The next iPads coming out are the new iPad 11 and the iPad mini 7, expected in the second half of 2024.
