You might not believe it , buttwonew iPads dropped yesterday . Apple seemed enwrapped on glossing over the refreshediPad 2025as much as possible , preferring that we focus on theiPad Air 2025instead . And there are reasons to do so ; the more expensive of the pair is doubtless the shinier of the two . It ’s more brawny , gorgeous , and includes the much - trumpeted Apple Intelligence too . The introductory iPad has a slower , less impressive mobile central processor , is largely unchanged from the last year , and is one of the few Apple fluid product tonotcome with Apple Intelligence as standard .

But even with all this in psyche , it ’s that iPad I have my beadlike oculus on . While most of the upgrades are quite small-scale , Apple has made one small modification that means I will now be corrupt the basic iPad , or else of something more expensive . In fact , it ’s made the iPad into the perfect pad once again .

The iPad was the best value of all the iPads

When it comes tobuying a lozenge , my advice over the years was always the same : corrupt the basic iPad .

While there ’s always an argument to buying the iPad Air , or even theiPad Pro , I find that most the great unwashed simply wo n’t need anything more powerful or capable than the bog - received $ 329 iPad . for certain , it ’s not go the prettiest exhibit , and you should n’t use it to cut videos or anything that need magnanimous amounts of processing power . But if you , like me , just need a tablet to browse the internet , read some Holy Writ , ascertain Netflix , and play the episodic game , you do n’t take anything other than the iPad . Pound - for - Ezra Pound , and indeed , dollar mark - for - dollar , it ’s the best value suggestion in the tablet marketplace , with only theAmazon Fire Max 11coming close .

My love for the introductory iPad is beyond doubt . So why is it that , even though I ’ve been in serious need of an iPad upgrade , I held off buying the10th generation iPad ? That ’s because it had one serious effect that restrain me back .

The old iPad had one serious problem

Myseventh generation iPadis still go strong . The intention is previous , yes , but the performance is undeterred by its age , and the battery capacity is still work fine for me . So it should be good to go for another five - plus years right ? It would be , but for one affair : The memory board .

My iPad was the bottom tier when it was buy , which means it came with a measly 32 GB of storage . That was n’t outstanding when it was new , but it was manageable . But in 2025 ? It ’s downright shambolic . Nary a day go by where I discover yet another app I need to use has been offloaded to make room , while it ’s still unable to update to the latest reading of iPadOS because the 10.5 GB download requires almost a third of my remain storage . I ’d have to delete the respite of my apps to update , and considering it spends most of its current life as entertainment for a toddler , I ’m not unforced to risk the ire of a two - year old should it not be ready at a moment of motivation .

There ’s an easy solution to this , of form : grease one’s palms a new iPad . But that ’s easier say than done .

The tenth gen iPad was a big upgrade . It has a handsome display , a better processor , but still work with my first gen Apple Pencil . The base model occur with 64 GB of repositing as standard , and hat may be double what I presently have , but I ’m judicious to that now . I ’d much rather have a condom cyberspace and up that a lilliputian bit more . twice it again ; grab the 128 GB interlingual rendition . That would be , what , $ 50 more ? sound fair .

The next version of the 10th gen iPad rocked in at 256 Gi , for $ 150 more . There was no 128 GB choice .

And that ’s where our story ended . 64 gigabyte ? Not enough . 256 GB ? room too much . Heck , at that price I might as well be considering theiPad mini , or even kick upstairs up the iPad Air . And cynically , that may have been why it live in the first place .

That ’s where I leave it . excogitate buy a more expensive iPad that I did n’t really need . That was , until yesterday .

The new iPad is perfect again

The raw iPad is a beautiful thing , is n’t it ? Yes , it looks basically the same as the iPad before , and the start to the A16 processor is n’t massive — but Apple choosing to raise the interior reposition to 128 GB is a gamechanger . This present unadulterated ratio of store - to - dollar , and have the iPad back to being my Aster linosyris tablet once again . It ’ll play game , scat Netflix , and let me read my pet rule book — and now it ’ll last have elbow room for them all . It may lackApple Intelligence , but honestly , I could n’t worry less about Apple ’s AI , and given how precious I am about storage space , I ’m glad to keep the reposition complimentary .

For the first time in year , the basic iPad is complete again , and I could n’t be happy .