The base iPad is finally being left behind

I can tell you the entire story of the 11th-generation iPad by explaining the results of one benchmarking test. It’s called Geekbench, and it’s a cross-platform tool that simulates a bunch of real-world activities to give each device a score that roughly approximates how powerful it is. It’s not perfect (no benchmark is), but it can be revealing. In this case, it shows off an iPad that is very good at the things iPads have always been good at, but it may be about to hit its limit — and definitely isn’t ready for what’s to come.

When you run a Geekbench CPU test on a device like the iPad, it tests both single-core and multicore performance. Most modern devices have multiple cores: the iPad’s A16 chip has five CPU cores and four GPU cores; the current iPad Pro has nine and 10, respectively; and you can spec the latest Mac Studio all the way up to 28 CPU cores and 60 GPU cores. Not all cores are created the same, and we could talk about this forever, but let’s not.

All you need to know is that a single-core process only does one thing at a time and is typically used for simple everyday computing tasks, like running your email app or refreshing your Spotify homepage. Multicore processes, on the other hand, are designed for when lots of things need to happen simultaneously, like when you’re editing video or creating a 3D model that needs to be built, rendered, and moved all at once. Again, there are few hard-and-fast rules to all this. But in general, the more cores you have, the more you can do at once.

Which brings me back to the scores. The new $349 base-model iPad’s scores are practically identical to last year’s M2-powered Air on single-core processes, and this year’s M3 Air only beats it by about 11 percent. This suggests that for most normal, simple iPad things, they should all perform about the same, which has been exactly my experience. Watching videos, browsing the web, swiping through photos — the M3 Air is occasionally a smidge smoother, but they’re all effectively identical.

On the multicore test, though, which measures the device’s ability to do lots of things at once, the base iPad gets absolutely trucked by its brethren. The M3 Air scored more than double the base iPad, and even last year’s M2 Air did 60 percent better on the tests. In Geekbench’s GPU test, which is focused specifically on the kind of intensive graphical processing you’ll care about in video games, editing apps, and powerful creativity tools, both Airs more than doubled the iPad.

What those numbers show is what my testing confirms: that the base iPad is still a lovely, fast, usable device for casual use. It’s an excellent Netflix machine, with an 11-inch screen and four speakers that pump loud, if not fabulous, sound. It’s great for browsing the web, plenty fast for casual games (I’ve been playing a lot of Dredge and Mini Metro, in addition to my usual diet of crosswords and Tiny Wings), and responsive in everyday use — all in all a very good iPad.

But as soon as you crank up the intensity, the base iPad starts to falter. There are a bunch of games it simply can’t play: Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4 just straight-up don’t support the device. There are others, like Call of Duty: Warzone, where you can really feel the lack of graphics power. I’ll be running down a darkened alley in Warzone, and the shadows start to flicker in and out of position, rendering and rerendering a beat too slowly. Even in productivity-focused tools like Notability, the base iPad lags a bit under the weight of a particularly visual page. And if you’re a multitasker, prone to firing up Stage Manager or just a lot of heavy slide-over usage, you’ll notice the difference.

Even if you don’t care about the cores right now, I bet you will pretty soon. The base iPad doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, for instance, and while it’s not missing much right now, there will probably be some worthwhile local AI features in the next few years. (The other AI-related downside: the iPad also has 6GB of RAM, when the Air has 8GB.) As more apps update to take advantage of the extra power on the Air and Pro, they might start to feel even slower on the iPad. The other iPads have much more power than most people need, but that means they have space for you and your needs to grow. The base iPad doesn’t.

The other big tradeoff with the base iPad is the accessories. Both the iPad Pro and iPad Air support the latest Apple Pencil and have very good Magic Keyboard accessories, none of which work on the iPad. Instead, you get the last-gen Pencil and the substantially worse Magic Keyboard Folio. Is it annoying that this tablet is the same size as the 11-inch Air and totally could work in the same keyboard case, except Apple didn’t include the magnets? Yes. But this is where things are.

I still think the iPad is a great tablet, and it’s very good at most of the things most people need from their iPads. If its $349 price fits your budget, or you’re looking for something simple to give to the kids, buy it with no reservations. Frankly, if you just want the thing because the yellow and pink are the best colors Apple offers on any of its devices, I get it. But if you can, you should buy an iPad that will last you at least five years, and ideally even a few more. This iPad is already far enough behind the curve that I’m no longer confident it will last that long. For the first time in a while, I think the Air is the better deal for most people.

Photography by David Pierce / The Verge