By Cynthia Karena
The most attractive thing about the new Apple iPad isn't the colour selection of silver, gold or grey, but the price.
Referred to, even in metric Australia, as the "9.7 Inch iPad", it provides 24.6cm diagonal screen display, and will appeal to people who don't want to pay for features they won't use.
Apple's latest iPad is leaner and cheaper than its predecessors.
At $469 for the 32GB version and $599 for 128GB, these new models are $400 cheaper than the equivalent iPad Pro.
They are also slower, a little thicker at 7.5mm, and at 469g around 30g heavier. You won't be able to use an Apple Pencil or attachable keyboard, and there's no anti-reflective coating. But are these issues for you?
If you're saying 'so what' to all of the above, then you've just saved a whack if you're in the market. The speakers aren't as good as the iPad Pro, but movie trailers and all my apps from Solar Walk to Garage Band sound superb and look crisp.
Both have the same screen resolution (2048 x 1536 pixels), and both have reasonably good battery life, lasting at least a day or so before recharging. The most surprising thing is that there is a headphone jack, since Apple apparently introduced the 'no jack' policy in the iPhone 7.
The new iPad has an eight‑megapixel camera. It would be nice to have the double 12-megapixel wide-angle and telephoto cameras of the iPhone 7 Plus, but it's not a big issue, as most people tend to take photos with their phones.
If you just use tablets for basic activities such as browsing the web, watching movies and TV, checking out social media, using apps, and playing games, then this is a decent choice at a reasonable price.