While Apple’s tablet lineup has gone through multiple shakeups over the past few years, we’ve long believed 9th generation iPad Becoming the most affordable iPad you can buy. That changed when Apple dropped the price of the 10th-generation iPad to a more reasonable $349 and discontinued its entry-level model. But the 2021 iPad is still a perfectly fine product, especially now that the 64GB storage base model has dropped to a new low of around $224 ($105 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.
In terms of hardware, the ninth-generation iPad largely continues Apple’s previous design language. The 10.2-inch tablet has a traditional iPad look, with large bezels, a dedicated home button, and a Lightning port, not to mention a 3.5mm audio jack for using wired headphones.
Inside, you’ll find Apple’s aging A13 processor, which, despite first appearing in the iPhone 11 in 2019, is still powerful when it comes to playing games, watching movies, surfing the web, and handling all the common things you might do with a tablet. Provides fast performance. Yes, it still suffers from legacy accessories like the first-generation Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, but it’s an understandable trade-off given its history and price.
If you’re concerned about support, rest assured that Apple’s latest generation iPads will be compatible with iPadOS 18 when they launch in the fall. However, it doesn’t support any of Apple’s upcoming Apple Intelligence features, which require newer iPad Pro or iPad Air models with an M1 chip or later. I guess the new calculator app has to do this.
