On the heels of today’s new iPad Air announcement, Apple snuck in another tidbit you don’t want to miss: the base iPad now comes with double the starting storage and has been upgraded with the A16 chip. That means a big jump in performance, speed, and battery life; according to Apple, users can expect a performance jump of 30% over the iPad using the A13 Bionic chip.
These upgrades come at a cost, though. Despite the hardware bump, Apple Intelligence isn’t available. Considering how much of Apple’s recent marketing revolves around AI, it’s an odd exclusion, but the explanation is simple: the A16 chip only has 6GB of RAM, when the threshold for Apple Intelligence is 8GB.
The lack of Apple Intelligence feels like a missed opportunity for Apple, especially when the the A16 has a more powerful Neural Engine than even the M2 chip. The A16 could have been repackaged and given a RAM boost to meet that threshold, but Apple Intelligence isn’t necessarily a feature all users need or want.
Perhaps the more curious exclusion for the iPad crowd is that the base iPad still works with only the first-generation Apple Pencil and the Apple Pencil (USB-C).The second-generation Apple Pencil comes with several appealing upgrades, but users will have to stick to the original for now.
Despite lacking these features, the increased speed makes entry-level iPads more enticing than ever. Users seeking productivity will see snappier responses and better performance, while mobile gamers can count on the improved hardware to deliver steady frame rates.
The price remains the same as before. The iPad has become an even better value proposition than before, going toe-to-toe with Android tablets of a similar price. And because of that value, many schools are buying entry-level iPads to give to students. It isn’t the first time Apple has created a product aimed primarily at students; in 2018, the company announced the launch of the 9.7-inch iPad at a school in Chicago.
Whether you’re a student or just someone on the hunt for a budget-friendly tablet, the iPad has become an even better pick than it already was.
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it’s a…
Changing this one thing would have made the iPhone 16e much more fun
What a shame the Apple iPhone 16e isn’t more fun. I don’t mean exciting, and I’m not talking about the specification, or that a modem is the most technically interesting aspect (it’s important, but modems are inherently a bit dull) of the phone. I mean fun, and I’m specifically talking about it coming in only two colors, and the ones Apple chose are as vanilla and ordinary as you can get.
Two colors
The iPhone 16e is available in black or white. These are the most Apple colors it could have chosen, and fitting as the brand which arguably launched the white smartphone craze in 2008 with the iPhone 3G, when it joined the safe choice black iPhone 3G. What’s old is new again, but things have moved on since the days of a white iPhone capturing attention. Apple has actually moved on too, as we’ll soon show, which makes the whole situation feel out of place. There just can’t be any fanfare around a new 2025 iPhone where the choice is either boring black, or overdone white.
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I won’t be buying an iPhone 16e for anyone in my family, here’s why
Apple’s iPhone 16e is a strange duck. When one sits down and considers the specs, it’s hard to figure out where it truly fits into Apple’s lineup.
It’s apparent from the name that Apple wants you to see it as the new junior member of the iPhone 16 lineup. That’s certainly fair, and it’s arguably about time that the iPhone family got a third tier. After all, Apple’s chief rivals like Google and Samsung have had their A-series and FE-series phones for years.
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Apple missed a cute, fitting opportunity with the iPhone 16e’s name
The names of our smartphones matter. Too clunky and we forget, too wordy and we don’t remember, or too bizarre and we won’t say it. They don’t have to mean anything at all, but they need to fit. The new iPhone 16e’s name fits, far more so than the expected alternatives, and it was one of Apple’s best decisions with the phone. But there’s another name I would have preferred even more.
You’re family now
Since rumors began more than a year ago, it was assumed the iPhone 16e would be called the iPhone SE 4, or the iPhone SE (2025), which mostly followed the trend of previous devices in the range. The original iPhone SE was followed by the iPhone SE (2020), then the iPhone SE (2022), so either name was a logical path for Apple to take.
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