The official iPad site list four different kinds of iPad. There is the iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, and iPad Mini. The iPad Pro is the ultimate iPad experience with the most advanced technology. The iPad Air has serious performance in a thin and light design. The iPad has the colorful, all‑screen iPad for the things you do every day. The iPad Mini is the full iPad experience in an ultraportable design.

iPadOS

iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple’s iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, such as multitasking.

What are the different kinds of iPads? There are four different kinds of iPads. Let’s start at the high-end with the iPad Pro.

iPad Pro

It is 13″ or 11″. Ultra Retina XDR. “The world’s most advanced display”. Extreme brightness and precise contrast. The thinnest Apple product ever (5.1mm). The new Ultra Retina XDR display introduces groundbreaking tandem OLED technology. Extreme brightness, incredibly precise contrast, and advanced technologies like ProMotion and True Tone give you a jaw-dropping visual experience. And you can use Reference Mode for colour-accurate workflows. It has the M4, the next generation of Apple silicon. An entirely new display engine enables stunning precision, colour and brightness. The iPad Pro does not have a Home button. To navigate you must use swiping (gestures).

iPad Air

It’s 13″ or 11″. M2 chip. high-resolution Liquid Retina display. Both displays deliver a brilliant, responsive and colour-accurate viewing experience. It’s nearly 50 percent faster than the previous generation. Apple Pencil sets the standard for how drawing, painting, handwriting and note-taking should feel — intuitive, precise and magical. The all-new Apple Pencil Pro adds even more capabilities.

iPad

10.9‑inch Liquid Retina display. Draw, paint and write with Apple Pencil. Type comfortably, use a trackpad and enjoy content with the versatile two-piece design of the Magic Keyboard Folio. Run your favourite apps side by side. The A14 Bionic chip delivers power and performance for any activity. Shoot content with the 12MP Wide back camera and a landscape 12MP Ultra Wide front camera. Download files, play games online and stream movies with Wi-Fi 6. And when you’re away from Wi-Fi, you can access superfast connections with 5G. iPad comes with powerful and capable apps like Photos, Maps, Messages, Apple News, Mail and Safari. And with over a million apps on the App Store designed just for iPad, you’ll find the right app for anything you want to do. To see a list of the 10 generations (as of December 2024) of iPads and their specifications, go to the unofficial wiki page.

iPad Mini

The 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display features True Tone, P3 wide colour and ultralow reflectivity. 500mnits peak brightness. Apple Pencil attaches magnetically to the side of iPad mini, so it’s always with you. iPad mini has an all-day battery life. Join superfast 5G wireless networks. Connect and charge with the versatile USB-C port.

Which iPad Should I Get?

You could have a look at a YouTube video called iPad Buying Guide (2024) – Don’t Waste Your Money. First of all, nearly every app will run on all of the iPads. What are all of the six iPads The Tech Chap is reviewing? They are, starting with the cheapest iPad is the tenth gen iPad. Next we have the iPad Mini. Then we have the two Airs, the iPad Air 11 inch (M2) and the iPad Air 13 inch. Lastly we have the iPad Pro 11 inch (M4) and the3 iPad Pro 13 inch (M4). What are you using the iPad for? Consider upgrading the storage and maybe getting a keyboard for a more laptop-like experience.

iOS

When the first iPad was released, it shared the same operating system as the iPhone, called iOS. iPhone and iPad run using the same operating system for many years until iOS version 12. Starting with version 13, there was a split and iOS 13 now runs only on iPhone devices and new models of iPad run a new operating system called iPadOS. iPadOS was released starting with version 13.1 on September 24th 2019. iPad devices with older hardware that do not support the new iPadOS will keep running iOS 12 or previous versions of iOS.

How to check your iPadOS version?

Navigate to Settings > General > About. You will see a screen. Check the line that says “Software Version”. This screen will let you know if there is a new iPadOS version available to download and install or it will show the current version.

Control Panel (Control Center)

The Control Panel lets you quickly toggle your iPad settings. On iOS 12 or later, swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen. You can use Control Center to quickly take a picture, turn on Wi-Fi, control your Apple TV, and more. To close Control Center, swipe up from the bottom center of the screen.

Older Generations

You might want to look at a refurbished iPad to save money. Amazon sells an iPad 2017 model. That’s a 5th generation iPad. It’s 9.7 inches and has 32 GB of memory. It also has the retina display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. It has an 8MP iSight camera.

You might find that you are interested in a newer iPad. Perhaps the 8th generation interests you. It has 32 GB of storage. If you plug it into the USB port on your Windows machine, the open the File Explorer in Windows,