The best iPad 2020: choose the right Apple tablet for you

published 22 June 2020

If you are looking to buy the best iPad, then you are looking to buy the best tablet around. This is because the iPad has become synonymous with tablets in a way that Hoover is with vacuum cleaners and Bandaid is with sticking plasters.

UPDATE:Apple has taken off the wrapper off of iPadOS 14, which brings a whole host of new features to the iPad. These features include an all-new compact design for incoming FaceTime and phone calls, Siri interactions, and better search. Apps also have new sidebars and toolbars. This means that controls are consolidated in one place, making them more streamlined. iPadOS 14 also brings Scribble to iPad with Apple Pencil. This allows users to write in any text field - where it will automatically be converted to typed text.

There are two reasons for this. One is that the iPad got there first. Sure, there were large-screened personal devices on the market well before 2010. But it was the iPad that first broke through into the mainstream and established the tablet form we know today.

Secondly, the iPad is simply better than its tablet competitors. While there have been plenty of Android and Windows tablets over recent years, none have nailed the iPad formula of classy hardware, intuitive UI, rich app ecosystem and extended battery life. Not altogether in the same package, at any rate.

We’re talking about the iPad as a single entity, but of course it’s now a whole family of devices. In fact, the full roster has become ever so slightly confusing.

Here, then, are the best iPads available on the market right now. Upvote the onw you'd buy.

Related: Best laptops for students

The best iPad 2020

Apple no longer sells the second generation iPad Pro 10.5, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick one up elsewhere - and for a knock-down price. Though it lacks the sleek design of the newer Pros, this model still holds its own with a beautiful 10.5-inch ProMotion display that has to be used to be appreciated.Meanwhile its punchy A10X CPU is still more than up to the job. An impressive array of four speakers provide excellent sound, and the iPad Pro 10.5 also supports the first generation Apple Pencil.

While the 2018 iPad is the cheapest model that Apple currently sells, you can go even cheaper if you shop elsewhere. In particular, you might find stock of the previous year’s model, which is very similar indeed to its successor.It’s marginally less capable in the performance stakes, and there’s no Apple Pencil support, but everything is else is much the same. The same bright 9.7-inch display, the same storage and the same camera, all housed in the same timeless design.