The new iPad vs. the competition: Teaching tools

Thanks to its generous discount program Apple was the king of the education market for decades. Some schools even straight up gave their students iPads. However, many institutions are increasingly adopting Chromebooks as their system of choice, which offer up kid-friendly features at a much lower price. Last year gave us the first budget iPad, and today Apple gave it a slight update and unveiled a host of education-focused features. But even Pencil support and a ton more iCloud storage might not win over educators in right away, especially with products like Acer’s Chromebook Tab 10 on the horizon. We’ve stacked up the new iPad versus the Tab 10 as well another budget tablet, the Fire HD 10.

iPad (2018)
Acer Chromebook Tab 10
Amazon Fire HD 10

Price
$299 for schools / $329 retail
$329
$150, $190

Dimensions
240 x 169.5 x 7.5mm (9.4 x 6.6 x 0.29 inches)
238.2 x 172.2 x 9.98mm (9.38 x 6.78 x 0.39 inches)
262 x 159 x 9.8mm (10.3 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches)

Weight
469g (1.03 pounds)
550g (1.21 pounds)
500g (1.11 pounds)

OS
iOS 11
Chrome OS
Fire OS 5.6

Display
9.7-inch Retina display
9.7-inch IPS LCD
10.1-inch IPS LCD

Resolution
2,048 x 1,536 (264 ppi)
2,048 x 1,536 (264ppi)
1,920 x 1,200 (224ppi)

Aspect ratio
4:3
4:3
16:10

Processor
Apple A10
OP1 (Rockchip RK3399)
MediaTek MT8173, quad-core 1.8 GHz + 1.4 GHz

Memory
TBA
4GB
2GB

Storage
32 / 128GB
32GB
32/64GB

Ports
Lightning
USB Type-C 3.1, microSD
USB Type-B 2.0 , microSD

Front camera
1.2MP, f/2.2, 720p video
2MP
0.3MP

Rear camera
8MP, f/2.4, 1080p video at 30fps
5MP
2MP

Cellular radio
Optional
GSM/EDGE
CDMA
UMTS/HSPA/
HSPA+/DC-HSDPA
LTE
None
None

WiFi
Dual band 802.11ac
Dual-band, 802.11ac
Dual-band, 802.11ac

Bluetooth
v4.2
v4.1
v4.1

Battery
up to 10 hours
34Wh, up to 9 hours
up to 10 hours

Catch up on all of the news from Apple’s education event right here!