10.2-inch iPad’s entry-level specs match its budget price

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Here’s the 10.2-inch iPad for 2019.
Despite a larger display, the 2019 iPad has much in common with last year’s model.
Photo: Apple

The recently-announced 10.2-inch iPad replaces the 9.7-inch iPad in Apple’s lineup, but it’s not a big jump in internal specifications.

That said, Apple’s latest tablet reportedly has more RAM than its predecessor.

10.2-inch iPad specs vs. 9.7-inch iPad

The move from a 9.7-inch display to a 10.2-inch one makes the seventh-generation iPad a noticeable improvement over the 2018 model. And the new model can become a 2-in-1 laptop/tablet with the addition of an Apple Smart Keyboard.

But internally the two iPad’s specs are much more similar. Most notably, both tablets use the same processor, the dual-core 2.32 GHz Apple A10 Fusion that debuted way back with the iPhone 7. It has a Geekbench 4 score of 1406.

For comparison, last year’s top-tier iPad Pro has an octa-core 2.5GHz GHz A12X Bionic processor with a Geekbench 4 score of 4604. That doesn’t mean the high-end model will do everything 3X faster, but it’s an indication that the performance is much snappier.

Still, today came word that from expert developer Steve Troughton-Smith that the newest iPad has 3GB of RAM. That’s an increase from the 2 GB in its 2018 predecessor.

In general, iOS/iPadOS is very efficient with RAM. Still, the growing sophistication of software for Apple’s tablets caused Apple to gradually increase the amount. The latest iPad Pro models have 4GB.

The base model 7th-gen iPad comes with 32GB of storage capacity and go up to 128GB, the same as the 2018 iPad. The more expensive iPad Pro models start at 64GB and max out at 1TB.

But the 10.2-inch iPad has one more thing in common with the 9.7-inch slate it’s replacing: both cost just $329.

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