2018 iPad now for sale at Apple store, in-store pickup available at most locations in US

Posted:
in iPad edited March 2018
Apple kicked off in-store sales of the new 9.7-inch iPad through its retail chain on Friday, making good on promises to deliver the budget tablet to customers by week's end.




A quick survey of Apple's online store shows immediate availability at many locations in the U.S. and Canada, as well as Australia and major markets in Asia including Japan and Singapore. Europe appears to be receiving stock tomorrow, with both Germany and the UK showing pickup times on Saturday.

In-store pickup estimates are not yet displayed in other locales, including the important Chinese market, though ship times in most launch countries are slated for one business day.

Apple revealed the sixth-generation 9.7-inch iPad alongside a slew of educational software at its "Let's Take a Field Trip" event in Chicago on Tuesday.

The $329 slate includes a few internal improvements over last year's model, the most substantial being support for Apple Pencil.

Powering the device is Apple's A10 Fusion processor with 2GB of RAM, which first debuted in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Compared to its A9 predecessor, the new chip provides a 40 percent increase in processor performance and a 50 percent boost in graphics performance, suitable for augmented reality applications.

Everything else stays much the same, with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, front-facing 1080p FaceTime HD shooter, non-laminated display and Touch ID module for biometric authentication. The design also remains largely unchanged from the 2017 iPad, with silver, Space Gray and gold finishes.

In the U.S., iPad starts at $329 for a Wi-Fi version with 32GB of storage and moves up to $429 for a model with 128GB of flash memory. Cellular models are also available in the same capacities for $459 and $559, respectively.

As part of its renewed push into the classroom, Apple is offering the new iPad to schools and education customers at a discounted price of $299.





Outside of Apple, authorized reseller B&H is also accepting pre-orders for the 2018 iPad line with no tax collected in most states.

To help customers on the fence about picking up the latest budget iPad, AppleInsider compared the model against iPad Pro and the 2017 iPad and iPad Air 2. We also went hands-on with the device at Tuesday's event.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    Much hay has been made of the higher refresh rate on the iPP being important for smoothness when using Pencil. I'm wondering if it feels a lot less smooth on this iPad. I barely use my budget iPad from last year, which is my first one. I wanted Pencil features, but not willing to pay for iPP for the amount I'd use it. I'd pretty much solely use it for digitizing my bullet journal without having to scan pages from a dead-tree Moleskine. I'd consider trading in my "old" iPad for this, if it's not much worse than iPP.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 6
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    Much hay has been made of the higher refresh rate on the iPP being important for smoothness when using Pencil. I'm wondering if it feels a lot less smooth on this iPad. I barely use my budget iPad from last year, which is my first one. I wanted Pencil features, but not willing to pay for iPP for the amount I'd use it. I'd pretty much solely use it for digitizing my bullet journal without having to scan pages from a dead-tree Moleskine. I'd consider trading in my "old" iPad for this, if it's not much worse than iPP.
    The first Ipad pro didn't have promotion 120, so I think it's response is like that one, which was pretty adequate.
    LoveNotch_n_AirPodsLoveNotch_n_AirPodswatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 6
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,464member
    Am I the only one who realizes how the educational iPad allows for multiple users on one device, and the commercial iPad not?
  • Reply 4 of 6
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    I took my 11 year old grandson to one of the Pittsburgh Apple Stores where he bought the iPad 6th gen along with a LogiTech Keyboard last evening (Friday the 30th).  Both work great!   It's like having a little mini laptop.
    ...  The greeter didn't even know they had them out yet and the rep said it was the first she had sold. 

    The keyboard props up the iPad so it's not only the right angle for typing -- but it also works nicely for him to set it on the table while it plays videos from Apple Music & YouTube.  It's considerably bulkier and heavier than the nice Apple keyboard for the iPad Pro -- but still, it's nice.

    For him it's a great multi use device that he can use to use do his homework (Google Classroom, etc.) as well as watch videos and play games...  And, at some point, he'll be able to take it to school for notetaking, etc. when they start letting them bring their own laptops and iPads to class (but I guess that starts at some point after 5th grade)

    All in all -- it was another great experience at he Apple Store.  And, we'll be returning this evening to take a coding class...
    LoveNotch_n_AirPodswatto_cobracrosslad
  • Reply 5 of 6
    LatkoLatko Posts: 398member
    I took my 11 year old grandson to one of the Pittsburgh Apple Stores where he bought the iPad 6th gen along with a LogiTech Keyboard last evening (Friday the 30th).  Both work great!   It's like having a little mini laptop.
    ...  The greeter didn't even know they had them out yet and the rep said it was the first she had sold. 

    The keyboard props up the iPad so it's not only the right angle for typing -- but it also works nicely for him to set it on the table while it plays videos from Apple Music & YouTube.  It's considerably bulkier and heavier than the nice Apple keyboard for the iPad Pro -- but still, it's nice.

    For him it's a great multi use device that he can use to use do his homework (Google Classroom, etc.) as well as watch videos and play games...  And, at some point, he'll be able to take it to school for notetaking, etc. when they start letting them bring their own laptops and iPads to class (but I guess that starts at some point after 5th grade)

    All in all -- it was another great experience at he Apple Store.  And, we'll be returning this evening to take a coding class...
    Besides Google Classroom, would you (=> your son) still be challenged to use Apple Classkit ?
    edited March 2018
  • Reply 6 of 6
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    Latko said:
    I took my 11 year old grandson to one of the Pittsburgh Apple Stores where he bought the iPad 6th gen along with a LogiTech Keyboard last evening (Friday the 30th).  Both work great!   It's like having a little mini laptop.
    ...  The greeter didn't even know they had them out yet and the rep said it was the first she had sold. 

    The keyboard props up the iPad so it's not only the right angle for typing -- but it also works nicely for him to set it on the table while it plays videos from Apple Music & YouTube.  It's considerably bulkier and heavier than the nice Apple keyboard for the iPad Pro -- but still, it's nice.

    For him it's a great multi use device that he can use to use do his homework (Google Classroom, etc.) as well as watch videos and play games...  And, at some point, he'll be able to take it to school for notetaking, etc. when they start letting them bring their own laptops and iPads to class (but I guess that starts at some point after 5th grade)

    All in all -- it was another great experience at he Apple Store.  And, we'll be returning this evening to take a coding class...
    Besides Google Classroom, would you (=> your son) still be challenged to use Apple Classkit ?
    That's not up to him.   His school and his teacher decide which platform to use and make his assignments accordingly.

    The attraction to the school district is that, for the price of a cheap Chromebook they get a complete, packaged solution.
    The attraction to Google is that, in addition to getting 60% of American school kids to sign onto and into the Google ecosystem, then they get to mine their data...

    My grandson's school uses Chromebooks for the main, conventional subjects (the 3 R's).  But they also have some iPads that they use for 'other' stuff -- like a recent assignment to create a video.
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