Rack 'Em, Stack 'Em and Zap 'Em

My daughter was just standing at my desk marvelling at all my tech toys.

It's a small desk but there are a lot of toys. What can I say? You have to have a passion, right? Apart from the computer, the tablet I use as a second screen and all the other accessories that go along with it, the poor desk is usually strewn with a bunch of phones, a collection of watches, a pile of earbuds and any number of other gadgets I'm in the process of playing with so I can write about them.

It's pretty cool.

But it's also a complete mess.

Everything's just piled up on everything else and usually the one thing I need to use is the one thing I've forgotten to charge.

I'm in need of a serious gadget makeover.

Satechi to the rescue. Cards on the table, I've already used several Satechi accessories before and they've definitely helped me clean up my act. One of those was the Trio Wireless Charging Pad - an elegant, low-profile device to charge phone, watch and buds simultaneously. Now Satechi has taken this concept a step further with the 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand.

This is a fairly niche device in that it's been specifically designed for Apple users - actually, even more specifically, iPhone 12 or 13 users because it utilises MagSafe technology to hold the phone in place while charging wirelessly. The visual effect is almost as if the phone is being suspended in mid-air - all the while at a fairly useful angle to keep an eye on notifications, either on your desktop or bedside table.

The charging module for your Apple Watch is also angled for easy viewing and as a bonus, the watch module is removable. This makes the whole setup a great deal more versatile. Firstly, you can now plug that module in somewhere else if you want to charge your watch on the go.

Secondly, there's a charging pad for your AirPods positioned in front of the watch module. That's great - and it's even greater if you have something else to charge - maybe a second phone or a Kindle. Devices like those wouldn't fit with the watch module in place but they do once you've unplugged it.

None of your devices are going to be juicing up at record speeds; just 7.5W for your phone, 2.5W for your watch and 5W for the AirPod pad. Also, you'll need to plug into a 20W USB-C power adapter which sadly, is not included in the box. However, I've found all my devices easily get back to 100% by morning and that's all that matters in the end.

For some reason Satechi has elected to include a couple of tiny status LED's on the front edge of the base. All though these a very small, they're still annoying in the middle of the night. Nothing a wee strip of insulation tape can't conceal - although that does mar the overall look of what is otherwise a very compact and classy-looking charging stand indeed.

Meanwhile, Satechi's Dock5 Multi-Device Charging Station is a different beast altogether.

There's that word again; "Beast." In this case though, I'm not sure how else to describe this "dish-rack-for-devices" that's literally capable of storing and charging five at a time. From earbuds to tablets, the Dock5 can handle pretty much all of them.

The ventilated base of the device is a modern, steely grey colour and resembles the hull of a boat. The upper section is all black silicone - soft and rubbery so there's no risk of damaging any of your devices. The dividers are wide enough to accommodate any phone or tablet and my Kindle fits in there with no issues too.

There's also a generous Qi wireless charging pad at the front, with a charging status LED on the base below it. (Again, unnecessary. What's with these lights? The device you're charging can tell you when its charged)

The whole shebang is powered by a good old two-pin mains lead and this may be one of the most useful accessories I've ever come across.

While at first glance it appears clumsy and bulky, now I'm using it I've found the Dock5 to be the ultimate space-saver for my desktop - literally anything I use regularly that also needs charging now sits tidily out of the way until I need it. Apart from the 10W wireless pad there are two USB-A ports that will charge up to 12W each and two USB-C PD ports capable of up to 20W each. That 20W threshold is so helpful - especially if you own a lot of Apple devices.

When you're using all the charging ports, you do have to take a bit of care not to get the four cables tangled. They're not included (which makes sense - you might need a combination of USB-C, lightning or even microUSB) but I'd suggest you go with shorter leads to keep mangled messes to a minimum.

As I continue to gather up more and more devices that need regular charging, I seem to have less and less convenient places to charge them. The Dock5 takes care of that in one fell swoop.

I get I've probably accumulated more gadgets over the years than average but you too might be responsible for keeping your whole household fully charged and looking reasonably tidy. If so, these two stylish solutions from Satechi might be just the ticket.

Click here for more information on the Satechi Dock5 Multi-Device Charging Station.

Click here for more information on the Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand.

The Power of the Future is at Hand

Every once in a while I get to try a gadget that feels like the future.

You'd think it would happen a lot more than it does. After all, as I take a random look over my desk right now I see a very recent desktop computer, two powerful smartphones, a gaming headset, three sets of wireless earbuds, three smartwatches and a veritable pile of other stands, chargers, hubs and other accessories.

Yes, these are all amazing feats of technology and they definitely all make my life easier, or at least more productive. (Not that I usually wear three smartwatches at once obviously - I was pretty much just showing off there)

The dream scenario when I decided to try my hand at tech journalism (if that is indeed what I'm doing here) was to be living in a real-life Star Trek, surrounded by sci-fi level tools, toys and other items that would make flying cars seem so last decade.

The reality? Close... but not quite. For example; where are all those phones that are just made from a single piece of totally transparent glass I keep seeing on all the movies and TV shows? How hard can it be? Surely that's not some crazy notion someone just thought up and made with special effects?

And yet...

Once in a while, I take something out of its box and it absolutely delivers - even before I turn it on...

I'd seen and heard a lot of hype about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. But that was nothing compared to the reality of the device itself.

On lifting the lid of its box I was absolutely stunned by its size. I've certainly never encountered a tablet with a display anything even close to this before; it's like lifting up a window... except thinner. Like crazy thin. It's significantly thinner than most of the phones I review. How can that be? Like I say; stunned.

And then I thought; woah - be careful! This big and this slim, it must be pretty fragile, right? The P.R. people didn't even send me a case. Idiots. Don't they know what a klutz I am? I'm about to smash this NZ$1949.00 window to bits in a matter of minutes. It's inevitable.

But no.

That's the next thing that blew me away; how absolutely solid this thing is. I don't mean heavy - given the crazy 14.6-inch display (yes, that's what I said; 14.6) its mere 726grams puts it way under pretty much any laptop - certainly any laptop with a screen as giant as this.

I couldn't wait to fire it up and check that display out - Samsung doesn't really do bad screens and the one on the Tab S8 Ultra is so the opposite of bad. The Super AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+ display really is like a window into whatever world you want to look at. In my case I've been working my way through the Book of Boba Fett so that's quite a collection of visually spectacular worlds.

Have I used the word "stunning" yet?

Of course, it's not just visual effects at Disney Studios, the Star Wars universe is known for its sound design too. The Tab S8 Ultra doesn't disappoint here either. Whether it's the Mandalorian's space-fighter whizzing from one side of the screen to the other or the legendary sound of a light sabre firing to life, it's all a symphony to my ears via the AKG-tuned, quad-speaker array.

In fact, I was only intending to watch part of an episode to get the feel for the device but I've been enjoying the experience so much - especially given how portable it is - I've watched most of the series on the tablet.

As you would expect from the top of Samsung's tablet range, the Tab S8 Ultra has it all going on under the hood. Qualcomm's benchmark-setting Snapdragon 8-Gen-1 chip is running the show and although there are other configurations available overseas with more RAM and storage, the 8GB and 128GB of space in the version I've been sent keeps everything rocketing along - from streaming, to multi-tasking to gaming.

I just can't stop shooting zombies in Left to Survive... which is just as well, because shooting zombies is pretty much the point of the game. Needless to say, a game like that on a screen like this is pretty fun.

And now for the words I thought I'd never type about an Android tablet; its battery life has knocked my socks off. To be fair, we're talking a 11200mAh cell, which I think might be bigger than the one in my electric lawnmower. The good news is, with the right charging brick you can juice that massive battery up at 45W in under 90 minutes. The bad news? You won't find that brick in the box.

What you will find though is the best stylus in the West; the good ole S-Pen. I know; they've actually included it instead of charging more as an optional extra. Wonders never cease. It even magnetises on the back next to the rear-facing camera to recharge wirelessly when not in use. If you haven't used a recent-model S-Pen before, you're in for a treat. I'm not aware of another more functional, natural-feeling drawing tool out there. Not only can you draw, sketch, ink, paint and erase but the S-Pen also captures text, translates, clips images and can work as a remote. And it's included.

However, as I mentioned, a case is not - there are options out there, including quite an expensive keyboard/cover accessory. However, I was able to pair my trusty bluetooth keyboard with no issues. Once you flick the Tab S8 Ultra into DeX mode, it's so close to being a laptop you might not even really notice the difference.

Almost forgot the cameras. You get proper cameras - both wide and ultra-wide both front and back - both selfie lenses are 12MP which totally puts any laptop I can think of to shame and there's even a new Auto Framing feature which digitally pans the camera to keep you in the middle of the shot - not only on video chats either but even just when you're recording yourself. It works too. Well, most of the time.

To be honest, everything works on this wonder of modern manufacturing. It doesn't just work, it's magical. This is one of those sci-fi devices. You imagine something you want it to do and it does it. If you think using Android might be a barrier for you, things have changed a hell of a lot recently. Microsoft apps like Office365 and the new Edge browser are especially agnostic these days and I've had no issues working with them whatsoever.

This is pretty much as good as it gets - for under two-thousand dollars. It's worth it just to see that screen alone.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra.

Simple Solutions Are the Best Solutions

Oh how my life has changed since I started using an iMac. Getting to grips with MacOS was a pretty steep learning curve but it was so worth it. I've discovered just how easy and efficient tasks like file management and video editing can be.

I now get why all those clever creatives I know always insisted a Mac was the way to go. It only took me about 40 years to come around.

However...

There are some parts of the Apple ethos I'll never really understand.

Why would you sell a desktop computer with only 250GB of internal storage?

And why aren't I allowed to plug anything into it? I've got just four USB-C ports and they're all pretty much inaccessible, tucked around the back of the screen.

Don't get me wrong - as piece of desktop eye-candy, there can't be too many computers out there with such clean, minimalist aesthetics taking up such a small amount of space. But I still want to use it the way I want to use it. You know what I mean?

Twelve South and Satechi both seem to know what I mean because they've each come up with a purpose-built accessory that, if anything, enhances both the usability and appearance of one of the coolest computers on the planet.

If you spend time editing audio, video or doing things with any kind of large files, you're inevitably going to wind up running out of storage space. No matter how comprehensive your cloud storage setup is, for most of us there's no avoiding the necessity of keeping a number of files on-hand locally. As it turns out, when my old desktop PC died and I moved onto the iMac, I was left with a number of large HDDs and SSDs I no longer had any real use for.

Of course, with the right cable these could be instantly repurposed as external storage drives. Nice. Big stack of hard drives sitting on your desktop taking up space? Ugly.

That's where the Twelve South BackPack for 24-inch iMac comes in.

It doesn't take a lot of explaining; you simply snap a two-piece holster into place on the oval opening on the back of the iMac stand (the hole you poke the power cable through). Then the stand just slides into place. Because it's been specifically engineered to fit, it's solid as a rock and is rated to hold up to 1.36 kilograms.

It includes a pack of high-quality wire twists to help you keep any cables tidy and out of the way and there's also a stretchy, adjustable Peripheral Strap in the box. This actually means you can stack items below the shelf as well as on it - not just hard drives either; maybe it's an opportunity to conceal your router or it could even be a place to add some kind of multi-port hub.

Speaking of which, Satechi makes a few of those including the USB-C Clamp Hub for 24-inch iMac. 

This is probably the most elegant way to bring the ports at the back of your Mac to the front, converting them into USB-A's and card readers in the process.

The Satechi Clamp-Hub is a tiny thing; the front panel not even 12cm wide and less than an inch high. And it's only that stylish, brushed aluminium front panel you see - the connecting USB-C cable and clamp are completely concealed behind the screen after installation.

Like the BackPack, the Clamp-Hub can be attached in moments and although the Satechi website points out it isn't compatible with pre-2021 (24-inch) iMacs, I wouldn't be surprised if it fits the new Apple Studio Display, which has a very similar profile and rear-port placement.

Once installed, you now have stylish, easy, front-facing access to SD and microSD slots, a USB-C data port and three USB-A 3.0 ports. Sadly, none of these USB ports support charging but they will transfer data at up to 5Gps, which is pretty damn speedy.

Having access to all those ports right there at the bottom of the screen is about the most convenient thing imaginable - although I did have to train myself to hold the screen with one hand while plugging in or unplugging peripherals with the other. This is because the USB-A ports in particular are a nice, snug fit and you can accidentally alter the viewing angle of your whole display without meaning to.

Both these devices fall into my favourite category of tech design; identify the problem and solve it with as little fuss as possible. At the end of the day, Twelve South's BackPack is just a shelf. But it's a perfectly engineered shelf that actually looks pretty groovy too - not that anyone ever sees the back of my Mac but some people have theirs on display.

Likewise, the Satechi Clamp-Hub is just a hub. But it's been crafted to take up as little eye-space as possible - not sure why it needs that tiny power LED - and it does its job supremely well.

Neither of these accessories may be strictly essential but one things for sure, they will definitely make your iMac experience better.

    

Click here for more information on the Twelve South BackPack for 24" iMac.

Click here for more information on the Satechi USB-C Clamp Hub for 24-inch iMac.

Tried and True. But Not Tired

A bluetooth speaker is a bluetooth speaker is a bluetooth speaker... Right?

Sure, there are big ones and little ones. Portable ones and ones that plug into the wall.

And yes, there have been improvements in bluetooth codecs and such but at the end of the day, has much really changed in the last few years?

Furthermore, with the more recent explosion of smart speakers of all shapes and sizes, do we even still need bluetooth speakers at all?

For starters, as long as JBL keeps putting out its speakers in bright red, we definitely need them. The Flip 6 comes in black and blue too but in my view, that's irrelevant.

The Flip has been quite the success story over the years so it's no surprise to see it return for another generation with a few tweaks to keep fans coming back for more.

It's essentially the same size and shape as its recent predecessors; roughly similar to the profile of a short drink bottle, which means you can easily slot it into most bottle-holders on bikes or gym equipment and even more usefully, on backpacks.

The wrist-strap cord thing is also slightly more streamlined - now no knot, just one continuous loop with a slide-toggle to keep it snug against your wrist or whatever else it's attached to.

It charges via USB-C and JBL claims up to 12 hours playback when fully topped up but these things vary wildly depending on any number of factors including how loud you're running the speaker. All I know is I've been listening to it for a couple of hours every day this week and it's still blasting out strong, so I'm happy with that.

I'm also happy the Flip 6 has a little rubber foot on the bottom to help keep it in place on shelves and table-tops. It also carries the IP67 water and dust resistance rating - its earlier relatives were just waterproof so now you can truly plop it down on your beach towel or take up that dirty mountain bike trail in complete confidence.

Although, you might not win too many friends if you do take it biking as this is the loudest Flip yet.

I've been giving the new albums from both Jack White and the Red Hot Chili Peppers a decent bash over the last week or so.

The Chilis' value-for-money "Unlimited Love" celebrates the return of virtuoso guitarist, John Fusciante in a brilliant re-cap of so many of their different styles of funk-pop-rap-rock whatever it is they do. The Flip 6 seems to be specifically made to reproduce their vocal-VS-guitar-VS-bass stylings, especially when it comes to bringing Flea's still-outstanding bass work to the fore. Either at full volume, or quiet enough to hear myself think while I type this, everything seems to punch out powerfully, cleanly and warmly.

The former White Stripes member's album, "Fear of the Dawn" is more of a mixed bag. If you're familiar with White's frenetic and determined mission to stretch the sonic capabilities of any instrument he has at hand, you'll know there can be a fine line between listening pleasure and aural pain. Although the Flip 6 boasts an extra 10w of power, now with a new tweeter built-in for the high end, leaving the racetrack driver to deal with mids and lows, there are still times on this album when there's just too much noise for such a small unit to handle.

That's perhaps when PartyBoost probably comes in pretty handy - with a simple push of a button, the JBL 6 can be linked with other PartyBoost-enabled speakers to... well... boost the party, I suppose. While many of JBL's last couple of generation devices have the PartyBoost function, this is not to be confused with Connect+ from earlier models or True Wireless Stereo which is for turning the much larger JBL PartyBoxes into a proper P.A. system.

Oh, and just to confuse things further; yes, you can create a stereo pair - but only with two Flip 6's. That's fairly standard though; I can't think of a manufacturer that'll let you pair slightly different speakers for Left and Right channels - it would sound pretty weird.

The final big upgrade for this generation is the new JBL Portable app. This is the first Flip compatible with a companion app - it's not a cornucopia of customisable features but it does give you easy access to PartyBoost options, firmware updates (which download and install surprisingly quickly) and even a 3-band EQ. JBL tends to run things a tad bass-heavy straight out of the packet - perhaps to prove how good they are at pumping genuine boom out of such little boxes - now you can wind that down if it's not to your preference.

But for me the best button on the app is the toggle to turn the Feedback Tones off. These are the (by now) classic JBL sounds that play when you do things like turn the speaker on, go into pairing mode or activate PartyBoost. You don't really need these sounds because there are lights that come on when you do these things too. I love having the ability to turn off unnecessary lights and noises. It's my favourite. Or have I mentioned that before?

One thing's for certain, while the sixth version of the Flip isn't exactly light-years ahead of what's come before, what came before were rugged, dependable, ultra-portable speakers that provided big, beautiful sound at a reasonable price. The Flip 6 is no different. Well... it is different. It's a bit better.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the JBL Flip 6.

The Same Old Huawei Problem

There are all sorts of reasons to buy a tablet. For some people it's an essential work tool - perhaps even the primary method for controlling an important piece of machinery or inputting data. For most students, tablets replaced exercise books and even text books many years ago - no longer are they forced to slump heavy schoolbags around like us ancient geezers back in the old days.

There are those who just need a bigger display than what their phone offers - perhaps for a bit of poolside reading, bedtime TV or in the kitchen for video recipes.

Then there's the kids. Chuck 'em a screen. Keep 'em quiet. Perhaps not exactly model parenting but desperate times, right?

And there'll be a million other reasons why a tablet is just the thing. So which category (if any) can Huawei fill for you?...

The Huawei MatePad T10 is quite a styley-looking tablet as tablets go. It has a dual-textured rear panel in Deepsea Blue, which makes a nice respite from the usual black, grey or silver. However, despite its matte finish, the back panel does tend to pickup a lot of fingerprints which seem surprisingly stubborn to wipe away. This is unfortunate, because as I'm about to recommend, the MatePad T10 is perhaps best-suited to be used by younger kids and they're not usually known for grabbing onto things with super clean hands.

The 9.7-inch display is in that "Goldilocks" area of not too big / not too small - and combined with the long, skinny 16:10 aspect ratio, the device is probably a lot easier for small hands to keep a grip on than some of the other larger, squarer options out there.

In fact, there's a lot to suggest this might be just the device to keep littleys entertained - and educated. There's a dedicated Kids Corner that can only be set up by a parent who knows the password for the device. This is where there are a few pre-installed apps for drawing and recording video or audio-only messages. There are masses of other kids apps available but again, only the supervising caregiver can choose and download them.

That responsible adult can also set limits on screen-time and the whole thing is set up to help kids learn to use devices like this sensibly and safely - reminding them about eye-care, posture and taking breaks. This is all very well designed and executed and seems to work pretty flawlessly.

Unfortunately, back outside Kids Corner, the T10 struggles to be as useful for adults.

The biggest issue is exactly the same challenge anyone who owns a recent Huawei handset faces; the absence of Google Mobile Services - as most of us know by now, this means you're either severely limited as to which of your favourite apps you can actually access on the device, or you'll have to start finding alternatives. Admittedly, there are indeed plenty of other options but I couldn't even get Spotify to run. Sorry, but I'm not creating all my playlists from scratch - not just for this review, anyway. 

It's truly frustrating because some things work with no issue whatsoever; anything from Microsoft seems fine - I set up my Office 365 work email on Outlook easy as. But the moment Google is part of the equation, it all falls over. For example, my preferred on-screen keyboard is Microsoft Swiftkey. But as soon as I tried to login to my Google account to sync my saved preferences, it just sent me straight back to the previous screen.

Perhaps most annoyingly of all the T10 will let you install things that don't work. I downloaded Asphalt 9, Modern Combat 5 and Apex Legends Mobile to try out the gaming capabilities of the Kirin 710A chip. Modern Combat worked okay, although at pretty low resolution. Asphalt fired up and let me waste time setting up my car, only to crash every time I started a race. Apex Legends wouldn't even load. Needless to say, unless you want to play Panda Policeman, this is not a device for gamers. There's only 2GB of RAM to keep things running here and games weren't the only things that crashed as I used them.

Technically, the T10 is still an Android tablet - Android 10 running EMUI 10.1.0 on top and as far as a user interface goes, it's fine. The home and lock screens rotate smoothly, there's a system-wide dark mode and a good range of customisation settings. In fact, there are some cool features like App Multiplier; this shows dual windows of compatible apps when you hold the tablet sideways to help you access two sections of the app simultaneously.

There are also useful shortcuts from the pulldown menu for Eye Comfort - which takes out much of the blue light - and eBook Mode, basically converting the T10 into a battery-saving e-reader. I loaded my current Brad Thor novel in epub format had had no issues reading it via the Huawei Books app.

The cameras are okay - but only okay. A 5MP rear-facing sensor and and 2MP selfie-cam which feels rather outdated compared to what other devices have been offering lately. In saying that, video quality is not too bad and at least apps like Snapchat, TikTok and Messenger all seem to work fine. I was actually quite impressed with the mic quality too so if the kids are video messaging their grandparents, they should be able to hear them perfectly.

Battery life is quite good and the tablet charges quickly via a strangely offset USB-C port on the bottom(portrait) or right(landscape) edge. There's a popout microSD tray which is just as well as the T10 only has 32GB of internal storage. Sorry but that's unforgivable in this day and age; I had pretty much filled that space up with apps by the time I'd finished setting up the device. Given most tablets will be used for viewing pictures and video - if not editing them - 128GB should really be the absolute minimum. There should be a law.

I actually did watch some Book of Boba Fett on the T10 via video file on a USB drive - it looked good and sounded even better; the stereo speakers aren't bad at all, although because they're situated in the middle of each side when you're holding the tablet in landscape, it's easy to accidentally muffle them with your hands. (Even more of an issue when you're gaming, if you can get your game to work)

Again, lack of app availability is a major issue - streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+ simply aren't an option. Some video and music services will work via their web players instead as will YouTube for those cooking videos but man, it's all a bit of a struggle.

This is why it's hard to recommend the MatePad T10 for anything other than an educational play tool for kids - that stuff works really well and the parental controls are very nicely thought out and work effectively. Maybe that's worth NZ$299.00 to you, I don't know.

For most other operations, unless you have already invested heavily in the Huawei ecosystem, like me you'll probably end up hitting your head against a virtual brick wall.

    

Click here for more information on the Huawei MatePad T10.

It's Basically a Laptop Now

It’s the weirdest thing. Every time I read a review about a tablet, it’s always compared not just with other tablets but also with the experience of using a laptop. 

Personally, I get it. It’s what I always do too. In my case, it’s because I’m just not a tablet guy. I didn’t grow up with them like my kids did so using a screen without a keyboard just feels super limiting to me. Of course, you don’t have to use any kind of keyboard. For instance, I wrote this sentence just by pushing the little microphone icon and talking. Unfortunately, that’s still not the perfect solution. When I did that, I had to go back and change “Francis” to “for instance” because that’s what I actually meant.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely make plenty of mistakes when I’m typing too. But until AI has got a little bit more intelligent and a little less artificial, I think I’m gonna rely on my keyboard for a little while yet.

Regardless of all that, let me do my best to let you know why the new iPad Air isn’t just new, it’s improved as well.

Unless you were intimately acquainted with this year’s colour options compared to 2021’s, there’s probably no way to identify the 5th generation iPad Air just by looking at it. Oh don’t worry, it still comes in Space Grey (what a relief to know boring never goes out of fashion) but now you have the option of Pink, Starlight, Purple and Blue. These are all quite subtle, frosted, brushed shades - very elegant. Ironically, although this year Apple has released a new Green option for its iPhones, last year’s minty iPad Air is no longer available.

As we’ve come to expect, the iPad Air is a pretty fantastic looking tablet. Its reasonably big 10.9-inch screen and narrow bezels ensure you get the largest amount of useable display possible without risking too many mis-touches because of how you’re holding the device. As I noted with the previous generation, the iPad Air’s Liquid Retina display features an anti-reflective coating which means it remains easy to view in all lighting conditions. Although there is also a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating, I’ve found this less effective and often have to wipe the off the evidence left behind by my greasy mitts.

However, whether you’re streaming, browsing or gaming, it’s a lovely, bright, accurate display and of course it’s still compatible with the Apple Pencil (2nd-gen). The true beauty of this stylus, other than it’s becoming more and more useful with new apps incorporating its functionality into their design every day, is how it conveniently stores magnetically on the side (or top, in landscape) of the iPad Air, charging wirelessly while it does so. This means it’s always handy and ready to use, whether you need it for a specific design app like Procreate or a DIY 3D rendering tool, like uMake. Maybe you just sign a lot of digital documents - and there are many other Apple Pencil features that come in handy, like Scribble, converting your text into type.

I mentioned gaming but I’ve never really spent much time doing that on an iPad until this year’s Air. The game (pun coming) has completely changed now this device is powered by Apple’s legendary M1 chip. Not only does this bring Mac-level processing power to a more affordable iPad, it also brings better power efficiency and intensified graphics capability with it. Sounds like a good excuse to waste some time scrambling around the Apex Legends Mobile arena to me. Although I think I’ll always prefer the in-hand nature of an external controller, I’m starting to get used to the on-screen controls when you play on the iPad. Modern Combat 5 is another shooter that looks great and plays brilliantly. Interestingly, the excellent stereo speakers do a surprisingly good job of letting you know if you’re about to be attacked from an unexpected direction.

Speaking of sound, there’s a useful little tweak to the volume controls that changes their orientation depending on which way you’re using the Air. In portrait, Up is up and Down is down but in landscape it’s more logical for those buttons to swap so Left is down and Right is up. Make sense? If not, read it through a couple more times. You’ll get it.

While we're putting things in the right place, Apple has now rectified the issue I had last year with the placement of the front-facing camera. Well… sort of. It’s still in the wrong place; at the top in portrait but halfway down the left-hand side in landscape. However, at least this year’s iPad Air comes with CenterStage built-in - Apple’s automatic zoom-and-pan software that keeps you in the middle of the shot when you’re FaceTiming, Zooming, Webexing - whatever. Except… not when you’re just taking a video using the camera app. Either way, while it’s great to be kept in shot even if you’re moving around the room, you still have to make a real effort to look into the camera down on that bottom-left side if you want the other people on the call to think you’re actually interested in what they’re saying. This is kind of counterintuitive when there’s usually a large shot of them right in the middle of the screen. It might be time to move that camera, Apple.

The real shame is that front camera is now very decent indeed - a 12MP Ultra-wide sensor capable of 1080p HD video at 25, 30 or 60fps. This is the kind of “proper” camera we usually find on phones, not tablets and it’s about time too. The rear shooter is also a genuine 12MP camera, again with some actually useful features like Burst Mode and Smart HDR.

iPadOS keeps fine tuning itself all the time. Every update seems to be more and more of a crossover with MacOS and I sometimes wonder if there is a grand plan afoot - perhaps one day using an iPad really will feel more like Apple’s desktop/laptop experience than just an oversized iPhone. Certainly new features like Universal Control seem to point that way - now you can use a single keyboard and mouse on adjacent Macs and iPads simultaneously, even dragging and dropping files between devices.

You see? I made it almost all the way through my review without comparing the iPad Air to a laptop. But when the Magic Keyboard case is included in the review kit, it’s kind of hard to avoid. Last year I think I labelled this my favourite accessory ever. Almost twelve months down the track, not much has happened to change my mind. It’s sturdy enough to provide legitimate protection for the iPad Air its magnetically attached to and the way the display hovers above the keyboard and trackpad when it’s unfolded is - just as the name suggests - magic. There’s even an extra pass-through USB-C slot to provide power to your iPad while you have another accessory connected to the Air’s own USB-C port.

At NZ$549.00 I’m still not sure one keyboard cover is worth quite that much money. But it’s so good, I’m not sure it isn’t worth it either.

All I know is I put together this whole review using only this iPad Air and Magic Keyboard. It opened all the webpages I needed it to. I uploaded the photos. I recorded, edited, exported and compressed the video. A lot of people have asked why you’d buy both the iPad Air and Magic Keyboard when you could pick up an actual MacBook for around the same money (depending on exact configurations obviously). I can think of one compelling reason straight off the bat; there’s no MacBook with a touch-screen. And that’s before we get into issues of versatility, camera capability and battery life. Now the Air has joined the M1 club, like it’s Pro-named big brothers, it surely is a powerful laptop in a colourful disguise.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Apple iPad Air (5th generation).

Click here for more information and pricing on the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Air.

Click here for more information and pricing on the Apple Pencil (2nd-generation).