It turns out that bigger really might be better, at least when it comes to the iPad Air. Here’s why I’m all-in on a 13-inch tablet.
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Published on24 minutes agoApple iPad Air (2024)Apple iPad Air (2024)
I’ve never been a large-screen guy. Given the choice, my SIM is usually in a flip phone like the Motorola Razr Plus or living as an eSIM in one of Apple’s smaller iPhones. You know — something that fits comfortably in a pocket for a long day away from my desk. I’ll reach for a Pixel 8 Pro or a Galaxy S24 Ultra when I need to, often for its camera chops, but it’s never my first choice. And yet, I can’t help but find myself drawn to big tablets — the bigger, the better.
Right now, I’m carrying around the 13-inch iPad Air (2024) and forgetting what life was like without a tablet of this size. If you’re not sure whether Apple’s 13-inch slate or any other tablet that’s a little bit bigger than the norm is right for you, here are a few things I’ve been using mine for.Home theater on the go
The first and most obvious use for a large tablet is that it’s like a large TV — it has so much room for activities. Or, at least, the one activity you choose has so much room to spread out. Now that I’m into a busy summer of travel (both for work and much-needed time away from work), I don’t have much time to flop down in front of my TV to catch up on, well, anything, but it doesn’t take long to download shows to my tablet so I can watch them on a plane or train to my destination.
Streaming on a big tablet is a bit of a no-brainer — a larger screen means it’s easier to catch tiny details in the dimly lit House of the Dragon or get a good look at space bugs in The Acolyte. And sure, you could download the same content to a smaller, cheaper tablet, but with the way that letterboxing eats into space above and below your show, it’s not much better than watching on your phone. On a 13-inch Liquid Retina display like the newly-enlarged sixth-generation iPad Air, however, there’s plenty of room.
That’s not to say that streaming on the largest iPad Air is a perfect experience, but the main hiccup comes down to Apple’s choice of aspect ratio. The 13-inch slate has an almost-square 4:3 ratio, which is plenty comfortable for day-to-day use but doesn’t really match what most modern movies and shows are shot in. As a result, even Apple’s largest tablet has to battle letterboxing above and below shows — you just still have more show left in the middle.
What’s left in the middle, though, looks excellent. Apple’s Liquid Retina display is about as good as an LCD panel can look, and its P3 wide color gamut adds just enough saturation to colors like reds and greens. It’s bright enough for most indoor situations, including planes and trains (and automobiles, I guess), though the 600 nits of peak brightness doesn’t get you very far when viewed in direct sunlight.
I’ve also come to appreciate the iPad Air’s stereo speaker setup. I recently moved and haven’t had the chance to set my TV back up yet, so I’ve been relying on the iPad in its place. While I’d never come close to full volume using the tablet in public, the sound is nice and punchy in my own home, and I haven’t noticed any distortion, even during the loud dragon battles in House of the Dragon.
Just be ready to buy a few accessories to make your large tablet experience more comfortable. You’ll probably want a folding stand — holding a tablet this big gets old after a one-hour episode of anything.
