The iPad 11 is Apple's most unintelligent move in years — don't fall for it

(Image credit: Laptop Mag / Apple)

Apple is known for its innovation. It is the company that turned a rectangle of glass into one of the most prized gadgets on the planet, after all. So, whenever the Cupertino-based company has new hardware to showcase, it's a pretty big deal. Following a successful reveal of the new iPhone 16E in February, Apple has returned to woo us with more wonderful tech revamps, including the new 11th-generation iPad.

The new base iPad offers the same processor found in the iPhone 15, and while that's plenty short of "cutting-edge" when it comes to Apple's Bionic chips, it's still a fair amount of performance to pack into a tablet priced at $349. Paired with its 10.8-inch LED display, 128GB of storage, and USB-C support, you have the makings of a perfectly fine tablet for casual users, students, youngsters, and more.

Except you don't. Apple's new base iPad has one glaring omission tied to its A16 Bionic processor, and it could make this model the fastest in Apple's recent catalog of fresh tablets to be rendered obsolete.

Unlike every other freshly minted model of iPad, the iPad 11 doesn't support the company's new headline Apple Intelligence suite, featuring many of the most exciting tools to arrive on iPadOS in recent years. The new iPad may seem like a steal, but you could be robbing yourself of the iPad's most exciting features by snapping one up.

iPad 11: An unintelligent distraction in an aluminum chassis

The lack of Apple Intelligence support for the iPad 11 may have passed some people by, and why wouldn't you expect it to support one of Apple's most pushed features? The A17 Pro Bionic outfitted iPad mini 7 and similarly entry-level positioned iPhone 16E with its A18 Bionic chipset both manage to support Apple's new suite of AI-centric tools, after all.

This makes the iPad 11 the only new Apple device to be left out in the cold when it comes to a growing collection of AI-backed features and leaves it potentially feeling obsolete before the new-car scent wears off.

Taking a step back, it's clear that the iPad 11's real purpose is to act as the small Coke of the iPad menu. A low-cost distraction designed to make the other options look all the more like a better deal. It exists only to make the simultaneously unveiled iPad Air M3 seem like a no-brainer — even if it isn't. Sure, the iPad Air gets a more considerable upgrade, but it's still labored with a chipset that is set to become two generations old following Apple's expected unveiling of M5-powered devices later this year.

To those unphased by the lack of Apple Intelligence, I ask you to think ahead to June's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) where Apple will no doubt offer a spectacular parade of new iPadOS 19 features, many of them likely banking on Apple Intelligence to power them, and none of them accessible to you.

In my opinion, the iPad 11, no matter how tempting of a purchase thanks to its affordable pricing, should be avoided at all costs. What you save in dollars now, will only come back to sting you when you eventually want to upgrade to a device that's Apple Intelligence-ready.

If not the iPad 11, then what?

If you want to avoid the buyer's remorse that will potentially haunt the iPad 11, then perhaps allowing Apple to upsell you to an iPad Air or Pro isn't the worst decision. However, older models of the iPad Air and even the most recent iPad mini will both bring you into the Apple Intelligence fold for less.

Right now you can shave a few inches off of your expected screen size and nab the iPad mini 7 with its 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display and Apple Intelligence-ready A17 Pro chipset for just $399 at Amazon, $100 off of its typical $499 asking price.

If you really want to future-proof yourself, then the iPad Pro M4 is the clear option for making an investment right now that will last you for years. Right now, you can take advantage of a similar $100 discount, with the iPad Pro M5 (256GB) currently available at Amazon for only $899.

However, if that's still a little rich for your blood, there's always the new iPad Air M3. While it's a little less future-proof, Apple's M3 chip is plenty powerful to handle all of iPadOS' features and should have a decent shelf life when it comes to gaining from the latest Apple Intelligence tools.

It's a little more expensive than the iPad 11, but what you pay extra for now, will only add to the longevity of the device. You can pre-order the iPad Air M3 from Amazon now for $599.

That said, almost any M-series iPad is going to keep you under that Apple Intelligence umbrella for some time. So even the older iPad Air M2 makes for a solid purchase over Apple's latest standard iPad offering.

It's one of Apple's most unintelligent moves to release an iPad in this state, at a time when it's pushing its most intelligent features as a major selling point. Let's perhaps avoid making similarly unintelligent purchasing decisions in the aftermath.

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Rael Hornby, potentially influenced by far too many LucasArts titles at an early age, once thought he’d grow up to be a mighty pirate. However, after several interventions with close friends and family members, you’re now much more likely to see his name attached to the bylines of tech articles. While not maintaining a double life as an aspiring writer by day and indie game dev by night, you’ll find him sat in a corner somewhere muttering to himself about microtransactions or hunting down promising indie games on Twitter.