iPad education

If you have registered for UNiDAYS, you’ll be able to access Apple’s educational discount programme from the relevant Apple Webpage:

Apple Store for Education – Discounts for teachers, staff and university students - Apple (UK)

As for which iPad is best for you, only you can decide. You can directly compare iPad models here:

iPad - Compare Models - Apple (UK)

If looking at current models, the iPad8 is a good no-nonsense entry-level iPad. The opposite end of the scale are the iPad Pro models - these offering the highest performance and greatest feature set, with prices to match.

In between these you’ll find the iPad Air4 - a high performance iPad that lacks some of the advanced hardware features of the iPad Pro (such as orientation adaptive speakers, camera array and LiDAR sensor, largest screens, FaceID etc.). That said, the iPad Air4 has the most recent CPU and offers processing performance on-par with the iPad Pro models.

If you need a small form-factor, you’ll find the iPad mini5 with the smallest screen.

Whatever model you choose, you would be well advised to purchase as much internal storage as you can afford - as internal storage cannot be changed, upgraded or extended. The available internal storage is fixed for the entire life of the device. If you run out of internal storage for your documents, photos and other data, you will forever struggle. Better to have more storage than you need, than to need more storage than you have.

A good rule of thumb is to quantify how much data storage you will need - add a healthy margin - then double it. If you are unable to quantify your data storage needs, it becomes more difficult; whilst I cannot make definitive recommendations, personally I would council against purchase of any iPad with any less than 256GB storage - 512GB offering a greater level of safety.

Within the Apple Support Communities we see regular tales of woe and disappointment when storage requirements are exceeded; by contrast, we never see complaint of having too much available storage.

Consider also the functional differences between WiFi Only and WiFi+Cellular models of iPad. Only WiFi+Cellular models include GPS capabilities - which may impact any Apps or features that require accurate and consistent location data, such as Mapping. Purchase of a WiFi+Cellular model does not commit you to using Cellular connections, but provides this flexibility should it be needed. WiFi Only models of iPad have no Cellular or GPS functions at all.

I hope this information and insight proves to be helpful to you.