Apple releases a new entry-level iPad every year, which rarely receives much praise from reviewers, because it is not innovative enough. This is plain wrong!
Apple has been relying on the same design since the iPad Air (2013). The housing has not changed since 2017, and neither did the selection of ports. This might seem boring to technology nerds, but the iPad has been getting better on the inside. The main advantage of this approach is that the first generation Apple Pencil, Apple’s Smart Keyboard and all older third-party accessories are still useable with the latest iteration of the iPad 10.2.
Apple gets another sustainability point, thanks to its unwavering software support. For instance, Apple has been supporting the Apple iPad Air 2, which got the latest iPadOS 14 update, for six years now. And by the way, iPadOS 14 runs like a charm on the iPad Air 2.
Sure, it is not particularly pleasant to have an iPad with a non-laminated screen. However, this increases the reparability of the tablet, because the display glass can be replaced without throwing out the liquid crystal panel along with it. This keeps the price of repair down and lowers the environmental impact.
Apple is on a mission to make its customers feel good when they buy an Apple product by going carbon-neutral by 2030. In the meantime, Apple is using 100 % recycled aluminium for the enclosure of the iPad 10.2 (2020) and 100 % recycled tin solder for the motherboard. Moreover, multiple other components of the tablet contain at least 60 % recycled plastic and the CO2 footprint of the iPad 8 is 9 % lower than that of the predecessor.
Of course, some may say that Apple has simply recycled
a lot of old components with the iPad 10.2 to make more money. However, realistically speaking, the iPad makes sense both economically and environmentally, which is why it is a good product.
Source(s)
Review of the Apple iPad 10.2 (2020)