Apple iPad 11-inch (A16) Review: A Reading Tablet, Judged as One

This is where the reading case is won or lost, and Apple's own numbers tell the story. Apple lists the iPad 11-inch at 248.6 mm tall, 179.5 mm wide and 7 mm thick, weighing 477 grams in the Wi-Fi version or 481 grams with cellular.

Set that against the class it is competing with in a reader's hands. A 6-inch or 7-inch e-reader is typically between 170 and 220 grams. The iPad is therefore somewhere near double to triple the mass, and the mass is spread over a much larger area, so the leverage on your wrist is worse than the weight alone suggests. Holding 477 grams in one hand for a chapter is not comfortable for most people. Holding it propped, on a table, on a knee or in a case that stands up, is fine.

That is the honest shape of the trade. The iPad is a two-handed or supported reading device. If your reading happens in bed on one side, or standing on a train, a dedicated e-reader wins on physics and nothing about the software changes that.

The upside of the same dimensions is page size. An 11-inch display shows a full A4 or Letter PDF page at close to readable size without zooming, which a 6-inch e-reader cannot do at all. For academic papers, sheet music, comics and technical manuals that is not a small advantage, it is the whole argument.

The enclosure is aluminium and Apple sells four finishes: Silver, Blue, Pink and Yellow.

Apple specifies an 11-inch Liquid Retina display, LED backlit with IPS technology, at 2360 by 1640 pixels and 264 pixels per inch, with True Tone and a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.

Taken as numbers, 264 ppi is good. It is sharper than most 300 ppi claims suggest once you account for the larger viewing distance people use with a tablet, and text edges will not be the limiting factor in how the page looks. True Tone shifting the white point toward the room's light is a genuine comfort feature for reading at night, and it is the kind of thing e-readers achieve with a warm front light instead.

The cost is the light source. An e-reader reflects room light off a page. This reflects nothing and emits everything, at a maximum of 500 nits. In a bright room that is comfortable. In direct sunlight it is not, and no tablet at this brightness is. A Kindle in the same conditions gets easier to read as the light gets stronger, which is the exact opposite behaviour. That is the fundamental split between the two technologies and it is worth being clear-eyed about before buying.

Two things Apple does not state, and which this review will not infer. Whether the panel is laminated directly to the cover glass, which affects how deep the text looks and how much internal reflection you get, and whether there is an anti-reflective coating. Apple lists neither for this model, and anyone reading in a room with a window behind them should look at a unit in person before committing.

For anyone who reads to work, this is the section that matters, and Apple's specification is precise about it.

The iPad 11-inch supports Apple Pencil (USB-C) and Apple Pencil (1st generation). The first generation model needs a USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter to pair and charge, which Apple sells separately. Apple does not list support for Apple Pencil Pro or Apple Pencil (2nd generation) on this model. That matters, because those are the models with pressure sensitivity, squeeze and the other features people associate with drawing on an iPad. If annotation is the reason you are buying, check which Pencil you need before ordering.

What the supported Pencils do very well is margin notes, highlighting and signing documents. Combined with an 11-inch page at that pixel density, marking up a PDF here is a better experience than on any current E Ink tablet with a stylus, because the refresh is instant and the colour is real. The E Ink competition wins on writing feel and on not having a backlit screen an inch from your eyes, and loses on speed.

The practical arrangement is worth noting. The Pencil attaches magnetically to the side of the iPad, which keeps it with the device but does not charge it on this model. That is a small daily annoyance.

Four practical facts decide how this device fits into a reading life, and Apple publishes all of them.

Storage comes in 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB, and there is no microSD slot. For text that is irrelevant, because a large library of EPUB files is measured in hundreds of megabytes. For scanned PDFs, art books and comics it is the whole decision, and the base capacity fills faster than people expect once a few hundred scanned volumes are on board.

The USB-C port is the surprise. Apple states it supports charging, DisplayPort and USB 2.0 at up to 480 Mb per second. That is the same data rate as a USB port from 2000. Moving a 40 GB comic library onto the device over that link takes a long time, and anyone who plans to sideload a large collection by cable should know this before buying.

Battery is a 28.93 watt-hour cell, which Apple rates at up to 10 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi or 9 hours over cellular. Reading with the screen dimmed will do better than web browsing, but the comparison to make is with an e-reader whose battery is measured in weeks. This is a device you charge most nights. In the box Apple includes a 1 metre USB-C cable and a 20 W power adapter.

The accessory that changes the reading experience most is a stand. The three Smart Connector pins on the long edge take a keyboard folio, and any folio that props the iPad up removes the weight problem described earlier entirely. Anyone buying this to read should budget for a case that stands.

On connectivity, all models get Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. Cellular models are eSIM only and take no physical SIM, which is worth checking against your carrier if you want library downloads away from Wi-Fi. The comparison of running Android on an E Ink reader covers the same app-access argument from the other direction.