It was on this day last year when I purchased my iPad Air fifth-generation, along with the Magic Keyboard that I bought with the initial purchase at Best Buy.
Now for the record, I will say that I technically bought the fourth-generation version at Best Buy, but it was done so by mistake with the store associate. Obviously my intention was to buy the fifth-generation, which is what I got the day after when I returned the wrong iPad Air for the correct one.
Buying this iPad Air and Magic Keyboard came at a time that was quite pivotal for me. It came at a time when I had been laid off from a job in March 2022, had just celebrated my 26th birthday that week (May 4, 2022), and had just been hired at a new employer that same week (May 6, 2022).
The first thing that I have always loved about this iPad Air is it is available in the color blue, which is my favorite color, as well as the fact that it is the color of my iPhone 12 Mini (not the same shade) and my AirPods Max.
Most importantly, the iPad Air fifth generation allowed me to almost entirely replace my 2017 MacBook Pro. I believe a lot of this was due to the fact that this iPad Air has an M1 chip in it, whereas the MacBook Pro is running on an Intel i5 processor from 2017, so clearly that is going to play a massive factor in terms of everyday performance.
Another important factor of the iPad Air with its Magic Keyboard is it is so portable. Even more portable than my MacBook Pro. I can have them folded together in my arm in one minute and the next minute I am putting them into a backpack when leaving for work.
The screen is the perfect size at not too big and not too small. Additionally, the keyboard does feel nice on my fingers and has nice clicks to it that I never quite got out of my MacBook Pro. I like that it is a backlit keyboard too.
Besides writing and blogging on this thing, where it has come in handy outside of those areas has been in video consumption and watching the weather. Obviously I have used this iPad to stream content from YouTube, Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock on it, and then use it to keep track of the weather, when needed.
CARROT Weather on the iPad and streaming local weather coverage from my local CBS station via Paramount+ is fantastic and really does a lot to help me keep track of oncoming storms.
Overall, I am quite blessed to have this device and use it almost every day. It has changed my life for the better and I don’t even want to think about what it would be like using my Intel MacBook Pro in today’s tech world. For now and what my needs and wants are, the iPad Air with the Magic Keyboard is simply perfect.
