A budget iPad is here!!!!

Hello!!!! This is Tsukamoto, the designer.

Huh?? Aren't you a bit too excited? Many of you may be thinking that. And yes, I am excited.

I've written a few blog posts about the iPhone, and as you may have guessed, I absolutely love Apple's tablet products.

And now, a budget-priced iPad has gone on sale.

The price is just 37,800 yen and up for the 9.7-inch, 32GB model!

Even the 128GB model starts at 48,800 yen!

Whoaaaa, that's cheap!!!!!

Comparing it with past products,

the iPad mini 4 starts at 45,800 yen for the 7.9-inch, 128GB model,

and the iPad Pro starts at 69,800 yen for the 10.5-inch and 86,800 yen for the 12.9-inch (both 64GB prices).

The 2018 iPad is seriously cheap…

And it's not just cheap… you can actually use the Apple Pencil with it…

The Apple Pencil, which until now could only be used with the iPad Pro!!!!!!

The CPU is the same A10 Fusion chip used in the iPad Pro, so being cheap doesn't mean it's slow.

The display and camera performance have been downgraded, but it uses a Retina display, and I think the difference is something you'd only notice by comparing them side by side.

Writing with the Apple Pencil feels like using a pen display tablet. I can draw with results that are no different from drawing on a computer.

Its portable weight of 500g is another attractive point.

The low price makes it easy to pick up, and until now, for people who wanted to use the Apple Pencil but didn't own an iPad Pro, the total cost was such a high hurdle that many probably gave up on the idea, right?

"Pages," "Numbers" and "Keynote"—the iPad versions of Office, so to speak—have also added handwritten annotation features using the Apple Pencil.

With this budget iPad developed for the education market, the Apple Pencil looks set to expand its range of uses, not just for drawing but in all kinds of situations.