Apple’s recently unveiled updated iPad is finally priced for South Africa, and it’s officially one of the cheapest iPads you can buy. The cool thing? It’s actually quite a powerful little slab of tech, featuring Apple’s A12 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture, a brilliant Retina display and… TouchID. So you can wear your mask and unlock your iDevice easily.

Although you don’t get the edge-to-edge design found on newer iPads, the 8t-gen iPad retains the older iPad look, with large black (or white or grey) bezels around the edges. With the TouchID mounted up front and centre.

An iPad on a budget?

Look past the bezels though, and you’ll find the brilliant 10.2-inch LED-backlit Multi-Touch display. It sizes in at 2160×1620-pixel resolution and has… wait for it… Apple Pencil (1st-generation) support. So you won’t be able to use your newer Apple Pencil with this slab, but the 1st-gen Apple Pencil is a great addition if you’re keen on more productivity stuff on your iPad for sure.

It’s also brought its Neural Engine to the range for the first time. Which, honestly, is the biggest update in the generation. According to Apple, the processor is 40% faster than the 7th-gen’s with some increased graphics prowess to sweeten the deal.

In addition to Pencil support, the 8th-gen will also have support for the Smart Keyboard and other third-party keyboards, Which will make it a production powerhouse on a budget. It’ll also come loaded with iPadOS 14.

The Apple iPad 8th-gen comes in at R7,000 for the 32GB/WiFi-only variation, while pricing will increase according to storage size and network accessibility. The best part? You can order them from iStore SA’s website right now.