Apple updated its cheapest iPad in March 2025 and handed it an A16 chip. If you're asking whether you should buy the iPad 11, that chip choice is where the answer lives. The A16 doesn't meet Apple's hardware threshold for Apple Intelligence, making this the only current iPad model locked out of Apple's AI platform. Every iPad Pro, every iPad Air, and the iPad mini all support it. The entry-level model doesn't, according to Apple's specs.
The position here is direct: the iPad 11 at full price is the wrong default for most buyers planning to keep a device for several years. Not because it's bad hardware, but because Apple has deliberately excluded it from a software platform that every other iPad in the current lineup supports.
The entry-level iPad A16 chip and what Apple chose not to do
This wasn't a supply chain accident. Before launch, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that the new entry-level iPad would ship with an A17 Pro chip and full Apple Intelligence support, the same configuration Apple used for the iPad mini. The rumor proved wrong. The A16 arrived instead, and with it, a hard ceiling on what the device can ever do in software.
Gurman's pre-launch analysis noted that the A17 Pro paired with 8GB of RAM is the minimum needed for Apple Intelligence support. The iPad mini qualifies. The iPad 11 does not, and no software update will likely change that. The A16 looks like a cost-containment decision rather than a neutral spec choice, though Apple hasn't said so publicly. The record shows a choice of a chip, not an explanation for it.
That hardware decision is what makes this buying cycle different from any previous one.
What being cut off from Apple Intelligence actually means for your purchase
The strongest counterargument deserves an honest hearing: Apple Intelligence isn't essential right now. Writing Tools and upgraded Siri capabilities are useful, not transformative. Fair point. But this isn't an argument that buyers need those features today. It's an argument about trajectory.
Apple's software investment follows its hardware platform. The iPad Air, the iPad mini, every iPad Pro, all of them sit on the side of the line that gets Apple Intelligence updates going forward. The iPad 11 sits on the other side, alone. Based on current data, it's the only model in Apple's current iPad lineup without support as of launch. That suggests Apple Intelligence is becoming a meaningful platform dividing line, not a checkbox feature, though that's an inference from the lineup decision rather than something Apple has stated explicitly.
The timeline makes this concrete. The entry-level iPad went three years without a hardware refresh before this 2025 update, MacRumors noted ahead of launch. Someone buying an iPad 11 today at full price will realistically live with that device until at least 2027 or 2028. For that entire ownership window, they'll be on the one iPad Apple isn't building its AI features for.
Buying in knowing that is a choice. Buying in without knowing it is a mistake.
Should you buy the iPad 11 or look at the Air and mini instead?
Start with the hardware trade-offs on the iPad 11 itself. The device starts at $349 for 64GB, and that storage structure creates its own friction: Apple sells it in only 64GB and 256GB configurations, with nothing between them. Buyers who find 64GB tight have no middle option; they jump straight to a higher price. The device also ships with Wi-Fi 6, which doesn't access the faster 6GHz band available on Wi-Fi 6E routers, and its 5G modem is limited to sub-6GHz connectivity rather than the faster mmWave standard. None of these is individually disqualifying. Collectively, they're the profile of a device engineered to a price, not a use case.
The alternatives are straightforward in the iPad 11 Apple Intelligence comparison. The iPad Air offers a laminated display, M-series silicon, and full Apple Intelligence support. The iPad mini carries the A17 Pro, the chip the iPad 11 was rumored to receive, in a significantly more compact body with no platform compromises. When evaluating the base iPad vs iPad Air Apple Intelligence access, the gap isn't subtle: one device participates in what Apple is building, and one doesn't.
A practical framework for making the call:
Hard budget at or under $349: iPad 11. For children's devices, classroom budgets, and basic streaming use, the platform limitations aren't relevant to actual needs. Capable hardware, honest price.
Price gap to the Air under roughly $100: iPad Air. At that spread, the laminated display, M-series chip, and AI platform access make the extra cost an easier decision for almost any adult buyer.
Portability is the priority: iPad mini. Full Apple Intelligence support via A17 Pro, compact form factor. When screen size isn't a constraint, the mini frequently beats both alternatives on value.
Multi-year buyers, students, productivity users: iPad Air. This is the correct default if you're keeping the device for four or five years. No equivalent concession on the software side.
Check the current price of a new or refurbished iPad Air before clicking buy on an iPad 11. If the real-world gap has closed to $100 or less, the Air is the better purchase for almost anyone planning to keep the device through the end of the decade.
A pattern this lineup position has never quite escaped
The Apple Intelligence exclusion is new. The value positioning problem isn't. When Digital Trends reviewed the 2022 redesign, which introduced the current all-screen layout, USB-C port, and Touch ID power button, they called it "a fantastic tablet in a bubble" and concluded it was "easy to love, tricky to recommend" against the rest of Apple's lineup. That verdict landed before Apple Intelligence existed as a consideration.
The non-laminated display has always been a real concession. The gap between the glass and the pixels beneath is visible the moment you pick up an Air or mini, and it matters more for drawing and close reading than it does for video. The 60Hz panel is fine for most use cases, less satisfying for anything involving motion. These aren't dealbreakers, but they're trade-offs that competing models at moderate premiums don't ask you to accept.
What changed in 2025 is that those longstanding hardware concessions now compound with a platform limitation that's permanent for the device's lifetime. Earlier buyers of entry-level iPads could reasonably argue they were getting comparable software support in a cheaper package. That argument isn't available for the current model.
The one check worth making before you buy
The iPad 11 handles streaming, web browsing, light apps, and everything most casual users actually do with a tablet. None of that changes.
What changes is the context around the purchase. Apple now sells a lineup where every model except one supports Apple Intelligence, as MacRumors documented at launch. That gap won't close on the current hardware. With the entry-level iPad historically going two to three years between refreshes, the next realistic opportunity to fix this with a new purchase is well into the future.
A child's first tablet, a shared household device, a classroom budget with no flexibility: these are legitimate use cases for a $349 iPad, and the AI limitation is irrelevant to how those devices actually get used. For everyone else, spend five minutes checking what the Air or mini actually costs today. The best time to buy the low-cost iPad is when it's genuinely the right device for your situation, not simply the cheapest one on the shelf.
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