New iPad Air & iPad Mini Only Support First-Gen Apple Pencil, How To Tell Which Apple Pencil Your iPads Support

A few days ago, Apple unexpectedly launched the iPad Air 2019 and iPad Mini 5. It is worth noting that both tablets now support Apple Pencil touch pen, packs Apple A12 Bionic processor and True Tone displays. However, the question is: how to know which Apple Pencil is compatible with your device?

There is an entry on the Apple Pencil’s introduction page, "Find the right Apple Pencil for your iPad" but it will be confusing if you don't know what iPad you're using, but we have a much simpler solution.

To know if your iPad is compatible with the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil, answer the following question: Your iPad supports Face ID or Touch ID? If it is a face recognition system, then you have to buy the new Pencil. Simple as that.

If it uses a fingerprint sensor, is it OK to use the first gen model? Partly, because not all iPad devices that have Touch ID support it. So how do I know if my tablet can use Pencil? Go to General settings, then ‘About’, tap ‘Model’ and you will get the model number. The iPad models that are compatible with the first gen Apple Pencil are:

iPad -- A1893, A1954
iPad Pro 12.9 -- A1584, A1652, A1670, A1671
iPad Pro 10.5 -- A1701, A1709
iPad Pro 9.7 -- A1673, A1674, A1675
2019 iPad Mini 5 - A2123,A2124, A2126
2019 iPad Air 5 (only the 10.5-inch model) - A2153, A2123

The 2019 iPad Mini

There is virtually no difference between the design of the old iPad Mini 4 and the new iPad Mini model in 2019. Both of them sports the same 7.9-inch screen and the same bezels. Sadly, it doesn’t support the Facial Recognition feature or a USB Type-C port. However, it is still powered by the powerful Apple’s A12 Bionic SoC which will undoubtedly give the 2019 model a massive boost in the performance over the old device in the same series which only packs an Apple’s A8 which was seen on the iPhone 6 launched 4-5 years ago. The new iPad Mini model still comes with an audio jack as well as the Lightning port, which were both eliminated on the last year’s iPad Pro devices.

The 2019 iPad Air

The new model of the iPad Air is positioned between the 9.7-inch iPad ($329, roughly Rs. 22,600) and the 11-inch iPad Pro ($799, roughly Rs. 54,900), both of which launched in 2018. Apple has decided to discontinue the old 10.5-inch iPad Pro that was launched in 2017. Since Apple switched over to the old “iPad” back in 2017, it had not launched a single new model of the iPad Air series.