W.A.Khan, Apple iPad Air The Air is a tangible upgrade over the previous, fourth-generation iPad, no longer in production and so banished to the annals of history. The new iPad slots right in where its predecessor left off, priced at $499 for a lowly 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB, and $799 for the maximum 128GB configuration. The iPad Air delivers more performance and comparable battery life in an attractive and impossibly thin-and-light package. An improved front-facing camera makes FaceTiming look better, and the Retina Display still looks great.
But, The Touch ID fingerprint scanner, introduced on the iPhone 5S, is sadly absent here, meaning you’ll still have to type in a passcode with every unlock and a password with every purchase. Starting at $499 for 16GB, it’s still expensive compared with the competition. Performance: The iPad Air shares the same processor with Apple’s flagship phone, albeit with a slight bump in clock speed. While the 5S runs at 1.3GHz the Air runs at 1.39GHz. It can achieve this because of the increased space and improved heat dissipation of the Air compared to the much smaller iPhone 5S.
Indeed, before we go into the detail about performance it’s worth noting that the iPad Air manages to keep its cool with consummate ease. Even when running intensive 3D games and apps for hours it barely breaks a sweat and, therefore, neither do your hands.
In practice, the iPad Air is blisteringly fast. Apps open instantly and games like Infinity Blade 3 look sumptuous and run smoothly. The benefits of having a SoC means that the GPU can be used to tackle compute tasks, which makes video editing and compute intensive apps, like AutoCAD, show no hint of slowdown.
The iPad Air performs 59% faster than the iPad 4 in the 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited CPU and GPU test and 91% faster in Geekbench 3 tests. The Peacekeeper browser test, which assesses web browsing performance, shows that the Air trounces its predecessor by being more than twice as fast. It's also faster than the stonking Snapdragon 800 processor on the likes of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and Google Nexus 5. We're talking matter of degrees here, but the difference is there all the same.
Battery life: Battery life on the iPad Air is quoted at "Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music". We would say that's actually not a bad estimate, although the drain was closer to 2% every 10 minutes in general use, which equates to around nine hours' use.
Standby time is much, much better though. We found that we could stick the iPad Air in a bag, taking it out for the commute and messing about with on the sofa at home, for at least three days before it began to get low on battery.
In fact, the only real task that killed it was connecting to our amplifier via Wi-Fi while simultaneously streaming music to the same device through Bluetooth. It's doing things like this that make you realise that this is the kind of thing that we envisaged at the turn of the century, a tablet that has the brains and connectivity to do all the tasks we could want.In terms of connectivity, we've already mentioned the excellent Wi-Fi performance (in terms of distance from router, rather than improved speed) through the Multiple In, Multiple Out (MIMO) technology.
4G bands are now covered throughout the globe, and low power Bluetooth is also on board as well, making it an incredibly well-connected device.
The bottom line: Functionally, the iPad Air is nearly identical to last year’s model, offering only faster performance and better video chatting. But factor in design and aesthetics, and the iPad Air is on another planet. It’s the best full-size consumer tablet on the market. Specifications
Release date11/1/13
Display type9.7 in
OSApple iOS
ProcessorApple
Wireless connectivityWi-Fi
Dimensions (WxDxH)6.6 in x 0.29 in x 9.4 in
Weight1 lbs Price:$479.00 VS HP TouchPad HP webOS is a genuinely impressive operating system. Although some tout it as being intuitive, we're not sure that's really its strength.The HP TouchPad uses Palm's unique WebOS interface and delivers Adobe Flash-enabled Web browsing, Beats audio enhancement, and impressive compatibility with third-party calendar, messaging, and e-mail servicesThe screen is one of this tablet's stand out features, though. It's the same size (9.7in) and resolution (1,024 x 768 pixels) as the iPad 2 and is as within a gnat's whisker of being as good quality with great viewing angles, bright colours, and good contrast. .Battery life according to HP is 9 hours for continuous video playback, and in our test (WiFi on, Bluetooth off, video looping) we came close to that: just over eight and a half hours. That puts it slightly ahead of the Motorola Xoom but again behind the Tab and iPad 2.
But, The TouchPad has a thick, smudgy design, offers no rear camera or HD video capture, includes a limited app selection, and its unique cards system of multitasking isn't as fully utilized as it could be.
The bottom line: The TouchPad would have made a great competitor for the original iPad, but its design, features, and speed put it behind today's crop of tablet heavyweights. Specifications
Display type9.7 in TFT active matrix - LED backlight - Yes
OSHP webOS 3.0
RAM1 GB
ProcessorQUALCOMM Snapdragon APQ8060 1.2 GHz
Wireless connectivityIEEE 802.11nIEEE 802.11bBluetooth 2.1 EDRIEEE 802.11aIEEE 802.11g
Dimensions (WxDxH)7.5 in x 0.6 in x 9.4 in
Weight1.6 lbs Price;$257.49 to $265.99 VS Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 The HDX 8.9 offers all of that and improves on the 7-incher by including an 8-megapixel back camera and a sharper, more color-accurate screen. It's also the lightest large tablet currently on the market.The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a performance monster that speeds through Web sites and UI navigation at a frantic pace. Its screen is impressively sharp and its body amazingly light for a larger tablet. The Mayday feature gives personal and near-instant customer service. Some small but smart UI additions lead to a simple, welcoming experience. Performance
We can’t run our usual suite of benchmark tests on the Kindle because they do not appear on the Appstore (more on that later). However, the Fire HDX 8.9 is powered by the impressive Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.2GHz with 2GB RAM. It’s a configuration we’ve used and tested on numerous tablets and it’s a speedy one indeed. In fact it’s one of the fastest mobile processors ever made.
You can tell the processor packs a punch when using the tablet. It starts up quickly and effortlessly glides through menus and apps. While Samsung’s TouchWiz interface causes some stuttering issues on the similarly specced Galaxy Note 10.1, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9’s Fire OS running on Android Jelly Bean doesn’t.
It’s also more than adequate if you’re interested in a spot of 3D gaming, although you may not find all your favourites Android games on the Appstore. Battery life: Battery life has also been improved according to the manufacturer. Users will be able to have up to 11 hours of mixed use and 17 hours of reading, Amazon says. As always, take such figures with a pinch of salt until we have tested.
But, The remote video viewing feature won't be ready at launch, and ad-free versions still cost an extra $15. The 16GB of space runs out quickly when storing HD movies, and there's no built-in storage expansion. Lack of Google Play access means many apps still aren't available. The buttons on the back are sometimes hard to find.
The bottom line: With everything that was great about the HDX 7 and more, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 isn't just a great value, it sets the standard for a media consumption tablet. Specifications
Release date11/8/13
Display type8.9 in
OSFire OS 3.0 "Mojito"
ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 GHz
Wireless connectivityWi-Fi
Dimensions (WxDxH)9.1 in x 0.31 in x 6.2 in
Weight13.2 oz Price:$379.00
But, The Touch ID fingerprint scanner, introduced on the iPhone 5S, is sadly absent here, meaning you’ll still have to type in a passcode with every unlock and a password with every purchase. Starting at $499 for 16GB, it’s still expensive compared with the competition. Performance: The iPad Air shares the same processor with Apple’s flagship phone, albeit with a slight bump in clock speed. While the 5S runs at 1.3GHz the Air runs at 1.39GHz. It can achieve this because of the increased space and improved heat dissipation of the Air compared to the much smaller iPhone 5S.
Indeed, before we go into the detail about performance it’s worth noting that the iPad Air manages to keep its cool with consummate ease. Even when running intensive 3D games and apps for hours it barely breaks a sweat and, therefore, neither do your hands.
In practice, the iPad Air is blisteringly fast. Apps open instantly and games like Infinity Blade 3 look sumptuous and run smoothly. The benefits of having a SoC means that the GPU can be used to tackle compute tasks, which makes video editing and compute intensive apps, like AutoCAD, show no hint of slowdown.
The iPad Air performs 59% faster than the iPad 4 in the 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited CPU and GPU test and 91% faster in Geekbench 3 tests. The Peacekeeper browser test, which assesses web browsing performance, shows that the Air trounces its predecessor by being more than twice as fast. It's also faster than the stonking Snapdragon 800 processor on the likes of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and Google Nexus 5. We're talking matter of degrees here, but the difference is there all the same.
Battery life: Battery life on the iPad Air is quoted at "Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music". We would say that's actually not a bad estimate, although the drain was closer to 2% every 10 minutes in general use, which equates to around nine hours' use.
Standby time is much, much better though. We found that we could stick the iPad Air in a bag, taking it out for the commute and messing about with on the sofa at home, for at least three days before it began to get low on battery.
In fact, the only real task that killed it was connecting to our amplifier via Wi-Fi while simultaneously streaming music to the same device through Bluetooth. It's doing things like this that make you realise that this is the kind of thing that we envisaged at the turn of the century, a tablet that has the brains and connectivity to do all the tasks we could want.In terms of connectivity, we've already mentioned the excellent Wi-Fi performance (in terms of distance from router, rather than improved speed) through the Multiple In, Multiple Out (MIMO) technology.
4G bands are now covered throughout the globe, and low power Bluetooth is also on board as well, making it an incredibly well-connected device.
The bottom line: Functionally, the iPad Air is nearly identical to last year’s model, offering only faster performance and better video chatting. But factor in design and aesthetics, and the iPad Air is on another planet. It’s the best full-size consumer tablet on the market. Specifications
Release date11/1/13
Display type9.7 in
OSApple iOS
ProcessorApple
Wireless connectivityWi-Fi
Dimensions (WxDxH)6.6 in x 0.29 in x 9.4 in
Weight1 lbs Price:$479.00 VS HP TouchPad HP webOS is a genuinely impressive operating system. Although some tout it as being intuitive, we're not sure that's really its strength.The HP TouchPad uses Palm's unique WebOS interface and delivers Adobe Flash-enabled Web browsing, Beats audio enhancement, and impressive compatibility with third-party calendar, messaging, and e-mail servicesThe screen is one of this tablet's stand out features, though. It's the same size (9.7in) and resolution (1,024 x 768 pixels) as the iPad 2 and is as within a gnat's whisker of being as good quality with great viewing angles, bright colours, and good contrast. .Battery life according to HP is 9 hours for continuous video playback, and in our test (WiFi on, Bluetooth off, video looping) we came close to that: just over eight and a half hours. That puts it slightly ahead of the Motorola Xoom but again behind the Tab and iPad 2.
But, The TouchPad has a thick, smudgy design, offers no rear camera or HD video capture, includes a limited app selection, and its unique cards system of multitasking isn't as fully utilized as it could be.
The bottom line: The TouchPad would have made a great competitor for the original iPad, but its design, features, and speed put it behind today's crop of tablet heavyweights. Specifications
Display type9.7 in TFT active matrix - LED backlight - Yes
OSHP webOS 3.0
RAM1 GB
ProcessorQUALCOMM Snapdragon APQ8060 1.2 GHz
Wireless connectivityIEEE 802.11nIEEE 802.11bBluetooth 2.1 EDRIEEE 802.11aIEEE 802.11g
Dimensions (WxDxH)7.5 in x 0.6 in x 9.4 in
Weight1.6 lbs Price;$257.49 to $265.99 VS Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 The HDX 8.9 offers all of that and improves on the 7-incher by including an 8-megapixel back camera and a sharper, more color-accurate screen. It's also the lightest large tablet currently on the market.The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a performance monster that speeds through Web sites and UI navigation at a frantic pace. Its screen is impressively sharp and its body amazingly light for a larger tablet. The Mayday feature gives personal and near-instant customer service. Some small but smart UI additions lead to a simple, welcoming experience. Performance
We can’t run our usual suite of benchmark tests on the Kindle because they do not appear on the Appstore (more on that later). However, the Fire HDX 8.9 is powered by the impressive Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.2GHz with 2GB RAM. It’s a configuration we’ve used and tested on numerous tablets and it’s a speedy one indeed. In fact it’s one of the fastest mobile processors ever made.
You can tell the processor packs a punch when using the tablet. It starts up quickly and effortlessly glides through menus and apps. While Samsung’s TouchWiz interface causes some stuttering issues on the similarly specced Galaxy Note 10.1, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9’s Fire OS running on Android Jelly Bean doesn’t.
It’s also more than adequate if you’re interested in a spot of 3D gaming, although you may not find all your favourites Android games on the Appstore. Battery life: Battery life has also been improved according to the manufacturer. Users will be able to have up to 11 hours of mixed use and 17 hours of reading, Amazon says. As always, take such figures with a pinch of salt until we have tested.
But, The remote video viewing feature won't be ready at launch, and ad-free versions still cost an extra $15. The 16GB of space runs out quickly when storing HD movies, and there's no built-in storage expansion. Lack of Google Play access means many apps still aren't available. The buttons on the back are sometimes hard to find.
The bottom line: With everything that was great about the HDX 7 and more, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 isn't just a great value, it sets the standard for a media consumption tablet. Specifications
Release date11/8/13
Display type8.9 in
OSFire OS 3.0 "Mojito"
ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 GHz
Wireless connectivityWi-Fi
Dimensions (WxDxH)9.1 in x 0.31 in x 6.2 in
Weight13.2 oz Price:$379.00
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