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 Nokia Lumia 2520 Nokia’s new tablet, the Lumia 2520, changes that up a bit. The Finnish manufacturer’s first tablet, a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Surface 2, has a big trick up its sleeve: it’s only available with built-in LTE, which isn’t even yet an option on the Surface line. It’s available from Verizon and AT&T now, starting at $399 with a data-plan agreement. The 2520 is designed to be completely and entirely mobile, a tablet you bring everywhere and do everything with.The Nokia Lumia 2520 features fast gaming performance and LTE support out of the box. Xbox Music is an incredibly robust streaming app, and Nokia Music allows you to listen to songs you don't own without an Internet connection. It includes the full version of Office.There's an 8,120mAh battery inside the 2520, which Nokia reckons will give an impressive 25 days of standby time. It put up a good fight in general use too. I was easily able to get a day of mixed use from the slate and if you're more cautious, you can eke it out over a few days.At 1920 x 1080 pixels, the Lumia 2520’s LCD screen is gorgeous and gets plenty bright. Gorilla Glass 2 covers it so the 2520 can withstand some light abuse. On the inside is a top-notch ARM tablet. It runs on Qualcomm’s industry-leading Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor, running at 2.2GHz. 2GB of RAM, a MicroSD card slot capable of holding a 64GB card, and 32GB of internal file storage are included.
But, It's thicker and heavier than recent tablets, and its pointy corners are distracting. The screen has a yellow tint, storage expansion is only accessible with a key or paperclip, and the keyboard accessory isn't as comfortable to type on as the Surface 2's.
The bottom line: Unless you want a Windows RT tablet with cellular connection, skip the Lumia 2520 and get the Surface 2 instead. Specifications
Display type10.1 in
OSMicrosoft Windows 8.1 RT
ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 GHz
Wireless connectivity4G LTE
Dimensions (WxDxH)10.5 in x 0.35 in x 6.6 in
Weight1.35 lbs Price:$399.99 VS Google Nexus 10 The Nexus 10 is comfortable to hold in either landscape or portrait mode. It's both thinner and lighter than the most recent iPad at 9mm and 604g.The Google Nexus 10 is clearly a brilliant tablet. It's got top-end specs at a mid-range price; that alone makes it deserving of attention.The Nexus 10 has a beautifully sharp screen. It's light, durable, and has the fastest processor of any Android tablet. Photo Sphere is an incredibly cool concept. Google's content ecosystem is only getting better. Performance:
Google's Nexus 10 is powered by a 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5250 dual-core processor along with 2GB of RAM. It's easy to get caught up in specs like the number of cores when talking about tablets (quad-core is quickly becoming par for the course these days), but it's important to remember that those numbers alone don't determine a device' performance.The experience of using the Nexus 10, in fact, is more consistently smooth and snappy than what I've experienced with most other 10-in. Android tablets - including those with quad-core chips. Navigating through the home screens is fast and fluid, apps load instantly and multitasking feels effortless. Web browsing is a breeze, too, even with numerous tabs open in the Chrome browser. There's nothing to complain about in terms of performance here; the Nexus 10 absolutely delivers.
The Nexus 10 packs a 9000mAh battery that promises nine hours of nonstop video streaming, seven hours of continuous Web browsing and 500 hours of standby time. I found the tablet's stamina to be top-notch; even with moderate to heavy use, I was often able to go a solid few days between charges.
One area where the Nexus 10 falls short is in storage: The tablet's internal space is limited to either 16GB or 32GB. Once you factor in system files and all that fun stuff, even on the 32GB device, you're left with only about 27GB to 28GB of actual usable space -- and the device does not have an SD card slot for external storage. As with its Nexus 4, Google is clearly putting the focus on cloud storage and Web-based streaming, but that kind of configuration isn't going to work for everyone.
The Nexus 10 has two cameras: a front-facing 1.9-megapixel, 720p camera for vanity pics and video chat; and a rear-facing 5-megapixel, 1080p camera for stills and general recordings. When it comes to still pictures, the cameras are okay but not great; they'll get the job done, but you'll get far better quality from pretty much any current high-end smartphone camera. (Does anyone actually take photos on a tablet, anyway?)
Google's Nexus 10 supports near-field communication (NFC) for contact-free sharing and services, including Google Wallet, which comes preloaded on the device. Contrary to some reports, the tablet does not support the new Miracast wireless display-sharing protocol announced for the Nexus 4.
The Nexus 10 is currently available as a Wi-Fi-based device; at this point, Google has not announced any plans for a 3G- or 4G-capable version.
Battery Life:
The Nexus 10 is powered by a non-removable 9000mAh Lithium polymer battery. During our time testing the tablet we found that it offers excellent performance. Indeed, in between testing various apps, capturing screen grabs, watching HD movie content, loading and re-loading dozens (if not hundreds) of websites, playing games, using the camera and all other manner of applications we were easily able to get a full day’s use of the tablet on a single charge. Given the power that’s required to light up all those pixels on the Nexus 10’s high-resolution screen this is really quite an achievement on Samsung/Google’s behalf. There are, of course, various ways and means to prolong battery life, such as switching the GPS off, however we’re confident that the majority of users will find that the Nexus 10 offers excellent battery life as is.
But, The included charger isn't fast enough to power the battery while playing a game; even while idle, it charges painfully slowly. There's no storage expansion option, and apps that take full advantage of the screen are currently few and far between. Navigating isn't quite as seamless as on the Nexus 7.
The bottom line: The Nexus 10's superior design and swift performance make it one of the best Android tablets to date. Specifications
Display type10.055 in
OSAndroid 4.2 Jelly Bean
RAM2 GB
ProcessorA15
Wireless connectivityBluetoothNFCWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Dimensions (WxDxH)263.9 mm x 8.9 mm x 177.6 mm
Weight603 g Price;$399.00
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 Nokia Lumia 2520 Nokia’s new tablet, the Lumia 2520, changes that up a bit. The Finnish manufacturer’s first tablet, a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Surface 2, has a big trick up its sleeve: it’s only available with built-in LTE, which isn’t even yet an option on the Surface line. It’s available from Verizon and AT&T now, starting at $399 with a data-plan agreement. The 2520 is designed to be completely and entirely mobile, a tablet you bring everywhere and do everything with.The Nokia Lumia 2520 features fast gaming performance and LTE support out of the box. Xbox Music is an incredibly robust streaming app, and Nokia Music allows you to listen to songs you don't own without an Internet connection. It includes the full version of Office.There's an 8,120mAh battery inside the 2520, which Nokia reckons will give an impressive 25 days of standby time. It put up a good fight in general use too. I was easily able to get a day of mixed use from the slate and if you're more cautious, you can eke it out over a few days.At 1920 x 1080 pixels, the Lumia 2520’s LCD screen is gorgeous and gets plenty bright. Gorilla Glass 2 covers it so the 2520 can withstand some light abuse. On the inside is a top-notch ARM tablet. It runs on Qualcomm’s industry-leading Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor, running at 2.2GHz. 2GB of RAM, a MicroSD card slot capable of holding a 64GB card, and 32GB of internal file storage are included.
But, It's thicker and heavier than recent tablets, and its pointy corners are distracting. The screen has a yellow tint, storage expansion is only accessible with a key or paperclip, and the keyboard accessory isn't as comfortable to type on as the Surface 2's.
The bottom line: Unless you want a Windows RT tablet with cellular connection, skip the Lumia 2520 and get the Surface 2 instead. Specifications
Display type10.1 in
OSMicrosoft Windows 8.1 RT
ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 GHz
Wireless connectivity4G LTE
Dimensions (WxDxH)10.5 in x 0.35 in x 6.6 in
Weight1.35 lbs Price:$399.99 VS Google Nexus 10 The Nexus 10 is comfortable to hold in either landscape or portrait mode. It's both thinner and lighter than the most recent iPad at 9mm and 604g.The Google Nexus 10 is clearly a brilliant tablet. It's got top-end specs at a mid-range price; that alone makes it deserving of attention.The Nexus 10 has a beautifully sharp screen. It's light, durable, and has the fastest processor of any Android tablet. Photo Sphere is an incredibly cool concept. Google's content ecosystem is only getting better. Performance:
Google's Nexus 10 is powered by a 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5250 dual-core processor along with 2GB of RAM. It's easy to get caught up in specs like the number of cores when talking about tablets (quad-core is quickly becoming par for the course these days), but it's important to remember that those numbers alone don't determine a device' performance.The experience of using the Nexus 10, in fact, is more consistently smooth and snappy than what I've experienced with most other 10-in. Android tablets - including those with quad-core chips. Navigating through the home screens is fast and fluid, apps load instantly and multitasking feels effortless. Web browsing is a breeze, too, even with numerous tabs open in the Chrome browser. There's nothing to complain about in terms of performance here; the Nexus 10 absolutely delivers.
The Nexus 10 packs a 9000mAh battery that promises nine hours of nonstop video streaming, seven hours of continuous Web browsing and 500 hours of standby time. I found the tablet's stamina to be top-notch; even with moderate to heavy use, I was often able to go a solid few days between charges.
One area where the Nexus 10 falls short is in storage: The tablet's internal space is limited to either 16GB or 32GB. Once you factor in system files and all that fun stuff, even on the 32GB device, you're left with only about 27GB to 28GB of actual usable space -- and the device does not have an SD card slot for external storage. As with its Nexus 4, Google is clearly putting the focus on cloud storage and Web-based streaming, but that kind of configuration isn't going to work for everyone.
The Nexus 10 has two cameras: a front-facing 1.9-megapixel, 720p camera for vanity pics and video chat; and a rear-facing 5-megapixel, 1080p camera for stills and general recordings. When it comes to still pictures, the cameras are okay but not great; they'll get the job done, but you'll get far better quality from pretty much any current high-end smartphone camera. (Does anyone actually take photos on a tablet, anyway?)
Google's Nexus 10 supports near-field communication (NFC) for contact-free sharing and services, including Google Wallet, which comes preloaded on the device. Contrary to some reports, the tablet does not support the new Miracast wireless display-sharing protocol announced for the Nexus 4.
The Nexus 10 is currently available as a Wi-Fi-based device; at this point, Google has not announced any plans for a 3G- or 4G-capable version.
Battery Life:
The Nexus 10 is powered by a non-removable 9000mAh Lithium polymer battery. During our time testing the tablet we found that it offers excellent performance. Indeed, in between testing various apps, capturing screen grabs, watching HD movie content, loading and re-loading dozens (if not hundreds) of websites, playing games, using the camera and all other manner of applications we were easily able to get a full day’s use of the tablet on a single charge. Given the power that’s required to light up all those pixels on the Nexus 10’s high-resolution screen this is really quite an achievement on Samsung/Google’s behalf. There are, of course, various ways and means to prolong battery life, such as switching the GPS off, however we’re confident that the majority of users will find that the Nexus 10 offers excellent battery life as is.
But, The included charger isn't fast enough to power the battery while playing a game; even while idle, it charges painfully slowly. There's no storage expansion option, and apps that take full advantage of the screen are currently few and far between. Navigating isn't quite as seamless as on the Nexus 7.
The bottom line: The Nexus 10's superior design and swift performance make it one of the best Android tablets to date. Specifications
Display type10.055 in
OSAndroid 4.2 Jelly Bean
RAM2 GB
ProcessorA15
Wireless connectivityBluetoothNFCWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Dimensions (WxDxH)263.9 mm x 8.9 mm x 177.6 mm
Weight603 g Price;$399.00
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