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
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