Apple’s tablet has been shedding weight and packing in components and features for years, and much of what Apple added in this update was expected: The new Touch ID fingerprint sensor in place of the traditional home button, a more powerful, 8-megapixel iSight camera and a new 64-bit A8X processor, which is slightly different and more powerful than the A8 chip in Apple’s new iPhone 6 and6 Plus smartphones.
What came as more of a surprise is that Apple managed to shave more than a millimeter of thickness off the tablet. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but the iPad Air 2 does, in fact, feel noticeably thinner than the first iPad Air and it is actually 30 grams lighter than the last Air on the Wi-Fi-only model.
Much of that space-saving came through a new screen. It’s still a 2,048 x 1,536 Retina display, but now it’s what’s known as a fully-laminated screen. Put simply, the layers that make up the touchscreen — LCD, capacitive touch layer and glass — are now one. The other byproduct of the new screen technology is that the images are closer to the surface and, when you’re touching the screen, closer to your fingertips.
By its very nature, a fully-laminated screen cuts down on refractions, which increase when there are gaps between the layers, and, as a result, builds up image contrast. Apple also added a new anti-reflective coating, in addition to the oleophobic coating that effectively cuts down on the visibility of fingerprints.
The result of all these display changes is noticeable. Even though the resolution hasn’t changed, images simply pop on the screen and, in my tests, the new coating did an excellent job. Is it 56% less reflective? That’s hard to say, but it did cut down the impact of an overhead skylight and high-hat light while I was watching a movie on the iPad Air 2.
Body matters
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
Despite all these changes, the iPad Air 2’s body still looks a lot like the first iPad Air. In fact, you have to look pretty closely to notice the key chassis differences. The aluminum body is still 9.4 x 6.6 inches. Unlike the iPhone 6, Apple’s iPad Air 2 didn’t get super curvy. Like the last model, it features a diamond-cut chamfer at the edge closest to the display glass.
There are some changes, though. The speaker grid along the bottom edge is now two rows of round holes. Apple upgraded the audio signal processing a bit, but they haven’t done a thing to improve what happens to sound when your hand is covering the speaker. To be fair, most of the time I used the tablet with a set of 3.5mm headphones (not included).
Apple iPad Air 2 Review
Also unchanged are the headphone jack, lighting port and button positions. Apple did move the mute/rotation-lock switch. At first this really bothered me because I always thought it was the easiest way to completely mute the device (app, notification and system sounds). Now I have to go into the control panel — I sweep up from the lower edge of the screen to bring it up -– to access the new silence option. I got used to this, but aside for the slimmer profile, Apple hasn’t really offered an explanation for why they removed that button.
Apple also moved both of the microphones. One is now right next to the iSight camera and the other is where the lock switch used to sit: Right above the volume rocker buttons. I did some FaceTime tests, but didn’t notice significant audio differences.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
The other key difference is the home button. It’s now, like the iPhone 5S, 6 and 6 Plus, a Touch ID fingerprint scanner. You can use it to unlock the iPad Air 2 with any of your registered fingers, to complete app and in-app purchases, and with Apple’s new Apple Pay to buy products in retailer apps that support the system. While Touch ID is paired with a secure element inside the tablet's chip, there is no NFC support, so you won't be waving your new tablet over a touchless NFC kiosk at your local Target.
Registering fingerprints for Touch ID on the iPad Air is just as easy as it is on the iPhone, though the software now offers a bit more guidance during fingerprint registration. It now not only tells you when to place your finger on the sensor, but when to lift it as well. With iOS 8.1, Apple is rolling out third-party Touch ID access to apps like OnePass and LastPass. In other words, if the apps have a lock or passcode on them, you'll be able to use Touch ID to unlock them.
I especially enjoy using Touch ID to unlock the iPad Air 2, and if I pick up an older iPad I'm instantly frustrated by its absence. Touch ID to complete App downloads and in-app purchases is also quite convenient. Apple Pay was still rolling out as I started testing the iPad, so while I was able to add a credit card (the one I already use for iTunes), I couldn’t buy anything.
Components
IMAGE: GEEKBENCH SCREENSHOT
Inside the iPad Air 2 is the new A8X chip. According to Apple, it’s 40% faster than the iPad Air’s A7 chip. It’s also a little more powerful than the iPhone’s A8 CPU.
To get an anecdotal sense of the performance, I installed a pair of console-level games: Asphalt 8 Airborneand Modern Combat 5: Blackout. Each of these games is notable for rich imagery and physics including smoke, water, rain, and reflections. The games looked and worked great on the original iPad Air and worked just as well — if not better — on the iPad Air 2.
IMAGE: SCREEN SHOT COMPOSITE
However, Apple isn’t just blowing smoke when it says the A8X is more powerful. I ran Geekbench 3 on both Airs and found that that Apple’s A8X has 3 cores (the A7 had 2) and that the multicore score for the iPad Air 2 is nearly double that of the original Air. The singlecore score for the iPad Air 2 is only slightly better than that of the iPad Air.
Even more interesting is how much memory Apple stuffed inside the slimmer Air 2. For the first time, we have an iPad with nearly 2GB of RAM. Not only will that speed up overall performance, it should help with multitasking.
There’s also a new M8 motion co-processor, which takes the task of monitoring motion sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, compass) off the A8X chip's hands. It’s also, according to Apple, better at the job. Apple also added a barometer, the same sensor you’ll find in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. On those devices, it’s used to measure relative altitude and can tell, for instance, when you’ve climbed a flight of stairs. On the iPad Air 2, though, there is no Health App to keep track of this activity, so I’m not sure why it has a barometric sensor. Perhaps third-party companies will use it.
There are also new Wi-Fi and cell radios in the iPad Air 2. On the Wi-Fi side, Apple now supports 802.11ac MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) technology. This can result in faster Wi-Fi performance, but only if your Wi-Fi router supports that standard, as well. For now, many home routers, which are supplied by cable companies, still do not. On the cell side, Apple promises faster LTE, but the reality is LTE is getting slower all the time because most of the towers are overloaded with an ever-increasing proliferation of LTE traffic. What I found is decent LTE performance when I had three or more bars.
On the Wi-Fi side, performance was good in my 802.11n home. One thing I did love is that iOS 8 and Keychain (Apple’s password management system), which is paired with iCloud, knew my Wi-Fi router’s password, so as soon as I entered my home I was connected. Now that’s convenience.
I spy iSight
The original iPad didn’t even have a camera, so it’s no surprise that the tablet has always lagged behind Apple iPhone’s image-capture prowess. I also wonder if Apple held back the iPad’s camera chops to discourage people fromusing the large device as their primary camera. I can just hear them saying, “Buy an iPhone, you’ll love it as your go-to point-and-shoot.”
Nothing, it seems, can stop people from holding up an 8.9-inch tablet wherever they are to take a picture. Now the iPad Air 2 has an 8MP iSight camera. But before you start cheering, “We won!” remember that this isn't exactly the same camera as you’ll find in the iPhone 6, which is perhaps why it’s still flush against the iPad Air 2 body (the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cameras stick out roughly a millimeter).
IMAGE: MASHABLE, LANCE ULANOFF
Yes, it’s still a five-element lens, but the image sensor and image signal processing are not quite the same. So photos taken with the iPad Air 2 look good, but not as sharp or color-accurate as the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. iOS 8 adds Panorama (up to 43 megapixels), stop motion (which works well) and slow motion. That last element only matches the iPhone 5S' 120 frames per second, which seems so passé when you know you can slow things down to 240 fps with the iPhone 6. You can also shoot sharp-looking 1080p video.
The new FaceTime camera essentially achieves parity with its counterpart on the iPhone 6. You get 720p video, as well as burst-mode photography.
iOS 8 and 8.1
Apple's iOS 8 is a great update that continues the work started with the drastic iOS 7 overhaul. The new OS add things like QuickType, which offers word suggestions right above the keyboard, great mail management tools like sweep to delete, a brand new Photos App complete with photo editing, improved and gesture-friendly Messaging, AirDrop between iOS and OS X devices, and iCloud Drive.
iOS 8.1, which was running on my test device, finally turns on Continuity, a seriously cool cross-platform technology that weds, for example, the iPad to your MacBook Air — as long as it’s running Mac OS X Yosemite. I could start viewing a webpage on Safari on the iPad Air 2, put the iPad down next to the MacBook Air and see a little icon on the desktop indicating that I had started an activity on my iPad and could continue it on the MacBook. I just tapped the icon and in an instant I was looking at the exact same webpage in Safari on the MacBook Air.
iOS 8.1 also brings back the Camera Roll. Commence cheering now.
IMAGE: SCREENSHOT, ADOBE
It's worth noting that a tablet of this size is excellent for productivity. In landscape mode, email gains the always-present inbox on the left-hand side of the screen. The iPad Mini and even iPhone 6 Plus get it, too, but managing and writing email on a screen this size is simply better.
Applications are not only larger, they can pack in a lot more information. I spent time working in Adobe Photoshop Touch, a powerful photo-editing app that’s designed for the iPad and really appreciated all the breathing room (not to mention the sheer editing power). When I paired the iPad with the Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard, it was a pure joy to use Microsoft Word for the iPad and write this review.
Battery life
Apple rates the iPad Air 2 for 10 hours of battery life. Using it throughout two days on a single charge and for a variety of activities, I got at least that much time. There is a lot of room for battery in a tablet this size, but Apple iPad Air 2’s battery is actually a shade thinner than the first Air, which makes it all the more impressive that it can still run for more than a day. Part of the credit may go to the now more power-efficient A8X chip.
Perspective
The Apple iPad Air 2 is, without question, the best iPad Apple has ever produced.
It feels light, but not flimsy, the screen is gorgeous and performance is impeccable. However, since the early days of the iPad, companies such as Samsung, Google, Sony, Acer, Asus, HTC and Amazon have jumped into the fray and some of them are meeting or beating Apple on the spec front.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, in particular, is at least 60 grams lighter than the iPad Air 2, though the iPad Air is, at 6.1mm, thinner than the 7.8mm HDX. I do wonder if Apple’s adherence to metal — even aluminum — is hurting them. Amazon uses magnesium and I can only imagine how light the iPad Air 2 would be if it switched to a similar alloy.
The Kindle Fire HDX is also running a 2.5GHz quad core processor. Apple's A8X CPU runs at 1.5GHz. But numbers can be deceiving. As I noted above, the iPad Air flawlessly runs the most punishing console-level games. Part of this is because the A8X also includes a powerful graphics processor. Apple doesn’t speak much about the raw numbers behind its performance beyond saying that it’s 2.5 times faster than the A7 GPU, but it’s clearly strong enough to run games with fairly intense physics requirements.
I’ve spent a lot of time with the first Kindle Fire HDX (a slightly updated and more powerful one is coming soon) and can say that it, too, performs well.
Apple’s App library is more extensive, but Amazon’s curated one isn’t really lacking for any of the key apps. Both tablets are strong performers when it comes to movie playback and content options. And while iOS remains my favorite mobile platform, I'm impressed with how well Amazon has suppressed Android’s sometimes confusing nature underneath its own Fire OS.
Apple doesn’t even beat the Kindle Fire HDX on resolution. The latest model has 339 ppi (pixels per inch), while the iPad Air 2 is at 264 ppi. Of course, image quality is more than just resolution and, as I noted, Apple’s new screen technology creates pretty spectacular imagery.
Price
I had hoped Apple would drop the entry-level price for the new iPad Air 2. Imagine what a blockbuster a $399 16 GB iPad Air 2 would’ve been. Amazon’s 16GB Kindle Fire HDX costs $379. It’s not as beautiful as the iPad and doesn’t meet the iPad or iOS 8 on every feature, but consumers may not care.
Moreover, Apple discarded the 32GB option, which means if you want more storage — really enough storage — you have to make the leap to 64GB for $599. You can, of course, go for the original iPad Air 32GB model, which costs $449, but if you’re like me, you want the latest and greatest technology (Touch ID is worth it).
Obviously, if you buy an iPad with cellular service, add roughly $129 to any of these prices. I still find that there’s enough Wi-Fi around, and tethering to your iPhone is so easy with iOS 8 that a cell-ready iPad isn’t really a necessity.
It boils down to this: The iPad Air 2 is still the best tablet on the market, but it comes at a premium price.
If you are married to iOS, there is no better choice. However, if you’re open to other platforms, you have to consider the Amazon Kindle HDX. It’s a tremendous value and you likely won’t notice all that you’re missing, including Touch ID, Continuity, slo-mo video, AirPlay and AirDrop, a truly vast app store and Microsoft Word for iPad.
Apple iPad Air 2
The Good
Beautiful, light and powerful •Incredible screen • Touch ID fingerprint sensor adds convenience
The Bad
Pricey • No lock/mute switch.
The Bottom Line
The Apple iPad Air 2 is the best tablet Apple has ever produced. It will please Apple fans, but may not have raised the bar far enough on tablet technology to hold onto its crown indefinitely.
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