iPad 1Gb of RAM is enough, be happy :)

[zhenya]

The Air 1 isn't crippled, nor is there any reason that it shouldn't be upgraded to iOS 8. Comparing it to the iPad 3 is a bit silly, the 3 had it far worse.

The Air 1 though wasn't a screaming buy when it came out and still isn't a screaming buy either today. Its basically mostly like the iPad 4 but just a reskin without substantial hardware upgrades. Air 1 was just a shell/skin game.

Air 2 is a significant upgrade - 3 core CPU, 2GB of RAM, Touch ID, coated glass, new glass sandwich... these upgrades are more than skin deep. The Air 2 is a screaming buy... the Air 1 was just a buy me if you think I'm pretty proposition. The Air 2 will definitely outlive the Air 1, with its significant hardware upgrades.

How short our memory is.

The iPad Air was a substantial improvement over the 4. It was between half again and 3x as fast in nearly every benchmark. It improved battery life greatly yet was substantially thinner and smaller. To discount the form factor change is to ignore how people use these devices. The Air was the first full sized ipad to not feel like a brick in hand, and fast enough to be comparable to full blown computers. It totally transformed the experience of using the device. I own both a 4 and an Air and have used them both every day for over a year. The 4 has exactly the same problems as the Air, despite the 64-bit thing. On both of them if I want the browser experience to be anything like stable I have to use a third party browser. Yes, more RAM helps, but the fundamental problem is Apple needs to change the code so there is never any doubt as to whether your tabs are going to be reloaded or not! These devices are now full blown computers; we need a more reliable experience than this.

 

[s2mikey]

How short our memory is.

The iPad Air was a substantial improvement over the 4. It was between half again and 3x as fast in nearly every benchmark. It improved battery life greatly yet was substantially thinner and smaller. To discount the form factor change is to ignore how people use these devices. The Air was the first full sized ipad to not feel like a brick in hand, and fast enough to be comparable to full blown computers. It totally transformed the experience of using the device. I own both a 4 and an Air and have used them both every day for over a year. The 4 has exactly the same problems as the Air, despite the 64-bit thing. On both of them if I want the browser experience to be anything like stable I have to use a third party browser. Yes, more RAM helps, but the fundamental problem is Apple needs to change the code so there is never any doubt as to whether your tabs are going to be reloaded or not! These devices are now full blown computers; we need a more reliable experience than this.

Yes, nice post. RAM is helpful to have but efficient coding is even better and more future proof than any amount of RAM would be. The Air is a terrific tablet and with some safari tweaks would be 100% perfect.

 

[macduke]

MacDuke, could you explain us in more details why do you regret to buy an iPhone 6+ 128GB, please?
Do you really find it slower than iPhone5? In which situations? (Also with iOS 8.1?)

It's not so much that I regret the 6 Plus for the memory issues. They aren't ideal, and it does crash more on certain websites than my iPhone 5 did. What's weird is that I don't feel like the iPhone 6 Plus is significantly faster than my iPhone 5. Not sure if it's the scaling or what, but it just didn't seem like the jump that I expected after two years. But I remember thinking when I got my iPhone 5 "Why would you need a phone faster than this?" The main performance increase is for higher end gaming and the camera. Being able to take super slow mo is really fun as well as instant HDR exposures.

The main thing is that I'm starting to get tired of is the larger form factor. It was awesome at first, and the display itself still is. And don't get me wrong, I still love the battery and the image stabilization. But I'm starting to wonder if that is worth it for the larger size. For me, something around 5" would be perfect. The main issue is moving my thumb across the screen from side to side in portrait. My hands are average to slightly above average guy sized hands, and it's difficult for me to stretch across to tap on that far icon. I can do it, but it's a bit of a strain and I feel like I don't have the best grip on the device when I do it, which makes me uncomfortable when walking about. The reachability feature works well, I just wish the device wasn't quite so wide.

The other day my wife's iPhone 5 went rogue and started eating up all her "other" space, making her phone slow down. After I cleared things off and reset her settings (there were some other glitches going on), I kind of missed holding the smaller phone. I missed how it wasn't at all a pain to use—aside from everything being small and harder to read with less content on the screen at once. Her phone now seems absolutely tiny, but something in between would probably be good. Something that fits in my pocket like the Plus, but isn't as noticeable in my pocket.

Another one of the main reasons I got the Plus was the iPad-like interface. While it's neat and sometimes useful, it isn't as helpful as I thought it would be. Perhaps it's because I'm still waiting on many third-party apps to take advantage of it? I also wish that I could flip the location of the gesture for Control Center and Notification Center. I use Notification Center often (especially with all the new widgets), but it's more of a pain to activate. Reachability works, but it's just one extra step. So yeah, that's my experience with the iPhone 6 Plus. I wonder if I took it to the Apple Store, and told them I'd like to exchange it for the iPhone 6 without getting a refund for the difference if they would allow it? I don't really want to go through the hassle of Craigslist, especially since this is such an expensive item. I think I would miss the Plus, I like having a bigger screen, I just wish it was a little bit smaller. Even 5.2" would make a good bit of difference for me.

 

[neteng101]

I own both a 4 and an Air and have used them both every day for over a year. The 4 has exactly the same problems as the Air, despite the 64-bit thing.

As I said - its a form factor/shell change. The benchmarks are not meaningful because in usage it results to the same thing/issues. Performance wise to the end user its the same thing.

Weight is a shell game thing. Like I said, the Air 1's improvements over the 4 is mostly skin deep. And you said it yourself, the Air doesn't solve the problem of the 4. The Air 2 with its 2 GB of RAM is a meaningful user experience change. Its not just skin deep.

The Air isn't bad, but it was by no means a truly screaming buy because it was still limited by that 1GB memory ceiling. Kid yourself if you want but tabs reloading has definitely been proven to be a non issue for the most part on the Air 2 - the effects of the extra memory is huge.

 

[s2mikey]

As I said - its a form factor/shell change. The benchmarks are not meaningful because in usage it results to the same thing/issues. Performance wise to the end user its the same thing.

Weight is a shell game thing. Like I said, the Air 1's improvements over the 4 is mostly skin deep. And you said it yourself, the Air doesn't solve the problem of the 4. The Air 2 with its 2 GB of RAM is a meaningful user experience change. Its not just skin deep.

The Air isn't bad, but it was by no means a truly screaming buy because it was still limited by that 1GB memory ceiling. Kid yourself if you want but tabs reloading has definitely been proven to be a non issue for the most part on the Air 2 - the effects of the extra memory is huge.

The extra RAM on the Air 2 is probably nice but it has its own set of problems. It's simply too thin. That's whay the screen vibrates if you dare turn the sound up and can show LCD pooling issues if picked up or held with one hand. In most day to day use it won't be much faster than an Air either. Only high end software and games will really benefit from the chip.

Many of us have not had any safari tab problems either. Sure, you can have more open on the Air 2 but it just doesn't matter to everyone. Peoples use cases are different.

I don't get how anyone can say the Air wasn't a big leap over the 4 though. Seriously? Way lighter, way thinner, better hardware all around, better architecture, etc, etc. cmon.....

 

[haruhiko]

In most day to day use it won't be much faster than an Air either. Only high end software and games will really benefit from the chip.

Do you regard Safari as a high end software?

 

[neteng101]

I don't get how anyone can say the Air wasn't a big leap over the 4 though. Seriously? Way lighter, way thinner, better hardware all around, better architecture, etc, etc. cmon.....

Its a big leap but a lot of the leap is aesthetics/skin deep like I've said - its a shell innovation, and the hardware inside wasn't as huge a jump forward. Its just a stepping stone in between the 4 and Air 2.

The 4 blew the 3/2 out of the water with its hardware internal improvements. The Air 2 is the next revolution.

 

[prism]

The extra RAM on the Air 2 is probably nice but it has its own set of problems. It's simply too thin. That's whay the screen vibrates if you dare turn the sound up and can show LCD pooling issues if picked up or held with one hand. In most day to day use it won't be much faster than an Air either. Only high end software and games will really benefit from the chip.

Many of us have not had any safari tab problems either. Sure, you can have more open on the Air 2 but it just doesn't matter to everyone. Peoples use cases are different.

I don't get how anyone can say the Air wasn't a big leap over the 4 though. Seriously? Way lighter, way thinner, better hardware all around, better architecture, etc, etc. cmon.....

Clearly you haven't tried out the Air 2 because if you did, you would have noticed how significantly more fluid the Air 2 is to the original Air in day to day usage. I'm blown away by the Air 2, it is truly a remarkable piece of hardware.

 

[torakaru]

Another one of the main reasons I got the Plus was the iPad-like interface. While it's neat and sometimes useful, it isn't as helpful as I thought it would be. Perhaps it's because I'm still waiting on many third-party apps to take advantage of it? I also wish that I could flip the location of the gesture for Control Center and Notification Center. I use Notification Center often (especially with all the new widgets), but it's more of a pain to activate. Reachability works, but it's just one extra step. So yeah, that's my experience with the iPhone 6 Plus. I wonder if I took it to the Apple Store, and told them I'd like to exchange it for the iPhone 6 without getting a refund for the difference if they would allow it? I don't really want to go through the hassle of Craigslist, especially since this is such an expensive item. I think I would miss the Plus, I like having a bigger screen, I just wish it was a little bit smaller. Even 5.2" would make a good bit of difference for me.

Thanks a lot macduke , your explanation was perfect and reflects exactly how I feel too . And maybe also most of other iPhone 6+ users. I also think that the perfect size would be 5" or 5.1" instead of 4.7, and keep the 5.5" (or maybe 5.7") for the real phablet users (those who dont care about the size or even carrying the phone in their hands or bag always, instead of trying the back jeans pocket). Maybe we need to get more get use to it, maybe not. But what I think for sure is that all the people that moved to higher size screens, cannot come back. I asked several Android friends users of Galaxy Notes,... and they cannot come back to smaller form factors, they find so tiny anything below 5.2" size. I also think that Apple, trying to keep "Symmetry", made so enlongated and so narrow both phones iPhone 6 and 6+. Personally I like more the form factor of Galaxy S5, and even better the LG G3. But then, we would not have space for the TouchID, which I also lobve so much and consider nowadays indispensable in a smartphone. Unfortunately, we need to make trade-off's as in many other life decisions

 

[Wbutchart]

I had a safari tab reload earlier!!! It. Was. Like. The. END. Of. My. World! Took an extra half a second to read the article. Curse this inadequate 1gig ram!

 

[s2mikey]

Do you regard Safari as a high end software?

Nope. Safari works mostly fine for me. It's glitchy at times but that's safari, not the Hardware of the Air.

Clearly you haven't tried out the Air 2 because if you did, you would have noticed how significantly more fluid the Air 2 is to the original Air in day to day usage. I'm blown away by the Air 2, it is truly a remarkable piece of hardware.

I did try it at my local Best Buy this weekend. Definitely noticed the screen was a little nicer with everything being closer to the surface. I tried a few games, hit a few websites, and things like that. Maybe I just have a good Air but I didn't feel like I was using a much more powerful device. It did feel a smidgen lighter in hand but performance wise it was negligible IMO.

Maybe I didn't try the right apps or I just don't notice but it didn't scream "must upgrade" to me at all. It's a good tablet for those that don't own a tablet or those that own an older generation tablet. For Air users, the update is of dubious vale unless the camera or Touch ID are must haves. That's my take on it.

 

[macduke]

But then, we would not have space for the TouchID, which I also lobve so much and consider nowadays indispensable in a smartphone.

I think Apple filed a patent a few years ago that specifies a method for having a fingerprint sensor built into a display itself. This would allow you to use any part of the screen to verify your thumbprint. The main problem comes from user confusion. The beauty of the iPhone is the simplicity with only one button on the front. Phones didn't used to be this way. Anyone can pick up an iPhone and easily learn how to get back to the home screen. But what happens when you remove the button? It becomes less obvious. Perhaps we've reached a point where technology is widespread enough that people would be able to figure out that you need to do a "force press" like on the Apple Watch. But even the Apple Watch has a home button of sorts on the digital crown. It's an interesting problem to tackle as the bezels will eventually melt away into nothingness. Our devices will eventually be all screen. Remove all unnecessary clutter.

 

[Kendo]

Its a big leap but a lot of the leap is aesthetics/skin deep like I've said - its a shell innovation, and the hardware inside wasn't as huge a jump forward. Its just a stepping stone in between the 4 and Air 2.

The 4 blew the 3/2 out of the water with its hardware internal improvements. The Air 2 is the next revolution.

Agreed. The A7 doubled the performance of the A6 in CPU and graphics which was a huge leap for the iPhone. But the iPad 4 had an A6X which was also twice the graphics performance of the A6. Going from A6X in the iPad 4 to A7 in the iPad Air was essentially the same power in terms of graphics since the A6X and A7 are similar. The Air did have double the CPU performance though.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

I had a safari tab reload earlier!!! It. Was. Like. The. END. Of. My. World! Took an extra half a second to read the article. Curse this inadequate 1gig ram!

The have your apps restart when jumping back and forth. Then have a forum where half your message was deleted due to the page being reloaded. Then the future impact of it guaranteed to get less software updates than if it had 2GB of RAM. I waited one year for the iPad t get 2GB of RAM, and I know that I will see more than an extra year worth of updates because of it. I've looked at the RAM usage; iPad Air 1 gets 350MB of free RAM, iPad Air 2 gets 1350MB. I know which one I'd rather have...

 

[Wbutchart]

The have your apps restart when jumping back and forth. Then have a forum where half your message was deleted due to the page being reloaded. Then the future impact of it guaranteed to get less software updates than if it had 2GB of RAM. I waited one year for the iPad t get 2GB of RAM, and I know that I will see more than an extra year worth of updates because of it. I've looked at the RAM usage; iPad Air 1 gets 350MB of free RAM, iPad Air 2 gets 1350MB. I know which one I'd rather have...

On my mini, I don't have tab reloads all that frequently, my apps don't restart when multitasking.

I honestly am puzzled why you all desire so many safari tabs? What's the purpose or needs to have more than three or four?

 

[Kendo]

On my mini, I don't have tab reloads all that frequently, my apps don't restart when multitasking.

I honestly am puzzled why you all desire so many safari tabs? What's the purpose or needs to have more than three or four?

That's the problem. I am getting reloads with only 3 tabs.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

On my mini, I don't have tab reloads all that frequently, my apps don't restart when multitasking.

I honestly am puzzled why you all desire so many safari tabs? What's the purpose or needs to have more than three or four?

I have seen tab reloading on a family members iPad Air 1 with just 3 tabs. Remember, it's not the quantity of the tabs, but how large the sites are. I commonly need to do research and post it on my blog for my degree and could have one tab open for the blog, 2 or 3 for the research, as well as another 1 or 2 for the brief to refer to if need be. If my tabs reload, I can loose all of the work I just typed up.

The way I see it, you are either someone who is affected by this, or you're not. I'm not going to argue with you if you don't share my experiences or call you wrong. I just think that people should be respected on their thoughts and opinions based on how it affects their workflow because that is all that matter is their workflow. Nothing else.

That's just my opinion anyway.

 

[zhenya]

The additional RAM has definitely stabilized the browsing experience such that you can more regularly have several tabs open, leave the browser to do something else, and not have to have every tab reload. Still, the issue hasn't been fully rectified as it should be with software. It's still possible to multi-task in such a way that tabs will reload, it's just less common.

 

[s2mikey]

The additional RAM has definitely stabilized the browsing experience such that you can more regularly have several tabs open, leave the browser to do something else, and not have to have every tab reload. Still, the issue hasn't been fully rectified as it should be with software. It's still possible to multi-task in such a way that tabs will reload, it's just less common.

Hence its actually the software. The RAM is a good band-aid but it has NOT fixed the underlying problem which is that safari was coded in a crappy, inefficient way.

 

[zhenya]

Hence its actually the software. The RAM is a good band-aid but it has NOT fixed the underlying problem which is that safari was coded in a crappy, inefficient way.

Yes, don't get me wrong - it's absolutely an improvement, (in a couple of days my tabs have reloaded only once - and that was after opening several decent sized programs AND two browsers both with a bunch of tabs) but the best solution would be that the software was changed such that it was never a guessing game.

 

[s2mikey]

Yes, don't get me wrong - it's absolutely an improvement, (in a couple of days my tabs have reloaded only once - and that was after opening several decent sized programs AND two browsers both with a bunch of tabs) but the best solution would be that the software was changed such that it was never a guessing game.

Yep. And, even better, if safari was more efficient then the system RAM could be freed up to do other stuff and not have to manage apps in the background so intensely. Safari needs to be tidied up. Period.

 

[saltd]

2GB of RAM was much needed and long overdue. End of story. Apple should have put it in the original Air.

The iPad Air 1 is an excellent device, but the Air 2 really is a substantial jump. You may not get a feel for that if you only use it for a few minutes in the store, but after a couple days with the Air 2 I am VERY impressed.

The only thing wrong now is that they still offer a 16GB version....

 

[asleep]

However I am a small developer of iOS apps and I've tested this feature myself and 9 out of 10 Xs, iOS will terminate the app without even sending it a warning message... Just poof terminate.

Since you seem to actually know of what you speak, is there a browser-based solution to the memory issue with Air/1GB RAM?

I got spoiled by the Air 2 but returned it because of the vibrations from the screen.

 

[Count Blah]

I had a safari tab reload earlier!!! It. Was. Like. The. END. Of. My. World! Took an extra half a second to read the article. Curse this inadequate 1gig ram!

Did you type this response on your Air 1? Did you try using another tab to so some research for your response?

I thought not.

Go fluff in another thread.

 

[penajmz]

1GB of Ram is NOT enough. Using my Air 2 for a couple of hours confirmed this. Next iPhone must have at least 2GB of ram... Must.