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First Hands-On Impressions of New iPad Air 2: Ultra-Thin, Improved Display, Better Camera

WBRacing said:
Really can't see this helping cure the reported market stagnation. Gave me no reason whatsoever to want to upgrade from my Air.

Better camera, seriously? In 3+ years I've not used my rear camera for anything once. I don't speak for everyone obviously, but am I alone? Doesn't feel like it.

Looking forward to more scenes like this though... :rolleyes:

Image
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They do not really have to do this to have people upgrade every year. There is really no need to upgrade a tablet every year and I agree with you that unless someone really wants Touch ID one can really keep the Air for another year (or maybe even two) without having any performance issues. Many in my family think an iPad is good for 3-4 years, I changed mine last year and won't really do it for another year at least.
 
Its a shame that the iPad mini 3 only got an A7, just like the mini 2. So you pay $100 more for only Touch ID, no internal upgrade...thats a shame.
If you want a mini 3, don't do it, save your $100,- and get a mini 2. Touch ID is great, but think again you mostly use Touch ID on your iPhone.
 
Ipaid mini should have been.

6.1mm thin
A8
1gb ram
Laminated screen
Half a pound or less
8mp rear camera
16, 64 and 128gb storage
Ac wifi
10 hour battery life

I would have loved to get one with those specs. Lighter is always better. I think apple knew that the mini would sell much more then the air 2 if it had those specs. The air 2 is great but wish the bezels matched the ones on the mini and would have been nice if it was around .80 lbs.
 
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So, two questions here:
1. Is it confirmed 2GB of RAM?
2. On sale tomorrow (Oct 17), is this another midnight CA time again?
 
centauratlas said:
So, two questions here:
1. Is it confirmed 2GB of RAM?
2. On sale tomorrow (Oct 17), is this another midnight CA time again?
Click to expand...

I don't think RAM can be confirmed until someone actually gets one and either does a tear-down or installs an app. Anyone buying tomorrow is rolling the dice that the rumor about the chip is true.

On sale? Don't know. Maybe if you're in a hurry, try at midnight CA time and see.

My husband's ipad 3 is not running iOS 8 very well. So I was planning to upgrade to a new iPad and give him my Air. Now I don't know if I'm willing to roll the dice or just get him an Air 1 at a discounted price. Guess I'll wait for confirmation.

We're going on vacation the first week of Nov. and I wanted the new iPad for that. Wonder what avaliablity in-store will be like around the end of the month.
 
donnaw said:
I don't think RAM can be confirmed until someone actually gets one and either does a tear-down or installs an app. Anyone buying tomorrow is rolling the dice that the rumor about the chip is true.

On sale? Don't know. Maybe if you're in a hurry, try at midnight CA time and see.

My husband's ipad 3 is not running iOS 8 very well. So I was planning to upgrade to a new iPad and give him my Air. Now I don't know if I'm willing to roll the dice or just get him an Air 1 at a discounted price. Guess I'll wait for confirmation.

We're going on vacation the first week of Nov. and I wanted the new iPad for that. Wonder what avaliablity in-store will be like around the end of the month.
Click to expand...


Yeah, that is what I was afraid of. The earlier leaks looked like 2GB, I was hoping someone would say, "well, the parts we saw in person looked like the leaks, so we can be pretty confident it is 2GB."

I'm going to upgrade my Air to the 2 and my wife can use the Air, and the iPad 4 will go in the kitchen or somewhere while the iPad 3 will go somewhere else. Too many gadgets. lol
 
802.11ac

I'm strongly thinking about selling my iPad Air bought earlier this year and getting an iPad Air 2. I have an Airport Time Capsule with 802.11ac wi-fi as my router, and with the new iPad Air 2 having 802.11ac it would seem like my in home speeds would improve significantly. I'm currently averaging around 60 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload speeds with this router. Thoughts?
 
Not only is it way, way thinner than the smaller iPad mini 3 — and this will sound crazy — but it feels lighter too.
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Not crazy at all. It's similar to an optical illusion in that it tricks the brain, which automatically assumes bigger is heavier as well as spreading the weight over a larger area. Pick a one kilo bag of feathers up with two hands or pick a one kilo gold bar up with one hand and the gold bar will seem heavier.
 
markosb said:
Why is the base only 16GB, it should be 32 by now.
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Clearly a bean counter move and I agree, not really a great move by Apple. Technically, it's fair because they didn't budge the entry price even though you get upgrades all the way through the entire device. But it's the same thoughts you have when you see movie popcorn upsize pricing. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

IMHO, a smarter move would have been to raise the entry price to $549 for 32 GB, $599 for 64 GB, and $699 for 128 GB. That way, they still increase their ASP, but it wouldn't leave as bad a taste in consumers' mouths.
 
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At 1:35 of the Verge video you can see a quick glimpse of the lower reflection of the Air 2 (versus the iPad Mini).

The display sounds and looks like a good improvment. I want one.
 
I think the iPad Mini got less updates because it was taking away some larger iPad sales, and now the iPhone 6+ has had some effect on both tablet sales.

I agree this update seems mostly about money. 16gb is insulting now, and not everybody is a cloudhugger.

Also, can't understand how the deleted flip switch was needed to make it thinner? funny I thought my Air1 was amazingly thin.

also, the naming is getting sloppy with all the con-current models. ipad rMin2, iPad Mini 3. I liked the simpler Apple, now we got lots of choices... I guess good, but doesn't that lower the margins... I think it shows competition is stronger now. remember the Mustang II...
 
addicted44 said:
I expect Apple to switch the Mini to a Spring update schedule.

It reduces the burden on their heavy heavy Fall updates, and it gives the iPad Air, a 6 month lead over the iPad Mini where it can have better internals, possibly switching some people from buying a Mini into buying an Air.
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That'd be interesting. As an owner of a 1st gen mini I was really looking forward to upgrading to the new model with touch ID but it's just not worth it. I'd rather save $50 and get a 32GB rMini since they have the same specs.

Hopefully the mini doesn't get shafted again next round.
 
Gizmodo reviewer needs to start working out... He's praising being able to lift it with one hand... Has that ever been a problem with any iPad? Or tablet for that mater?

----------
DudeDad said:
What do you want to do on it but cannot?
Click to expand...

Multitask?
Separate user profiles?
Maybe browse some network shares?
A USB port?

Seems the lack of ideas coming from Apple has spread to their fans too.
 
I'm almost sure that it is 1 gb ram..
I had a feeling they didn't want to reveal it...so they quickly ran through the presentation.
 
nando87 said:
2 gb RAM= buy
1 gb RAM= nay
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IMO they should have been at 2GB a couple of years ago, and 3-4GB now. With the cost of RAM they are basically giving us crappy specs for a few dollars of extra profit per device.


While iOS is certainly better than some other OS's at being efficient 1GB is not satisfactory anymore on a tablet, and really hasn't been in some time. Browsing the web with the iPad Air can be a painful experience. When we had an Air you couldn't even copy/paste text from one tab to another in Safari because of the page refreshing, and losing already filled out sections of a form.
 
2IS said:
Gizmodo reviewer needs to start working out... He's praising being able to lift it with one hand... Has that ever been a problem with any iPad? Or tablet for that mater?
Click to expand...

The problem isn't incidental lifting but continued holding. Every gram counts.
 
Somehow when Steve was around the new product introductions had a better... punch. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but given the other brands, this, other than the apple brans is rapidly losing the appeal. Price will most likely have to be lowered to compete. Soon.
 
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