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First iPad Air 2 Reviews: 'Ridiculously Fast', 'Vibrant Display', Thinner Profile Comes at the Cost of Battery Life
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Didn't Steve Jobs once say that if "we add a feature, we can't get rid of it later?"
Well, I guess he was wrong
They tried repurposing the switch in one of the IOS releases and that went over like a bouquet of lead balloons (leading to them adding the option in s/w to switch it between mute and orientation control)... After that "We're right... ok maybe we weren't as right as we thought" debacle I'm surprised they would remove the switch altogether.
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But, but, will it bend if I sit on it?
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Really? I doubt that very much.
I concur.
What we're seeing here is a spec sheet battle so product reviewers can add "thinner / thinnest" to the Pro's / Con's summary section of their reviews with the customer as collateral damage.
Oh brother.
Touch ID, a transplanted 4S camera or a display marginally different to the previous gen aren't revolutions that will save the iPad.
Stop being pedantic.
I've already bookmarked this thread and i will come back and remind when the numbers come in.
A thinner tablet at the cost of battery life is innovation? Oh lawdy.
It's not just about the Thinness of the device. it's about pushing manufacturers to make smaller and better parts that's where the innovation is. And that leaves us to products like the
watch ect. If that's the case with with your logic then building smaller microchips going from 45nm down to 14nm is useless. You have to understand that battery technology is not going to get much better but the sea of the components are limitless
Yeah, I've mentioned before that I still think Safari has some problems. I know on the desktop it can also exhibit this behavior on occasion. It's just that I will always take a quick and easy fix over a proper fix that still hasn't been fixed after several years with no potential fix in sight.
The main issue is that the RAM problem became magnified when they switched to 64-bit processors. I have many more issues on the A7 and A8 than on the A6 in my iPhone 5 which I just sold recently, and my wife doesn't experience as many problems on her iPhone 5 either. It's because 64-bit chips use 20-30% more RAM for the same tasks. This is going to help that massively.
You'll never remove my vindication! HAHAHA. Seriously though, you won't.
But yeah, the reason it has less battery life is the tri-core 1.5GHz chip in a slim enclosure. I never said I wanted the thing thinner. I mean, if it was several years later and it wasn't thinner then I might be like "That's weird" but I still wouldn't be upset. Now if everyone else was making foldable displays and Apple still had a fat iPad Air then that would be concerning. While I believe that ultimately making devices thinner pushes innovation in hardware out of a self-imposed necessity, I never think that it should come at a significant sacrifice like this. Especially after only changing the design a year later. However, most reviewers still state that it meets Apple's 10 hour requirement, and it lasted them all day with some extra juice to spare. While it may end up being less overall, it sounds like it's enough for most people. However I'm not sure why Apple felt that it needed to change the design after only a year. They could have kept it the same thickness with a larger battery and smashed the competition even harder.
Why? Seriously. I still have an iPad 2 because the 3/4 were thicker and heavier than the iPad 2. Thin is good. If the battery life was shorter in some meaningful way, you might have a point. However, it's not.
But the huge $100 price drop on the some nearly identical top rated models just might boost total iPad sales. That drop is the real Apple strategy. The new Touch ID models are just competitive misdirection.
There was a point where the iPad was quite thick, but now I think the majority of people would like more battery life than thinness. iPad Air is/was thin enough. Even before I think while the predecessor of the iPad Air was thick, the issue was more about the weight.
Seems like it would have been better for Apple to keep the iPad Air 2 the same dimensions as the original but with better internal components. Then they could have made it thinner without sacrificing on battery w/an even more improved chip.
Seems like it would have been better for Apple to keep the iPad Air 2 the same dimensions as the original but with better internal components. Then they could have made it thinner without sacrificing on battery w/an even more improved chip.
"More" is good n all. But just watch devs get lazy and squander it all away with poorly optimised software. Just as OS X & Windows has been all too regularly blighted with.
This used to be one of the advantages of iOS. Modest hardware specs meant devs had to be efficient and optimise well.
Now we're venturing off into bloatville all over again..
Not that im against technical progress of hardware of course! But i've a strong feeling of history repeating itself here..
You can link to comments of "heaps" of people that want more battery life on a 1/2/3/4/Air1 iPad? I doubt it. There might be a few outliers, but that has never been a serious complaint for iPad users.
I called them innovations, not revolutions. Innovation is a word that is so broad that anything new to the product can be called an innovation.
Bookmark the thread if you want to be petty. I'm not making a claim that iPad Air 2 sales will "save" the iPad. I'm saying that there is more to the update than "thinner and faster". And that will be just as true after the sales numbers tell their tale as it is now.
can't believe one journalist admitted to shattering the screen and partly blaming apple for it. 'b-b-but i see people hiking in the mountains with it! this is unacceptable.'
know what i find unacceptable? breaking an $800 tablet within days of getting it. sure as hell wouldn't tell anyone about it. let ALONE say it's even partly the company's responsibility for 'misleading' advertisements.
honey-buns: i'd be willing to bet even bear grills could have held onto a pristine ipad air 2 longer than you apparently can.
know what i find unacceptable? breaking an $800 tablet within days of getting it. sure as hell wouldn't tell anyone about it. let ALONE say it's even partly the company's responsibility for 'misleading' advertisements.
honey-buns: i'd be willing to bet even bear grills could have held onto a pristine ipad air 2 longer than you apparently can.
I want to replace my iPad 2 but after thinking about it more I have decided to go with a discounted Mini 2. I don't need the larger screen. There is no way I'm buying a Mini 3 lol
I definitely agree on your statement that iPad owners do not change their devices as often as iPhone users, for example, I have had my iPad 2 since 2011 and now have decided to upgrade to an Air 2. I also agree that most of people out there use their iPads the same way as many people use their PCs, for light duties.
What I do not agree on is the view that you can hardly do anything productive on them.
I have utilized the office type apps for work, done videos that are pretty good despite me knowing zero about video, I think that is productive.
Where I use the iPad the most is on making music. My best musical creations I have done using an iPad. Recording vocals, instruments, and using virtual instruments on a device I can carry everywhere is exactly what I needed. I'm not a professional musician, they definitely need the extra power of a laptop or a desktop. But for us the weekend warriors and hobbyists, the iPad is a valued tool.
Cars and iOS devices are fundamentally different businesses – most people don't upgrade their car to the fastest model every two years. But the rationale behind offering new iPads is that people will want to buy them based on concrete improvements. That's the mainstay of Apple's current business: getting people to upgrade their devices every few years. It's difficult to keep that business growing when iPad customers can't see a reason to upgrade (hence the recent fall in sales). So I was making the point that if they want to increase iPad sales, they need to make an upgrade feel desirable.
In terms of the 16GB storage: it's bad for their current business because it makes it difficult for people to install over-the-air updates on their devices. There's a slow uptake on iOS 8, and the last thing they need is to have a fragmented install base because of hardware restrictions similar to Android's fragmentation problem (which Tim always makes fun of in the keynotes).
The actual cost of installing 32GB storage modules rather than the current set of 8GB or 16GB modules is relatively tiny (about $8.40). But for casual users, it makes a huge difference in that it allows them to have lots of photos or apps.
So my point was that having 16GB storage in an iPad restricts the value that customers can get from the device, but it doesn't do that because of a cost-restrictive bill of materials, instead the restriction is artificially put there to encourage people to move to the mid-range model. And that situation is really out of step with Tim's focus on reaching the highest possible percentages of customer satisfaction.
Please, Apple, never, NEVER remove the mute switch on the iPhone! On the iPad it may be okay (honestly I rarely used it and I have/had all iPads) BUT on the iPhone I'm using it on several occasions EVERY DAY (on "good days" I need it up to ten, twenty times)!
Anyway iPad Air 2 ordered (128 GB cell. gold). The additional CPU power and RAM will be highly appreciated by iOS musicians, multimedia editors and gamers.
Anyway iPad Air 2 ordered (128 GB cell. gold). The additional CPU power and RAM will be highly appreciated by iOS musicians, multimedia editors and gamers.
Exactly. All the people who keep asking why people need more ram can be referred back to this quote.
The only thing settled is that with more RAM the battery life sucks. If they had less ram we would get maybe 2 days of battery life. I guess battery life and Ram issue is settled
That would make sense except that the new one has a smaller battery as well. Doncha think that might be a factor in decreased battery life?
The lower battery life is because of a smaller battery. It's in the article, Engadget compared the specific battery numbers of this and the previous one.
Heck, I'm still happy with my 2. I've lost track of how many generations behind it is, yet it still does what I need it to do other than constantly reloading safari tabs. And I'm not upgrading just for that.
It looks amazing, and we have family friends that invite us year-after-year. We’ll eventually take them up on it (they apparently have huge, amazing digs).
Plus ... surfing.
No doubt. About the only thing in common is the resolution of the display, otherwise, it’s lighter, smaller, way faster, assuming it runs much cooler, has better display tech, TouchID, much improved cameras and WiFi/Cellular, and even brand new tech like the M8. If the response to that is a bullet list refuting the value of each of those enhancements, then stick with what you’ve got
Funny, I have a friend that’s been sitting his 3rd Gen too, and he’s definitely upgrading.
It's not possible to make a serious battery testing without having the device in intense use for one, two weeks at least with several full drains/loads and with different software (music production, video recording/editing, gaming).
We are playing Asphalt (arcade racer video game app) a lot since years on different iPads simultaneously (local WiFi multiplayer). And we always are wondering: If you start playing that demanding (hardware, software) game with—lets say: iPad 4 and iPad Air @ 100% battery—the draining is exactly simultaneous as well. After some hours of playing the iPad 4 and iPad Air will show exactly the same 68% battery p.e. It was the same when we played with iPad orig./iPad 2 and iPad 3/iPad 4.
We are playing Asphalt (arcade racer video game app) a lot since years on different iPads simultaneously (local WiFi multiplayer). And we always are wondering: If you start playing that demanding (hardware, software) game with—lets say: iPad 4 and iPad Air @ 100% battery—the draining is exactly simultaneous as well. After some hours of playing the iPad 4 and iPad Air will show exactly the same 68% battery p.e. It was the same when we played with iPad orig./iPad 2 and iPad 3/iPad 4.
And RAM.Yes, because a slight decrease in battery means they'll go to 30 minutes next year.
The battery reduction probably comes from the extra CPU core anyways.
Also, I think he was referring to the incredibly thin mockup.
Except that real world use proves you wrong.
The fanboys always insist that "open" apps aren't using any resources. Yet when other apps are shown in the multitask window, Safari reloads tabs.
When I close those other apps, Safari keeps tabs open without reloading. You can keep parroting the Apple claims until you're blue in the face, but they don't change the reality of what happens 100% of the time actually using the device.
It's not the ram, the previous iPad had a battery that was 18% bigger.
Reviews have already confirmed that more tabs can be open than the previous model without reloading. Same as what happened when they went from 512 to 1 gig, so I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised by that fact.
Oh, and I told you so.