First iPad Air 2 Reviews: 'Ridiculously Fast', 'Vibrant Display', Thinner Profile Comes at the Cost of Battery Life

[iRock1]

First iPad Air 2 Reviews: 'Ridiculously Fast', 'Vibrant Display', Thinner Pro...

So, in summary:

- Less battery life
- Anti-reflective display doesn't avoid any reflection
- No anti-rotation switch
- Weaker enclosure
- Buggy OS
- Same entry 16 GB model at an insane price for what it is

Yup, it sounds like a great improvement.

But hey! It's got thinner! (Said by no one ever.)

 

[bawbac]

Waiting for the crying to start if Safari still auto-refreshes with 2GB of RAM.

What's sad is Apple knows this is an issue but chooses to do nothing and it's THIER application that's crashing !

 

[mdelvecchio]

"Doubling the RAM means that the iPad can keep more apps and browser tabs in memory without having to reload anything. That results in a speed boost which which is very apparent as you hop between apps and load new web pages."

Vindication! More RAM is better. Everyone who has said otherwise is full of crap. FINALLY!

nobody said otherwise. what they said was, in the iPhone (like any device) 2GB comes at the price of energy usage, battery. there are articles detailing this. so for a phone w/ limited battery, it was less of a benefit in the tradeoff. i don't have too many tabs or apps going at once on my phone.

 

[TheLondonFella]

Black Friday ...

If anyone's thinking of getting one of these, I'd recommend waiting for Black Friday.

28th November, for those who don't know when it is.

I saved £50 on my 64 gig 4, so you'd save even more on a 128 gig Air, or Mini.

You can also save on cases and accessories.

I bought my Smart Case at the same time, and it's been fantastic.

Anyway, just thought I'd put out there ...

 

[mdelvecchio]

To be fair the iPad for intents and purposes hasn't changed much since iPad 2 design and Retina were added.

Its just faster CPU, thinner, faster CPU, thinner, faster CPU. The End.

Not many people are gonna be paying $400 every year for that.

Phones are necessities and are subsidised, tablets are largely luxuries that aren't.

nobody in their right mind believes normal people even consider upgrading their iPad annually. people upgrade them like they do PCs -- after years of use. thus theres no real reason to compare this year to last year...its iterative improvement, which will delight anybody coming into the latest model from years back.

just like home audio receivers, cars, televisions, etc... you don't upgrade annually, but when you do, you want the latest & best tech.

 

[dantracht]

So, in summary:

- Less battery life
- Anti-reflective display doesn't avoid any reflection
- No anti-rotation switch
- Weaker enclosure
- Buggy OS
- Same entry 16 GB model at an insane price for what it is

Yup, it sounds like a great improvement.

But hey! It's got thinner! (Said by no one ever.)

HAHA, agreed. I'll hang onto my 4 another year.

 

[kramerdude]

Agreed.

I buying it to replace my iPad2 but it really needs to become more for me to buy another one.

I really would not replace my iPad2 if it didn't lag so bad on ISO 8 to use with the Mac.

Agreed. The iPad2 has always been my favorite/most useful device until a few weeks ago. I would keep using it if I could've downgraded back out of ios8. Now, it is AWFUL to use and so frustrating. I'm sure I'll love the Air2, but I will be extremely cautious from now on as new OS releases come out.

 

[Aloft085]

But I regret getting the WiFi only older Air, so in a bind.

Is it just me, or does anybody else find it ridiculous that 4G costs an extra $130? The internals for that can't cost more than $20. I wish Apple just included it with the base model.

 

[powers74]

Your wish was granted with the iPad 3. It was not thinner than the iPad 2, and it was heavier due to the added battery. But you still complain, so you'll have to forgive us if we don't trust your word now.

Touche. I wasn't really complaining, just pointing that out. I guess iPad 4 wasn't all that different than iPad 3 either now that you mention it. I have no complaints w iPad battery life (mine being a 3).

And I wouldn't expect anyone to trust my word for anything anyway. But thanks for the heads up.

 

[nando87]

So, in summary:

- Less battery life
- Anti-reflective display doesn't avoid any reflection
- No anti-rotation switch
- Weaker enclosure
- Buggy OS
- Same entry 16 GB model at an insane price for what it is

Yup, it sounds like a great improvement.

But hey! It's got thinner! (Said by no one ever.)

You are too poor for buying one every year without worrying, and you know it.

 

[macduke]

nobody said otherwise. what they said was, in the iPhone (like any device) 2GB comes at the price of energy usage, battery. there are articles detailing this. so for a phone w/ limited battery, it was less of a benefit in the tradeoff. i don't have too many tabs or apps going at once on my phone.

No everyone was saying on repeat: "iOS is so incredibly optimized that you hardly even need 1GB." and NOW suddenly everyone is changing their tune once they realize how much better the performance can be since we have a physical device upon which to compare. Trust me, there were plenty of people arguing with me across the forums. It's not rocket science. I put together computers back in high school. It's simple logic that things would work this way.

The RAM power reasoning has been debunked by numerous forum members posting links to various articles about it. While it may have been true a couple years ago, current DDR3 mobile RAM is really energy efficient. What is hurting the battery life on the iPad Air 3 is Apple's obsession with thinness combined with an upclocked processor with an extra processing core. Any RAM impact on battery would be on the order of a few minutes of potential usage.

 

[RenoG]

I still don't understand why the mute button had to go I love it

Wow I keep hearing this, funny thing I never use that button. Actually I never knew until now that that button can be used for muting I've always toggled it off using the down volume button. I suppose I'm just that slightly to the left 'guy' in the room.

 

[iRock1]

You are too poor for buying one every year without worrying, and you know it.

Nope, and how is that even remotely related to my point?

 

[sartis]

I wish Apple would favour battery life over thinness.

I would agree with this, does anyone wants these devices any thinner????????? I don't. I put a case on my iPhone 6 plus just so I can handle it.

 

[iososx]

I wish Apple would favour battery life over thinness.

One fundamental premise of Apple operations involves constantly reminding the customer who is superior and knows best. That would be Apple.

They don't care what the customer wants although they say they do. Power, control and manipulation is Apple's undeniable expertise.

So much so that even the greater majority accepts it as gospel. Apple's dominant position is quite the accomplishment. They've got their cake and the customers money too.

 

[rotation]

So, in summary:

- Less battery life
- Anti-reflective display doesn't avoid any reflection
- No anti-rotation switch
- Weaker enclosure
- Buggy OS
- Same entry 16 GB model at an insane price for what it is

Yup, it sounds like a great improvement.

But hey! It's got thinner! (Said by no one ever.)

Then don't buy one. And if you like fat, bloated products you should probably hit up samsung forums.



The Air 2 is easily the best tablet ever made, and if you could actually comprehend the reviews you would've heard them say that several times.

----------

One fundamental premise of Apple operations involves constantly reminding the customer who is superior and knows best. That would be Apple.

They don't care what the customer wants although they say they do. Power, control and manipulation is Apple's undeniable expertise.

So much so that even the greater majority accepts it as gospel. Apple's dominant position is quite the accomplishment. They've got their cake and the customers money too.

Apple knows that the customers, for the most part, have no idea what they want. I mean you have people on this forum asking for "split screen multitasking" and a 13" ipad! Nobody REALLY wants those things.



If apple were to produce a fatter, uglier, heavier ipad along with the air 2 and sold it for the same price but with better battery life NOBODY would buy it!


You guys are just not informed enough to know what you want. Apple knows best (seriously, no sarcasm here). Unlike you, people like me can see that thinness is essential. But I'm somebody who could work at Apple.

 

[KayFisher]

but Apple explicitly promoted the iPad for serious mountaneering, hence the "climb every mountan" comment.

It's probably not a good idea for clumsy people to climb mountains.
Just saying

 

[TheRainKing]

"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..

It's ok. I was being sarcastic.

 

[mrbyu]

Guys, what do yout think about the following: I really was thinking about getting an iPad Air 2 (would be my first iPad), but I'm tending to think I should just probably get a last gen iPad mini for almost half the price. Actually, I don't really feel the need of an iPad, never felt really... my life is already plenty comfortable with my MBA and my iP5. And now that the last year's mini became pretty affordable, I guess now I could jump on the iPad train without spending a whole lot of money on something that I don't particularly need but I am definitely curious about.

 

[The Doctor11]

Wow I keep hearing this, funny thing I never use that button. Actually I never knew until now that that button can be used for muting I've always toggled it off using the down volume button. I suppose I'm just that slightly to the left 'guy' in the room.

What the hell did you think it was for

 

[Alith]

What the hell did you think it was for

It's always been rotation lock for me too. Not exactly a hardship to swipe up and tap a lock icon in the control panel. There is already a mute button, you just hold reduce volume for about one second.

 

[neko girl]

But will it blend bend?

Sounds like a philosophical question..

 

[iSayuSay]

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.

Nothing you can't do on an iPhone though? Even more now iPhone 6+ has 5.5" display it's huge and feels almost like an iPad Mini. Yes, almost .. But then iPhone does a phone call and SMS, iPad doesn't. That's a big turnoff and crippled features.

If only iPad has native phone calls, well I would think many people would settle for an iPad and no iPhone. Yes it is huge so no reason to include an earpiece, instead to make a call iPad could've used speakerphone mode only, or plug in a headset for a private conversation. No reason to complain about it cannot be used as a phone. But of course, that's bad for Apple business because it will eat into iPhone's sales.

 

[ricci]

Yes... previous talk of split screen functionality would be a step in the right direction.

That was a FAILED rumor! That would have been pretty cool, and I was actually looking forward to that!

 

[JTravers]

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

Exactly. Year to year the differences are incremental, but compare the iPad 1 to the Air 2. These improvements add up over time and force more efficient displays, wifi, bluetooth, etc. The process improvements help to make the Watch as thin and powerful as possible. And I'm sure they'll drive that to be thinner and thinner, instead of keeping it fat and simply improving battery life. The onwards march of technology....