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First iPad Air Reviews: 'Ridiculously Small and Light', Apple's Most 'Tempting Tablet Yet'

doubleaa said:
I'm all for smaller and lighter but this comment from the NY Times review is just ridiculous. If you can notice less than half a pound on your shoulder in a bag you're weak and need to exercise. This guy is a *****.

"The weight reduction and a 20 percent slimmer profile provide other benefits, too. My messenger bag strap didn’t dig into my shoulder as deeply when my iPad was in it."
Click to expand...

Didn't take long for He-Man to show up. Perhaps all the elderly and disabled should get their lazy arses out of their wheelchairs and exercise their brittle bones so they don't feel the benefit of lighter devices.

The iPad isn't just for young athletes.
 
For kids its iPad 4 all the way

As a father of a six year old and owner of an iPad 3, whilst the Air is desirable, from a practical users point of view I'll be upgrading to a iPad 4 once the two-year warranty of my iPad 3 expires - given I've instead heavily in a tough case that means my kid can give it a battering without it sustaining damage - its showing its age speed wise and the A6X chip still seems adequate from my perspective.

Will no doug get one of these babies after the next revision - obviously I'll purchase as a refurbished model, rather than buying on the "used" market.

If no children, seems the way to go, but if have kids folk, stick to the heavy model with a good case - whichever way, you can't lose and the choice we now have is good news.

Not sure what to make of the revised iPad Mini, the cost factor makes the Air a more favourable purchase, in this instance I'd probably purchase a Nexus.
 
i think the people focusing on the missing touchID are seriously just a bunch of whiners, like little kids not getting exactly what they want at Christmas :/

It's really a glass half full/glass half empty kind of thing. What about all the things that the Air does right? Especially eliminating that hand cramping when you actually hold the device. That lightness is worthy enough of an upgrade
 
doubleaa said:
I'm all for smaller and lighter but this comment from the NY Times review is just ridiculous. If you can notice less than half a pound on your shoulder in a bag you're weak and need to exercise. This guy is a *****.

"The weight reduction and a 20 percent slimmer profile provide other benefits, too. My messenger bag strap didn’t dig into my shoulder as deeply when my iPad was in it."
Click to expand...

I laughed at this too. I really can't take reviews like that seriously. You see comments like that in Apple parodies at YouTube.
 
Personally, i think Apple paved the way for small bezel size.

Multi-touch was originally all about not detecting multiple finger pressure.

Fast forward to today, and you have "just that"

A thinner, ligher, almost "bezel free" iPad.

However, i stll reckon i wouldn't be able to hold it without my fingers/thumbs overlapping the screen area. How could you hold it like that guy and use it conformably?

Apart from that, its the same as the 4th gen, with only faster permance, and other non-ensensial items.

I'm not gonna upgrade.
 
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Mr Rogers said:
As a father of a six year old and owner of an iPad 3, whilst the Air is desirable, from a practical users point of view I'll be upgrading to a iPad 4 once the two-year warranty of my iPad 3 expires - given I've instead heavily in a tough case that means my kid can give it a battering without it sustaining damage - its showing its age speed wise and the A6X chip still seems adequate from my perspective.
Click to expand...

"its showing its age speed wise" and "the A6X chip still seems adequate from my perspective" seem to be opposing statements...
Which one is it... noticeably slow or plenty fast?? It can't be both. Lol.
 
I'm struggling to decide between iPad Air & Retina Mini,obviously I haven't yet tried them personally,but in the past I definitely preferred the form factor and size of the mini to the large iPad.(regardless of price) and only lack of high res screen stopped me from buying a Mini.so I remained without an iPad..until now..
I can get educational discount on Air but not on Mini on Apple website.(makes no sense!) this makes the price difference between the Air and Retina Mini small..making the decision even harder.
 
CarlosQG said:
I'm still using the iPad 1 and I really want to upgrade but... Should I wait next year for an iPad with Touch ID? Would it worth the wait?
Click to expand...

Ummm... not sure if serious.
The Air is 72 times faster than iPad 1, has four times more ram (that is ALSO faster), has 2 cameras (compared to zero), 2 microphones (up from one), four times the resolution, 10x the speed on cellular & over double on wifi, much thinner & lighter....
All this..... but TouchID is holding you back?? Bro.... get over it. Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself.

----------
ColdShadow said:
I can get educational discount on Air but not on Mini on Apple website.(makes no sense!) this makes the price difference between the Air and Retina Mini small..making the decision even harder.
Click to expand...

Damn...
Briefly thought maybe you were telling the truth.
Then I went to the Apple Education store & saw that the Air is NOT listed with a discount.
NOT cool, bro.
 
While those highlighted reviews are comforting to read, they are pretty close to meaningless. All I was imbued with was a sense of awe about the size and weight… which I already understood. Most of the tech community is an echo chamber.

I'm disappointed, looking back, to all the analysts and journalists which spoke crazy praise for past iPad models and were never called out for it. Anyone else remember the people who peeked behind the Apple curtain to see and hold and use "the next iPad" across the last few years, only to claim the next one would be a "game changer" and "the one to have" and it would "blow your mind"? Since the iPad 1, none of the others have actually blown my mind or been game changers--they've been mostly what was expected. Adding another mic or speakers or 5MP cameras isn't exactly mind blowing, and these functions are in the iPhones preceding the iPad… so what are those tech journalists reporting?
 
so disappointed.. I'm will hold on to my ipad3 till apple come out a 13" iPad with 8GB ram with cpu strong enough support photoshop and lightroom. And come with the option of 128, 256 or 512GB internal storage with 15hours of battery...

O wait I think we have it they call it Macbook Air...:D
 
ilikeflop said:
Ummm... not sure if serious.
The Air is 72 times faster than iPad 1, has four times more ram (that is ALSO faster), has 2 cameras (compared to zero), 2 microphones (up from one), four times the resolution, 10x the speed on cellular & over double on wifi, much thinner & lighter....
All this..... but TouchID is holding you back?? Bro.... get over it. Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself.
Click to expand...

LOL, nice post and I agree. And by the time the 6th generation iPad is announced next year, I'm sure we'll all be talking about yet another new feature that the iPhone 6 just got that the iPad didn't get. Especially with Apple products, there will always be something new to look forward to on the horizon.

ilikeflop said:
Damn...
Briefly thought maybe you were telling the truth.
Then I went to the Apple Education store & saw that the Air is NOT listed with a discount.
NOT cool, bro.
Click to expand...

I agree, not a cool joke at all. However, I checked my company's employee purchase program with Apple and I get a discount there at least, but it's so measly it barely negates any of the tax.
 
I still have the first generation iPad :). A new iPad every 5 generations is not that bad i think.. So the Air, it will be. Gonna be a huge upgrade for me LOL.
 
OT, but what's the flight (sim?) game the guy on the sofa is playing in the advert?
 
I am ditching the full sized iPad Air for a Mini Retina for two reasons firstly my hands are small, and secondly the screen on iPad Mini Retina is far more crisper, it is a nice device though.
 
840quadra said:
Reviews on the Air are great, especially enjoyed the in depth detail of Anandtech.

That said, The fact that the Air is still limited to 1GB of RAM, means it is likely not as future proof as some of us would have hoped. I am one of the (apparently) few on here that loves iOS7, but I expect iOS8 and later will have more system requirements going forward, and I hope for the day when we have more Multitasking functionality in iOS than currently available. An iPad (for me) is a multi year device, and with iOS devices now being 64 BIT going forward, I can't see much longevity in a device that only has 1GB of RAM.

It is also frustrating that the base spec is still only 16gb. I personally feel that no tablet (talking Samsung, Apple, etc) has any business being sold with anything less than 64GB of storage. If they do insist on having a low entry price point, don't charge astronomical amounts of money for reasonable flash storage.

This is the first time I have ever felt such huge disappointment with an Apple release. And NO, I am not leaving Apple's fan base, I just don't intend to give them a sale this round. If I didn't have personal misgivings with Samsung (Nothing to do with the Apple v.s. Samsung History mind you), I would be considering a 10.1 .
Click to expand...

Hi, 840quadra,

I felt the same way about the whole RAM issue but then I realised 2 days ago we don't really need it.

I ran a few tests and iOS 7.0.3 only eats 300Mb. Yes; the OS will though a lot into inactive RAM but an app can eat almost 700Mb before the OS force closes it. I found iOS eating up as much as 650Mb but then found that if pushed; will go down to just over 300Mb. iOS 8 will see more features; which in hand will eat more RAM, but I think iOS 8 will see the following-

wait for it...

wait for it...

RAM compression :) The same type of RAM compression as seen in Mavericks. Mavericks used a lot of techniques from iOS to make it more efficient, but only Mavericks has the RAM compression. So the way I see it, all devices running iOS7 will run iOS 8.

And I pretty sure that the tab reloading thing is not because of RAM (I haven't had that [iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3] ), it might just be to save battery by removing it from of RAM/lowers its RAM footprint (by putting only the URL in RAM, rather than the whole page) as this would save battery.
 
iPad PRO Coming next

They renamed it iPad Air to make room for the iPad PRO that will come out next year. Larger size with keyboard cover.
 
Lesser Evets said:
While those highlighted reviews are comforting to read, they are pretty close to meaningless. All I was imbued with was a sense of awe about the size and weight… which I already understood. Most of the tech community is an echo chamber.

I'm disappointed, looking back, to all the analysts and journalists which spoke crazy praise for past iPad models and were never called out for it. Anyone else remember the people who peeked behind the Apple curtain to see and hold and use "the next iPad" across the last few years, only to claim the next one would be a "game changer" and "the one to have" and it would "blow your mind"? Since the iPad 1, none of the others have actually blown my mind or been game changers--they've been mostly what was expected. Adding another mic or speakers or 5MP cameras isn't exactly mind blowing, and these functions are in the iPhones preceding the iPad… so what are those tech journalists reporting?
Click to expand...

I don't think you can understand it fully until you actually hold it and use it, which is why I'm so excited to get it in my hands. I agree with you that a lot of the reviews in prior years might have been too over the top, but for me the reduction in size and weight in the Air is the game changer I've been waiting for since the first iPad.

I'm not part of that "OMG 1GB RAM only!?!?" club, so I find the raw specs to be secondary and strictly evolutionary. I've said before that I hope Apple could one day break that 1 lb barrier and although they are only shy of .03 lbs, I think a near 50% in weight reduction in only 3 and a half years in the market to be absolutely amazing.

If you think about it, how long did it take Apple to seriously reduce the size and weight of their Macbook down to those levels? If we begin from 1999 with the introduction of the iBook, then it took nine years for Apple to shrink technology dramatically, or about 3 times as long as they did with the iPad. And with the Macbook Air, one of the reasons they were able to remove so much excess weight and volume was because of the removal of the optical disc drive. With the iPad, there is no removable storage drive technology to begin with and since day 1, the iPad has been based solely on flash storage only. Yet they found a way to keep all the same technology from the original iPad without removing anything deemed "legacy" (i.e: the ODD), while reducing everything dramatically.

So I personally find this iPad to be the biggest breakthrough since the original iPad because of how fast the reduction in size and weight has progressed while maintaining increased spec performance and consistent battery life, in the short amount of time of being in the market.
 
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terraphantm said:
I suspect it will be a while before Apple makes 32gb base; they just don't want to give up that extra $100. Shame really; it's 2013, flash is cheap, 32gb absolutely should be the minimum. Or at least the price difference between tiers should be smaller (maybe $50)
Click to expand...
Why would they make a 32gb base????? Enterprise customers only need 16gb. POS customers only need 8gb. $50 between teirs would be a horrible busmiess move.
 
Jiz said:
They renamed it iPad Air to make room for the iPad PRO that will come out next year. Larger size with keyboard cover.
Click to expand...

They already did and they call it MacBook Air, 13" with 15 hours of battery all you can wish for...
 
Jiz said:
They renamed it iPad Air to make room for the iPad PRO that will come out next year. Larger size with keyboard cover.
Click to expand...

I think you're right. When the iPad 3 was released it was just called the next iPad. But now all the iPads have names, the Mini and the Air. Sounds a lot like the MacBook Air and the Mac mini. The "Pro" is probably the next with a larger display.

I don't have a strong feeling as to whether Apple will do a keyboard cover. It seems pretty kludgey to me, having the heaviest part be the display. And it would be copying Microsoft too closely. IMO Apple will either do something else to differentiate the Pro or just have the larger screen be the differentiator.
 
Lesser Evets said:
While those highlighted reviews are comforting to read, they are pretty close to meaningless. All I was imbued with was a sense of awe about the size and weight… which I already understood. Most of the tech community is an echo chamber.

I'm disappointed, looking back, to all the analysts and journalists which spoke crazy praise for past iPad models and were never called out for it. Anyone else remember the people who peeked behind the Apple curtain to see and hold and use "the next iPad" across the last few years, only to claim the next one would be a "game changer" and "the one to have" and it would "blow your mind"? Since the iPad 1, none of the others have actually blown my mind or been game changers--they've been mostly what was expected. Adding another mic or speakers or 5MP cameras isn't exactly mind blowing, and these functions are in the iPhones preceding the iPad… so what are those tech journalists reporting?
Click to expand...
you have to know what to read! The other I would not call the tech journalists just journalists reporting on tech.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7460/apple-ipad-air-review
 
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