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For those who recently purchased an iPad Air 2, would you be irked by an Air 3 in the Spring?
- Thread starter Traverse
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I won't upgrade my iPad Air to the iPad Air 2, even though I'd like to have the performance increase the Air 2 has simply because I don't want to pay full price for last years or two years ago technology.
If the Air 3 comes out in spring, I'll be all over it.
If the Air 3 comes out in spring, I'll be all over it.
There are many deals around that allow you to do just this. I purchased my Air 2 after the keynote for $510, brand new, 64GB. Check out slickdeals.net or the plethora of on-sale threads here. If the iPad Air 3 is released in the spring, it will most likely be a Mini 3 like-model with very few updates. It will NOT get 3D Touch then, that is the upgrade feature for the new iPhones and will remain on the iPhone only for a full year. If your Air 1 suits you fine, continue using it. The Air 2's current tech didn't allow you to take full advantage of the processing power until iOS9 came out. It will be a beast for many more to come.
Current rumours;
401 PPI 9.7" display with 2334 x 3112 resolution (7.26 million pixels)
A9X or A9 chip
4GB or 2GB RAM
Waterproof IP68 or IPX7 (I'd think the latter is more likely)
5mm thickness (smaller battery)
16GB, 64GB & 128GB (16GB? Yuck.)
Q1 2016 release
Thoughts;
Waterproof isn't important to me. I've bought an Air 2 to stay at home. My phone is for taking out and about.
401 PPI is a nice upgrade, but I have to admit the current 264 PPI is still very respectable. I was a bit frightened at the PPI before purchasing as it's lower than the PPI of my 15.6" laptop (282 PPI with 4K resolution). However, in practice i see that it looks great. It would mean that the on-screen GPU performance wouldn't be all that different from the Air 2 (2.34x the pixels, A9X is 2x the GPU performance of the A8X).
The biggest upgrade is the CPU performance of the A9X and (if the higher number is true) doubling of RAM to 4GB. However, I don't think they would match the specifications of the Pro exactly. I think they'd keep the 2GB of RAM with a lower clocked A9X to avoid taking attention away from the Pro.
The SOC has to be lower clocked if you think about it. 5mm thickness means smaller battery. Paired with a higher resolution display which naturally sucks up more power, they simply wouldn't be able to clock the SOC the same as the Pro (smaller body means smaller battery than Pro).
401 PPI 9.7" display with 2334 x 3112 resolution (7.26 million pixels)
A9X or A9 chip
4GB or 2GB RAM
Waterproof IP68 or IPX7 (I'd think the latter is more likely)
5mm thickness (smaller battery)
16GB, 64GB & 128GB (16GB? Yuck.)
Q1 2016 release
Thoughts;
Waterproof isn't important to me. I've bought an Air 2 to stay at home. My phone is for taking out and about.
401 PPI is a nice upgrade, but I have to admit the current 264 PPI is still very respectable. I was a bit frightened at the PPI before purchasing as it's lower than the PPI of my 15.6" laptop (282 PPI with 4K resolution). However, in practice i see that it looks great. It would mean that the on-screen GPU performance wouldn't be all that different from the Air 2 (2.34x the pixels, A9X is 2x the GPU performance of the A8X).
The biggest upgrade is the CPU performance of the A9X and (if the higher number is true) doubling of RAM to 4GB. However, I don't think they would match the specifications of the Pro exactly. I think they'd keep the 2GB of RAM with a lower clocked A9X to avoid taking attention away from the Pro.
The SOC has to be lower clocked if you think about it. 5mm thickness means smaller battery. Paired with a higher resolution display which naturally sucks up more power, they simply wouldn't be able to clock the SOC the same as the Pro (smaller body means smaller battery than Pro).
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Most of what you've listed cannibalizes the iPad Pro. Not happening. We won't see waterproofing on iPads until we see it on phones. You are less likely to drop a 9 inch tablet into a toilet or your sink. If there's any update at all, it will be extremely minor. There's a reason Apple dropped the iPad 3 and 4 quickly from their stores when the Air came out. At one point it was purchase the iPad 2 or the Air 1.
Also, I highly doubt they could fit in waterproofing and cut the thickness to 5mm. Sony phones have added thickness precisely due to their waterproof nature. Based on Apple's history the reduced thickness is more likely than waterproofing.
I can believe the PPI rumour, after all the iPad Mini is already higher PPI than the Air 2 and the Pro. So Apple aren't afraid to make their smaller displays slightly sharper.
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I think the iPad Air 3 with either get a special version of the A9 with try-core CPU, or an under clocked A9X with only 2GB of RAM. I strongly believe that 4GB of RAM is a pro exclusive feature for a while.
iOS 9 is basically the when-introduced version of iOS for the Air 2. I realize that it shipped originally with 8.0, but 8.0 did almost nothing to put the Air 2 to honest work, as many reviews at the time said. The Air 2 was built with iOS 9 in mind.
I agree. And it's amazing what you can get used to. For example, on my iPad 3, I became numb to the 1-3s delay every time I tapped a UI element, or the 20s rendering time for PDFs, the 15s load time for webpages, or the general stutter when swiping ANYTHING! Even some things I didn't realize were that slow are faster!
And Split view is great! Someone on this forum said that the iPad Air was too small for two apps, but I use it to have the textbook problem on one side and my scanned work on the other when I teach. This keeps me from having to scroll furiously back and forth.
What are the Air 2's hardware shortcomings in your view?
I have one and it seems pretty damn good to me. Perfectly quick at everything, nice screen, really light and comfortable to hold, good camera, Touch ID.
I have one and it seems pretty damn good to me. Perfectly quick at everything, nice screen, really light and comfortable to hold, good camera, Touch ID.
Me?
- There was the distortion issue if held in a certain way (not present on the model I have now)
- The smudges from the anti glare coating (very real, but not really "bad")
- Excessive vibration from the speaker (this goes by the person, I find it somewhat annoying at times, but like it at others. Overall, I do think it's a bit excessive)
- It gets less battery life than the Air 1 (13 hour to about 12). But right now it's amazing coming from a 3.5 year old iPad 3.
I think all of these could have been alleviated by sticking with the Air 1 form factor, but I must say that once you get used to the radical thinner of the Air 2, it's hard to go back.
I would consider all of those to be nitpicks and I don't nitpick so maybe that's the difference
Oh, Air 3 will undoubtedly have panel variable refresh, like the Pro does. So that'll save some power and likely how they'll manage to achieve the 5mm profile.
A9X would definitely have to be downclocked in such a device. Not only for battery reasons but also thermals.
That is, of course, unless the 5mm rumours are completely fake. But seeing how Apple loves making things thinner, I think it's quite likely to happen.
A9X would definitely have to be downclocked in such a device. Not only for battery reasons but also thermals.
That is, of course, unless the 5mm rumours are completely fake. But seeing how Apple loves making things thinner, I think it's quite likely to happen.
I would say those are fair. Mine doesn't have the distortion issue, and I haven't seen it in Apple store demos, but some of them apparently do it. The AR coating is a smudge magnet; it went away when I put a glass screen protector on (with the loss of a lot of the AR benefits, which didn't bother me). I almost never use the Air 2 for any kind of media, so the vibration issue doesn't bother me and I really appreciate the very high sound output of the Air 2. The Air 1 was definitely the battery king of the retina iPads, but battery life is still very good and it's worth the trade-offs, in my view.
One the affected units, it comes from applying pressure on the mid-right side of the back of the device. It's only an issue with some devices. For instance, mine doesn't do it at all, but one I bought (and returned) did it just by walking with it in your hand.
Thank you!
That was what finally pushed me over the edge and get the Air 2. On the iPad 3 the scrolling wasn't as bad as the fact that each time I scrolled to a new page it had to re-render and sometimes I was left with a blurry mess until it finally loaded.
Visual. You can see it in these two YouTube videos. The first one is over dramatic because most people aren't bouncing their device around. The second one is more realistic. If you've been using your device and haven't noticed it in your everyday use, then you're fine. If you had it bad (like I did last year) then you'd see it just by holding or walking with it.
Ah I see. Thanks. Just tested it out. I don't see any distortion with the smart cover attached to the left side (so extra weight) and me holding it in the centre right area so I think I'm safe
*knock on wood*Sorry to hear you had issues. That sucks. I know that feeling. I very recently had to send my brand new Sony Xperia Z5 Compact back for an exchange as the camera was faulty (noticeably blurrier in left edge compared to right in photos). Still waiting for the replacement to be dispatched.
Hoping my refurbished iPad will be OK with no hardware faults!
Well, those videos were not mine, just pulled from YouTube. I bought two iPad Air 2's last year, I returned one because of this distortion issue and the other because I was underwhelmed with it's potential at the time.
My current Air 2 has not displayed any distortion or any uneven color or lighting, so I'm good!
Unless I'm somehow overlooking it there doesn't seem to be any such distortion issue with mine that I can see so farWell, those videos were not mine, just pulled from YouTube. I bought two iPad Air 2's last year, I returned one because of this distortion issue and the other because I was underwhelmed with it's potential at the time.
My current Air 2 has not displayed any distortion or any uneven color or lighting, so I'm good!
I've already checked for dead pixels and very happy to see there are none, so that's really good.
Any other common hardware faults I should know about and look out for in mine before my return window expires?