Now, I'm not one of those people who has the old tech and therefore shuns the new tech by default out of jealousy or whatever. I'm usually a "I like what I have but the new stuff is sweeter, don't kid yourself" kind of guy.
I had an opportunity to unload my 64 gig wifi iPad 4 for $540. I only paid $630 for it on black friday last year, so there's definitely a pretty strong case for upgrading.
I browsed the threads here the past couple days and with any Apple release and forum members' OCD (including my own) I was worried about the Air release. I then went to the store this morning to get my hands on one to play with for the first time.
The size is great. I didn't care too much for the screen feeling, but I would've never noticed if I didn't read this forum. Wouldn't be a deal breaker though. The chamfered edge manufacturing seems to be better than on the iPhone. The silver plastic insert apple logo on the back of the silver model was interesting; would prefer the traditional black insert logo, but the silver is better than the engraved/screen printed/whatever cheap logo on the back of the iPhone 5/5S. The weight was nice, but it did feel a little cheap to me. Then again I thought the same when going from the 4S to the 5, but now I'm used to it so no problems there. The volume/sleep buttons felt fantastic and I like that they are silver rather than cheap black plastic like previous iPads.
After playing with several, I couldn't shake the reality that the screens were indeed bad and I didn't have to look that hard; dark/dingy green/yellow on the left on all but one (I looked at about 5), and a just a tiny bit pink on the right but pretty good (I'd say the right was the better side, if the whole screen looked like the right side I'd say it was probably just fine). They seemed like they could've been brighter too.
At the end of the day, is the Air a better performer than my 4? Sure, absolutely. Did I leave convinced I needed it? Unfortunately no, which is probably why I spent 30 minutes playing with it, trying to convince myself I had to have it. If the screens were perfect out of the gate things may have been different, but as of right now, they are not.
I also recognize that my iPad 4 is a quality control freak - it's absolutely perfect and the screen is the best of any Apple product I've ever had. Absolutely ZERO backlight bleed, fantastic color and brightness, and my battery still regularly exceeds ten hours of usage between charges even going beyond 50% brightness. Coming home from the Apple store and picking up my 4, it is a seriously sturdy, solid, well put together piece of kit, and I'm ok sticking with it for one more year.
To those with the Air, that's a great machine and hopefully there are no issues with yours and I look forward to getting one next year, hopefully with 2 gigs of RAM and sorted screen issues (but let's face it every release of everything has screen issues). In the meantime, I like the heavy and solid feel of my 4, which does everything I need it to do.
Enjoy those Airs, I think that's the iPad Steve originally envisioned.
I had an opportunity to unload my 64 gig wifi iPad 4 for $540. I only paid $630 for it on black friday last year, so there's definitely a pretty strong case for upgrading.
I browsed the threads here the past couple days and with any Apple release and forum members' OCD (including my own) I was worried about the Air release. I then went to the store this morning to get my hands on one to play with for the first time.
The size is great. I didn't care too much for the screen feeling, but I would've never noticed if I didn't read this forum. Wouldn't be a deal breaker though. The chamfered edge manufacturing seems to be better than on the iPhone. The silver plastic insert apple logo on the back of the silver model was interesting; would prefer the traditional black insert logo, but the silver is better than the engraved/screen printed/whatever cheap logo on the back of the iPhone 5/5S. The weight was nice, but it did feel a little cheap to me. Then again I thought the same when going from the 4S to the 5, but now I'm used to it so no problems there. The volume/sleep buttons felt fantastic and I like that they are silver rather than cheap black plastic like previous iPads.
After playing with several, I couldn't shake the reality that the screens were indeed bad and I didn't have to look that hard; dark/dingy green/yellow on the left on all but one (I looked at about 5), and a just a tiny bit pink on the right but pretty good (I'd say the right was the better side, if the whole screen looked like the right side I'd say it was probably just fine). They seemed like they could've been brighter too.
At the end of the day, is the Air a better performer than my 4? Sure, absolutely. Did I leave convinced I needed it? Unfortunately no, which is probably why I spent 30 minutes playing with it, trying to convince myself I had to have it. If the screens were perfect out of the gate things may have been different, but as of right now, they are not.
I also recognize that my iPad 4 is a quality control freak - it's absolutely perfect and the screen is the best of any Apple product I've ever had. Absolutely ZERO backlight bleed, fantastic color and brightness, and my battery still regularly exceeds ten hours of usage between charges even going beyond 50% brightness. Coming home from the Apple store and picking up my 4, it is a seriously sturdy, solid, well put together piece of kit, and I'm ok sticking with it for one more year.
To those with the Air, that's a great machine and hopefully there are no issues with yours and I look forward to getting one next year, hopefully with 2 gigs of RAM and sorted screen issues (but let's face it every release of everything has screen issues). In the meantime, I like the heavy and solid feel of my 4, which does everything I need it to do.
Enjoy those Airs, I think that's the iPad Steve originally envisioned.
