Right. You assume, but you didn't get that informati from this teardown. All we have is a part number and 2 chips. Then we can deduce what this means.
This post seems to say that ifixit confirmed it was 2GB which isn't true.
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iFixit Tears Down iPad Air 2, Confirms Smaller Battery, A8X Chip, and 2GB RAM
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Right. You assume, but you didn't get that informati from this teardown. All we have is a part number and 2 chips. Then we can deduce what this means.
This post seems to say that ifixit confirmed it was 2GB which isn't true.
Decrease weight more likely. Slimmer device was the goal, not punishing users, as many want to portray this as.
It gets you through an entire day of use. What more do you want from any electronic device? 1 full day isn't good enough?
rsocal
macrumors 6502a
Yep, and if it wasn't battery it would be something else!😎
We'll soon read some new complaints about 2GB of Ram and 3 cores are not enough, trust me!
Apple always does it so wrong, that's why they keep selling a ton of products and keep building up cash! All because they never have enough Ram, pixels, battery or cores etc, blau blau blau! Oh ya, and their phones bend easy.🙄
Not when my iPad 2 can last easily for a week of constant use, if not more, on one charge. One full day isn't good enough. It's a step backwards, not forwards.
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
And yet the Air 2 still gets better battery life than the Nexus 9, which is thicker. Apple is advertising 10 hours battery life. I'm not aware of any review that says the Air 2 is getting less than that.
NFC Chip
The article says this iPad contains the same NFC chip that is in the iPhone 6/6+, so why aren't Apple Pay store payments allowed?
The article says this iPad contains the same NFC chip that is in the iPhone 6/6+, so why aren't Apple Pay store payments allowed?
chrmjenkins
macrumors 603
Separate RAM chips make the presence of a 128 bit bus likely. No reason they couldn't do a single 2GB chip.
Oh, we've all already given up that battle, and have come to accept the measly amount of RAM in iPhone's.
It's about pushing the limits. Engineering impossible designs. Delivery impossibly-sleek devices. What's wrong with that? And a smaller battery does not necessarily mean decreased battery life. Software is a big factor and iOS 8 is out now.
fruitpunch.ben
macrumors 6502a
The ifixit article seems to suggest it has stereo speakers.
Am I reading this right? Is this a first for the iPad? I thought until now they always had mono speakers?
Also NFC, what!!!! 😱😱
Am I reading this right? Is this a first for the iPad? I thought until now they always had mono speakers?
Also NFC, what!!!! 😱😱
The presence of NFC makes me think Apple is thinking ahead to more usages of NFC within iOS. I can understand limiting it to Apple Pay to start, so the general public feels safe. Then after a year or so they can open up the NFC capabilities and the iPad Air 2 will already be capable.
Based on Elpida's numbering scheme, it's two 1GB chips. An "8" as the second character means 1GB, while an "A" means 2GB.
Doesn't seem strange Apple wouldn't "allow" this considering the form factor of the iPad and the inconvenience... But I hope it means they will allow NFC to be used the other way, as was mentioned- to accept payments from iPhones 🙂 (a la Square, etc but much more elegant).
I had the same thought/question (here's to not seeing it get lost in the sea of petty bickering). My first thought was that NFC was included to allow iPads to be used as pay terminals (so they can't send payments but they could receive them).
I get the thinness obsession for the iPhone because most people put it in a case so thinner really does help especially with the newer bigger phones.
For the iPad im not sure. My iPad 2 is thin enough to enjoy. I think more than thinness they wanted to get it lighter. Making it lighter will help when holding it for long periods. I'm split on the obsession with thinness for the iPad. I wonder how far it will go before they just stop making it thinner. They have got to be getting close to the limit.
For the iPad im not sure. My iPad 2 is thin enough to enjoy. I think more than thinness they wanted to get it lighter. Making it lighter will help when holding it for long periods. I'm split on the obsession with thinness for the iPad. I wonder how far it will go before they just stop making it thinner. They have got to be getting close to the limit.
It has an NFC module on the board. Apple products share some of the same parts, so it is fine that they find the same chips on the boards.
The iPad may have an NFC chip on the board but it doesn't have an NFC Antenna, so no, the iPad doesn't have NFC.
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Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
Funny I don't remember people complaining about battery life with iPads. Now that a tear down reveals a smaller battery everyone is outraged over battery life. Even though the majority of reviews claim similar battery life to the previous Air (and within Apple's claim of 10 hours). And 99.9% of the complaints come from people who don't have an Air 2 yet and haven't been able to do any real world testing. On The Verge's people are drooling over the new Nexus 9. I didn't see any battery life complaints even though the device is thicker than the Air 2 and battery life is between 9-9.5 hours.
Vandam500
macrumors 68000
Pretty sure the iPad Air 2 will last just as long. Pretty sure if you use it a couple hours a day it will easily last you multiple days. Unless you provide screenshots of your iPad 2 giving you 70 hours of on screen time (Average 10 a day) without being put to charge then this will be fine and also spec wise this destroys the iPad 2 🙂
Thinness helps, I think the original Air is much more comfortable to hold than the 2 beyond the weight savings. And I'm pretty sure Apple would have made the Air 2 lighter if they could, the tech probably wasn't there (for the cost, anyway). Still needs a certain amount of metal and glass and battery right now to be practical.