Resolved ipad 3 to air?

[LFCYNWA]

Does anyone have experience with both the iPad 3 and the air?

I was wondering if there was any difference other than the form factor?

Like going from the a5x to the a7.

Thank you all in advance!

 

[Menel]

I had iPad 3 and sold before the ipad conference. No touchid upgrade, no ram upgrade. Safari still reloads a lot.

You get convenient lightning port.
Airdrop.

That's about it. Air is faster... But apps dont really stress the A5X much as it was.

 

[Zwhaler]

I've used the iPad 4 and Air. I can say for the 3 to the Air it won't be a very big difference... wait for the Air 2 at least.

 

[wmitch]

I had the 3 and sold it to get the Air. One of the big reasons was to get all my devices up to lightning adapter which is super convenient.

I like the Air a lot better. I Don't really notice the performance difference as much as the weight and feel. It's an incredible difference!

That said, I wouldn't buy an Air now, You've waited this long, might as well stick it out till the next gen goes on sale.

I sold my 32 gb 3rd gen for like $375 then got a 16gb Air for $500 w/a $100 Target gift card on Black Friday so it only cost me $25+ tax to upgrade.

 

[Traverse]

Well, don't upgrade now. The new iPads will be announced next month. It supposed to be a dramatic upgrade, but really it just seems like an improvement in fluidity. My iPad 3 still runs fine on iOS 7.1 except for slightly slow web browsing.

 

[mlody]

I had iPad air for a week or so and I hated the way screen felt- very cheap and plasticky, so I returned it.
Compared to our iPad 2 and 3 that we have, the overall performance (smoothness) was noticeably faster but that didn't really translate into any faster day to day use. The thing is the iPad air would still lag in Safari and reload tabs - that alone was like 90% use case for me and simply wasn't worth it over iPad 3 were Safari works just as good.

I think if you can deal with iPad 3 form factor and a little lag here and there does not bother you, the iPad air might feel to like a waste of money. I would at least wait for an upgrade and either get a new one (which might have touch ID) or get air for even less money.

 

[LFCYNWA]

Thank you everyone, looks like I'll be waiting for next months keynote. Hopefully the air 2 will have 2 gigs of ram

 

[Rodster]

I have both although my iPad 3 is running iOS 5 so zero issues regarding software. The Air is quicker but iOS 7 slows it down a little.