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iPad iPad 3 to iPad Air

I was happy with my Ipad 3 - mainly used for browsing, reading and making handwritten notes. No probs with IOS 7 or speed issues.

My only ever reason for upgrading would be if it could be made lighter and this ipad Air has done that.

One thing Im finding a bit strange is the sound when I tap the screen compared to the Ipad 3. The air makes a more hollow plasticky sound. The ipad 3 makes a more 'strong' deep sound giving an impression of being more 'solid'.

Has anyone else noticed this? Im guessing its down to the internals on this.
 
mrdee0 said:
I was happy with my Ipad 3 - mainly used for browsing, reading and making handwritten notes. No probs with IOS 7 or speed issues.

My only ever reason for upgrading would be if it could be made lighter and this ipad Air has done that.

One thing Im finding a bit strange is the sound when I tap the screen compared to the Ipad 3. The air makes a more hollow plasticky sound. The ipad 3 makes a more 'strong' deep sound giving an impression of being more 'solid'.

Has anyone else noticed this? Im guessing its down to the internals on this.
Click to expand...

That's only because of the thinness and the type of the screen. It's the same as the mini and believe me it's sturdy.
 
Mr.C said:
Apart from the fact its not ugly and looks far better them the previous versions of the OS that's never going to happen so I guess you're never going to be able to upgrade your iPad then.
Click to expand...

I didn't say it was ugly, I said it was super ugly.

iOS 6 and the previous versions were beautiful, iOS 7 is like the ugly step child that nobody wanted but is forced to have around.
 
Djay said:
Were iPad 3's noted for running hot? I got my current 3 when it was first launched and have yet to experience heat as an issue either during a longterm session or when charging. :confused: Or did a heat issue manifest itself after installing IOS7?
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Consumer Reports wrote a sensational article about the iPad running hot. However, even in their review they said it wasn't cause for concern. I never had the issue with my iPad. In fact, my 4s runs hotter than my iPad 3.
 
My iPad 3 ran kind of warm and I've been using my Air all day and it's not remotely warm. I have to say I'm not really pushing it though.
 
Djay said:
Were iPad 3's noted for running hot? I got my current 3 when it was first launched and have yet to experience heat as an issue either during a longterm session or when charging. :confused: Or did a heat issue manifest itself after installing IOS7?
Click to expand...

My has always had the hot spot on lower right in landscape. Knowing I was getting an Air I did not upgrade the software to IOS 7.
 
I received the iPad 1 back on 4/30/10. 64GB & ATT 3G.
Purchased the 3rd generation 3/7/12. 64GB & AT&T LTE.

Bought my wife the iPad Mini 64GB AT&T on 11/16/12.

Picked up the iPad Air w/Smart Case on Friday 11/1/13. 128GB AT&T.

The iPad Air is a lot faster. The "glass" screen does feel weird and cheap compared to the iPad 3rd generation.

Side-by-side, the iPad Air w/Smart Case doesn't feel that much lighter to me than the iPad 3rd Generation w/leather Apple Cover. But with that said, if I pick them up individually, the iPad 3rd Generation feels heavy-for-it's-size whereas the iPad Air feels light or right for it's size.

I don't know if it's the faster CPU, or the faster WiFi, or some combination of the two, but it's noticeably MUCH faster doing anything Internet-related.

I have CenturyLink 50Mbit down / 20Mbit up and a 5th generation (Mid 2013) AirPort Time Capsule.

I was never really "wowed" by the whole Retina Display. My wife was playing Candy Crush on the iPad Air last night -vs- her iPad Mini and she commented it was "like it was in HD (TV)" compared to her Mini.
 
It's a nice upgrade for weight and performance but I honestly was still satisfied with the 3.

My wife wanted my 3, so that's one justification for my upgrade. The kids have the old original iPad she was using.

The only downside to the Air for me is that I upgraded to 128GB b/c my 64GB 3 always required me to remove content to add anything new, but I wouldn't expect too many people to be in that boat. To finish the thought, the downside is price but that's nothing new for iPads.

As great as it is that the family can enjoy the older models, it'd be nice to recoup some of the $$ to apply to the new one.
 
herdnerfer said:
This is not true, iOS 7 still has the parallax & translucent effects on the iPad 3 that the iPad 4 has. There is nothing missing except Airdrop due to wifi hardware limitations.
Click to expand...

No, he's right. The iPad 3 and older iPhones have transparency but its not as pronounced (probably 90%) . On newer devices the transparency is more like 50% and the background content is blurred.
 
I used ipad 3 for 2 days, returned it for ipad 2 because of well known heat issue.. Now it's time to get ipad air. Probably going to get it tomorrow.
 
I love everything about the air except the screen. It's beautiful don't get me wrong but when typing on it it feels hollow and very cheap. Maybe I'm crazy but my iPad 4 felt very solid. :cool:
 
Djay said:
Were iPad 3's noted for running hot? I got my current 3 when it was first launched and have yet to experience heat as an issue either during a longterm session or when charging. :confused: Or did a heat issue manifest itself after installing IOS7?
Click to expand...

My 3 always ran super hot.
 
I bought the iPad 3 on launch day here and upgraded to the Air on launch too.

It's like night and day.

The iPad 3 had a beautiful screen but it was heavy and ran really hot. Battery wasn't bad but it wasn't like the original iPad that the 3rd gen replaced.

It really felt like it was struggling to work the screen. Scrolling was jittery, gaming was OK but not mind-blowing (even Tapped Out struggled hard when ever there were lots of things on screen at once - side note, the iPad mini with the regular screen didn't have any issues running Tapped Out, that non-retina screen actually made it feel like it was faster).

The Air is stunning. Much lighter. It's that big a deal, the iPad 2 had that really nice light feeling, the 3 felt really chunky in comparison - this is another league entirely.

And it's FAST! Holy crap is it quick! It feels like it was born into the retina display, not hacked together just to make it somewhat bearable. It's just so smooth.

Best thing so far is that it seems to stay cool, the 3rd Gen got so damned hot so quickly it felt a bit iffy - well within the thermal specs etc etc but it just didn't seem right that it could get so hot.

Love it.
 
I thought long and hard about going from the 3 to the Air. I really was going to wait until the next generation, but the wife has been wanting an iPad so she gets the 3 and I got the Air.

The majority of the time, I use my iPad for email, surfing the web, and reading. The iPad 3, while a bit on the slow side, actually did work fine for those tasks. We all know about the size and weight reduction in the Air, but the size of the iPad 3 never really bothered me. The improved wifi is nice (went from 32 Mbps down 16 Mbps up to 43 Mbps down 29 Mbps up on my FIOS network) but not that dramatic. I honestly could have lived with the iPad 3, though I am glad to now get to use the same cord for charging my iPhone as my iPad now!
 
I could have stayed on the iPad 3 but I have to say I'm extremely happy with the Air. After 3 days of steady use, I can really appreciate the size and speed.
 
I have had an Ipad 1, 2, 3 and now the Air.

I would say the 2 blew me away. I remember never even thinking about charging it.

The 3 was another story, loved the screen but it got warm and always seem to be draining the battery.
I was lucky to get a day or so and it took forever to recharge (unlike the 2).

Now the Air seems to get me what I miss from the 2 plus the speed, size and screen.

My only issue is when using the stylus on the Air screen, it seems to stick and not register sometimes.
It works flawlessly on the iPad 3.
 
drenline said:
I didn't say it was ugly, I said it was super ugly.

iOS 6 and the previous versions were beautiful, iOS 7 is like the ugly step child that nobody wanted but is forced to have around.
Click to expand...

iOS 7 isn't super ugly either. iOS 6 is pretty plain and boring by comparison. It also looks too busy. iOS 7 is far more beautiful and easier on the eyes. Its also more of a pleasure to use.

----------
nabwong said:
the ipad 3 is nice to hold in winter.
Click to expand...

lol.
 
So far I am disappointed in the stability of the Air compared to my iPad 3.

Apps crash much more frequently, especially Safari. While javascript-heavy pages render much more quickly on the Air, they are also much more likely to cause a LowMemory crash.

I guess the real web-browsing benchmark should be the time it takes ipad 3 to stutter through content vs the time it takes to re-open safari after random crashes.
 
Mr.C said:
iOS 7 isn't super ugly either. iOS 6 is pretty plain and boring by comparison. It also looks too busy. iOS 7 is far more beautiful and easier on the eyes. Its also more of a pleasure to use.
Click to expand...

I'm presuming most of the people complaining about how bright iOS 7 is, and how it hurts their eyes haven't actually realised that the iPad has a brightness control (handily accessible from the control centre).

Once turned down it's even possible to use in a pitch dark room ;).
 
tranceFusion said:
So far I am disappointed in the stability of the Air compared to my iPad 3.

Apps crash much more frequently, especially Safari. While javascript-heavy pages render much more quickly on the Air, they are also much more likely to cause a LowMemory crash.

I guess the real web-browsing benchmark should be the time it takes ipad 3 to stutter through content vs the time it takes to re-open safari after random crashes.
Click to expand...

I was disappointed initially as well. I had set up the Air as new and I had horrible crashing issues. I was going to return it but after letting it sit for a day, I wiped it and did a restore from my iPad 3 backup. I've not had a problem since and this iPad Air is flawless. You might give that a try.
 
Mr.C said:
iOS 7 isn't super ugly either. iOS 6 is pretty plain and boring by comparison. It also looks too busy. iOS 7 is far more beautiful and easier on the eyes. Its also more of a pleasure to use.
Click to expand...


I completely disagree.

iOS 7 looks like it was designed by a 12 year old teenage girl specifically for other 12 year old teenage girls in mind. It has a bit of a lag, has a ton of bugs that still haven't been fixed yet, and the user interface is atrocious to look at. The OS literally looks like a rip-off of an android device. If I wanted a knock-off of an android device, I would just go buy an android. But I've stuck with apple for every iDevice (ipad 1-3/iphone 2g-4S) up to iOS 7. You would have to be a hardcore apple fanboy to think iOS 7 is beautiful...or just trolling.
 
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