If only they had given it 2GB of RAM. It would be fast for a few years.
You mean it would last a few years. They'll keep getting faster ever year regardless of RAM. The mobile CPU/GPU chips have not yet peaked whereas x86 chips have. It's going to get at least 25% improvements ever year until they hit 14nm unless the fab companies managed to do it right on the first try.
At the moment, only Intel is at that level. With yesterday's news that Intel might be fab'ing ARM chips for certain companies, Apple could jump on that if Intel's willing to do it.
Do you really think it's about money?
I think the cost would've been fragmentation, so keeping 1gb RAM in all the latest iOS devices is great news for the millions of people who use older devices, as well as developers.
Huh? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Adding more RAM does not add more fragmentation nor does it harm the developers and customers.
The developers can still release RAM-optimized apps for those older devices while opening it up on the latest models.
Remember, those are all 64-bit models, which means the developers can just optimize based on the existence of the 64-bit CPU.
By not doubling the RAM with the 64-bit models, developers now have to work harder to keep the app under control on 64-bit iOS that will be RAM-straved faster.
64-bit apps takes up 30% more memory, that means you just lost 1/3rd of 1GB automatically when switching over to all 64-bit optimized apps. With the iOS taking up some of the RAM, you basically now have a 512MB iPad or even less.
I wouldn't go that far. It is priced $100 cheaper, or 25% so you get what you pay for. You get a serious drop in quality when your price is reduced by that much. Like the difference between a $38,000 car and a $51,000 car.
What are you talking about? I might be misunderstanding you but in case you haven't noticed, iPad mini with Retina Display went up from $329 to $399, making it the most expensive 7-8" tablet on the market.
On that market, both Nexus and Kindle Fire HDX are much cheaper with the high resolution displays at 200$ at least.
What makes the iPad air faster than the 5si thought they were the same processor and graphics? Are they clocked higher or something?
Same SoC but clocked higher. They're fairly closed in many of the benches, even though the iPad is running at a higher resolution.
And it has a worse camera too and a smaller battery.
Funny how they failed to mentioned these. Had to wait until people got it in their hands, and by then it's too late.
Smaller battery is not a con. The iPad Air have better battery life than the iPad 4th gen, even though it is running a much faster CPU/GPU with a little bit higher power draw. However most apps don't eat up that much for long, so in the end the total power draw is lower than the iPad 4th gen.
That's precisely how they managed to get the weight and size smaller, by going with a smaller battery.
