Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Returning iPad Air and keeping my iPad 4 - anyone else?
- Thread starter Jinzen
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I am really disappointed with the iPad Air... and am in the process of returning it.
-The screen colour gamut is poor compared to the iPhone 5s
-It feels cheap and hollow, the front grass is too thin
-No Touch ID is a pain
The battery life was fantastic though, and since my eyes have been spoiled on the higher pixel packed iPhone 5s the iPad Air looks borderline 'Retina' at best.
So I'll be ordering the iPad Mini Retina and see how I like it, otherwise I'm quite happy with my iPad 2 and iOS7 - perhaps until the next generation... perhaps...
-The screen colour gamut is poor compared to the iPhone 5s
-It feels cheap and hollow, the front grass is too thin
-No Touch ID is a pain
The battery life was fantastic though, and since my eyes have been spoiled on the higher pixel packed iPhone 5s the iPad Air looks borderline 'Retina' at best.
So I'll be ordering the iPad Mini Retina and see how I like it, otherwise I'm quite happy with my iPad 2 and iOS7 - perhaps until the next generation... perhaps...
I will not "upgrade" from my iPad 4 to the Air. It will provide no meaningful improvement for me. I use my ipad 4 for browsing, watching movies, reading, and playing a few wimpy games. Since both have a retina screen, I won't see any improvement. The Air is lighter, but the ipad 4 is pretty light IMO. Now if I had the ipad 2, I would buy the Air in a heart beat. For travelling, the ipad mini seems like a good idea. Debating on getting current mini or the retina mini. Is it really that noticeable the difference in screen quality between the two?
I was hoping to see a difference between the three and the air, and I did, but not what I expected. On the first PDF, the air outperformed the three and I was thrilled to see the pages render perfectly every page turn. Then, i tried it with my largest PDF. The air lost by a lot. What!?
I tested various PDFs (scanned in by me, so large files) in iannotate, pdf expert, dropbox, ibooks, adobe, and good reader. I saw the same results everywhere. For my main use case, the air is the same, if not worse... These are side by side comparisons with the three, and I bet the four would see even less of a difference.
Other functions like opening apps and loading web pages seem a bit snappier. Is it worth the upgrade? I can't decide. I like the weight and the size, but the three never bothered me. The screen seems the same, though the air is a little mushy (it seems to flex more than the three). I am questioning whether the upgrade is worth it...
It is an upgrade. Calling it a downgrade is silly. But i am wondering if the pathetic RAM is the problem here. I think the Nexus 10 is coming out with three gb of RAM. Other manufacturers get it. Why not Apple? It's not a spec battle, but if RAM is the problem, I wish Apple would offer more and at least move a little closer to the competition.
Why do people keep saying this? Up until a few weeks ago, no one even knew Apple would offer this feature. Why is it all of a sudden part of a deal-breaker for the iPad?
After 4 exchanges each getting worst than the other, I've finally requested a refund of my iPad Air. The inconsistency of the display isn't something I'm willing to live with in a 400£ device.
It is possible to build issue free units so why this isn't done consistently is beyond me and I'm not willing to take the "displays need to burn in" excuse.
A 400£ premium device has to be perfect from the first minute and there's no reason why I should tolerate defects for the sake of a stamp in the back.
The last straw for me was my last exchange unit which not only had yellow tinting on the left side but also the freaking vertical interlacing.
I'll wait for the mini retinas and see how they hold regarding display quality but I'm definitely not holding my breath.
It is possible to build issue free units so why this isn't done consistently is beyond me and I'm not willing to take the "displays need to burn in" excuse.
A 400£ premium device has to be perfect from the first minute and there's no reason why I should tolerate defects for the sake of a stamp in the back.
The last straw for me was my last exchange unit which not only had yellow tinting on the left side but also the freaking vertical interlacing.
I'll wait for the mini retinas and see how they hold regarding display quality but I'm definitely not holding my breath.
Sounds more like an issue with how iBooks handles PDFs than a limitation of the hardware. I have not experienced any such issues using quality PDF reader apps on my iPad 4.
I actually tried 5 or 6 PDF readers, all had the slight delay before rendering clearly (and some slower than others).
iBooks was just the smoothest to use, granted, some of the PDFs were pretty big (100-200MB), but these same files now open without any form of delay for rendering, my original supposition is that iBooks is already 64bit optimised.
See - this is where Im at right now but for the same reasons you are staying with your 4th gen is the reason Im thinking of simply picking up a refurbed 4th gen at a huge discount over a similarly equipped air. Here is why:
1) I still get a newer and faster chip than what I have now(A6 vs A5)
2) I get the retina screen upgrade
3) I get whatever other under the hood tweaks they did to the 4th gen model
So, if anything, us iPad 2 guys also have to weigh this all out. Its NOT a slam dunk to get the Air IMO.
Ram is only a problem for those who go off specs. Laughably, even with the 1gb, the ipad air running circles around the competition.
Xbox 360 and PS3 had 512mb and did just fine, playing graphic intensive games too.
As I've mentioned in the past, if you can get an iPad 4 with iOS 6, then I'd recommend that. If you can't get one with 6, then wait 3-4 months and pick up an Air. The wrinkles in the manufacturing process will be ironed out by then.
I'm having very similar thoughts. To be honest. It's still just not quite light enough to change usage much, it's still two handed. For me though it depends if I jump ship to a 5" phone. The other factor is I moved up in storage, which I need now.
So it's a complicated first world problem choice for me, but I could get even more storage for the same price in a mini retina. Right now I have a mini, 4, and bought the air thinking of replacing the two.
One thing the larger screen holds over the mini for me is photography, my own and browsing others. Even with identical resolution there are benefits to the larger screen.
I also find the mini more fun sized for gaming, though the weight reduction of the air is much better. It's so close I feel like a bit off the top and bottom bezels and a few grams and it would be perfect.
So it's a complicated first world problem choice for me, but I could get even more storage for the same price in a mini retina. Right now I have a mini, 4, and bought the air thinking of replacing the two.
One thing the larger screen holds over the mini for me is photography, my own and browsing others. Even with identical resolution there are benefits to the larger screen.
I also find the mini more fun sized for gaming, though the weight reduction of the air is much better. It's so close I feel like a bit off the top and bottom bezels and a few grams and it would be perfect.
i was in bestbuy today (tues is new release day for dvds) and went over to their tablet selection. surprisingly there was an air demo unit out which wasn't being hogged so I got my first 'hands-on' with the air.
it was kinda hard to gauge the weight savings since the demo has an anti-theft attachment. it was a little lighter i thought but as not much as i would think just based on the numbers. the most noticeable thing that struck me was how dim the display was if you change the brightness setting to anything lower than 75% - they had it on 100% of course. looking back, i had the same impression when the ipad3 came out on how the retina display was dimmer than the ipad2 when using equivalent settings from low to medium.
I wasn't able to flex the unit even twisting it from opposite ends. i didn't run any performance tests...webpages seemed to load pretty snappy FWIW.
all in all, i'm staying put with my ipad2...there was never any real chance that i was going to plunk down another $600 to get a new tablet since i use mine mainly as an ereader w/some light web access and the occasional movie.
if the next gen has 2GB of ram & the same battery life, i might be persuaded to upgrade. even more so, if the 32gb becomes the base...i'd would get a 64gb then for that same $600.
it was kinda hard to gauge the weight savings since the demo has an anti-theft attachment. it was a little lighter i thought but as not much as i would think just based on the numbers. the most noticeable thing that struck me was how dim the display was if you change the brightness setting to anything lower than 75% - they had it on 100% of course. looking back, i had the same impression when the ipad3 came out on how the retina display was dimmer than the ipad2 when using equivalent settings from low to medium.
I wasn't able to flex the unit even twisting it from opposite ends. i didn't run any performance tests...webpages seemed to load pretty snappy FWIW.
all in all, i'm staying put with my ipad2...there was never any real chance that i was going to plunk down another $600 to get a new tablet since i use mine mainly as an ereader w/some light web access and the occasional movie.
if the next gen has 2GB of ram & the same battery life, i might be persuaded to upgrade. even more so, if the 32gb becomes the base...i'd would get a 64gb then for that same $600.
I don't know if I am off specs. I just have scanned books I want to read. RAM seems to be a big deal for PDFs. You don't seem to put so much of a load on RAM with graphics, for whatever reason. Some of my PDFs crashed the iPad until I moved up to the iPad 2, and I was told on this forum somewhere that it was a RAM thing. I don't know. All I can say is that I haven't seen the improvement yet in this particular use. Obviously, other things are a little snappier.
Because Touch ID is that good and without it, the current iPad line up seems incomplete and old already, and you bet the Air 2 and mini Retina 3 will get Touch ID - it's greed and built in obsolescence.
----------
Agreed.
I don't care if its IGZO or EGGZO, if the screen looks crummy for such an expensive device, it goes back to
I really want an iPad Air, but I just returned my 3rd one tonight because of screens with a yellow hue overall. My iPad 4 has a beautiful bright white screen with no flaws and I won't replace it with a lesser screen. I mainly use it for web surfing and I didn't see any difference in speed when loading sites. I do love the smaller size and lighter weight of the Air but won't accept a yellow tinted screen. I 'll probably try again at some point but am happy with my 4 for now.
After a long thought I decided to keep my like new 128gb LTE iPad 4. I will use the money I save by keeping it on a more exciting gadget and hope the next version has a better multitasking OS, built in ifile and 3x more ram.