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iPad So...are you waiting for the iPad Air 3?

iPad Air 2, probably the true successor to iPad 2. So small, so light, so quick, so good.

iPad Air 2, you da real MVP.
 
Yes, I'm waiting for iPad Air 3. I went in an Apple Store to buy the Air 2 but the illumination of the screen was worst than my old but good iPad 4. More: the sound vibrations, in my opinion, was terrible (there was vibrations at 30% of the volume too). So I'm waiting. If the iPad Air 3 will be better I will buy it, if not I will try to switch to an Android or a Windows model.
 
I'm not waiting for the Air 3 (though I may buy it). I'm very happy with the Air 2. Thin and light, gorgeous screen and super fast. I checked once for distortion by pushing on the back and it's there but has never happened otherwise. The vibration doesn't bother me at all. I don't spend much time with games and don't watch movies on it so that why may be why I've hardly noticed the vibrating. I love my Air 2.
 
Yes I'm giving my 3 another year. Wasn't that impressed with the Air 2 in a side by side comparison in the Applestore. Same old ipad just faster and lighter, but not enough to spend 600 euros on. And didn't like the sound vibrations and rippling screen. I expect splitscreen, seperate useraccounts and a redesign. An improved higher res screen preferably oled and a fix for the issues. If Apple doesn't meet my expectations to a large degree in 2015, I'll skip it and probably wait for the Air 4 (if I can wait that long) or look somewhere else.
 
thecore762 said:
So with all the issues with the iPad Air 2 and almost no improvement from the last Air, are you going to just wait for the iPad Air 3?

I was going to pull the trigger this week on the new iPad Air 2, but I hated the screen distortion so much...I went to BB this Black Friday and everytime I picked up the iPad without any force it kept giving me the screen distortion on the lower corner, to me that's very annoying.

I am happy that they decided to add that extra gig of ram and improved the screen from the last gen, but battery life not being improved? Well that is very disappointing. Do you think the next iPad Air 3 will have better battery life? Better sound dampening option so it doesn't vibrate too much and possibly the screen distortion being finally fixed?
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This just smells of desperate shilling…

Got my Air 2 in a Cyber Monday sale. And it's perfect in every way. No improvement to the Air 1?

LOL!!!!
 
itsmemuffins said:
This just smells of desperate shilling…

Got my Air 2 in a Cyber Monday sale. And it's perfect in every way. No improvement to the Air 1?

LOL!!!!
Click to expand...

I don't think it's desperate "shilling", I think being realistic the iPad Air 2 doesn't show it's full power right now and won't for the next year while older devices are sold and supported. Both the Air and Air 2 support Metal via iOS 8, but developers won't begin targeting the Air 2 straight away.

The Air 2 is a beast, but right now there's very little between both devices in terms of performance and features. In 12 months time, who knows, but I'm keeping my Air 1 on iOS 7 because I find it smoother in places than iOS 8.

I've upgraded from the 3 to the 4 to the Air ... I don't think I'll be upgrading for a third year running, mainly because right now my Air 1 runs everything super quick and smooth and next year there could well be a redesign of the case (a full one, not the minor one we seen this year).

What we'll see next year is people upgrading from the iPad Air 2 to the iPad Air 3 and these same people telling us now the Air 3 is what the Air 2 should have been. It's the same cycle every year.
 
I've had iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad Mini, iPad 4, and iPad Air 2.

The Air 2 that I received from B&H photo is way faster than any of its predissors. I have no screen distortion, zigzagging lines, discoloration or issues with brightness. The speaker does cause vibration at loud settings, but it's not distorted or bothersome at all.

I'm sure someone here will call me an Apple PR guy or some other flamed up words, since I have nothing bad to say about it. The Air 2 is by far the best iPad I've ever owned.
 
Nope.

Just waiting for them to remove the vibrator before I repurchase.
 
thecore762 said:
So with all the issues with the iPad Air 2 and almost no improvement from the last Air, are you going to just wait for the iPad Air 3?
Click to expand...

No screen distortion whatsoever here. Uniform screen with no yellowing, brightness issues. Sound vibration is a thing but I honestly no longer notice it, whereas for the first week it was very noticeable indeed. I totally understand YMMV on this. I don't listen to music on it, purely podcasts, so maybe it's not as apparent in my usage.

As for "almost no improvement on the last Air", hmm, that has not been my experience at all. Just the ram increase alone has improved the experience massively for me, far fewer crashes, much less app reloading, much less Safari tab reloads.

Overall, the hardware balance feels just right, a feeling I never actually got with the first Air. Air 1 always felt lightning fast and highly capable for single app use, but any movement between apps and crashes/reloads reared their ugly head, as evidenced by the voluminous crash logs. Something I don't experience with the Air 2.

Anecdotally, I would say the battery life is slightly down, but given it's so plentiful for my usage that hasn't been a problem.

I fully expect the next iPad will have a hefty res bump with the same ram, and perhaps a GPU that isn't 100% capable of handling the increase in pixels all the time, so the Air 2 will likely be an excellent, high performer for at least 2 years.
 
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The iPad Air 1 used a vanilla A7. If the A7 doubled the CPU and GPU of the A6, but the A6X had double the GPU of the A6, that means the GPU of the A7 and the A6X are relatively the same. If anything the Air 1 is vastly underpowered in terms of GPU, kinda like the A5X in the iPad 3.
 
I sold my Air back in September with the thought that I MIGHT buy the new Air. I really didn't see anything worth upgrading to and I just keep using my Retina Mini till next year.
 
BoneHead001 said:
Max(IT), you sound like you work in Apple’s PR department. Either you don't understand what the screen distortion problem is, or you are denying it exists. Every single iPad Air 2 display unit in the two Apple Stores near me exhibit the screen distortion problem.
Click to expand...

Your words worth like mine.
I've yet to see the problem on any display unit tested on a couple of Apple stores.

And I don't work for Apple in any way.
 
thecore762 said:
So with all the issues with the iPad Air 2 and almost no improvement from the last Air, are you going to just wait for the iPad Air 3?

I was going to pull the trigger this week on the new iPad Air 2, but I hated the screen distortion so much...I went to BB this Black Friday and everytime I picked up the iPad without any force it kept giving me the screen distortion on the lower corner, to me that's very annoying.

I am happy that they decided to add that extra gig of ram and improved the screen from the last gen, but battery life not being improved? Well that is very disappointing. Do you think the next iPad Air 3 will have better battery life? Better sound dampening option so it doesn't vibrate too much and possibly the screen distortion being finally fixed?
Click to expand...

Of the several iPad Air 2 models that I've played with, I only noticed the screen issue on a single iPad Air 2 model in a Best Buy. Said model along with a model of the original iPad Air both had the issue and it looked like both iPads had been fairly abused (common for a non-Apple store's demo models). It does seem to be more likely to happen on the iPad Air 2 and honestly, that's what we get for asking for thinner devices. At this point, if we want a durable screen, the damn thing should be thicker.

As for the vibrations, it was only truly noticeable at full blast (which is never optimal from any iPad's internal speakers anyway) and even then, I had only noticed it because I had read threads on here about it and was curious to see for myself. The original iPad Air also does it. Again, a byproduct of that thinness we were so crazy about having for some reason. I am not bothered by it, but for those that wish to nitpick, there's an excuse to, I guess.

As for the speed, while the iPad Air 2 runs iOS 8 with comparable fluidity and responsiveness to the original iPad Air running iOS 7, the former runs iOS 8 noticeably faster than the latter and the differences in performance shine most in the more intensive apps (like games or Pixelmator). Given that there's 2GB of RAM (doubled from the 1GB in literally every currently shipping iOS device save for the first generation iPad mini and the fifth generation iPod touch, which have a fourth of that amount), three processing cores instead of two, and the A8/X family's faster graphics, the performance difference may not be so obvious today, but you can guarantee that it will tackle the software to come much better than its predecessors.
 
I am waiting for a future iPad; not because the current ones Apple offers are bad... but because the current ones I own are good enough to do what I want them to do. Until that equation changes, I will not be going out to spend my money.
 
My 3 is showing its age. But I'm not tempted yet. The plan is to wait until the air 3 is out then pick up a refurb air 2 from apples refurb site. The air when in stock is around £260 for the 16gb. I only use it at home so that does me fine. Hopefully the refurb air 2 will be around that price so I'll wait a year and replace my 3 with an air 2. And save £150.

I can't see the air 3 being an amazing, show stopping, must have device and the air 2 will still be a very capable tablet this time next year.
 
Yebubbleman said:
Every subsequent iPad Air will perform better or equivalently to its immediate predecessor. That's sort of a no-*****-sherlock given.
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That's true, but it's not a reason to get an Air 2 now and not wait for the Air 3. As you stated yourself, in terms of speed on the current iOS there's not an obvious difference between the original Air and the Air 2. Just saying ;).
 
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