I'm considering the same products, iPad Air/iPad Air 2 and Tab S 10.5" (primarily for the AMOLED screen -- with aging eyes, I can use the Samsung Note 3's AMOLED without reading glasses, and the 10.5" on the Tab S has to be very similar). But a fave reviewer, Erica Griffin on youtube, isn't thrilled with the performance of the Samsung Exynos chip -- might need to wait for the LTE version using Snapdragon at a much higher cost, of course). Of course, Samsung just might do as they are prone to do, releasing a whole new slew of models by EOY using the Snapdragon without LTE, so the cost is a bit lower.
My experience with iOS includes a 3rd gen iPod Touch which did not get updated past iOS 5. My girlfriend has an iPad 2 I've used quite a bit, and it's quite pleasing for browsing, using Hangouts, email (we're not gamers), plus apps on iOS she runs, that I also have on my Android tablet running the latest KitKat OS, are better in terms of layout and sometimes offer a bit more functionality than the Android version.
To get a taste of Android, my recommendation is to only get a Google Nexus tablet since that will receive OS updates the longest of any Android brand (for low cost entry, get a refurb 2013 Nexus 7 if you want a true Android experience with a retina-esque screen). I like that Apple is updating the iPad 2 to iOS 8. While I doubt Dell will be updating my Venue 8 tab past KitKat 4.4.2. This matters!
My Dell is now being fixed by Dell -- started to act up after they pushed an OS update back in June, and it just got worse and worse as the days rolled on, until last week it would not boot. At all. Power up, yes. I think the software hosed itself up rendering the device unbootable, could not even do a system recovery (which is wiping everything clean and starting from scratch). You may read of other's Android experiences stating the slowing down (even crippling) of their device's performance over time. Timely, stable OS updates helps avoid this, and you want to pick a brand offering these (I learned Sony is good about this now, too, a surprise -- so they are now on my radar screen).
The look and feel customization is a key advantage of Android devices in 2014, still. And having enjoyed tinkering with a bajillion widgets for weather/clocks/evernote/flipboard/tumblr/twitter, it's cool looking and impressive, but not really hugely more convenient. At the end of the day, running cleaner-designed apps with more stability is more key to me. I suspect iOS apps are more stable, slightly more feature rich. Certainly there are far more tablet-optimized apps for iOS.
Screen aspect ratio is also key, especially if you're not a hardcore gamer or aspiring movie critic, and the iPad Air's 4:3 aspect ratio seems a better choice, for the primary way I want to use a tablet. I do not enjoy using the 16:9 or 16:10 (Tab S) ratios when using a tablet in portrait mode! 4:3 is the way to go if you're going to want to use portrait mode often. This alone compels me into the iOS tab ecosystem.
Can someone please make a 10+ inch tab without bloatware, with awesome AMOLED screen, stereo front-mounted speakers, with microSD slot, and no need to root or jailbreak to best enjoy the device?
