It is thinner, lighter and faster.
The good: The iPad Air delivers more performance and comparable battery life in an attractive and impossibly thin-and-light package. An improved front-facing camera makes FaceTiming look better, and the Retina Display still looks great.
The bad: The Touch ID fingerprint scanner, introduced on the iPhone 5S, is sadly absent here, meaning you’ll still have to type in a passcode with every unlock and a password with every purchase. Starting at $499 for 16GB, it’s still expensive compared with the competition.
The bottom line: Functionally, the iPad Air is nearly identical to last year’s model, offering only faster performance and better video chatting. But factor in design and aesthetics, and the iPad Air is on another planet. It’s the best full-size consumer tablet on the market.
The Air is a tangible upgrade over the previous, fourth-generation iPad, no longer in production and so banished to the annals of history. The new iPad slots right in where its predecessor left off, priced at $499 for a lowly 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB, and $799 for the maximum 128GB configuration. Cellular models — with LTE and support for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon in the United States — cost an additional $130 beyond the above prices.
So, yes, it’s still very much the premium-priced choice, just as it’s always been. However, the market continues to shift, offering more and increasingly sophisticated alternatives at far cheaper prices, tablets like the Kindle Fire HDX and Google Nexus 10. That, plus strong competition from within Apple’s own ranks with the upcoming iPad Mini with Retina Display, means the iPad Air has to be better than ever. Thankfully, it is.
Sometimes in the wash of new technology it’s easy to forget what the iPad already brings so it’s important to note that the arrival of iOS 7 just a few weeks ago have made significant improvements to the iPad universe already, bringing a welcome step away from skeuomorphism and a more modern and fresh design.
It’s light, too, weighing just 1 pound in Wi-Fi-only guise. That’s 0.4 pound lighter than the previous generation and 0.3 pound heavier than the Mini. In other words, the iPad Air’s weight is actually closer to the Mini than to its fourth-gen predecessor. Indeed, pick up an Air and you’ll be reminded of the first time you held a Mini. It’s a “wow” moment.
More than a name
The iPad Air is much, much more than just a name change – the reduction in the size and weight of the device improve it on a fundamental level.
The biggest criticism you could level at the iPad 4 was its size and weight, and the Air’s biggest difference is that it’s simply more of a pleasure to hold.
It’s now down to less than the Sony Xperia Tablet Z, and we were amazed at how easy that was to hold – but Apple has taken things to another level now.
