Apple iPad Air 2 MH0W2LL/A (16GB, Wi-Fi, Gold) NEWEST VERSION
- Apple iOS 8, 10-Inch Retina Display, 2048×1536 Resolution
- A8X Chip with 64-bit Architecture, M8 Motion Coprocessor
- Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac): 16 GB, Capacity: 2 GB RAM
- 8 MP iSight Camera, FaceTime HD Camera
- Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life
- Apple iOS 8, 10-Inch Retina Display, 2048×1536 Resolution
- A8X Chip with 64-bit Architecture, M8 Motion Coprocessor
- Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac): 16 GB, Capacity: 2 GB RAM
- 8 MP iSight Camera, FaceTime HD Camera
- Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life
Apple iPad XX6LL/A Tablet (64GB, Wifi + AT&T 3G, Black) NEWEST MODEL
List Price: $ 499.00
Price: [wpramaprice asin=”B00OTWOAAQ”]
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Ultra-fast, great screen and it tested 56% more powerful than my iPad Air!,
Customer Video Review Length:: 9:21 Mins
We own 4 generations of the Apple iPad devices. They are the iPad 2, the iPad3, the iPad Air and the iPad Air 2. We each use the tablets about 8 hours per day for photography editing, video taking and editing and working on the internet. I am extremely familiar with the products and we own a total of 16 tablets using Apple, HP and Android technologies.
In my attached video I have tried to do a comparison between several of the product generations and the overall performance. Physically the iPad Air 2 is about the same, appearance wise, to the iPad Air. If you look closely you will see some differences.
* The iPad Air 2 is 18% thinner and a little lighter in weight.
* The Retina display is better as it is thinner and the colors and clarity is much better to my eyes. The parallax side views are clearer and the colors are deeper and more realistic. It still has 264 pixels per inch and it is an excellent video device.
* The iPad Air 2 has the newer finger print sensor on the home button.
* The rear facing camera is in a different location on the back of the tablet and so your iPad Air cases will not work as they will interfere with your taking photos.
* The microphone ports on the tablet have moved and I show the new locations in my video.
* The portal holes for the stereo speakers are just one row now and larger and the speakers are louder sounding. Not a major difference but it is noticeable.
* The slide switch on the side of the tablet for the mute/screen lock rotate is gone now. You have to make those adjustments in the operating system of the tablet now or use the sound volume switches.
The major differences in the tablet are the ones regarding performance. The CPU and GPU in the iPad Air are just very powerful. In my benchmarking I found the iPad Air 2 to be 56 % faster in performing standard tasks and the GPU graphics speed is 2.5 times faster. The 3D GPU test on the iPad Air 2 was 24157 versus 9051 for the iPad Air which is 2.69 times better. In using a bench marking software the iPad Air was 40129 as a benchmarks and the iPad Air 2 was 62482 which is a major improvement. You can see it in using the tablet, loading apps, browsing the internet and editing videos. My wife’s older iPad 2 was only benchmarked at 15010 so the iPad Air 2 is 4.16 times faster and more powerful. That is a dramatic improvement in only a few years.
The camera on the front and the back of the tablet are improved. The rear facing camera is now an 8 Mega Pixel camera with improved signal processing. The photos are 3264 by 2448 pixels in resolution and the video is 1080P HD. You can take time lapse video, have exposure control, take slow motion video at 120 fps, bust mode photographs, timer mode photos and high resolution panorama shots.
Browsing on the internet is faster and pulling up web sites and videos on the internet is just smooth and fast. The signal is stronger for the WIFI and things just pull up faster. Even syncing with iTunes is faster.
This is an excellent product and my wife loves hers which was a surprise gift from me. I had it engraved for her to make sure that I didn’t take it and claim it was mine.
I own 16 different tablets and have extensively used them all. When it comes to getting a top quality tablet you cannot go wrong with the Apple iPad Air 2. I rated it at 5 stars.
If you have any questions please contact me and I will try to help answer your question if I can.
Several people have asked me in comments and also via email if I recommend a nice iPad Air 2 case. I really like the ZooGue magnetic tilt case. It is highly protective of your tablet and it is by far the best tilting tablet case I have used on any iPad. Here is a link to that product.
Best iPad Air 2 Case Prodigy Elite By ZooGue
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|Apple iPad Air 2 is the best and thinnest tablet on the market,
Review update from the original post
As far as cases go, I was going to initially try out the Apple SmartCase, but for $80, I thought I should at least check out what else was available. I found this case that was similar in design but a bit more stylish and a lot cheaper. Actually I was a little worried about it being so cheap on Amazon, but the reviews were good so I figured I’d give it a shot. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Case seems to function just as well as Apples and it actually seems a bit sturdier. It’s made from synthetic materials instead of leather like the Apple case, but I like it even better. Seems like it would be easier to clean (especially handy for when my kids get their hands on it) and just feels easier to grip for me. At least that’s my opinion. You should check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/iPad-Air-Case-Landscape-Generation/dp/B00OKUBFNC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1415224806&sr=1-1&keywords=roocase+optigon+air+2
Though it’s only been a week since my initial review, I’ve been taking the iPad Air 2 to test out its capabilities further, much to the dismay of my family. But as I mentioned earlier, I do have a windows tablet (8″ version) that I had been using as a supplement to my work computer. I sometimes need to view spreadsheets, powerpoints or word docs away from the office and if it’s just to check something or make a minor edit, it can be a major pain to pull out my full, work issued laptop. I thought having full windows in a portable, as-needed, format was convenient. But since I’ve been reading that the iPad is more productivity oriented in its present form, I had to see how it compared. Especially since, I would have the convenience of the other tablet strengths of the iPad to boot.
So far I’m impressed. I’ve been using MS Office for iPad and I have to say that in many ways, it’s even better than Office is on a small windows tablet. I think the iPad version is more suited to a touch screen whereas the windows version still feels like they expect you to use a mouse. I think the key is having the right Bluetooth keyboard and a good stand case for the iPad Air 2, especially when it comes to editing a complicated formula in an excel file.
For the time being, I’ve been using a no-name, compact keyboard I had originally bought for the old iPad 2. It came built into a case but of course that case doesn’t fit the new iPad. But luckily, the keyboard portion was removable. I never liked having the keyboard attached when I wasn’t using it anyway. I will continue to try to find a better one as this one just feels a little too mushy for me.
So far the iPad Air 2 is exceeding my expectations. I just figured the old iPad we had was getting too old and needed replacing. But, I’m quickly discovering that all the incremental improvements made between each generation has added up to a device that is pushing new ground for what a tablet is meant to be. Like I mentioned in my review, I’ve tried a lot of different tablets, including Asus Transformer Pad with keyboards. Even my older iPad didn’t cut it as a productivity device. But this new iPad is just faster and smoother making trying to get a little work done a lot less frustrating without giving up on anything that has made the iPad so convenient.
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Original Post
I’ve tried many different tablets including iPads, various Android tablets from older 10.1″ Honeycomb versions to the most recent Nexus 7 and even a Windows 8.1 tablet. I originally started with the iPad 2 and it was the device that convinced me that tablets were worth the investment and served a useful purpose. From there I tried several Android tablets. It actually took that platform quite a while to catch up to the benchmark the iPad had set. I started with a honeycomb tablet that required a lot of patience as bugs were worked out. I ended up having to root it and try some custom roms to get the tablet to work the way I expected it to and even then it wasn’t uncommon for the device to crash on me. But eventually, Google was able to improve the OS and by the time the second generation Nexus 7 came out, they had finally achieved a truly usable device.
As for Windows tablets, I don’t really see them as an iPad competitor. They are more like a miniature version of your PC you can take along with you in place of a full size laptop. Sure the Metro interface does make it more tablet-like, but the lack of apps and reliance on the desktop screen keeps it from being that “even a child can figure it out,” used by everybody in that family, zero learning curve device.
So while I’ve gone back and forth with devices, being the gadget geek that I am, my family and I have always had an iPad around when we wanted to quickly play a game, use an app or watch a video. So when the new iPad Air 2 came out, I decided it was…
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|Amazing upgrade,
Our old iPad was the iPad 2nd generation. So, it’s quite a leap for us getting the iPad Air 2.
— Form —
The first thing we noticed was how light and thin it is. Then you turn on the screen, and wow. The retina display is amazing, especially since we’ve come from the iPad 2nd gen which did not have the retina display.
— The difference —
Aside from it was time to upgrade for us, one of the biggest attractors is TouchID. Touch ID on the iPhone is amazing. It’s the perfect blend of security and usability.
Now TouchID comes to the iPad, and it’s even better. The TouchID button feels solid. The silver ring (or gold if you get the gold) around the touch plate is distinctive and elegant.
— The color —
So with the iPad Air, you have the color options (Silver, Gold, Space Gray).
We’d never tried the other colors before (there was only white and black back when we got our old iPad).
The reason we got the Silver is because that’s all they had at the store. A silver and a gold. Gold seemed a little much for us, and we would have been happy with the Space gray, but we’ve come to really like the white front and silver edges of the silver.
I thought the back of the iPad would be the same brilliant silver color, but it’s actually only on the TouchID, the edges of the iPad, and the Apple logo on the back. The rest of the back casing is the finely brushed aluminum.
— Drawbacks? —
Drawbacks is too strong a word when dealing with such an elegant piece, but there are a few wrinkles that we encountered when first using the iPad Air 2.
1. Form Factor
The edges are more narrow, this is not new to the iPad Air 2, but upgrading from the 2nd gen iPad, it’s been an adjustment of how to hold it without fear of dropping. On the iPad 2nd gen, there was plenty of space on the side for your thumb to hold on to. Now that space is smaller, and has taken more adjustment than we thought.
2. Where did the Sound go?
Somehow along the way, we locked the sound. Some apps just wouldn’t produce sound, and the keyboard and the sleep button wouldn’t give their little clicks.
We thought something was wrong with it. We adjusted the volume up. Checked the settings.
Turns out there’s no silence button like on the iPad 2nd gen.
However, there is a button (we discovered) if you swipe up from the bottom of the screen that has a bell on it. It’s the mute button.
Somehow, I must have hit that button, and it caused most of the apps to go silent.
3. iCould Restore
I used an iCloud backup of our old iPad, and then used that to restore to the new one saving (we had hoped) our settings from our apps and such.
The restore did help to save our old iPad settings, backdrop, and apps, but a few apps lost their history/data. Not a big deal, but definitely an inconvenience when game data was lost. Maybe that’s the apps fault for not storing their data in the right place.
The restore put back the apps we had on our old iPad, except for the apps made by Apple such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote. Those ones took the longest to get on the iPad, and I had to go to the purchases section and download them. Weird.
The other question we had after the restore was where was the Passbook app?
We set up Apple Pay, and knew that it used Passbook, but where was the app (like the iPhone has)?
I thought that maybe our restore kicked out some of the default apps, but after a lot of searching (ain’t searching the internet hard work?), I found out that there is no Passbook App, or Health App, or Voice Memo App that comes with the iPad Air 2 (at least as of this writing).
I thought it would have the new stock apps that come with the new iPhones, but it doesn’t have them (health, passbook, even weather). So that took a little bit of searching to figure out.
The process of the restore itself was easy (minus those questions). It said it could take 6 hours, but it doesn’t tie up the iPad for all that time. It restores settings, then lets you use the iPad while the apps are downloaded.
— Final Thoughts —
The iPad Air 2 is light. It’s thin, and it’s oh so beautiful.
The ease of the Touch ID makes it worth it as security that most of us use for the 4 digit pass codes doesn’t help much when someone is looking over your shoulder. The Touch ID makes it so easy, and if you don’t have an iPhone 6, you can use Apple Pay with the iPad. More and more retailers are accepting Apple Pay for web payments too.
It’s a great iPad. You will love it.
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