Apple's new A8X powered iPad Air 2 smokes new Android tablets, including Nvidia's Tegra K1 Shield Ta

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  • Reply 41 of 138
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mubaili View Post



    it is curious why Apple doesn't include a NFC chip in the iPad air 2.



    iPad Air 3, of course.

  • Reply 42 of 138
    robmrobm Posts: 1,068member
    As has been pointed out already - it's a lot easier to use your phone or iwatch than haul out an iPad.
    I doubt we'll see that implemented on iPads but hey, Ya never know
  • Reply 43 of 138
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    What ever Apple decide is right usually is ... just not ending Aperture ... :D

    Sigh! Apple screwed the pooch on that one. It was doomed from the start. Too bad, really, because it turned out to be a decent editor. But Lightroom is so much better. Apple just didn't understand the pro market.
  • Reply 44 of 138
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by melgross View Post



    Sigh! Apple screwed the pooch on that one. It was doomed from the start. Too bad, really, because it turned out to be a decent editor. But Lightroom is so much better. Apple just didn't understand the pro market.

     

    You never know.

     

    Apple mentioned that they're combining features from both iPhoto and Aperture into Photos.

     

    You may end up with what you need yet.

  • Reply 45 of 138
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    staticx57 wrote: »
    I would reckon it would fit in as an entry level in terms of performance. I can't find the A8X on Geekbench browser, but the fastest Macbook Airs are still faster than the iPad 2. http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1029290?baseline=604439

    It seems to be equal to a new model mid/high range i3 low power. That in itself is remarkable. Trying to compare it to a mid range i5 is stretching, unless that chip is perhaps three years old. Still a pretty good feat. This blows past all Atom SoC's.
  • Reply 46 of 138
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by d2kg View Post



    I'm more curious to see how it benchmarks against the nexus 9



    Your wait is over...iPad Air 3 smokes the Nexus 9 by 34.8% per the updated chart. Ouch.

  • Reply 47 of 138
    Originally Posted by GTR View Post



    F*ck this thing is quick.


     

    The iPad Air 2 is so fast, it’s shipped and delivered to your house FIVE TIMES faster than the previous model!

     

    Originally Posted by BeyondtheTech View Post

    iPad Air 3, of course.



    “No, you are stupid for wanting to hold your iPad up to anything or for taking it anywhere.”

     

    Just passing the message along.

  • Reply 48 of 138
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post

     

    As Doctor Frankenstein once said, "It's arrive!!!":

     



    F*ck this thing is quick.

     

    Really, REALLY smooth and quick!

     

    Apple ][ is correct. This is no small upgrade.


     

    Awesome!

  • Reply 49 of 138
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    runbuh wrote: »
    Since the Nexus 9 with 16GB WiFi is $399 and a 16gb WiFi iPad Air 2 is $499, I would expect the performance of the Nexus 9 to be lower. The performance of the Nexus 9 seems to be fairly on par with the original iPad Air, which is the same $399 price.

    Big farking deal.

    Since we're told by the android manufacturers that their products are not on,y as good as the more expensive Apple one, but even better, the price difference shouldn't matter. The difference is also in the cheap builds we see from Samsung and others, cheapness that constantly brought up in reviews. As this is the latest, and greatest, chip from Nvidia (a company that is infamous for inflating "tests" that never prove out in production models), the price shouldn't be a factor. After all, as this is their best chip, it should perform as one. What you should be amazed at is that Apple last year's model is about as good in many areas, and better in others.

    So big farking deal yourself. Perhaps you should inhabit the Android forums instead. You should like it there more than here.
  • Reply 50 of 138

    Because people don't wander around shopping brick and mortar retail with tablets. As simple as that. NFC is purely for next generation POS terminals in brick and mortar retail.

  • Reply 51 of 138
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    gtr wrote: »
    You never know.

    Apple mentioned that they're combining features from both iPhoto and Aperture into Photos.

    You may end up with what you need yet.

    No, not what I need for certain. Almost useless for me. Perhaps for someone looking for something simpler, who wants something between a "home" grade software package and a prosumer package.
  • Reply 52 of 138

    Android is clearly NOT winning this race, although you may have temporarily convinced yourself otherwise.

  • Reply 53 of 138
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    gtr wrote: »
    You never know.

    Apple mentioned that they're combining features from both iPhoto and Aperture into Photos.

    You may end up with what you need yet.

    I'm still hoping ... but I'll be surprised if it's for pros.
  • Reply 54 of 138

    The Nvidia Denver K1 is a complete joke of a processor compared to the A8X. Nvidia - over promise and under deliver. I alluded to this before, but let me expand and explain why the A8X is so damn impressive.

     

    - The Denver K1 has HUGE caches. 128KB/64KB L1 and 2MB L2. A8X has 64KB/64KB L1 and 2MB L2. However, the K1 also has a 128MB (yes, MB) instruction cache. Advantage K1.

    - The Denver K1 is 7-wide. The A8X (and A7/A8) are 6-wide. Advantage K1.

    - The K1 is clocked at 2.5GHZ. The A8X at 1.5GHz. Advantage K1 by a wide margin.

     

    Nvidia also likes to brag about how their Dynamic Code Optimization tunes code on the fly and stores it in their 128MB buffer for use after being optimized. Some quotes from Nvidia:

     

    "Denver looks across a window of hundreds of instructions and unrolls loops, renames registers, removes unused instructions, and reorders the code in various ways for optimal speed. This effectively doubles the performance of the base-level hardware through the conversion of ARM code to highly optimized microcode routines and increases the execution energy efficiency."

     

    "the 7-wide superscalar design allows faster throughput than would otherwise be possible at the same clock speed."

     

    "Denver is designed for the highest single-core CPU throughput, and also delivers industry-leading dual-core performance."

     

    Well, there were right about one thing. They have the highest single core throughput, by a whopping 5% over the A8X. So much for "effectively doubling". Maybe they meant "doubling" the performance of their own cores?

     

    Industry leading dual-core performance? When you add cores to a processor, you don't get linear gains with each core. A dual core processor is not twice as fast as a single core, and a quad core is not four times as fast. However, out of Samsung, Qualcomm, Apple and Nvidia, Nvidia gets the worst gain from going to two cores. The K1 gets around 1.66-1.69 the performance with two cores. Apple gets 1.78 for dual cores. Qualcomm and Samsung are closer to Apple than Nvidia. I wouldn't call that "industry-leading."

     

    And why did I bring up the "same clock speed" quote? Because Nvidia, like all processor manufacturers (including ARM) measure performance to a reference clock speed. So let's do that, shall we? If the K1 was clocked at the same 1.5GHz the A8X was, then it would only score about 1140 on Geekbench. A far cry from the 1800 the A8X scores. If the K1 was clocked at 1.3GHz it would score 990.

     

    Imagine that, the almighty K1 isn't even as fast as last years A7. Truly pathetic.

  • Reply 55 of 138
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    wizard69 wrote: »
    I've been running the betas for a long time and frankly the overall better performance of a Safari should be reason enough to upgrade.
    This is the other thing that the focus on Safari tab reloads did to the conversation, it undervalued what more RAM makes possible. 2GB is actually a lot for iPad apps because a good portion of the 1GB machines had ram allocated to other things. This extra RAM should spur the growth of a new generation of apps.

    Safari lags for a second or so when you open it on the iPad 2 under iOS 8.1. However, after that it is much smoother than it was on 7. 8.02 was similar to 8.1, but since I kept losing my 3g connection I don't like to talk about it.
  • Reply 56 of 138
    Specs is one thing, less attention is paid to the apps available on each platform.

    The last few games I played on my iPad are all not available for Android (Warhammer, lords of waterdeep, Magic: The Gathering, battle heart legacy, fates forever and now playing around with Vainglory). And this is in tandem with Metal allowing for better GPU performance on supported apps.

    What's the point of good specs on an Android device if you have nothing to run on it?
  • Reply 57 of 138
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post

     

    As Doctor Frankenstein once said, "It's arrive!!!":

     



    F*ck this thing is quick.

     

    Really, REALLY smooth and quick!

     

    Apple ][ is correct. This is no small upgrade.


     

    That has got to be one of the sickest box designs I've ever seen.

     

    I really hope samsung doesn't copy it this time.

  • Reply 58 of 138
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cali View Post

     

     

    That has got to be one of the sickest box designs I've ever seen.

     

    I really hope samsung doesn't copy it this time.


    It is done in the same style as their notebook machines. 

     

    http://www.hiwhy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/macbook-pro.jpg

    http://technologyx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2013-MacBook-Air-Interior-Box.jpg

  • Reply 59 of 138
    QUOTE: Update: According to figures published by GSMArena, Nexus 9 ... single core performance is similar to iPad Air 2 but its multiple core CPU performance is beat by the A8X iPad Air 2 by 34.8 percent.

    Is "beat" by? Please! That might be colloquial street speak for the uneducated where you're from, but it's terrible English. The correct form of words is "is beaten by".
  • Reply 60 of 138
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post

     

    Why a Kindle HDX7 and not the HDX8.9?


    Same CPU, a Qualcomm 800, so it doesn't really matter. I do have to say for such an inexpensive tablet the Amazon Kindle HDX isn't a bad choice.

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