Review: Apple's fifth-generation iPad Air

1234579

Comments

  • Reply 121 of 169
    ireland wrote: »
    No. I never said that trade off.

    Then what did you think I meant? Just a heavier iPad for the sake of it? Of course we're talking about battery life. You said it yourself in your first reply.
  • Reply 122 of 169
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    Chalk me up in the "I'd tolerate a heavier iPad if it had significantly better battery life" group.

  • Reply 123 of 169
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Crowley View Post

     

    Chalk me up in the "I'd tolerate a heavier iPad if it had significantly better battery life" group.


    Even a battery sleeve like what HP does with their Pro tablet.

     

  • Reply 124 of 169
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member

    ERROR, I was messing about with my new phone and created a few duplicate posts, I apologize for that. I was connected and surfing via a Remote Desktop session to my workstation at home, I was using my new Nokia 1020 as the client and the connection wasn't the fastest, using the slow ass Wifi connection in the hospital

     

    On  a side note does anyone else have a Nokia 1020? My favorite phone of all time was the Nokia 950, this phone was not for sell through regular channels as it was a development platform for MeeGo OS, Nokia were idiots for discontinuing that OS. It took me 8 months to track one down and I paid a small fortune for it but now I think the Lumia 1020 has surpassed it a my favorite. I'm not sure why some of you dislike Windows 8 for mobile, the speed and simplicity of the UI is refreshing, the live tiles are very useful, I have found every app that I was using on my previous phone and they look and run great. The camera is absolutely insane, Auto-mode isn't very good though but who wants to use it when you can manually change every aspect of the camera's settings, the same as s DSLR. The screen is so beautiful with insanely vibrant colors that I don't think I have ever seen anything like it before. You literally cannot see where the screen ends and the bezel starts. I'm not embellishing here, you have got to see it to believe it. I'm not comparing the iPhone 5s, it's probably the better phone, so don't get too crazy when you decide to blast me for buying a phone from a company that has been a favorite of mine since my first mobile the Nokia 3810. I have over 30 Nokia phones on display in my office, I have original box's and accessories for most of them too. Before I pass away I need to find someone to give them too, the kids don't want them, and my husband will probably just throw them away. So maybe I will hold a contest where you'll have to write a a small essay as to why you like Nokia phones and what was your first.I have some real Jems here so it my be worth it to someone, their all in perfect condition and I even have a few Gold models with real Gold plating. 

  • Reply 125 of 169
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    ERROR

  • Reply 125 of 169
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    ERROR

  • Reply 127 of 169
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by runbuh View Post

     

    Let’s be honest: not a single word in this post is the truth.

     

    :D

     

    There are Android smartphones with 802.11ac (HTC One, for example), but who knows how good they are.


    What do you mean "who knows" how good they?

     

    I knows. That's who. The fabled HTC One, on an 802.11ac data transfer, get's 2 hours of battery life. Sorry, not ready for mainstream. NEXT...

  • Reply 128 of 169
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by reinthal View Post





    3) Battery life. Quite a bit better but not to the extent I'd like. I'd rather an iPad that was twice as heavy if it had twice the battery life!! (I feel like I'm a voice in the wilderness on this one. Does no one feel likewise?)

     

    Absolutely positively NOT. Even the suggestion is just absurd. The iPad is the standard for battery life.

  • Reply 129 of 169
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    pmz wrote: »
    What do you mean "who knows" how good they?

    I knows. That's who. The fabled HTC One, on an 802.11ac data transfer, get's 2 hours of battery life. Sorry, not ready for mainstream. NEXT...
    :wow: How much data could you possible need to transfer to/from a smartphone. Can't think of anything that would require more than a few minutes at those speeds, probably seconds for most transfers like pics and such. Two hours is way more than anyone would require. Sounds ready for mainstream to me for those that need it.
  • Reply 130 of 169
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pmz View Post

     

    Absolutely positively NOT. Even the suggestion is just absurd. The iPad is the standard for battery life.


     

    They might be the standard but defiantly not the longest, the new Lenovo Yoga 8" series get's up to 18 hours, 20 hours if your just using it as a eBook reader and 13 hours while surfing on LTE, the Dell Latitude, with removable battery (a feature that I wish every tablet had) gets between 12 - 14 hours, HP ELITEPAD 900 with the battery sleeve attached gets 18 hours, reviews only show it to be about 14 hours though, the amount of assecories for it is pretty cool, the Nexus 7 v2 is 12, I can verify that the Nexus gets 11.2 hours while surfing over Wifi and 10 on LTE. My new iPad Air gets 9 hours with LTE and surprising just an extra 45 minutes of life with Wifi but just 15 minutes to the promised 10 hours so it's a pretty perfect tablet, these times are with the brightness at 50%. The only tablet that I have ever owned that actually lasted as long as what was stated in the brochure was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, 12 hours but I consistently got 12.5 to 13 using 3G, 14 when wireless was turned off and I just used it as an eBook. Still the best Android tablet to this date. Samsung tablets have all sucked after it though, for shame Samsung, even their new Note series, claims 10 but I don't know anyone who has gotten more than 7 with it.

     

    You can see below that the Lenovo has a huge battery, so that explains a lot. Yes it's an Android tablet and defiantly not for this crowd but if Android doesn't bother you, can't afford an iPad, need a battery that lasts friggen forever, well basically slaughters everything in that regard, has had good reviews, looks different, built quality is superb, then it's defiantly worth a look.

     

     

    "Our testing of both the Yoga Tablet 8 and 10 has impressed us. The outstanding build quality is better than any Samsung tablet we have used, and the low price point makes these tablets a good value proposition." CNET

     

    Sorry if I sound like I'm pushing this tablet just thought it was interesting to see a tablet with such a long battery life for just 250 dollars. Lenovo is defiantly going after Google's Nexus and Samsung's crappy plastic tablets, I hope they kill'm.

  • Reply 131 of 169
    larryalarrya Posts: 606member
    Not a paid Apple shill but -- did you get a defective product twice? I've got a first gen iPad and I never noticed sluggishness, and I can have more than 5 tabs --- though I don't like having to refresh so much.

    The product specs on this are; "the Air put in a single-core score of 1,483 and multi-core score of 2,690. This compares to the current A5 Gen. 2-powered iPad mini, which managed single- and multi-core scores of 262 and 496"

    OK, so the 2nd gen was twice as fast as my first gen and this one is -- 28 times as fast????? So WTF are you talking about? The iOS devices have twice the cock rate devoted to touch response (at 50ms vs 100ms Android) -- and we can presume this device would be slightly better.

    I'm not presuming that every critique is bogus, but hrm, I wondering why you have such a bad time, and you got this brand new hotness right out of the gate. Do such users exist who get the "new hotness" and then complain about it immediately?

    Twice the what rate? Sorry - feeling silly after an 8 hour meeting.
  • Reply 132 of 169
    I am a huge Apple fan. I was really looking forward to the new iPad but really I'm disappointed. I purchased a 64 GB Wi-Fi but have returned it. I was expecting more, but I thought no fingerprint ID no big deal. It is certainly zippier. But not really so much that it makes my iPad 4 seem slow at all. So, that was a bit disappointing considering how so many reviews talk about how fast it is. It's faster, just not enough to make a difference to me. It's lighter for sure, but the iPad 4 is not really heavy to me. The biggest issue, and the reason I returned it, is it also feels cheap. Particularly the screen. The screen feels like the screen is plastic and reminds me of a resistive touchscreen. If I was typing I cold feel significant vibration. Also each time I pressed and icon you can see the little rainbow colors under my finger. It feels like cheap plastic. Ultimately I really disagree about the quality of the iPad Air.
  • Reply 133 of 169
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by funkbarton View Post



    I am a huge Apple fan. I was really looking forward to the new iPad but really I'm disappointed. I purchased a 64 GB Wi-Fi but have returned it. I was expecting more, but I thought no fingerprint ID no big deal. It is certainly zippier. But not really so much that it makes my iPad 4 seem slow at all. So, that was a bit disappointing considering how so many reviews talk about how fast it is. It's faster, just not enough to make a difference to me. It's lighter for sure, but the iPad 4 is not really heavy to me. The biggest issue, and the reason I returned it, is it also feels cheap. Particularly the screen. The screen feels like the screen is plastic and reminds me of a resistive touchscreen. If I was typing I cold feel significant vibration. Also each time I pressed and icon you can see the little rainbow colors under my finger. It feels like cheap plastic. Ultimately I really disagree about the quality of the iPad Air.

    Obviously, speed with be noticeable with some apps, mostly games that have been updated for 64 bit and more games will be updated over time as well as other apps.

     

    Any time a company puts out a new product, there is usually a speed increase, and it's noticeable on some apps, etc.  but is it a LOT faster or a little?  That's all going to depend on the app.



    Now, from the thickness and weight, it's noticeable.



    The other thing is when you are connected to a 802.11n network, the connection is supposed to be a lot better due to the new antenna they put inside, so that's going to be improved depending on what WiFi network you iPad is connected to.  Obviously, not all networks are 802.11n, but over time more and more WiFi will be updated to allow the dual antenna which improves the signal.

     

    I can understand it not having the Fingerprint ID technology as a big deal for some.

     

    I personally also own an IPad 4, and I am on the fence for upgrading to the newer model.  There are some attractive aspects of the new device, but for what I'm using my iPad 4, I opted to hold off until next year's version. 

     

    Cheap plastic? They aren't using plastic, it's aluminum.  I haven't seen the effect of the rainbow colors, but I wouldn't worry about that as it's only when you press your finger on the screen and it quickly goes away.

  • Reply 134 of 169
    thedbathedba Posts: 762member

    @funkbarton ; and  @drblank

     

    Both of you own an iPad 4th gen so yes, it is a slight incremental upgrade for both of you.

    I am coming from a 3rd gen, which I gave to my mom so we can face time together and to me the Air does feel like a bigger jump in speed than what you're experiencing.

    Beyond that, the design of the Air is just beautiful. Not iPad mini light but close enough to maybe push a few mini fans over to buy this one.

    As for the rainbows when tapping the screen, I haven't seen it yet. I guess we each have our style.

  • Reply 135 of 169
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheDBA View Post

     

    @funkbarton ; and  @drblank

     

    Both of you own an iPad 4th gen so yes, it is a slight incremental upgrade for both of you.

    I am coming from a 3rd gen, which I gave to my mom so we can face time together and to me the Air does feel like a bigger jump in speed than what you're experiencing.

    Beyond that, the design of the Air is just beautiful. Not iPad mini light but close enough to maybe push a few mini fans over to buy this one.

    As for the rainbows when tapping the screen, I haven't seen it yet. I guess we each have our style.


     

    I agree the Air is great.  I almost pulled the trigger and bought one to upgrade my iPad 4, but I decided to wait until next year's model.  But the Air is a nice unit.  I like the weight, the thickness and other aspects of it.  So, I would definitely recommend owners of iPad 3's and earlier to consider upgrading.  For iPad 4 owners, it's a personal decision, I'm just opting to wait another year.

     

    They haven't released the iPad mini 2's yet, so I think those might sell quite well.

  • Reply 136 of 169
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    I'm returning mine- the camera sucks. I wasn't paying attention- thought is had the same camera as the iphone5s (which it should have).
  • Reply 137 of 169
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post



    I'm returning mine- the camera sucks. I wasn't paying attention- thought is had the same camera as the iphone5s (which it should have).

     

    I honestly don't think that many people are using cameras as much on tablets as they are for smartphones, at least the outward facing camera. The inward facing camera, yes.

     

    To me, that's not a big deciding factor. Sure, I would wish they and the same camera/light, but unfortunately they don't, they are spending the money on the screen, processor, antenna system which are more important to most people.

  • Reply 138 of 169
    I purchased the iPad Air. I come to the conclusion, Apple perfected the tablet. This tablet is amazing. Where Apple goes from here is anybody's guess.
  • Reply 139 of 169
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    N
    tjduffy wrote: »
    I purchased the iPad Air. I come to the conclusion, Apple perfected the tablet. This tablet is amazing. Where Apple goes from here is anybody's guess.

    I'd say it's the most perfect tablet of 2012 but there are plenty of things to improve on in the future.
  • Reply 140 of 169
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    To those complaining about the 1GB of RAM, remember one of the new features of Mavericks was memory compression, and OS X is sometimes used as a Guinea Pig for future iOS features.

Sign In or Register to comment.