iPad Air
I’ve tried them all. The only one I haven’t actually owned was the 4th-gen iPad. Instead, I opted for the mini. I loved how portable it felt. It made me feel like I had spent the last few years lugging around a headstone. While I was abundantly pleased with the small size and extremely light weight, I always had an issue with the lack of a Retina display. The day I powered up my iPhone 4, I was hooked on Retina. To this day, I haven’t been able to look at standard displays the same. I felt from day one that the mini was a compromise. One that left me with the short end of the stick. I’ve always used my iPad for a lot of reading. Books, comics, saved articles. Whatever. The iPad mini was this wonderfully crafted device that seemed to be tailor made for reading. But the screen sucks. Not to mention it used the A5 chip that made its debut in the iPad 2 almost two years prior. Fast forward to today. I just picked up an iPad Air and let me tell you … it’s awesome. Sure, it’s thinner and lighter than the previous full-sized iPads. But in the grand scheme of things, they were never really that heavy. My first laptop was a 17" Toshiba that was about 2 ½" thick and weighed about 6 pounds. But I could take it almost anywhere. For the first time, I was portable. The original iPad was lighter and thinner than any other “tablet” that existed before it. But wow, the iPad Air feels so much smaller and lighter without giving up what made the original iPad special in the first place … the immersion. The larger screen of the original iPad always felt like a better fit for consuming (and creating, for that matter) media. I’ve only had this thing for like four hours but here are my initial thoughts.
The screen
No surprises here. It’s largely the same 9.7" Retina display that dates back to the 3rd-gen iPad. It’s still as stunning as ever.
General use
iOS 7 has been reviewed ad nauseam. I want to focus on how it feels to use the Air. In short: it’s snappy as hell. Speed improvements are a staple of Apple product refreshes. This speed improvement feels more dramatic than any before it. It could have something to do with the fact that I’m coming from a 3rd-gen iPad and an iPad mini but the Air screams. It feels snappier than my two-year-old MacBook Air ever did. Which is saying something. I have yet to experience a single ounce of hesitation. It’s refreshing. As I read other reviews of the iPad Air, a common theme seems to be whether or not the iPad can be used as a PC replacement. For me, no. For the majority of other people, probably. The processing power is there. There’s no question about that. Apple’s A7 chip is built on a 64-bit architecture, just like a lot of the MacBooks and iMacs out there. Apple’s iWork suite for iOS lets you export in the Microsoft Office compatible formats and from my experience, there are almost never compatibility issues. At work half of us are on Windows 7/8 and the other half are still on XP. I’m in the latter group. I have issues opening .xlsx and .docx files on the regular. I would say the biggest hindrance is the physical keyboard. I type A LOT and while I have no problem banging out a review (like this one, for example) on a touchscreen, I couldn’t do my actual job on a touchscreen. I think that will change in the next ten years or so, but for now, I’m still forced to use a PC.
The body
I love the new design. The iPad mini always felt better in the hand than previous generations. I always assumed it was because of the size and weight. While I’m sure those are factors, the iPad Air feels great in the hand, just like the mini despite the increase in size and weight. As far as the color goes, I went for the space gray and I really like it. Perhaps it’s just me, but it seems to resist fingerprints better than the iPad mini in slate. Just like the mini, the Air feels definitively more premium than the previous iPads. The one thing that I noticed right off the bat (which was severely long overdue), was that the Smart Cover finally sticks to the back of the iPad when it’s open! I’m not sure why this took so long but it’s an annoyance that I can finally, officially cross off the list.
The cameras
While Apple is trying to make it socially acceptable to take pictures with your iPad, I still can’t. Thus, I haven’t really been able to test out the cameras. I’m sure I’ll have a FaceTime date with my parents soon, as they haven’t seen their grandchild in almost seven days. If I notice anything groundbreaking, I’ll report back.
Networking
The iPad Air supports the new Wi-Fi standard, MIMO. I don’t have a MIMO access point so I can’t speak to the real world speed advantages. There is one thing I don’t understand. I have a new AirPort Extreme, which supports the new AC flavor of Wi-Fi but the iPad Air doesn’t. It’s possible that MIMO is a better option for iOS devices because it’s easier on batteries but I’m not well-versed enough on the subject to really comment so I’ll just leave it as something that I found to be curious. Since I’ve been home, I’ve been connected to the 5GHz band and it seems much snappier than any other Wi-Fi device I have in the house.
When I bought my 3rd-gen iPad, I bit the bullet and went for the Verizon LTE model. I’ll never go back. iPads and LTE go hand in hand. If you leave your house, the only reason to not buy an LTE-enabled iPad is money. The ability to use it anywhere is what makes the iPad so much fun. Keeping with the trend, I again opted for Verizon. I don’t particularly care for Verizon. AT&T’s LTE footprint fits my life’s travel better and honestly, Verizon’s LTE is slower than AT&T’s. But, I like having the luxury of having a service that’s different from my iPhone. My wife and I often take random drives to remote places. Sometimes, I snap a picture that I want to share right away, Verizon often has service where AT&T doesn’t. Anyway, that said, I haven’t even activated the LTE on my Air. I don’t think anything will be different but again, if I come across anything groundbreaking, I’ll report back.
Battery
Again, I’ve only had it for about four hours, but I’ve been on it the whole time. In my use, the battery has dropped from 88% to 56%. Screen brightness has been set at about 75%. A drop of 32% in four hours projects to be better than what Apple claims, per the norm.
Conclusion
As fas as I’m concerned, this is a whole new tablet. I think Apple feels the same since they departed the previous naming convention in favor of “Air”. The Air embodies what makes Apple so special. They are able to continually refine an already amazing product and make it feel new and exciting time and time again.
By the way: composed and published from my iPad Air