Apple iPad Air 2 review - new features and specifications

Design iPad Air 2

The appearance of the tablet in the second generation has remained virtually unchanged, which will not come as a surprise to anyone. The manufacturer has long established a tradition of inheriting the main design features from one generation to another and no one has complained yet; on the contrary, many lesser-known companies borrow design elements. Apple iPad Air 2 review showed that the new version of the tablet has Touch ID, the characteristics have been improved, and prices remain at 30,000 rubles, which is quite a lot for a tablet. Other changes include the appearance of a hole for a microphone on the end near the camera. Buyers have several color options to choose from - classic white and gray, as well as a new golden color.

The iPad body is made from a monolithic piece of aluminum, and the Touch ID sensor is made up of several parts, to prevent damage to which sapphire is installed. The dimensions of the tablet are as follows - 240 x 169.5 x 6.1 mm, weight is 437 grams, if we talk about the standard modification. LTE weighs a little more - 444 grams. This is due to the fact that there is a plastic insert on the back side, under which the antenna is located.

⇡#Autonomous work

The surgical operation to reduce the thickness of the case from 7.5 to 6.1 mm could not pass completely without leaving a trace. The iPad Air 2 engineers had to sacrifice something. After carefully studying the technical characteristics of the device, it becomes clear what exactly they had to deteriorate: as usually happens in such cases, the battery was damaged. The first Air had a 32.4 Wh battery, but its successor only had a 27.3 Wh battery.

However, the battery life of the Air 2 has not changed compared to its predecessor. Moreover, according to our tests, the gadget lasts even a little longer on a single battery charge than the first Air: that’s what life-giving optimization does! In continuous video playback mode, with an active Wi-Fi connection and at maximum screen brightness, the gadget worked for eight hours. For a full-size tablet, this figure is not a record, but very, very good. With moderate use, the tablet's battery is more than enough for a day of battery life. If you do not use the gadget too actively, its battery may last for three to four days, depending on the usage scenario.

Display

The display of the Apple iPad Air 2 tablet and its characteristics are at the highest level, as befits this manufacturer. The diagonal is 9.7 inches and the resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels. There is an anti-reflective coating that performs its functions 100%, but unfortunately this cannot be shown in the photo. When using it, you get the impression that the display is matte, which has a positive effect on the perception of the picture. The screen is designed using new technology. It boasts the absence of an air gap and the presence of protective glass, under which the touch sensor and LCD matrix are located. Officially, there is an improvement in the image quality of the picture, but the differences are not noticeable by eye.

Adventures of iPad Air 2 in Thailand, hardware and impressions of it

Before heading to Thailand, I spent a day in Moscow, where I managed to restore my data from a backup copy on the tablet (the iOS backup system is incredibly pleasing), stuff the tablet with films, software and toys. Naturally, in the process I actively felt it, listened to my feelings and noted various small details. After almost six months of use, the impressions from, so to speak, physical contact with the device have not changed and they are wonderful.

The first thing that strikes you is the lightness and thinness of the body . Even I, a lover of the thinnest devices possible, had doubts during the announcement of the device regarding the 1.4 mm reduction in thickness of the already thin iPad Air, they say, why was it necessary to do this, it would be better to insert a more powerful battery. But Apple employs great specialists in WOW effects and they really don’t know their stuff. You take this thin plate in your hands and don’t believe that in your palm lies, in fact, a powerful computer capable of doing hundreds of different things. This is a window to the world of entertainment and the Internet, it is a typewriter, a DJ console, a game console, a container for thousands of glossy magazines, books and other content. In general, it’s not for nothing that Apple made its flagship tablet so thin and light, but here’s what it is in technical terms:

• Dimensions - 240x169.5x6.1 mm.
• Weight - 444 g.
• Display - Retina IPS, 2048 × 1536 pixels (264 ppi), laminated with oleophobic and anti-glare coating.
• The processor is a 3-core 64-bit Apple A8x with a frequency of 1.5 GHz and performance at the level of modern basic desktop models.
• Coprocessor - Apple M8.
• The amount of RAM is 2 GB LPDDR3.
• Storage – 16, 64 or 128 GB of flash memory.
• Video chip - PowerVR GXA6850 (8 clusters, 256 computing units).
• Camera - 1.2 MP front and 8 MP rear (the quality is close to the camera in the iPhone 5).
• Wireless interfaces - Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) with support for two bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and MIMO, UMTS/CDMA/LTE technology.
• Touch ID.

As you understand, the tablet feels great in your hands - light, solid, metal, comfortable to hold for quite a long time, even in one palm. When I sit at the table while drinking tea or having a snack, I often hold the iPad in one hand, resting its corner on my palm, and even manage to scroll through web pages or my Tweetbot feed with my thumb.

Although, after the appearance of the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover hardware keyboard, I often use it as a stand.

True, there is a traditional complaint that is relevant for all Apple tablets, and now also for the latest generation iPhone - the case is very slippery , so you need to be careful when removing the tablet from your bag so as not to accidentally drop it on the floor. In addition, it is very thin and different in shape from the iPad 4Gen and other predecessors, which is why it is now not always possible to pick up the tablet from the table with one hand, picking it up by the edge with your fingers. People with small hands have to use two hands. I manage to do this alone, resting my thumb on the display closer to one edge of the tablet and hooking it with my fingers to the other.

Unlike other iPad models, the Air 2 lost the silent mode lever (it could also be used to block automatic image rotation), but I personally didn’t even notice it. I hardly used this element.

As for other hardware controls , in general, there are no complaints about them. The Home button with a built-in Touch ID sensor is pressed clearly, with a clearly noticeable click, and does not play or stick. The click of the power button is similar, although it has a slight play (I didn’t notice it until I just paid special attention to it). The volume buttons also have the same minimal play. In my first iPad Air 2 there were no questions about them at all - both were pressed clearly and worked perfectly. In the second copy, one of these buttons is pressed more softly and does not always work if you press on its lower part. It’s not critical, but when purchasing a device, be sure to check all the buttons - they may vary from instance to instance. Why did it happen that I had two tablets ? In the first one, Touch ID suddenly failed, but I will talk about this separately.

I really liked the sound produced by the built-in speakers. It is loud, bassy, ​​mids and highs are clearly audible, and there is no wheezing even at maximum volume. The acoustics cope with any music, including heavy music. It’s probably even louder and louder than the speakers in the Retina MacBook Pro 13″. The only pity is that they are located on one side, and not on the front panel on both sides. In this regard, the standards for me were the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 tablet and the Nexus 6 tablet phone.

I also want to draw attention to one funny effect that many reviewers noted as a minus of the iPad Air 2 - if you set the volume higher and there is a lot of bass in the track, then vibration is transmitted to the rear panel. It can be felt with your fingers, but does not have any negative effect on the sound quality, that is, the tablet does not ring or wheeze. I personally can’t call this a minus. It's funny to feel the slight vibration, but it's not annoying. By the way, the ultra-thin tablet phone Sony Xperia Z Ultra had the same effect.

I noticed one more thing related to the sound on the iPad. In my first copy, I sometimes heard a loud click from the speaker - as if audio interference was skipping through. A similar effect can be heard when you connect a microphone to the speakers or connect the speakers themselves to an active sound source. In the second copy, after a couple of weeks of use, such clicks have not yet occurred.

The tablet was very actively used in Thailand. It was used to type work materials and keep travel notes, for which I used WordEver - a very good editor for typing text on an on-screen keyboard. I especially liked the support for shortcuts and the virtual joystick for moving the cursor. By the way, the entire report about the trip to Thailand was printed on the iPad Air 2 in the mentioned editor.

a tablet camera (the one on the iPhone is enough), but it came in handy in Thailand, and I was surprised by the excellent results even in low light conditions.

The first photo was taken through the glass of the bus. The originals can be downloaded from here

was also a poltergeist with the iPad Air 2 , I don’t know what else to call what happened. The backstory is this: in order to get to the Cocnut erotic show, you had to hand over all your electronic devices to the guide (taking photos inside is strictly prohibited). Gadgets were collected in bulk into a large bag. Since Arthur and I had a lot of our own devices, we put them in a separate bag, which then ended up in a common bag with fifty smartphones, phones and tablets. Having seen enough of the Thai exotics, about an hour later we picked up our electronic toys from the guide and went to the hotel, where I discovered strange behavior on the tablet display . Small colored dots “danced” all over the screen, like interference from poor TV signal reception. There were quite a lot of them, but they did not distort the picture (small ones). That is, it is quite possible to use the device, but it was impossible not to pay attention to these “interferences”. Moreover, they were visible even when the tablet was rebooted.

At first I decided that the guide probably hit the device when he was carrying a bag of phones from place to place, or pressed it down and something inside came unsealed. But literally an hour later the strange effect disappeared and I haven’t observed it since. I still didn’t understand what it was, and I also couldn’t find any clear explanations on the Internet. But such a case took place.

Since we're talking about the display , it's worth discussing it in more detail. Even in the previous iPad Air model, the screen delighted the public and experts with its natural color reproduction and overall picture quality. In iPad Air 2 it has become even better, although this is only noticeable in direct comparison. The picture in the new product is a little richer due to the disappearance of the air layer between the glass and the matrix (full lamination), while it glares much less. More precisely, the glare level of the iPad Air 2 is 56% less than its predecessor. And this is indeed the case, which was previously verified by us.

But numbers are one thing, and personal feelings are quite another. There really is an effect and it is clearly noticeable. Firstly, in almost any lighting conditions and location, you cannot see your reflection in the tablet, unless the picture is too dark, which cannot be said about other iPad models, when even on a completely white background (for example, in a browser) you can see your face and the surrounding interior. Secondly, even if you catch a glare from a point light source, it is muted, blurry, does not irritate and does not interfere with the perception of information from the screen.

It is also worth noting that the display is bright enough even for working under the sun - the image fades, of course, but you can make it out without any problems. The minimum brightness is comfortable for reading in the dark, although, of course, you won’t see the perfect black color like AMOLED screens in the iPad Air 2. Still, it glows a little, more than the display of the iPhone 6 Plus under the same conditions (the smartphone is helped out by dual-domain pixels).

If you compare the display of the iPad Air 2 with the Retina screen of the second and third generation iPad mini, the result will not be in favor of small tablets, whose screens are inferior even to the first generation iPad Air. The picture on 7.9-inch devices looks faded compared to a larger tablet, the colors are not as bright, the image is faded. Although iPad mini users shouldn't worry too much about this. The noted effect can only be noticed with direct comparison and the presence of a certain amount of techno-fanaticism. I specifically asked my wife and children to compare the image on the Retina iPad mini and iPad Air 2, but they just shrugged their shoulders and said that the picture on both is good and they don’t see much of a difference. Let me remind you that they use the iPad mini all the time - it is, so to speak, a family tablet.

As for some people’s complaints about the case being too thin, which causes colored streaks to appear on the display when pressing on the back panel, I have not noticed such an effect in any of my copies. Moreover, even with fairly strong pressure on the glass in front, no streaks appear, although the thicker first-generation iPad Air suffers from this.

The Touch ID sensor is an extremely useful thing. So useful that some people who need a compact tablet buy a very expensive third-generation iPad mini for it, although it differs from the cheaper second-generation model only in this very sensor. With its help, you can unlock the device even faster than doing it the traditional way with a swipe. In addition, many applications support Touch ID and you don’t have to enter passwords again. In my case, this is Evernote, WebMoney client, 1Password and MoneyWiz 2.

True, in mid-April the biometric sensor in the iPad Air 2 suddenly died . It happened very casually and without any effects. I took the tablet from the table, tried to unlock it, and it froze, for the first time in all its use. I rebooted the device in a known way (press the Power+Home buttons for a few seconds), unlocked it with a digital code (a mandatory operation after rebooting, even if Touch ID is configured), then turned off the screen, turned it on again, and again saw the “Unlock” slider, although when It shouldn't be there when Touch ID is activated. I unlocked the tablet again with a digital code, went to “Settings”, saw that the sensor was disabled, tried to turn it on, but saw the following error:

As you understand, no physical movements, including completely resetting the device and clearing the memory, helped. The sensor has failed. And then I tensed up. The tablet was purchased from the Apple online store in Russia, and I live in Ukraine. The company has a worldwide warranty on laptops and there are no problems with them. The iPhone has a local warranty and there may be problems. But what about tablets? It turns out that everything is fine with them and Apple’s warranty is excellent . I took the entire kit to a local America store, which is an official Apple reseller. The guys sent the tablet to the official service center in Kyiv and there they exchanged the gadget for me with a new one. It took a week to do everything. Bravo, Apple and special thanks to Yura Pinsky , who dealt with my problem. If something similar had happened, for example, with the Galaxy Tab S, then I suppose the Samsung service center would have sent me to Moscow to deal with my problem.

Summing up the hardware of the tablet and the overall impressions of the device, I would like to note that this is the most powerful tablet on the market, the most beautiful and, in terms of all its characteristics, the most advanced. There are no analogues or alternatives to it.

Well, now it’s time to talk about software and the role that the device plays in my life.

Specifications Apple iPad Air 2

The main differences between the new version of iPad lie in its technical characteristics, which have become more advanced in all respects. The manufacturer still uses the 64-bit architecture represented by the Apple A8X processor. This is the top solution on the modern market, which even bypasses the graphics from the famous Tegra K1 platform. Despite the powerful hardware, the tablet hardly gets warm in games, and at the same time is well suited for multimedia entertainment. The characteristics of the Apple iPad Air 2 tablet in the 16gb, 64gb and 128gb versions will not differ. The tablet works noticeably faster than its predecessor, and the performance will be sufficient with a large margin for many years to come. This is the first time that a manufacturer has used a triple-core processor.

According to official data, the new chip is 40% more powerful than the previous one, and graphics performance has increased by 2.5 times. A review of the Apple iPad Air 2 128gb tablet makes it possible to understand that the characteristics will remain relevant for a long time to come. It is worth noting that the 32 GB version is no longer available, so you have to make a choice either towards a smaller volume or pay a fair amount. In the new model, the body has become thinner and lighter, the battery capacity has been reduced, but performance has noticeably increased. The tablet still works for about 10 hours.

While reviewing the Apple iPad Air 2 tablet, we were not very pleased with the 4:3 aspect ratio - not the best solution for watching videos. But at the same time, given the large amounts of memory and the variety of available players, the iPad can turn into a real portable cinema. The tablet can easily stream movies in 1080p, and data from the display can be displayed in real time on the TV. The speaker is loud, the sound is high quality, which perfectly complements the multimedia capabilities.

Eventually

Despite not very significant external changes, the iPad Air 2 has become better than its predecessor in a number of key parameters. The tablet received a more productive platform, an excellent display, finally 2 GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera and a Touch ID scanner. The inflated price of the device in Ukraine slightly spoils the overall impression, but this does not in any way affect the fact that the iPad Air 2 is one of the best tablets on the market. Changing the first Air for the second makes sense if you only need uncompromising performance and Touch ID, otherwise the devices are very similar. But owners of previous generations of iPad will definitely be interested in the new tablet, because it is significantly superior to their models. Thus, we can assume that the Air 2 will indeed boost sales of Apple tablets, but not so much at the expense of new users, but at the expense of those who have been thinking about upgrading their iPad for a long time.

Liked:

+ Design + Dimensions and weight + Display + Performance + 2 GB RAM + External speaker volume + Touch ID + Camera + Battery life

Did not like:

— 16 GB version — No memory cards — Price in Ukraine

Data transfer

The characteristics of the Apple iPad Air 2 16gb tablet have also improved in terms of communications, in particular the Wi-Fi module has been upgraded. The new model has support for Wi-Fi 802.11ac. The new iPad is not only faster with the right hardware, it's also more stable. Now there is support for up to 20 LTE bands. Now you can independently select the required options, and the card will already be installed in the device. True, for now this opportunity is available only to residents of the United States.

⇡#“Continuous work” aka Continuity

In our iPad mini 3 review, we started talking about the new Continuity software package for iOS 8, which allows you to synchronize application data between mobile devices and computers running Mac OS X Yosemite. Let us recall the essence of this function: if you have a browser open on your mobile device with some tab loaded or a certain point on the map loaded, you can open the corresponding application on your laptop or computer with the same data. This feature is called Handoff.

It is noteworthy that the iPad can be paired not only with a Mac, but also with an iPhone. Let's say you are reading an electronic document on a tablet, your smartphone is somewhere in another room. Suddenly my iPhone received an incoming call. If you have the Continuity option configured on your tablet, you won't have to go get your smartphone. You can answer a call from your iPad (or Mac) without touching your phone.

Apple iPad Air 2 - answering an incoming iPhone call

To enable this Always-On feature, you need to connect your iPhone and iPad (and/or Mac if you want to answer calls to and from it) to the same Wi-Fi network and sign in to the same iCloud account. After that, you need to sign in to FaceTime using the same iCloud account, and then make sure that iPhone Cellular Calls is enabled in the Settings menu. If everything is done correctly, the user will be able to make and answer calls from an iPad or Mac using FaceTime.

Apple iPad Air 2 - FaceTime settings

Camera

The iPad Air 2 tablet technical characteristics are distinguished by excellent photographic capabilities, which is very rare for tablet technology. The main 8 megapixel camera module takes good pictures, but you shouldn’t expect quality from it at the level of the iPhone 5S. The pictures are more likely to be taken at level 5 of the iPhone model. The front FaceTime HD camera also works great. A slow motion function has appeared at a speed of 120 frames per second, as well as continuous shooting. Another distinctive feature is panoramas in 43-megapixel resolution, which can always be zoomed in and taken a closer look. But there is still no flash, so you can forget about shooting in the dark.

Examples of photos:

Impulse purchase

For a long time, my main tablet was the iPad mini, and then the Retina iPad mini (that is, the small second-generation model), but the moment came when my eyes demanded mercy . For the most part, the device was used for web surfing and on many sites the font was small for the portrait orientation of the tablet, and I was not very comfortable working in landscape. Mobile Safari is great for rendering pages, rendering everything accurately and beautifully like a desktop web browser, but the base font size is too small and cannot be changed. I examined this point in detail in my experience of using the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. By the way, one of the reasons for my Android marathon involving, in addition to the mentioned gadget, a Huawei MediaPad X1 7 paired with a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, was precisely the uncomfortable work in Safari on a 7.9-inch screen.

Yes, there are alternatives for iOS, but in terms of quality and speed they are not even close to Safari, including Chrome for the Apple mobile platform. But in the Android environment, the Google browser works great and allows you to specify the minimum font size, however, the layout of sites often breaks down. There is no ideal in this world, unfortunately, or is there? We'll talk about this a little later, but for now let's return to the hero of the article.

So, having played enough with Android devices, I again began to look towards tablet iOS, simultaneously remembering that I had no problems with small font in Safari on large Apple tablets . In addition, the appearance of the personal iPhone 6 Plus made returning to the iPad mini pointless, but thoughts immediately arose about the iPad Air 2, which so inspired and surprised me during the September presentation (which readers could clearly feel when reading the announcement of the gadget on the pages of iPhones.ru) . However, the device was not an essential item, and in the conditions of the unstable situation in the country, everyone did not dare to purchase it. A serious impetus for it was the sudden jump in the dollar exchange rate, while Apple did not have time to raise prices for its products in Russia. Having placed my order on time, I got the device in the top configuration even cheaper than in the USA (and we are talking about the price without the included tax, which in most states is 10%). On the one hand, crisis and instability are difficulties, on the other hand, they are prospects; the main thing is to seize the moment in time.

That's how I became the owner of the coolest Apple tablet and the best device of its kind at the moment in principle. But instead of pleasing the owner in a calm home environment, the new product immediately went on an extreme adventure to Thailand!

Autonomy

The autonomy of the iPad Air 2 tablet remained at the same level, which is confirmed by our test and user reviews. The Lightning port is used for charging, and a full charging cycle takes about 4 hours using a standard charger. In video viewing mode, the tablet lasted 10 hours, which cannot be called bad performance, although in new generations the manufacturer will certainly work on autonomy.

Conclusion

The Apple iPad Air 2 has many interesting innovations, including a larger amount of RAM, a powerful processor, Touch ID, an excellent camera and compact body dimensions, combined with other advantages of the new tablet, making it an extremely interesting offer on the modern technology market.

Advantages of Apple iPad Air 2:

• Stylish design and excellent build quality;
• Lightweight and thin body;
• Convenient and stable interface;
• High-quality display with anti-glare coating;
• 2 GB of RAM combined with a powerful processor make it ideal for gaming;
• Fingerprint scanner;
• Excellent autonomy;
• Almost limitless variety of software.

Disadvantages of Apple iPad Air 2:

• Overpriced;
• Lack of multi-screen mode;
• A small amount of built-in memory in the standard version.

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Touch ID

As already written above, one of the few visual changes in the iPad Air 2 was a mechanical button under the display, which now has a built-in fingerprint scanner.

Like the iPhone, the Air 2 uses it to unlock the tablet, as well as make purchases in the App Store and Apple Pay. Compared to the iPhone 5s, which featured a fingerprint sensor for the first time, Apple managed to improve it.

Recognition accuracy has become much higher. Thanks to this, Touch ID is really convenient to use; you just have to put your finger on the scanner when you take the tablet in your hand, and it will unlock. All this happens in just a couple of seconds.