It has been just five weeks since Apple announced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (their review links), but the Cupertino company rarely stands still and today it has announced the new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3.
In the Apple roadmap there tends to be a cycle of revolution then evolution and this time both the new Air and new Mini are evolutions of their predecessors. Here I’ll guide you through the differences between the original iPad Air and the new iPad Air 2. Here are the differences between the new iPad Mini 3 and Mini 2.
Design - Air 2 Thins Down Again
Look head-on at the iPad Air 2 and it appears virtually identical to the first Air, but turn it to the side and there is a noticeable change. The Air 2 is just 6.1mm thick, an 18% reduction on the already skinny Air, making it the thinnest tablet in the world.
This has a significant knock-on effect on the dimensions as a whole:
- iPad Air: 240 x 169.5 x 7.5mm (9.4 x 6.6 x 0.28 inches) and 478/469g (1.05/1lbs) for cellular/non-cellular
- iPad Air 2: 240 x 169.5 x 6.1mm (9.4 x 6.6 x 0.24 inches) and 444/437g (0.98/0.96lbs) for cellular/non-celluar
Aside from the weight loss, the other notable change is the long awaited addition of a TouchID Home button (more of later). The Air 2 will also come in gold like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as well as the long standing colours of space gray and silver.
Display - Apple Sticks
There was no expectation of a size change ahead of the Air 2’s announcement and we didn't get one. The 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 native resolution remains, though Apple has more tightly bonded the layers of glass as part of the weight loss.
In addition the Air 2 has the same fingerprint resistant oleophobic and anti-reflective coatings as the Air and past iPads.
Read more: iPhone 6 vs iPhone 6 Plus: The Differences Between The New Apple iPhones
Performance - Generational Jump
As expected the new Air 2 does receive a speed bump from its predecessor and perhaps a bigger one than was expected. This is fuelled by a switch from the 64-bit A7X chipset in the original Air to an A8X, a higher clocked version of the new A8 chip in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple is notoriously secretive about the finer details of its chipsets, but it claims the Air 2 CPU and GPU will be 40% and 250% faster than the Air. Impressively this means the Air 2 has 12x the processing performance of the original iPad and 180x the graphics performance.
Apple’s M8 motion coprocessor and barometer also make the leap to the iPad Air 2. The M8’s primary role is capturing steps and exercise - much of which are you unlikely to do holding an iPad - but it takes the heavy lifting off the processor which aids battery life and enables greater location precision in mapping.
Features - Touch ID Arrives For Apple Pay
Aside from the chipset upgrade, the big news is the Air 2’s addition of a Touch ID home button. This brings fingerprint security to the line for the first time but, even more crucially from Apple’s perspective, it means compatibility with Apple Pay which launched with iOS 8 on 20 October. Like the M8 motion coprocessor, it remains to be seen how practical this is with an iPad but adding Pay functionality remains key.
Elsewhere there is an upgrade to 802.11ac WiFi with MIMO for improved speed and range and enhanced LTE with support for 20 bands and LTE Advanced which is capable of up to 150Mbps.
Camera - Photography And Video Improvements
iPad cameras have always lagged behind their iPhone equivalents (despite technically having far greater space to fit a larger lens) and this remains the case with the Air 2.
The Air 2 gets a bump to an 8 megapixel, f2.4 rear-facing iSight camera. This is behind the f2.2 aperture of the 8 megapixel iPhone 5S - let alone further improvements made to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus - but it still represents an upgrade over the 5MP, f2.4 camera in the original Air.
Like the Air, the Air 2 can shoot 1080p Full HD video though there is not 4K recording for the new Retina Display iMac. The Air 2 also brings 120fps recording at 720p and Timelapse shooting, but disappointingly there is no optical image stabilisation (OIS) so you'll need a steady hand for the best results.
Battery Life - Perfect 10?
Ever since the original iPad one of the key selling points of the line has been its superb battery life and this continues with the Air 2, though without any improvement.
Both the Air and Air 2 quote up to 10 hours surfing the web over WiFi and up to 9 hours surfing using cellular. Apple doesn’t follow the otherwise industry-wide convention of quoting its batteries in milliamp hours (mAh), but interestingly it states there has been a significant battery size reduction from the Air to the Air 2 from 32.4 to 27.3 watt hours.
Clearly chipset and iOS 8 efficiencies are therefore what keep the Air and Air 2 battery life equal. That said this is again likely to spark the debate over whether Apple’s thinness-first obsession is preferable to actually boosting the battery life from one generation to the next.
Read more: iPhone 6: Why Apple Made Massive New iPhones
Cost And Availability - Storage Bumps, Quick Launch
As expected, Apple has maintained its $499, $599 and $699 price points for the Air 2, but followed in the footsteps of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus by moving to 16GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities. No 32GB entry level model will frustrate some, making the 64GB midrange model clearly the sweet spot. For cellular the $130 premium remains.
Pre-orders open on 17 October with shipping “by the end of next week” (read: 24 October).
Continuing its policy of selling past generations, Apple will retain the original Air for $100 less than the new Air 2.
Early Verdict
The iPad Air 2 is a far more subtle upgrade to the Air than the iPhone 6/6 Plus were to the iPhone 5S. That said there was arguably need for change as well and Apple has continued its relentless refinement process with an array of logical updates.
Existing Air owners are unlikely to be tempted to upgrade to the Air 2 but, as ever, Apple is primarily going after customers two generations back and it is hard to see any of them being disappointed.
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