Reviews of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 have gone live across the web tonight and, as you may have expected, reviewers and pundits love Apple’s newest tablets. As usual, we’ve rounded up links to the reviews along with some choice quotes. You can find them all below the break:
iPad Air 2
Pick up an iPad Air 2 and you’ll immediately understand why Apple pursues that thinness with such single-minded zeal. It’s so, so thin: 18 percent thinner than the older Air, and even slightly lighter. It’s hard to believe that there’s a computer back there, let alone a computer as powerful than the laptop computers of just a few years ago. If there is anything magical about this new iPad it is this, this feeling of impossibility. The Air 2 makes the original iPad look and feel archaic, like a horrible monster from a long-forgotten past.
The latest iPad also was able to handle the new “continuity” features in Apple’s just-hatched operating systems. It made and received phone calls relayed by my iPhone 6 when they were on the same Wi-Fi network. And it was able to use Handoff, the feature that lets you complete certain actions, like viewing a Web page or writing an email started on a Mac, and vice versa. It also was able to receive and return standard SMS messages from my Android phone.
The problem was this: I couldn’t tell the difference between the Air and Air 2 while doing these things. The new model didn’t seem faster or smoother while running all my apps, perhaps because — like most people — I don’t use my iPad for the most demanding video-editing apps or high-end games. It registered pretty much the same network speeds as my Air.
The Air 2 didn’t allow me to hold or carry the tablet longer and more comfortably than the Air. Its weight of 0.96 pounds isn’t discernibly lighter than the Air’s weight of one pound. And its thickness of 0.24 inches is a barely noticeable reduction from the Air’s 0.29 inches.
In my outdoor test, the Air 2 beat last year’s Air, Samsung’s Tab S and Amazon’s previous Fire HDX, displaying a more even balance under both sunlight and shade. Outdoors, it only loses to a bona fide e-reader like the Kindle Paperwhite. But you’ll still have to crank the brightness all the way up to see the screen in the sun, which will run down the battery faster.
That anti-reflective screen also makes a great, though admittedly ginormous, viewfinder for snapping nature shots with the revamped 8-megapixel camera. It takes much crisper shots than before, and in many cases, ones as good as those I can take with my iPhone 6. But I won’t bring my iPad to some mountain peak, as some Apple promo shots suggest. My phone’s camera is the fastest one for me to grab. And it has a flash for low-light situations and took clearer photos of a speedy pig I met in a New York City park. (Relax, it was on a leash.)
My review iPad Air 2 has done extremely well as a photography assistant, with Photoshop and Lightroom Mobile handling plenty of heavy lifting. iMovie, likewise, provides a great experience thanks to the beefed up internals on the tablet. But what’s most exciting are the experiences that have yet to be launched, including the mobile version of Pixelmatr, which was demoed on stage at the iPad launch event. We’ve yet to see just how much additional processing power developers can wring out of the A8X, but even the first early attempts have shown a lot of promise.
The iPad Air 2’s battery performance is on par with that of previous generation devices, which is no small feat given that the volume of the batteries contained within is likely reduced to accommodate the new slimmer profile. 10 hours of mixed use is normal, I found, and Apple has once again delivered a device with an amazing life in standby mode, especially when you’re not using the built-in data connections. As for those, I found that Wi-Fi performed notably faster when used with my 802.11ac AirPort Extreme, while LTE on my local Canadian provider remained high, and likely carrier-limited in terms of what it was able to achieve, given the device’s new extended LTE support.
[tweet https://twitter.com/gruber/status/524727681334935552 align=’center’]
For that matter, do you need a tablet at all? If you’re at all like me, you’re already swimming in computers, from a desktop to a laptop to a smartphone to an e-reader. Where does the iPad fit in that world? And even if you’re not like me and have only a couple of machines, you may still be confused by the choice between an iPad and, say, a light and powerful laptop or a large smartphone.
For all types of device users, then, the iPad presents a quandary. Are Apple’s premium tablets still worth their lofty prices?
After using the iPad Air 2 for the last few days, my answer is: Yes, with reservations. Whether you should take a leap on Apple’s new Air depends entirely on how you use your other devices. If you’re not a big fan of personal computers and you don’t really like having your nose stuck in your phone all day, the iPad Air 2 might be for you. The iPad Air 2 is powerful enough to use as your main or secondary computer, after your phone, especially if you use your tablet as a replacement PC on the go, and if you’re looking to play processor-intensive games or run media-editing software.
With that understanding, it makes sense Apple continues to make the iPad thinner and lighter. To use this “PC in the shape of a tablet” all day while on your feet, it has to be light. It has to be easy to hold and operate for long periods of time. Touch ID is another essential element for the iPad to fulfill its enterprise purpose in this context. These mobile field workers spend much of their time outside the four walls of the corporate office. They are the most likely to have their mobile devices lost or stolen. Security is crucial for these deployments and Touch ID, which works as flawlessly on the iPad Air 2 as on the iPhone from my experience, solves a critical pain point for enterprise deployments that previous iPads did not. Apple also made an improvement to the display essential for field worker deployment. If you go outside to use the iPad as part of your job, eliminating the glare is a valued feature. From my experience, the work Apple put in to make the iPad’s screen less reflective lives up to the promise.
In the wake of dire sales, the Air 2 is exactly what Apple needed to keep the lineup fresh. It may not be a brand-new design, per se, but its thin frame helps keep the marquee tablet looking sleek and exciting, and the extra burst of performance ensures that it stays among the most powerful tablets on the market for the next year. It could use a little help with battery life compared to the Air, but it’s still an improvement over the iPad fourth-gen and older. Most importantly, the Air 2 feels like Apple hasn’t given up on the tablet form factor, even if it’s experiencing a dip in sales.
Its surge forward in speed and the convenience of the refined form-factor and Touch ID leaves the iPad Air 2 feeling like the true iPad for power users.
It must be darned hard coming up with a new tablet model every October. In any case, the list of incremental improvements keep the iPad Air 2 at the front of the state of the art. It’s a glorious, fast, beautiful, tablet, edging ever closer into laptop-replacement territory. And with the impressive iOS 8 and Apple’s universe of online services behind it, this iPad will light up a lot of faces under the 2014 Christmas tree.
I will continue using both iPads because they both have a place in my lifestyle and workflow. At the end of the day, I still use the iPad Air for the larger screen, while I use the iPad mini when I go out for a coffee and need to be a bit more portable. That’s not going to change any time soon.
The iPad created and made popular a market for powerful, portable tablets. The latest updates, along with iOS 8.1 and the App Store ecosystem, only solidifies Apple’s position as the No. 1 tablet-maker in the world.
iPad mini 3
That said, I’m not sure where the mini 3 fits into Apple’s strategy. Since the only hardware improvement to the new slate is Touch ID, the mini lineup is no longer on par with the Airs; it’s now a second-class tablet citizen. I love Touch ID, and I favor the screen size of the mini, but it’s not worth paying an extra $100 for Apple’s fingerprint sensor unless you use a ton of passwords or want to make a lot of online Apple Pay purchases. It’s still a great performer, but I can’t help but wonder if the mini lineup can remain relevant at its price point — especially now that 5.5-inch iPhones are even more portable and still offer a large screen.
So it’s not so much that I’m disappointed in the iPad mini 3, it’s more that I’m disappointed with the state of the small tablet in general — there’s simply no top-tier device if you want the smaller size. This iPad mini might be the best option, but “best option” for 7-inch tablets turns out to be faint praise.
If you want the latest and the greatest, however, and all the options that Touch ID does and will eventually bring, and you’re okay with spending a bit more for the privilege, the iPad mini 3 is still the best small slate available, even without significant engineering investment from Apple this year – but you have to really value the ‘small’ aspect of that to make it worth it. The iPad Air 2 is the best all around tablet, however, and a much better choice for those looking to be at the technological forefront of this market.
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I heard a rumor that the FCC is blocking the iPad LTE sales in the US.
Yes and they also caught Banksy the other day as well.
Don’t forget Elvis and Bruce Lee living in Key West…
So, so thin! The future is awesome.
I’m surprised that so many reviewers simply glossed over the removal of the rotation lock button or worse did not even mention it. There is simply no valid hardware design reason for it’s removal. None. The iPhone 6 is much slimmer than any of the tablets and it has room for the button.
It turns what was a simple click of a button into a button press, a swipe, a tap, another swipe, a rotation, followed by a swipe, then a tap, then another swipe, then another tap. Absolutely insane.
And it’s pretty clear that the only reason it’s happening is because “Apple doesn’t like buttons.” If no one complains or says anything, it will surely be removed from the mini next year, (or whatever year they get around to actually updating the device that is).
iPad Air 2 is the thinnest iOS device at 6.1 mm. iPhone 6 measures 6.9 mm.
It’s not necessary. There are software fixes that work to do the same thing. The duplication was not necessary. I’m glad they got rid of it.
If the software button justifies the removal of the rotation/mute button, why not remove the volume buttons too? I can do it in Control Centre as well.
You didn’t even read what I wrote, did you? The software “fix” is NINE steps, whereas previously a hesitant touch on a SINGLE button sufficed.
@Frozen Fire: The fact remains that it’s a simple button that an be any size, and therefore could easily fit on any device that allows for any buttons at all. Apple has actually not stated that it was removed due to size constraints in any case, that is just speculation from the Apple apologists that immediately became a thing, despite it having no basis in reason or fact.
How is it “nine steps?” You swipe up and tap. Done.
Consider an iPad Air with rotation locked at portrait. I want to rotate it to landscape and lock it. First, I unlock rotation. Second, rotate the device. Third, lock it again. Three steps. Or even two steps if I first rotate the device, then quickly flick the button off and on.
With an iPad Air 2: One, swipe up Control Centre. Two, tap unlock button. Three, swipe it down. Four, rotate device. Five, swipe up CC. Six, hit button. Seven, swipe down CC.
Yeah, “swipe and tap and done”, really?
Agreed, it was not bright to remove it. Steve made a big deal about the original iPhone having a real physical switch to silence the phone. Steve Jobs disagreed with you, Chris.
Except that the iPad isn’t a phone.
Do they not both make SOUNDS? Yes. You can go back to sleep now.
Uhm… Isn’t the iPad Air 2 actually thinner than the iPhone 6?
Indeed. My mistake. But it doesn’t change my argument really.
A button is a button, it can be any size at all as long as there is room for buttons at all.
iPhone 6: 6,9mm
iPhone 6 Plus: 7,1mm
iPad Air 2: 6,1mm
Not sure what dream island you are living on but to lock the screen orientation I slide up from the bottom and touch the lock screen rotation icon. Done.
Have you ever pressed and held volume down button for more than a second. It does the exact same thing. Getting butt hurt over an irrelevant button. Lmao.
You’ve just explained why many, if not most folks change the function of the button to “rotation lock” instead of “mute” actually. I’m gonna have to give you a big zero for reading comprehension. :)
Do you read anything you post? Almost all of what you post is utter bullshit and ignorant beyond measure.
Firstly, the iPhone 6 is 6.9mm whereas the iPad Air 2 is 6.1. Do we know if depth was a reason to remove the switch? Nope, nor do you, but if it was, well you just made yourself a little silly, by simply answering your own question.
It sure does sound complicated when you write it out and it takes a minute to read your belligerent and nonsensical systematic process on paper, but we live in the real world. Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you’re wrong about the simplicity of a dedicated switch, because the whole world knows this, but instead give you a bit of a reality check and point out some sensible facts that might not just be insane.
1. Valid hardware reason: The removal of a hardware button, removes less moving parts, therefore avoiding a point of failure.
2. Let us take the function of the switch into context, from the perspective of long term iPad owners. The switch, typically doesn’t get used very often, in the sense that you could go an entire day without it, but that argument is simply anecdotal, which I’ll admit but the fact that it went somewhat unnoticed in most reviews, would probably lead me suspect that the switch become irrelevant with control centre and the reviews didn’t see the switch as a loss of function, but of negligible inconvenience.
3. By default, the switch on an iPad is set to mute and requires the user to have some knowledge that it has another function and be set within the settings. Given this and the philosophy of simplicity, it removes a function in the settings that would probably go unnoticed unless told.
Those are just a few opinionated arguments for the justification of removal.
To your last point….Have you seen the competition, most Google and Microsoft devices have onscreen software alternatives. If there is anyone more against buttons, it’s the other guys, not to mention that Apple still have buttons, therefore your argument is invalid.
Apple also don’t owe it to you nor the consumer to update the iPad Mini. The market decides with there money not there mouth. The iPad Mini with the A7 chip was the best tablet and still considered that.
Here is something sensible and logical that you could have said, “The omission of the switch will be sorely missed as it provided a convenient way to lock your device orinentation without the need to access control centre. While unlikely, if the community is more vocal then we could see the switch return. Looks like a great device regardless, (AS MENTIONED BY REVIEWERS)” but the omission will more then likely mean that the older still available are more attractive option for ME”
Peace.
Your second sentence, “Almost all of what you post is utter bullshit and ignorant beyond measure.” creates a bit of a conundrum doesn’t it? :)
You are calling me out for being ignorant by being ignorant yourself. Then you spend a lot of time spreading your own BS. I’m not sure why I should take you seriously after that.
It’s a switch that many iPad users use for rotation lock, (in my experience more than 50% but I don’t have any actual numbers to quote), and those that use it for that, use it literally many dozens of times a day. As a heavy user of the iPad myself, I calculate I use it roughly 60 times a day. I’m arguing that increasing the number of steps to accomplish this from ONE to NINE, simply to remove a button that has never shown to be particularly troublesome is “bad design.” I think this is a reasonable argument.
These are only anecdotal arguments of course. In this case you merely stated the opposite of what I said and din’t back it up with any facts at all. So it’s really just two battling opinions and I would appreciate it if you showed my opinion the respect that I’m showing yours (if that isn’t too much for you).
My opinion is a “learned” one, in that I spend all day every day helping a faculty of about 600 people, and a half dozen classes of about 50 students each, with iPads and iPhones. I see and have seen from the very beginning of iOS a relatively huge sample of the population that uses these devices and thus I think my conclusions are again, valid. You may disagree with my learned opinion, but you could at least do so politely, and stop trying to make out like you have any real facts on your side.
I feel sorry for those mystery 600 individuals having deal with your lack of intelligence.
I didn’t expect you to respond with anything intelligent or coherent and I was right, you didn’t. I’ll refer you back to what I originally said, “Do you read anything you post”, because it’s bullshit.
I’ve never used that switch as a ‘rotation lock’
It’s always configured as a mute switch on all my devices. I’m in and out of meetings all day and I want something instant to silence the device and activate sound again as I come out. I like being able to do it instantly without messing with turning the device on then looking for some software option.
Simple question: if this hardware switch has no value – why is it still there on the iPhone ??
Apple has got carried away with thinness, unfortunately at the cost of functionality.
You have no concept of functionality.
True, some people never use it for a rotation lock, but in my experience, when I provision an iPad and hand it to a new user, literally the FIRST thing they typically ask me is … “How can I get the screen to stop spinning around? It’s driving me crazy!”
True story bro.
It’s in the UI, and it’s a simple decision: to few people using the switch.
Well my IPad is is in my closet with the screen off and 3 stripped screw, tried to replace the digitizer….
Well my windows tablet/laptop has replaced both it and my MacBook pro so I don’t really miss it.
Great! So why are you here?
Yay for Microsoft’s surface!
And how is it Apple’s fault you broke your iPad 3, moron. That’s what you get for being cheap and not taking it somewhere to be fixed.
So you love MSFT products but you follow a blog devoted to Apple? I guess you have to post here because posting on a Surface blog would be like talking in the middle of Kansas wheat field. No one hears you.
Haha
I like Microsoft products but own and use apple. What’s the issue with that?
Last year Apple said that size should not mean a difference in features between the 2 iPad models. I guess it does now. I was going to buy a mini. I sold my previous one just 2 weeks ago. I should have kept it. Thanks Apple. You lost a sale.
You gambled and lost
No. I trusted, and was betrayed.
My advice would be that it’s only a worthwhile upgrade this year if you have an iPad 3 or less (the iPad 3 is a dog, and the iPad 2 is just too old), or the original iPad mini (an iPad 2 in other clothing). Even then, if you are just playing games and watching movies, those devices should still suffice.
Yea I’m not happy with their iPad lineup… feels weird being upset with apple. Anyway, I wanted a mini with iPad air 2 specs. This lineup is annoying and overly confusing. Just offer the two, one with a bigger screen like they do on iPhone… and iMac… and macbook pro… er and MacAir
I was actually planning to by the mini… but, I’ve been also disappointed with gap between the 2 iPad. It just feel “not fair”! I will wait one more year…
Observant types will notice too, that even the iPad Air 2 is actually not that different from the iPad Air 1 as well! :)
I hesitate to even mention it as I know it will infuriate the faithful here, but aside from the “slightly faster, slightly thinner” thing they do every year, the actual specs are not that different. The FaceTime camera is ever so slightly better, it does a/c Wifi (if you have it in your house), and that’s really about it.
I don’t think it’s really a worthwhile upgrade if you already have the original iPad Air. Phil made it sound really good on stage, but if you go down the spec sheet item by item you will see that the difference is really quite minimal in terms of the capabilities of the device.
Ipad air 2 is mind-blowing. That said, I still can’t digest the fact that Apple put only touchID as improvement over the last mini, and this while keeping the last version at $100 less. To me that makes no sense at all. An A8 chip, let alone A8X, would have made the mini 3 a worthy tablet for its price. I’m quite disappointed with this move from Apple. It would seem like they are leaving the ipad mini behind, like the ipod touch.
I guess this is Apple’s step 1 of phasing out the mini, by making it less relevant and less attractive than the higher priced air 2. Now some customers will choose an iPhone 6 Plus AND update it every 2 years(ish) rather than buying an iPad mini and update it every 3-4 years. Apple wins.
How is this a valid point in a review when talking about the advances between a generation of any product if you don’t have a router that can accommodate the new network adapter? “It registered pretty much the same network speeds as my Air.” Re/code is just being silly there.
I think that Ipad mini 3 has improved a lot compared with the previous version http://versus.com/en/apple-ipad-mini-3-vs-apple-ipad-mini-2, well, at least looking at the specs.. i havent used it
Disappointed in the mini lack of feature updates. If they’re not going to updated, drop it. No one will want a mini now.
Worse though is lineup including old stuff. It’s dumb and the first thing Jobs cleaned up when he came back to Apple: remove non-essential items. I miss Steve.