As they so often do when new Apple products land, the gadget vivisectionists at iFixIt have used one of their trademark spudgers to crack open a brand iPad Air 2, and there’s at least one interesting finding.
All the iPad Air’s specs have improved this generation except for one critical thing: battery.
According to their teardown, iFixIt has managed to confirm that the iPad Air 2 ships with both the more new A8X processor (which we know from previous benchmarks is a tri-core affair) and 2GB of Elpida F8164A3MD RAM, with two separate 1GB RAM chips located on either side of the A8X processor.
So far so good, but more surprising is that the iPad Air 2 has a smaller battery than the original iPad Air. In fact, it comes in at just 7,340mAh, compared to the first generations 8,827mAh battery.
And while it seems likely that Apple felt that it could get away with a smaller battery due to better battery efficiency, iFixIt points out that early reviews of the iPad Air 2 suggest that it has worse battery life from the previous generation.
Overall? Like most Apple products, the iPad Air 2 rated pretty poorly in repairability, managing a score of just 2 out of 10. But at this point, laboring that point is just beating a dead horse.
What do you think? Should Apple have shipped the iPad Air 2 with a slightly larger battery to maintain battery life? Let us know in the comments.
Source: iFixIt
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
9 responses to “iFixit teardown discovers the iPad Air 2 skimps on battery life”
Personally, I thought the first iPad Air was thin enough. I would have probably just left it the same thickness and maintained the larger battery. But Apple likes to say it has “The Thinnest Tablet In The WORLD”, so I guess marketing > usability in this case.
Was there something smaller (or even equal to) the first iPad Air? Because if there isn’t, then they could’ve left it that size with the larger battery and maintained that status.
Thinner = Lighter. The lighter the iPad the better it is for reading, playing games, or watching movies where your holding the iPad for long periods of time.
That’s awesome. if all your components are more efficient, no need to overdo it on the battery life. It’s better for the environment.
And now i know which ipad to get. Even android tablets are getting bigger batteries. No need for this. Ipad is the best tablet on the market when it comes to overall experience and then they go ahead and do this? So sad. Steve jobs would have never allowed this, i think.
I would rather have more battery than save and ounce or a millimeter.
Amen to that! I would gladly trade a few millimeters of thickness for longer battery life. And give it more RAM. The Air2’s 2GB is still not enough.
But Apple’s better battery life test show it gets 10 hours. Just like the last one. Is it at all possible the new A8X chip is simply better at managing power than the A7 and so they can get away with a smaller battery? Probably.
That 10 hours doesn’t even reflect the true reality which for most people is closer to 13 or 14 hours.
The standard of research on this site is fucking woeful.
I have an iPad Air and love it. One feature I greatly appreciate is the battery life. I’m pleased with the current size and weight also. Interesting tradeoff … not sure I would have done that. Apple seems to be sorely missing Steve Job’s sense on making good design decisions. I also question the design decisions regarding the iPhone 6 family.