Display
If you owned a third- or fourth-generation iPad, you’ll already be familiar with the iPad Air’s Retina display, because it’s exactly the same. And you’ll already know that’s a good thing. Its 2048-by-1536 resolution results in 264 pixels-per-inch, making text and images wonderfully crisp and clear. It’s also plenty bright enough, has great viewing angles, and terrific color accuracy.
According to Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate, the iPad’s Retina display “has virtually perfect intensity scale; the other [tablet] displays are either somewhat too steep or too shallow, which affects the image contrast in addition to the hue and saturation of color mixtures.”
If you’re upgrading from the original iPad, the iPad 2, or the iPad mini, then you’ll be delighted by the difference in the Retina display.
If you’re upgrading from the original iPad, the iPad 2, or the iPad mini, then you’ll be delighted by the difference in the Retina display. It’s like night and day, and once you’ve made the switch, you’ll struggle to go back. Pick up an iPad Air the next time you’re in an Apple store and you’ll never look at your iPad 2’s display in the same way again.
I think the difference is even greater now that we have iOS 7, which uses thinner fonts throughout the whole operating system. Apple’s also using thinner fonts inside its own iOS apps for continuity, and you’ll find more and more third-party developers will do the same as the months go on. This is where a Retina display really makes a difference.
At 9.7 inches diagonally, the Air’s display is the perfect size for a whole host of tasks, including watching movies and getting stuff done. It’s not too big to carry around — especially not after those design improvements — but it’s not too small for work, either. In fact, I’ve typed up this whole review on the iPad Air so far, and I would have struggled to do that on my iPad mini.
It’s also nice to have a larger display in apps like iMovie and GarageBand, when you’re browsing the web, and when you’re gaming — though it can depend on what kind of game you’re playing. For instance, I think titles like Bejeweled work better on smaller screens, because you can move around them quicker, but when it comes to games like Infinity Blade III and Real Racing 3, the bigger the better.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
7 responses to “iPad Air Is The Full-Size iPad You’ve Been Waiting For [Review]”
The best tablet ever. Could have been even better with TouchID which people are now saying they can’t live without. Entering a password or drawing a gesture to unlock your phone is so 2012. Might have to wait for the 2014 iPad Mini with Retina, 64GB and TouchID.
quite/quiet… same thing.
seriously, do you guys even bother reading back the shit you write?
WRITING IS REVISION. learn it. live it.
Thx for the nice review!!!
What I’m missing: Touch ID, 32GB for the base model, 2GB of RAM (I don’t like spec sheets but 1GB wasn’t enough on the iPad 4, kicked out apps way too soon, let alone 64bit apps will consume more RAM on average), and I’ve heard the display isn’t laminated and has no anti-reflective coating like most of apple’s recent displays (iPhone 5, rMBP, thin iMac).
These are huge letdowns, but overall its a great product. I’ve always thought of the older iPads as being clunky, to the extend that I never bought one. But the thinness and lightness of the Air make it so much more usable, I’ll go get one.
I’ve ordered the iPad Air but I have not received it yet. My iPad 3 has always been a bit heavy in bed, digging into my chest as I lay reading over time. I expect the lighter weight to correct that. On the couch it has never been an issue.
Another reason I’m upgrading is the charge/sync port. Since I’ve had an iPhone 5 it has been a nuisance going from one cable to another and I will very much like unifying that into one cable.
The increased speed of 4-5 times faster will be welcome as well. Some HD videos I’ve downloaded would stutter and the comic book reading app I use (Comic Zeal) unpacks archives of pages and resizes them if they are too big and there are noticeable delays I expect to be lessened or eliminated. These speed issues have always been there.
So for weight, unified cable, and drastically increased speed I justify the upgrade, all of which will affect my experience profoundly.
The hardware ecosystem of iMac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV is truly a marvel that keeps getting better as time goes on. I don’t think enough is written about how each makes the others better. Case in point is the iPad working with Logic Pro X, not only echoing features and acting as a remote but also adding features — I hope this extensibility moves forward, adding a separate visual touch interface and additional features to other apps as well. I would like to see an article comparing other hardware ecosystems from Android and Windows and how they match up to Apple’s unified system.
I agree. Anyway I’ll waiting for 2 GB of RAM, touch ID and a better screen.
Wow, that would be quite a device indeed! I would LUV LUV LUV!!! <3<3<3!!!!