Performance
The iPad Air is the world’s first tablet with 64-bit “desktop-class” architecture, and it’s so fast you’ll wonder whether you’ll ever really be able to push it to its limits. The fourth-generation iPad with its A6X chip was already pretty speedy, but the iPad Air is almost twice as fast, and you’ll notice it.
Especially when you’re running apps already optimized for the 64-bit chip, such as those from Apple’s iLife and iWork suites, and those built into iOS. When you’re inside the Camera app, for example, you can snap HDR photos and record video in 1080p, and at no point will you experience any stutter or lag — it’s just instantaneous.
64-bit games are hard to come by right now, but I can’t wait to see what game developers can do with the A7 processor. The iPad already offered an impressive gaming experience, and it’s only going to get better. Flagship titles will bring iOS games ever closer to true console-quality, and with proper support for gamepads built into iOS 7, it’s an incredibly exciting time for mobile gamers.
In Geekbench 3 tests, the iPad Air blows everything out of the water, achieving a multi-core score of around 2,643. To put that in perspective, the fourth-generation iPad achieves just 1,408, while the third-generation iPad achieves 497. So, in comparison with its predecessors, the iPad Air is way out in front. But what about competition from Android?
Well, according to Geekbench 3, the fastest Android-powered tablet you can buy right now is the new Google Nexus 7, which is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor — and that achieves a multi-core benchmark score of 1,831.
When it comes to Wi-Fi performance, the iPad Air has been pretty impressive for me so far, maintaining full signal all around my home — even in places where my iPhone gets just one bar. In a simple speed test from the same room, connected to the same server, the iPad Air was able to get speeds of 24.09Mbps down and 8.60Mbps up, while my iPad mini got 22.20Mbps down and 7.91Mbps up.
This isn’t the most accurate speed test, of course, but I ran a whole bunch of them and the iPad Air was slightly faster every time.
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!!!!