Preorders for the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will start arriving on doorsteps as soon as tomorrow, and now a flood of early reviews has hit the web.
There’s a general theme throughout these dozen or so reviews of Apple’s newest tablets: boring. While these are unequivocally the best iPads every (like every year since the original), that’s not quite enough anymore.
Lets start with the venerable Walt Mossberg of Recode, who recently wrote an essay defending the future of tablets in the face of iPad sales plateauing. He was impressed with Apple’s latest hardware advancements, but his review was overall pretty ‘meh’, as the kids say:
So when Apple brought out new iPads last week, and I had a chance to test them over the past four days, you might think I’d be pretty excited about them — but I’m not. They are, in most respects, the best iPads ever made. But for average users, they represent only a modest evolutionary improvement over last year’s models, not the kind of big change that the first iPad Air or the Retina display iPad mini did last year.
Mossberg goes on to say that “this latest iteration isn’t much of a leap.” In short, not a worthy upgrade if you have either of last year’s models.
The Wall Street Journal ran the headline “The Best Tablet Needs to Work Harder” and mentioned the iPad’s inability to run multiple apps side-by-side (a feature that is reportedly being worked on, but has yet to be implemented).
I constantly yearned for that functionality while responding to emails about potential meeting times, tapping the home button frenetically to switch to the calendar. I yearned for it as I wrote this column, jumping to the messaging app to update my editor on my progress. I even yearned for it when I wasn’t anywhere near my desk, surfing the Web and attempting to tweet an article.
The Journal did praise the iPad Air 2’s new anti-reflective screen coating, as there was a noticeable improvement with viewing angles during outdoor use.
“A monumental achievement in the field of iterative improvement”
The Verge called the iPad Air 2 “a monumental achievement in the field of iterative improvement,” but also “a case study in missed opportunities and untapped potential.” The world is wanting large touchscreens that behave more like desktops, and it’s those desires that are the main sore points in these early reviews.
iPad Air 2, the specs: 3-core CPU (Geekbench: 1813 single-core, 4539 multi-core), 2 GB RAM
— John Gruber (@gruber) October 22, 2014
The iPad Air 2 is blazing fast, according to every review. The camera improvements are noticeable, the thinness is great, and battery life seems to have stayed about the same (for most reviewers—some noticed an actual decrease). But is all that enough to warrant an upgrade? In most cases, no.
Saving your money and sticking with the iPad mini 2 is the way to go
On to the tiniest member of the iPad family. Pretty much every review of the iPad mini 3 says that it’s not worth the extra $100 for just Touch ID and gold, which matches our initial reaction to the device. It seems that saving your money and sticking with the iPad mini 2 is the way to go.
Will Apple answer everyone’s pleas for more from the iPad? It’s looking like a 12-inch iPad ‘Pro’ for early 2015 is becoming more and more of a possibility, but only time will tell.
Here’s are some more reviews worth checking out if you’d like additional reading:
- Recode
- The Wall Street Journal: iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3
- The New York Times
- Fast Company
- The Verge: iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3
- Yahoo Tech
- Techpinions
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
11 responses to “Early reviews of latest iPads praise new hardware, but wish for more”
Tim Cook has publicly recognized that people do not generally upgrade their iPads as often as their phones, and people upgrade their phones about every two years — perhaps at the soonest. So this year’s iPads are aimed at those with iPads more than two or three years old. Given that, these new iPads are wonderful upgrades in speed and functionality. I have an iPad Air and have no intention of getting a new one this time around. That’s not a bad thing, just the way it is.
I agree. You almost think that these reviewers believe iPad is a failed product if people don’t buy a new one every year. Perhaps it’s just their perspective having been able to use and review each and every new model as they come out. They’ve all turned into that five-year-old at a birthday party, all sugared up and yelling at the poor, harried balloon guy to “Make me another poodle!”
I’m one of those people — I had the First iPad, then got a 3 … now I’m keen on an Air 2. I upgraded from the iPad original to the 3 because there were speed issues and constant crashes. But this time I have no issues with speed or crashes or anything like that, I’m just keen on the form factor. Nothing else. The iPad 3 is still an adequate machine for me.
I’m going to get this new iPad for sure. You guys can bet that developers are going to take advantage of every ounce of power that this tablet offers, and its allot of power. Well see some crazy powerful Apps like Pixelmator working perfectly on this tablet. I understand not upgrading, but I’ll be sending my old iPad Air 64GB to Gazelle.com for $350 which will lower my iPad Air 2 price significantly.
Wow this iPad is more powerful than the Late 2010 MacBook Pro 15″ 2.4GHz This is insane. My body is feening (Jodeci, R&B music reference) for this iPad Air 2.
This is how i feel about this tablet. (EPIC POST)
Jodeci R&B feening song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9XGq8fDZk
I’ve decided against getting the iPad Air 2. Between the iPhone 6 and my MacBook Pro, the iPad just doesn’t cut it. For it to be a truly valuable device, I need real multitasking. I need to be able to load multiple Safari tabs asynchronously. I need to be able to organize all of my files, regardless of type in a system. I want the freedom to move them on and off the device with ease. I want to associate a default app with the file type. Make no mistake, I don’t want OS X on my mobile device, I just want some OS X functionality.
I have an iPad 4 (the one before the Air), an iPhone 6 and late 2013 MBP. The new iPad Air 2 seems to me to be an iPhone 6 with the biggest screen possible. Everything released on the iPhone 6 is part of the iPad Air 2.
For that reason I shall not be updating to the iPad Air 2 and I think my MBP will survive another year as well.
It doesn’t mean Apple is losing ground to me, it just means the products are still as good today as when I bought them.
The iPad is so evolved by now, they are actually removing features (mute switch). It’s got to be about as thin as its going to ever get, as fast as you ever need, and the 2GB RAM is finally as much as you need. And nobody who’s used touch ID would go back to not having it. I think this iPad is a little exciting in that this is going to be as good as it gets for a while. I’ve got the old iPad 3, and frankly, there isn’t a lot wrong with it, but finally apple made something that will entice me to upgrade.
So what’s changed, touchID, the screen has some improvements, 2gb of ram, 40% faster processor, faster wifi, thinner, a better camera, better storage pricing. If this was any other device people would think awesome. Every single major feature hardware wise was significantly improved. Software updates are always announced around June at WWDC. These reviewers think of some narrative in there mind and then bend the facts to fit it. They want multitasking or multiuser support. This version is just hohum…
To me both features are kind of worthless. I don’t share my iPad. And rarely do I need multitasking. Maybe that will change once I have it, but other things like notifications that reviewers begged for I find to be a negative.
Also people are not going to upgrade yearly or every two years. The only reason it happens on the phone is they are subsidized by the carriers.
I originally had an iPad 2 and upgraded to the Air. I wouldn’t normally upgrade again so soon, but I’ve been craving the 2GB bump up in RAM. Was very disappointed to not have seen that implemented with the first air. Simple tasks like surfing with multiple tabs open without them constantly refreshing will definitely benefit. Checked ebay and it looks like my 32GB wifi air will likely garner $450-500. For ~$150 bucks, I’ll gladly upgrade for the RAM boost, 64GB memory, & triple core speed.
The iPad Air 2 Is my first iPad and I’m glad I bought it at this very moment. From an artistic and creative point of view, it’s the best tablet out there. Multitasking is a software issue, I don’t understand people who are waiting for a hardware release on this one. One thing to know, people are lazy with their tablets and may be are confused, they feel that if it turned into a tablet-PC experience they could achieve more. Dig the possibilities, a tablet is all about the apps! With more than 1 million apps in the app store I don’t need another Surface Pro 3. Can’t wait to grab mine.