Conclusion
Apple was unusually quiet during much of 2013, and although we’ve seen nothing completely new from the Cupertino company this year, it has launched two of its finest mobile products to date. I called the iPhone 5s the best iPhone Apple has ever built when I reviewed it back in September, and the iPad Air is by far its best full-size iPad.
The difference between this and the iPhone is that the iPhone has lots of competition — good competition — from high-end Android powered devices like the Galaxy S4, the HTC One, the new Nexus 5, and lots of other devices.
But no other company is making a tablet that comes anywhere close to the iPad Air.
Its build quality is second to none, it has the best full-size display on the market, and its internals put it way ahead of everything else out there. When you combine those things with Apple’s ecosystem, which is still unmatched when it comes to decent tablet software, you have the best full-size tablet money can buy.
You may notice that I’ve said “full-size” a lot throughout this piece to describe the iPad Air, and that’s because there is a smaller tablet that may be able to give the iPad Air a run for its money, and that’s the Retina iPad mini. Unlike the original, which launched with older internals and a low-resolution display, the new model has everything the iPad Air has — including the same number of pixels — but it’s just a little smaller.
The iPad mini is no longer a compromise; it’s a compelling alternative to the full-size iPad, and all you’re missing out on when you choose the smaller model is a few inches from the display. With that said, choosing between the two will be more difficult than ever before when the Retina iPad mini makes its debut later this month.
It may not be the cheapest tablet out there, but it’s by far the best.
What I will say is this: If you decide to go with the iPad Air, you won’t regret that decision one bit. It may not be the cheapest tablet out there, but it’s by far the best, and you’ll love every inch of it.
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!!!!