The iPad Air is a brilliant tablet, in fact prior to the arrival of the iPad Air 2 it was arguably still the best slate money could buy, so Apple barely even needed to launch an iPad Air 2 yet, let alone make it a substantial improvement, but having done so it’s had its work cut out to make it stand out as a significant improvement over last year’s model.
So has Apple managed? And just what has changed? Read on to find out.
One of the key features of the iPad Air was how slim and light it was, at 240 x 169.5 x 7.5mm and 469g. With the iPad Air 2 Apple’s taken that idea even further, the length and width remain the same at 240 x 169.5, but it’s slimmed down to a tiny 6.1mm and weighs just 437g.
Aside from that the two slates have a very similar design, with a stylish aluminium shell and an all-glass front. The iPad Air 2 is undeniably the better looking overall thanks to its slimmer build and the stylish metal ring surround its home screen button, but the difference is negligible and both are among the very best looking tablets on the planet.
One other minor difference is the selection of colours available. The iPad Air can be bought in space grey or silver, while the iPad Air 2 can be purchased in space grey, silver or gold.
Both the iPad Air and the iPad Air 2 have a 9.7 inch 2048 x 1536 IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 264 pixels per inch, but they’re not quite identical, as the iPad Air 2 has superior contrast and richer colours as well as an anti-reflective coating which makes it far easier to use in bright sunlight.
But the iPad Air is no slouch in the display department either and while it’s not quite a match for the iPad Air 2 both tablets have brilliant screens overall.
The Apple iPad Air has a 1.3GHz dual-core Apple A7 processor and 1GB of RAM, while the iPad Air 2 has an Apple A8X processor. Apple hasn’t confirmed the exact speed of the chip or how much RAM there is but claims that the CPU is 40% faster and graphics performance is 2.5 times faster.
Those are some impressive figures and while you’re not likely to notice much difference in the short term, as the iPad Air is already plenty powerful, long term the iPad Air 2 could be quite a bit more future proofed.
The iPad Air 2 also has an improved M8 motion co-processor (the iPad Air has an M7). The functionality between the two is similar, with both tracking movement and orientation without draining the battery too heavily but the M8 is more accurate than the M7.
The iPad Air has just a 5 megapixel main snapper coupled with a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera, but while the iPad Air 2 sticks with a 1.2 megapixel sensor on the front it ups the rear camera to 8 megapixels.
The sensors have also been improved for the iPad Air 2’s cameras and there are a selection of new modes to play with, such as time-lapse video. Neither slate exactly has a top flight camera but by tablet standards the Air 2 has a pretty good snapper and it’s certainly the better of the two.
The processor in the iPad Air 2 is more efficient than the one in the iPad Air and so despite the increased power and smaller size its battery life should be every bit as good, with both slates promising around 10 hours of active use.
Apple now only sells the iPad Air in 16 and 32GB varieties (though it used to stock it in up to 128GB), while the iPad Air 2 is available in 16, 64 or 128GB flavours and neither of them have a microSD card slot.
For connectivity options both slates come with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and if you pay a bit more you can also get 3G and 4G support on both. One key difference though is that the iPad Air 2 also has a Touch ID fingerprint scanner and Apple Pay, allowing you to secure the tablet with your fingerprint and also use it to authorize purchases, while the original iPad Air is Touch ID free.
The iPad Air 2 is obviously a better tablet than the iPad Air but in most ways it’s a fairly modest upgrade, adding Touch ID, a more powerful processor, a better camera and a slightly better screen all in an even slimmer package.
The iPad Air has dropped in price to make room for the new model and now starts at £319 while the Air 2 is £399, so the iPad Air is still a solid prospect if you can live without Touch ID or just want to save yourself £80.
Equally the iPad Air 2 isn’t enough of an upgrade to really be worth buying if you already have an iPad Air, but for new buyers who have the money the iPad Air 2 is the better slate to buy and quite possibly the best tablet in the world.
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