Unlike last month’s Apple event, today’s shindig was held in a tiny auditorium on the company’s campus, nary a single gigantic white box in sight. Arguably, the size of the venue matched the importance of the products being announced — minor iPad and iMac refreshes don’t exactly command the same kind of attention as revamped iPhones and Apple’s introduction into the wearables market. This doesn’t mean the latest version of the iPad Air and iPad mini aren’t worth a closer look, of course; they may be just another iteration of the series, but if you’re in the market for a new tablet, there are a few new features to be aware of.
Of the two products, the iPad mini 3 is less exciting. It’s an incredibly small jump in, well, anything. What you see in this model is exactly what you enjoyed in the last one, with the exception of two things: Touch ID (Apple’s fingerprint sensor) and a gold color option. Indeed, the 7.9-inch tablet features the same chamfered edges, 5MP iSight camera, Retina display — even the weight and dimensions are the same, so it’s not any thinner than the previous version. In other words, my hands-on experience was precisely the same this year as it was last year, unless you consider viewing a gold color a completely new experience; that said, the addition of Touch ID is exciting, though it’s probably not enough of an improvement in the hardware to entice an iPad mini 2 user to make the switch.
With that out of the way, I’ll put a little more focus on the iPad Air 2. This new iteration got some more features packed in than the mini did, which re-establishes Apple’s 10-inch tablets as the king of the roost in design and specs. While it uses the same overall design language as last year’s version, it’s thinner: The sequel is 6.1mm, compared to the original’s 7.6. It’s also 32 grams lighter (for the WiFi model; the cellular option trims 34 grams off) while retaining the same height and width. The display resolution and size remain the same, but the Air 2 is outfitted with a laminated display that comes with anti-reflective coating that should improve outdoor visibility, viewing angles and any glares from other light sources. Inside, there’s a new A8X chipset and M8 motion coprocessor taking care of the new Air’s performance; Apple reps proudly showed off a couple graphics-heavy games that looked completely smooth, but it’s difficult to draw conclusions until I get my hands on a review unit. (Same goes with the display’s reflectivity — I’ll need to see how it fares in non-controlled environments.)
Since the trend of taking pictures and videos with one’s tablet isn’t going away anytime soon, Apple’s made a point to improve the camera from 5MP to 8MP, while adding new features like Burst Mode and slow-motion. Again, this is certainly more iterative than groundbreaking, but at least the upgrade brings the new Air closer to the iPhone 6′s camera and gives it an imaging advantage over the mini 3.
Developing…
Apple iPad Air 2
- Key specs
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- Form factor Tablet
- Operating system iOS (8)
- Screen size 9.7 inches
- Storage type Internal storage (16 GB, Flash)
- Maximum battery life Up to 10 hours
- Dimensions 9.4 x 6.6 x 0.24 in
- Weight 0.96 lb
- Announced 2014-10-16
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A first look at the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3
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