We go hands-on with the new iPad Air and iPad Mi
(CNN) -- There is nothing terribly surprising in Apple's refreshed line of tablets, but that's OK.
We spent some time
testing and touching the new iPad Mini and iPad Air after Tuesday's
press conference. As promised by Apple executives, the new devices were
lighter, thinner and seemingly faster -- just like many incremental
product upgrades from the past.
iPad Air
There were no major new features, such as the fingerprint scanner or camera upgrade that came with the iPhone 5S.
Apple unveils the new iPad Air
New iPad Air thinner, lighter
Tuesday means tablets
The most unexpected news
of the day was a new name for the $499 fifth-generation iPad, which is
now the iPad Air. The iPad line has been a bit wishy-washy with names.
It began by counting each
version, but then dropped the number and asked only to be know as
"iPad," like Cher. The iPad 2 kept its number and a spot in stores,
where its slightly lower price tag (now $399) might appeal to someone
considering a cheaper Android or Windows tablet.
Physically, the iPad Air
is indeed lighter and thinner than its predecessor. It's 20% thinner
than the third generation iPad, measuring in at a slight .29-inch. An ad
shown at the press conference showed an iPad Air lying flat on a
tablet, hiding discretely behind a No. 2 pencil. It has also dropped a
bit of weight and the Wi-Fi version is now exactly 1 pound (the cellular
version is 1.05 pounds).
Unfortunately, I didn't
have an older iPad on hand to do a weight comparison, and I'd picked up
an iPad Mini first. Nothing makes a regular iPad feel hefty like holding
an iPad Mini. You can't unfeel a Mini; it's just so delightfully wee.
The iPad Air has a 64-bit
A7 processor, the same chip recently introduced in the iPhone 5S. The
A7 should benefit graphics heavy programs such as iMovie and iPhoto, and
Phil Schiller claimed it would double the performance of the previous
chip.
Who's
talking about iPad Air? View more in this chart showing who was
mentioning "iPad Air" in their Facebook posts, both in the U.S. and
around the world, beginning the afternoon of the announcement.
It is difficult to judge
speed increases during a few minutes in a crowded room without proper
tests and an equally empty previous generation device to use for
comparison.
Fresh Apple products
always feel zippier than previous generations. Part of that is the
steadily improving processors inside, but its also the benefit of
working on a new device that hasn't been gradually slowed down by pages
of apps, hundreds of cat videos and the latest operating system upgrade.
No comments:
Post a Comment