Gadgetory

everyone this is Jimmy with Jim's review room so last year when I reviewed the iPad air it was the very first iPad where I felt this is what an iPad should have been it felt good in my hands the removal of those big bezels on the sides and just a more streamlined look and feel overall to the device and not to mention performance as well but before I get any deeper into this review don't think I like apple or am against it for mentioning its pros and cons and of course Apple has its fair share of both I'll be looking at this objectively and hopefully help a viewer out there that's on the fence of buying an iPad in general so that being said welcome to another review as always going over its physical bill first this looks identical to last year's model when looking at the front and the back it's the same dimensions the same size bezels same screen size at nine point seven inches but differences are more in feel and function now the heirto is now the thinnest tablet in the world at 6.1 millimeters beating these samsung tempests and also the sony xperia z3 tablets which were six point six and six point four millimeters respectively now from my experience playing around with the finished tablet in the world at first it feels great in the hands as it's something you've never felt as thin before but then when carrying this around there is a slight subconscious that you might drop this since there isn't much to hold but over time though you do grow to appreciate the fitness and grow in confidence that it won't slip now the physical build is still aluminum with chamfered metal edges and it's even lighter than last year's coming in a little under a pound now managing the device from switching hands to pleasant in your bag taking it in and out it gives a sense of airiness due to its thinness and lightness and there's no pun intended there now when placing the iPad air from last year's down it feels like a tablet obviously but when placing the heirto onto a table that feeling it just feels like a thin hardcover children's book and goes not the best analogy but it's a sense that you get light thin and used with ease now going to the top you have your 3.5 millimeter headphone inputs to the right the rotation lock button is no longer found but just vibe rocker buttons now Apple has now milled the aluminum giving a slightly more premium look and feel when compared to all the previous generations buttons are still clicking with a good amount of feedback and going to the very bottom offers the Lightning port connection with two speakers on either side and a friendly reminder for those who haven't owned an Apple product recently Apple uses its own proprietary connection getting all these micro USB cables laying around your house you can use it to charge this device you're stuck with that one cable that's supplied by Apple unless you buy more or you're fine with moving this one cable around the house now sound output is good for a tablet for just personal listening but the location is the problem as it is covered by your hands when holding it horizontally and watching movies or videos on YouTube now the sound appears to be slightly louder than last year's model but it's very hard to tell even when putting them side-by-side and alternating between both iPads and the last side which is the left side here has nothing to speak of now starting with the front ample now for the first time on their iPads offer touch ID to place your thumb on the reader and now it can unlock the iPad from the lock screen or purchase apps from the app store saving you the convenience of entering your password every time now from my experience it works very well and I encountered barely any issues with the security feature but for logging into your iPad yes a fingerprint is more secure as it is unique to yourself but one can simply slide the screen to the left here and enter your chosen password if they knew it but nonetheless there are definite uses though again for making app purchases and that's where it's convenient and the last feature before I go into the screen is the camera now I know a lot of people don't take photos with their tablets as it's huge to hold in public and most people do have smartphones nowadays anyways but just on the off chance you need to use it here are some photos from the new rear-facing camera and when compared to other tablets Apple is very much on the low end in regards to megapixel size now if you're looking for huge photos for editing an alternative will offer much higher resolutions but to be honest the average consumer won't be doing that at least that's my opinion if you're just uploading to Instagram or Facebook etc just sharing photos like that 8 megapixels offered by Apple is surely enough but looking at the photos on screen low-light performance is still not that great with noise being present colors are more neutral you can say some may say it looks more natural which they prefer some may say it looks a little bit lackluster and not as vibrant as one would like and I'll leave that up to you guys to decide all these pictures shown here are unedited I didn't do any retouching or anything like that but what's more intriguing is a few new features from Apple in regards to video recording now first up here is claps set your iPad stationary set the time lapse mode to on and you can record as much footage as you have in memory it's ideal for videographers providing that unique style or look for some of their shots and it performs very well the video quality is by no means like a DSLR but the functionality of time limits is there the last feature for the rear facing camera is it's 120 frames per second recording it's the slow-mo option offering another unique style a welcome addition and I'm personally pleased to have it but I'm somewhat disappointed as the iPhone 6 that was recently launched has 240 frames per second recording offering even a slower video offering a bit more Wow and its content but as you can see on your screen are some samples right from the iPad itself with no color grading or video editing and the 120 frames per second is only recorded in 720p resolution is not recorded in full HD at 1080p and one other item again introduced on the iPhone 6 but didn't make it onto the iPad is image stabilization and I think this is a huge one here since we have some new video recording features which is just completely odd to me considering that the iPad is technically more powerful and again the iPhone 6 has it so shaky hands and shaky video will be evident at this camera again for the lack of image stabilization overall this is the best camera to be honest with you that Apple has to offer so far with some unique features but enough fine cameras here how about the screen Appl states this is the first tablet to offer this unique anti-glare screen technology reducing glare by 51% making this the world's least reflective tablet and by bringing this outside it's pretty accurate again it's a 51% reduction so you still see some reflections of course but as you can see in the video when compared or paired next to the arrow one it's not as glaring it actually works in works better indoors as well and if this is truly the only tablet on the market right now they can do this more points to Apple but overall the screen is still the same resolution at 2048 by 1536 coming in at a pixel density of 264 for every square inch and the screen now I'm pretty sure that you're aware now Apple is not much in the battle over specs anymore with other manufacturers and that rings true for the resolution but when it did a bit more research on other mainstream 10-inch tablets the air tube pixel density is not too bad the only other notable tablets are the Samsung Galaxy Note pro series and if you want to count the Nexus 9 which is technically smaller comes in the same exact resolution as the air 2 but because it's smaller it has a pixel density of 288 per square inch now overall the screen still looks good I personally prefer Samsung's more saturated and contrasting looks but Apple does offer a more neutral and to be honest slightly more accurate color palette depending on your taste you might say it looks washed out a bit or you may say it's natural and again accurate I think this area is a little bit more subjective so I'll let you guys decide but as for these screens glass there's a new laminated process fusing what used to be three separate layers into one layer of glass now now Apple claims to have better contrast and clarity because of that and from my test putting this side by side the screen does offer whiter whites versus a slight tint at last year's model colors are slightly richer in my opinion after looking at many high resolution photos and playing Netflix side-by-side and also some YouTube videos as well the physical bezels look darker and even pressing on the heirto versus last year's air it feels more like glass making last year's model feel a little bit more plastic-like you can say when I press down now all the items mentioned above to be honest you will more than likely not notice unless you put this side by side with another tablet nonetheless right next to an iPad air but it's something that I did notice and want to point out since Apple is claiming this is new technology they're putting into their iPads now as for performance apple claims they're a 8x processor is 40% faster than its a7 chip as this time around the internals features a second-generation 64-bit tri core processor running at 1.5 gigahertz and now with double the RAM at 2 gigabytes a first for Apple now for real-world performance indeed there is an improvement with even fewer stutters experienced overall it's still in my opinion a very zippy and fast experience overall but when compared to last year's model it's only a nominal increase in power trying both side-by-side sometimes the a7 completed the tasks faster sometimes the a8x loading really basic applications but very popular ones like Facebook Pandora Netflix Google Earth to name a few they both performs a very similar the most did a apps and tasks performed fine for specific websites several viewers asked me to pull up the verge as their website is supposedly slow to load at times I did notice this it is apparent but when compared to the air from last year it makes this year's model look a little bit better again its nominal now visiting random sites from Digg calm some stutters but slightly better performance again on the air - and now for the first time ever Apple has now included two gigs of RAM versus just one they've been using for so long and you do notice the iPad can keep up a bit better with several more internet tabs open in the web pages Scrolls almost flawlessly in general and regarding performance from the operating system of iOS 8 - using apps and surfing more intensive websites it's still a champ and I still consider this a very fluid experience in some last mentionable features this year now includes Apple pay but this is only limited to in-app purchases now I'm not suggesting to take your tablet and use Apple pay at a register but Apple pay does require NFC or near field communications and although this tablet has been broken down and shown online in pictures Apple did include a NFC chip inside however NFC is not in labeled you there's no way that you can connect this to any Bluetooth speakers or any kind of NFC devices for communication or pairing as well now this isn't available as well on the iPhone 6 but at least NFC is at least confirmed working but on the tablet again it's not available now regarding new wireless radio the air 2 now features wireless AC technology which is the latest and fastest on network Wi-Fi communication and last is its battery life with Apple claiming up to 10 hours of news which leaves me a little bit skeptical since everything has been shrunken down including the battery as well and I just hope that with the more efficient processor it can keep that 10 hour battery life but with my testing here using the tablet all day running Pandora when I'm not using it with random web surfing in between and playing to movies and Netflix the battery died in 9 hours and 18 minutes to be exact and no other reviewers may have a little bit lower numbers but that was actually my numbers that's what I actually recorded so overall the iPad air 2 is for sure an upgrade if your current iPad is a bit old and if you're deciding to stay with Apple no question this is worth the upgrade if you currently have last year's air I don't think it's worth a jump over just yet and for the Android users out there I don't think the air 2 is the end-all be-all tablet it's still a very good device with great build no question about that a very optimized and fluid user experience for the average consumer but as many Android users States Apple has found a bit behind in innovation despite offering anti-glare screen the 120 frames per second and being the thinnest tablet in the world although out very much a bit it's all impressive I don't think it's the must-have features for the average consumers I would have still loved multi-window image stabilization and I think it's a must now maybe Apple should have made the tablet six and a half millimeters thick instead of going thinner actually and kept it on par with the competition but now offer maybe 11 hours of battery life if not more all those features just mentioned I believe is what the average consumer would use on a daily basis and Android already has some of those features so I hope this review helped you in some way if you enjoyed my work please like and subscribe and find me on facebook twitter or google+ as every follow does me and bring you more content like this this is Jimmy with Jim's review room you guys take care I'll see you in the next one