Gadgetory

for over three and a half years now Apple has effectively been the tablet King last week the latest addition to its iPad lineup the iPad air was released I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is our full review of the Apple iPad air next to older versions of the iPad it isn't difficult to see where the biggest changes and improvements are with the new iPad air well a new design for the full sized iPad lineup no longer does it have tapered edges a rear facing speaker or the connected volume rocker instead it looks virtually identical to the scaled-down iPad Mini the edges are rounded the speakers are located along the bottom edge on each side of the Lightning port and the side bezels have been dramatically trimmed away instead of the traditional squared nature of the four three iPads the iPad air is actually shaped more like a 16:9 Android tablet further Apple implemented dramatic weight reduction at 469 grams it's 28% lighter than the iPad three and four and at only 7.5 millimeters thick it's nearly two millimeters thinner as well these changes are impossible to overlook the iPad air is unbelievably lightweight so much so it almost makes previous models feel crude and inexact a power tool instead of a scalpel as minor as weight and size reduction may seem the importance of each can not be understated particularly for a device built for little more than Portability and convenience Apple also took the past year to upgrade the iPads internals and specs like the iPad 4 the air comes equipped with one gigabyte of RAM storage capacities ranging from 16 to 128 gigabytes a 5 megapixel camera and of course the nine point seven inch Retina display at 2048 by 1536 pixel resolution it's incredibly sharp 264 pixels per inch and like the two models before it the display is absolutely gorgeous preventing great colors and saturation viewing angles contrast and black levels the air also trades up the a6 X chipset for the newer 64-bit a7 and it's battery is rated at 32 point 4 watt hours frankly this is the best iPad hardware to date build quality design specifications and in hand field the level of fit and finish of this specific tablet is second to none when it comes to software it's either love or hate the iPad air unsurprisingly runs iOS 7 with 64-bit support and for iOS fans there's little to complain about all the new features are present the fresh UI control center the refined Notification Center Siri task switcher and airdrop we've extensively covered iOS 7 already so for a more detailed look at that check out our other iOS 7 videos the sheer amount of quality multimedia and content available to the iPad air from App Store and iTunes alone is enough to sell the tablet the digital libraries are virtually endless some of the best applications period are exclusively available for the iPad and they're certainly much to be said for that but in the day and age where Android and Windows tablets have the ability to run multiple applications side by side we can't help but feel the functionality and utility of the iPad are limited despite the fresh appearance the software is still quite long in the tooth that said the multi-touch gestures definitely add some polish to the experience there's nothing quite like forefinger swiping between recent apps and pinching with five fingers to return home one area we have literally no complaints however is performance the a7 chip set in the iPad air is an absolute monster ready to rip and tear through the most intense tests you can possibly throw at it we've been using the iPad air since Friday morning and we have yet to slow it down even for an instant it loads and switches between applications more quickly than previous models it handles some of the more graphic intensive games such as asphalt 8 and Infinity Blade 3 with utter ease put simply the iPad air was built for extreme performance and it puts the numbers up where it counts it provided one of the quickest scores we've ever seen from a mobile device in the SunSpider javascript test Apple claims the iPad air can survive 10 full hours of usage on a single charge just as all iPads before it through our usage we can confirm the battery life is fantastic as great if not better than those before it even through heavy usage including gaming watching videos and even benchmarking we were unable to fully deplete the battery in a single day you'll probably only need to charge the iPad every two days or even often if you're lighter on usage the speakers on the iPad air aren't the best we've ever heard but they're definitely not bad they have a fairly full balanced sound and are great for practically all multimedia purposes the main problem is their location along the bottom edge they're quite easy to obstruct with your hand in landscape mode the camera is something we don't harp on too much when it comes to tablets but the iPad air is 5 megapixel camera isn't terrible it doesn't provide a ton of detail but some images in proper lighting offer balanced true to life color reproduction decent contrast and great white balance it has the tendency to overexpose and miss on autofocus but it should suffice for many scenarios for both steals and 1080p video if we take all of this and add it up what are we left with well between the spectacular performance top-notch build quality and design and the endless amount of content the iPad air is one of the most well rounded tablets money can buy starting at 499 and scaling up to a staggering 929 the iPad air isn't exactly the cheapest option but if you're in need of an endless supply of multimedia games apps and one of the best portable productivity devices the iPad air is a no brainer frankly it's one of the best tablets we've ever laid hands on and that's why we give the iPad air and nine point two out of ten that's gonna wrap up this review so if you enjoyed it be sure to let us know by clicking the thumbs up button below and subscribing to the channel to see more videos for myself and the rest of the PocketNow crew follow us on all our social places twitter facebook and google+ at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time