Back when the first iPad was unveiled at a special press event in January of 2010 Apple marketed the device as ” A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price.”
In the 3 and a half years that have passed since the products inception the iPad has turned out to be just as magical as Apple intended it to be. People certainly agree with a staggering amount of iPads being sold by the company. so does the latest full sized iPad still stand at the top of the tablet pack?
Design
When the iPad mini came out it was fantastic all the iPad’s features in a small pint sized package.
Well the same design philosophy carries over from the mini to the big iPad. Shaving off 28% of the foot print and 24% volume sounds okay in marketing material but when you hold this device for the first time your reminded very strongly of the first iPad mini. That they’ve shaved off this much volume off the product without sacrificing battery life is extraordinary it really does feel like an air in your hands. This should make it a bit less cumbersome to hold when using the iPad during long bouts for reading etc.
Processor power
The processor is very similar to that found in the iPhone 5s released early this year. Very fast it’s nothing short of amazing when it comes to computing tasks.
Geek bench results
iPhone 4s. 1234. iPhone 5 1278. iPad 3 early 2012 800. iPad 4 late 2012 1220. iPad Air 700. Shorter numbers are better. As you can see from geek bench
this iPad screams although apps designed to take advantage of the hardware are not plentiful yet.
Software
The iPad runs iOS 7 which lets you control the device with your fingers and has some new features including the new control centre, smarter multi-tasking, the notification shade and a host of other improvements.
While iOS feels and looks great on the iPhone it doesn’t look so good on the iPad. Maybe because of the icons being on a larger display things look a little jagged. But the smoothness of the retina display is still retained.
No touch ID
A feature I’ve come to love on my iPhone 5s maybe next year?
Internet, battery life, and conclusions
The same impressive 10 Hour battery life is still on board if you do less intensive things like browse the web and check email you should be able to get a lot of juce out of this iPad.
Internet is improved with nimo tech built-in this should give you theoretical speeds of 300MBPS I certainly noticed getting a good signal towards the back of my house which has a notoriously bad signal most of the time.
I wasn’t able to check the iPad with 3G/4G but will update my review if and when Apple sends me one with cellular connectivity.
The iPad Air is the best full sized tablet on the market today. A bit pricey but if you have the cash don’t even think about going with Another brand. Apple has really hit this one out of the park and it shows.
If you want something with a smaller foot print but still a great tablet consider the iPad mini with retina display.
Rating
5 stars excellent.
Pros
less volume, brilliant display, good software, great support.
Cons
a bit pricey.
Where to buy
Direct from Apple