Introduction
It is not old news but only a matter of a few days that a private event was held at Apple Cupertino campus where the officials announced the addition of two new devices in iPad line devices; Apple iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. Though it was in the private event yet they made the official announcement. The two devices do have their individual features but iPad Air 2 is the main device and focus of attention. iPad Mini 3 does not add much on to it except TouchID screen. These were the differences in the two devices right from the development stage till the finalization.
The main device, iPad Air 2 has many improvements over the previous, iPad Air. The improvements are seen in its design, functionality, photographic aspect and lot more. Some of them are absolutely new and not seen earlier in any of the devices in the series as well as other devices in the market. Here we see each one of them individually.
Before this, Sony claimed that the Xperia Z3 Compact tablet was the world’s thinnest tablet but now Apple declined the claim of Sony. The Apple iPad Air 2 measures only 6.1 mm in thickness. However the device is not very thin but this is the world’s slimmest tablet available in the market till yet. For making the tablet slim Apple avoided to place some features which are not so necessary such as mute switch which is not placed in the body of iPad Air 2. Previously the devices were made in three separate layers; parts. Now the major change has taken place they are laminated together and made more compact and fitting more tightly to give a one piece look.
The new iPad Air 2 is also light in weight than its predecessor. The iPad Air has 0.96 pound or 437 grams weight but the new iPad Air 2 come in light weight. Though the weight reduction is not massive and only 1 pound weight is less from the previous one but we cannot neglect the 1 pound weight even when we are talking about the world’s slimmest tablet.
It has the fastest A8X processor. This was not the case in the past and processors were not really very powerful. The latest iPads have more powerful processing units. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were powered with A8 chip which was the latest then. It has been placed now the new development and 64 bit A8X chipset has replaced the previous slower processing chips. This change has brought wonderful results and change is not merely a change. It has substantial difference in performance. A8X is 40% faster in performance than A8’s. The graphic performance is tremendously enhanced; it is 2.5 times better which is not an ordinary change.
iPad Air was powered with the processing unit consisting of M7 which was the latest at that time. iPad Air 2 comes with M8 chip which is far better and superior than M7. It is really a sensitive unit in the device. it can tell you, your speed; a difference between cycling or walking. It also contains barometer and can tell you the altitude. This is a wonderful development and besides just being a feature of interest is useful for the sports men in the field of mountaineering. It is surprising to see so much intelligence compressed in to Apple iPad Air 2.
Besides other changes the photographic aspect is also the focus of improvements in iPad Air 2. Apple has put nice effort in to making the rear camera much better. The rear 5 mega pixel camera has been know upgraded to 8 mega pixels. It is because of A8X chipset that we see improvements all over. In case of photography it has eliminated noisy effect from the images and has provided better face detection.
Another feature that was already there consisted of slow motion videos and it could play the videos at 120 frames per second. This feature was incorporated first in iPhone 5s and continues till now. Though it was in the iPad family alone but tablets also had it. The same feature is placed in iPad Air 2 as well.
Apple A8X chipset is a pack of wonders and compasses all functions in the device. Among others it provides 43 mega pixel panorama which is for greater than any that existed before. In competes any device having this feature, may it be a tablet or a smartphone presently available in the market.
The front camera installed in iPad Air 2 has been improved a lot and this is also because of chipset A8X. Although the mega pixel capacity is still the same; 1.2, but the aperture speed has been enhanced to f/2.2 which adds to quality of the selfie.
Apple claims that the iPad Air 2 is equipped with the screen which is non-reflective or minimum reflective which is because of the custom designed anti-reflective coating. Since the device has not appeared in the market and not been tested for its non-reflective ability therefore we can say nothing about it. This is the claim of Apple and we take it as it is.
power and volume keys are now changed
The power and the volume keys have been changed in their shape and placement. This is done to reduce the thickness of the device and now they are tilted in placement and face down instead of straight and up. Probably this was the best solution with Apple while designing the device and reducing its thickness.
Apple has taken a bold step and pioneered in making its own SIM card. It is a unique Apple and cellular version of iPad Air 2. Apple has included its own SIM card that is compactable with different carrier companies. Like Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile giving flexibility to the user in selecting the suitable plan offered by the company. Certainly it is a bold move by Apple by providing versatility to its SIM card.
Finger Print Scanner
Before a year Apple launched iPhone 5s with the finger print scanner and the same feature found in iPad Air as well. But now initially in this year Apple confirmed that their every device is protected with finger print scanning technology and yes they are right they placed the same finger print scanner in iPad Air 2. The function is attached with home button of the device.
The Wi-Fi speed in the iPad Air 2 is increased incredibly. The device supports speeds of up to 866 Mbps, which is the super fast and no internet provider provide this speed of internet till yet anywhere likely only Google fiber provide this speed of internet.
Like the new iPhones, Apple cleared the 32GB memory option for the iPad Air 2 but the 64 GB Memory version is available in the $599 price. Users can get more space in fewer prices.
Before this iPad Air 2 the iPad Air came in two trendy colors; Space Grey and Silver but now Apple add one more color in there tablet line. The iPad Air 2 will be available in Gold color as well.