Apple iPad Air Probably The Best Tablet Computer On The Market – Forbes Review

Forbes’ Ewan Spence says “iPad Air” is a worthy name for Apple’s new tablet, thanks to its thinner design and comparable battery life to its desktop compatriot, the MacBook Air. He says the iPad Air arguably serves the same purpose, as a lightweight general purpose computing device which is both portable and powerful.

Spence acknowledges that there are countless Android tablets available, with the associated focus on high specifications and the voluminous Google Play store, but maintains that the iPad Air is more than an iteration on Apple’s successful product line, but feels like the synthesis of everything that has come before, allowing Apple to create a tablet that can fit into your life without you having to compromise any of your expectations. And when you want to stretch your wings, the iPad Air is ready to take flight.

He observes that one impressive attribute of this redesign is that the iPad Air retains everything that you would have found on the iPad 4 (including the 9.7 inch screen), but shrinks everything non-essential. The design team even managed to shave a single millimeter off the height of the tablet, and every major physical dimension is smaller.

And while the iPad Air’s new A7 processor runs at a modest at 1.4GHz – significantly slower in clock speed than some top-line Android tablets that are available during the festive period (with some of them clocking in at over 2.2GHz), Spence observes that raw speed isn’t the only measurement of success, and the iPad Air never feels slow.

iPad Air One Month In – A Tote-Worthy Tablet

CNET’s Brooke Crothers says that after more than a year and half of mediocrity, Apple finally made its largest iPad worth hauling around, in his estimation.

Mediocrity? He uses that descriptor because the iPad 3 and the iPad 4 were compromised by the extra weight and thickness needed to support the early Retina displays which required a relatively large backlight apparatus and, concomitantly, more battery power to keep the display lit for the roughly 10 hours of rated battery life. With the Air, you get a slim, one-pound design with the same – or better – battery life, faster processor, and great screen, and after over a month he says he won’t miss his iPad 4, and a seemingly small but important factor that adds up over time: the way the weight is balanced when holding a tablet for long periods, with the iPad Air now a lot closer to matching the Mini in portability.