Apple iPad Air 2 review

[Administrator]

If you're in the market for a stunning tablet at a reasonable price-point, utilising the most cutting-edge technology and backed by a slick, easy to use operating system, the second-generation iPad Air is the default choice. It retains or improves upon the many strengths of last year's offering and addresses most of the lingering issues inherent in the iOS platform. On top of that, it offers a massive CPU upgrade and graphics power to top Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but is that enough? The challenge facing the industry is that tablet sales are falling quite dramatically, while Apple - and indeed its competitors - don't seem to know how to arrest the decline.
The tablet market seems to be facing too major problems. Firstly, while mobile technology is rapidly evolving and scaling upwards, the complexity of the tasks they are processing is not. Today's iPad doesn't decode media any better than its predecessors, while checking Facebook or browsing the internet doesn't really require the 40 per cent boost to CPU power or the 2.5x increase to GPU performance that Apple's new tablet possesses. The new iPad does the staples more smoothly and quickly, but not to a degree that demands an upgrade. Indeed, some might suggest that the biggest obsolescence problem facing classic iPads isn't day-to-day usage - but rather the latest iOS updates, which often seem to slow down older hardware for reasons unknown.
On top of that, the market for mobile devices is evolving. Why buy a tablet and a smartphone when the new generation of larger 'phablets' do much the same job in an all-in-one device? We've always respected the way that Apple houses the most powerful mobile technology in the smallest form-factor, but this year we've seen both a larger iPhone, and a phablet companion - the iPhone 6 Plus. It's what the market wants and the sales figures have been phenomenal, but on the flipside there's the sense that Apple itself isn't quite sure how to justify the existence of the new iPad Air. It's built a stunning new device that seemingly ticks all the boxes, but doesn't quite know what to do with the technological marvel it has created. Meanwhile, the lacklustre iPad mini 3 bears all the hallmarks of a device sent out into the market to die.
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