iPad Air 2: Vulture chews on new Apple tablet

In the picture

The front camera is arguably the more useful all-around, if you ever use your tablet for Skypeing or FaceTime video calls. Resolution remains the same at 1.2 megapixel but the sensor is appreciably more sensitive, making cosy lit evening interiors look brighter. Definite tick in the margin here.

No matter how daft it looks, tourists will take snaps with tablets – click for a larger image

How about the famous battery life that’s helped make the iPad a dependable computing companion where laptops have long gone flat? Apple’s claim of 10 hours is based on wireless web browsing, which is probably a reasonable enough test for many users’ consumption. Pushing the iPad Air 2 a little harder though, it managed 9 hours and 15 minutes – keeping its Wi-Fi radio on full-time rather than intermittently – continuously streaming HD movies over and over over the local network. Range was 5m and screen was calibrated and fixed at a comfortable 120 cd/m2.

The 8Mp camera delivers decent colour accurary – click for a larger image

That 9 or 10 hours is actual screen-on runtime, of course. In use, muting the screen appears to put the iPad into real suspended animation, effectively stopping its body clock. In other words, you leave it powered up but in standby for a day and only around 2 or 3 per cent of battery is sapped. With light use it could easily notch up weeks between charges.

Finally, fashion followers, you can score your iPad in bling gold. That’s not so bad as it first sounds, looking almost bronzey.

Nice and crisp in daylight – click for a larger image

Overall, cons are few and mainly focus around storage. Like all Apple iOS kit, you’ll not find a micro SD card expansion slot here, which is a deal breaker for many. This is compounded further by Apple’s refusal to make any new iDevice in 32GB capacity, which is plain mean, given that 16 GB is of no use the moment you want to introduce a selection of music, video or even larger game apps to the device. At least moving up to 64GB only adds 80 quid to the price now, where once it’d be £160. In fact, you could say 64GB is the new 32GB, price-wise.

One area to be little nervous about is the longevity of the anti-reflective screen coating. How will it hold up to some heavier use, or even casual scrapes from odd bits of hand jewelry? Perhaps rather than bending the iPad 2 Air, some casual sandpapering of the display should be the focus of rugged testing for insurers.

Fattened up processor but slimmed down form fact – alas, no more mute/screen lock switch

The Reg Verdict

All in all, this is one quick tablet, all set for some great game playing if you like that sort of thing. It also makes for a silk-smooth interface and the power to take on production duties from the more serious apps out there. The best iPad upgrade yet? Undoubtedly. Lighter with improved screen tech, makes it even easier to use as a reading slate. The perennial storage gripes aside, it’s one helluva tablet computer. ®