Earlyface

Apple’s new approach to tablets is to make
everything easier to carry – and with a 43
percent thinner bezel and a 28 percent
lighter device, the iPad Air is championing
that drive.
If you haven’t seen a picture yet, then
imagine an iPad mini that you’ve just held a
little closer to your face, and you’re largely
there with the Air.
It’s got the same smooth back design,
thinner bezel and more attractive speakers
at the bottom of the phone to make it look
like more of a family with the cut down
tablet from Apple’s stables.
While it’s a clear copy, we’re not going to get
upsetabout that as the mini already had a
stunning design, and the Air takes that
message and brings it to the big leagues.
It also has machined buttons that don’t feel
loose when shaking, bringing up the
premium feel to the device. On top of the
new design, it’s also rocking Apple’s A7 chip,
bringing with it 64-bit processing power
and reams of battery saving techniques to
keep your tablet going even longer in day to
day use.
And the greatest thing about the iPad range
in our eyes is the price – Apple is starting
the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model at the same cost
as its rivals, and while that outlay does spiral
up as capacity and connectivity increase, for
an Apple device to not charge an
(unnecessary) premium is something we’re
really happy to see.
We’re looking at a price range of £399 –
£739 ($499 – $929 or AU$598 – AU1049),
starting from the 16GB version (Wi-Fi only)
to the 64GB cellular option.
Add to that the fact Apple is lobbing in a lot
of useful free software, as well as bringing a
more refined experience with iOS 7, and you
can see that it’s put a lot of effort into
making the iPad Air the tablet that shows it’s
not losing its relevancy in the market.
The keynote for the launch of the iPad Air
talked a lot about Apple’s dominance in
terms of tablet usage, but it’s no secret that
a number of users are starting to warm to
the idea of an Android model as their main
device – the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is one of
the best around at the moment, and offers
expandable storage as well as a waterproof
casing to trump Apple in that respect.
But Apple has countered by bringing out the
same 128GB model as before, which, while
pricey, gives more than ample storage for
anything you want to do on the go, be it
storing all the HD apps you want as well as
your entire music collection and most
movies too.
It’s worth noting that the 16GB option is
nigh-on useless as a purchase if you’re
thinking of pulling in all the free apps Apple
is slinging your way – this was an issue
when the Retina display landed on the iPad
3, and has only got worse as more HD apps
from developers have been slipped onto the
App Store.
However, it’s still good to see options being
offered when it comes to storage, as some
Android devices (albeit mostly phones) are
starting to eschew expandability and not
really upping the internal space.
So you can see that Apple has covered its
bases in nearly every area when it comes to
the iPad Air – but how does it actually
perform in the hand when subjected to
rigorous daily use?
Design
The iPad Air is an odd device when you pick
it up for the first time. When you hear all the
numbers being bandied about you’d rightly
assume that you’d feel something that was
almost ghost-like in the hand, a tablet that
could almost get blown away.
And we’re utterly not disputing that – the
iPad Air is the most balanced tablet on the
market, with great precision going into the
engineering throughout. However, if you’ve
touched an iPad mini or just haven’t held an
older iPad for a while (and with some
people we tested with, even those that had)
you won’t feel as much of a step up as you’d
be expecting.
We’ve added that caveat to brace you should
you be excited to purchase the new iPad, as
it’s not something that affects the general
usage in any way, with one-handed holding
very easy, and something that puts the Air
into a new product categoryThe design of
the iPad Air is, as we’ve mentioned, very
impressive. Yes, it’s totally based on the iPad
mini, and the smooth aluminium back is
really great to feel in the hand. It’s a shame
that most people feel the need to slap a
cover on an iPad as soon as it’s bought –
while we get the notion of protection, it
hides away some cracking design.
That said, at least it keeps the fingers away
from the chassis, and the iPad Air is a real
magnet for prints. The back cover isn’t too
bad, but the mirrored Apple logo sucks
down finger oil and is loathe to give it back
even with hard scrubbing with a cloth
It might not sound like a big deal, but it
makes your premium new tablet look a bit
unkempt right from the start.
But in actual operation, the design of the
iPad Air complements the impressive
innards superbly. It’s unsurprisingly not
possible to hold your hand the entire way
around the edge of the Air, but then again
it’s so light (and comes with the ability to
disregard erroneous thumbs entering the
screen, again like the iPad mini) that it
doesn’t really make a big difference.
The rest of the buttonry – the top-mounted
power key and the silencing rocker switch
and volume buttons at the side – haven’t
moved far, but protrude nicely to make them
veryeasy to hit no matter when you’re
holding the device – being able to find such
things without looking is often sacrificed in
the quest to make tablets look sleeker, so
we’re happy Apple has gone the other way
here.
There is one note of criticism in terms of
design for such a decent (and still expensive,
despitecosting the same as many of its
peers) piece of kit: the screen has a plastic
thud to it when tapping, thanks to the
smaller and lighter innards.
It’s most noticeable when grazed with a
fingernail, although in a case the effect is
lessened. We’re surprised Apple let this
feature go unchallenged, but it seems in
making the design thinner and removing
part of the inner cage the overall strength of
the chassis is somewhat reduced.
It’s not a major issue by any means, and
certainly one that you’ll only pick up on
sporadically, but it’s still enough to irk at
times when you’re expecting a truly
premium experience.
Many of you will also be wondering why
there’s no TouchID onboard the iPad AIr
when it’s such a large selling point for the
iPhone 5S.
We’re in the same boat. The architecture is
there. It surely can’t be an issue of space
seeing as the technology fitted into the
iPhone 5S.
So what could it be? Apple surely isn’t
holding it back as the ‘big upgrade’ for the
iPad Air 2, is it? That would be such an anti-
climax… plus we’re waiting for the bendable
iPad in 2014 anyway.