iPad Air

#1

Post by druidsbane » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:10 PM UTC

iPad Air
arstechnica.com

Re: iPad Air

#2

Post by druidsbane » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:16 PM UTC

1lb! finally a reasonable weight for the full size iPad, I was worried they'd lower it back to the same weight as the iPad 2 rather than make a dramatic change like this.

Re: iPad Air

#3

Post by 6ren » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:16 PM UTC

How can the iPad 5 have x2 the graphics power over the iPad 4, when the iPad 5 has the same A7 as the iPhone 5S - rather than an A7X, as they've done previously.

Have they just stopped using the A7X style name? Have they just x2 the GPU frequency? (seems implausible, but it's Rogue, which is apparently extremely efficient, and maybe could handle x2 frequency?).

edited above for clarity

BTW: The anandtech iPhone 5S review (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/7) noted that the A7's rogue G6430 is more powerful than was utilized in the iPhone 5S:

  At 200MHz that would give the A7 twice the peak theoretical performance of the GPU
  in the iPhone 5. And from what I’ve heard, the G6430 is clocked much higher than
  that.

If 200MHz is correct, I bet the iPad 5 just doubled the GPU frequency to 400MHz.

Re: iPad Air

#4

Post by Touche » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:16 PM UTC

Article has little info, is this just a rebranding of the "big iPad" line?

Re: iPad Air

#5

Post by marcusestes » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:17 PM UTC

Interesting that it's also getting the new M7 motion co-processor. It's good to see the market for always-on motion sensor computing increasing.

Re: iPad Air

#6

Post by phaus » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:17 PM UTC

I know that not everyone uses a keyboard case, but I am saddened by the fact that the new one is too small to support a usable keyboard case.

When I purchased a Clamcase Pro, I started using my iPad for pretty much everything, from term papers to code. While it was still pretty small, I could comfortably type about 90wpm on it, which is only about 10-15 less than I normally type.

For everyone else, this looks like pretty good upgrade.

Re: iPad Air

#7

Post by jmduke » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:17 PM UTC

One of the more interesting aspects of this is that they're keeping the iPad 2 at $399 (compared to the Air's $499). I can't imagine the value proposition for a new iPad 2 is at all attractive at that price point (I bought mine used for ~$250 last summer.)

Re: iPad Air

#8

Post by druidsbane » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:18 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #4

Article has little info, is this just a rebranding of the "big iPad" line?

http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/22/apple-announces-the-ipad-air-2... this has even more info.

Re: iPad Air

#9

Post by yeukhon » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:18 PM UTC

> Apple says is 8 times faster and has 72 times better graphics performance than the old processor.

I am always amused by this.

Re: iPad Air

#10

Post by epmatsw » Tue, Oct 22, 2013, 6:19 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #4

Article has little info, is this just a rebranding of the "big iPad" line?

Yep, lighter faster version. Realistically, they probably realized that people want to be able to tell what version it is from the name. The previous two iterations were just the "new iPad".