My overall thoughts on my iPad Air 2 after a year owning it

Closingracer

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It's going to be a full year of owning my 2nd iPad and longest I kept any tablet around the end of October ( already a year later wow) and I love it for the most part. The only thing that I would change is the screen. I would change it to an AMOLED screen since I prefer the blacks on it and watching movies on this iPad sometimes the screen becomes to bright during scenes that are dark. The LCD screen itself is pretty good so this is a minor gripe for me.

What I like the most is that apps I buy is basically guaranteed to work since there is less fragmentation with iPads vs Android tablets. They all have cpus designed by Apple and don't need apps to be tweaked as much with it being he same type of cpu. With Android you might have a Snapdragon cpu, Mediatek cpu, or Samsung's internally made chip the Exynos chips. I had a Tab S 10.5 which had a Exynos cpu which was an octa core cpu which is vastly superior to the three core cpu found in the iPad Air 2 but had issues playing some games and apps.

Also the other big factor for me is battery life. I get around 10 hours of usage on my iPad compared to around 3-5 hours with Android tablets.

Happy with my iPad Air 2 purchase specially over the iPad Air 1 which I did sell after three months

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Evilguppy

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I love my Air 2 as well. It's fast, smooth and the apps work as they should. And with IOS 9, it's even better. I won't be getting a Pro because the size is unmanageable for me so I hope there will be a spiffed up Air tablet next year but I must say this one so far is my all time favorite.
 

Closingracer

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I love my Air 2 as well. It's fast, smooth and the apps work as they should. And with IOS 9, it's even better. I won't be getting a Pro because the size is unmanageable for me so I hope there will be a spiffed up Air tablet next year but I must say this one so far is my all time favorite.

Really don't see much to be upgraded other then 3D touch and maybe live photos.


Not enough of an upgrade in features for me to sell my iPad for a new one of the same so capacity and LTE. I spent $830 for this one and not set on a new one yet


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I just bought one today. Holy cow it's thin. You can hear music reverberate through it! I was going to get a Mini 4 but decided to keep my 3. I really like it, it feels perfect to me. So for my desire of getting a bigger screen for videos, I figured let's get an Air 2. Got that weird screen ripple if I hold it wrong. However, it won't ever leave my home. So it's fine.

Now to find a case...


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muchospanish

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Great post. I've had mine a year, too, and I've been very happy with it. That extra ram made the difference, and now we get split screen iOS 9. I love the idea of the bigger screen in the iPad Pro, but I just couldn't live with the loss of portability. For me, the iPad Air 2 is the best compromise.
 

Bane310

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I've had mine for about a month now and I absolutely love it , and yes that extra gig of ram makes a difference.


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FercKast

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I've had my Air 2 since February, upgrading from a Mini 1. The difference was night and day for me. The extra screen space is nice, especially for videos. The increased RAM and tri-core A8X have also made this a nice upgrade for me. iOS 9 sealed the deal bringing true multitasking. I can't wait to see what Apple brings to the 9.7" iPad line next.

I'm only upgrading my Air 2 next month for a 128gb model of it, and giving my current Air 2 to my mom to upgrade her from a iPad 2.
 

Evilguppy

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I've had my Air 2 since February, upgrading from a Mini 1. The difference was night and day for me. The extra screen space is nice, especially for videos. The increased RAM and tri-core A8X have also made this a nice upgrade for me. iOS 9 sealed the deal bringing true multitasking. Ican't wait to see what Apple brings to the 9.7" iPad line next.

I'm only upgrading my Air 2 next month for a 128gb model of it, and giving my current Air 2 to my mom to upgrade her from a iPad 2.

Oh man, I'm already completely nuts over my Air 2 running IOS9, the Air 3 should be dynamite when it shows up!
 

Closingracer

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I just bought one today. Holy cow it's thin. You can hear music reverberate through it! I was going to get a Mini 4 but decided to keep my 3. I really like it, it feels perfect to me. So for my desire of getting a bigger screen for videos, I figured let's get an Air 2. Got that weird screen ripple if I hold it wrong. However, it won't ever leave my home. So it's fine.

Now to find a case...


Sent from my iPad Mini 3 using Tapatalk. 🖖

The only case I seem to like is the Apple leather case....might buy another one but something dark like the Blue one


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Closingracer

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Oh man, I'm already completely nuts over my Air 2 running IOS9, the Air 3 should be dynamite when it shows up!



Eh Idk how much of an upgrade an Air 3 will be lol. It will get force touch and perhaps love photos but Idk is it enough to upgrade the iPad? Right now I'm happy without it but who knows a year from now. I also have the 128GB LTE model so I invested a lot into this one atm


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Closingracer

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I've had my Air 2 since February, upgrading from a Mini 1. The difference was night and day for me. The extra screen space is nice, especially for videos. The increased RAM and tri-core A8X have also made this a nice upgrade for me. iOS 9 sealed the deal bringing true multitasking. I can't wait to see what Apple brings to the 9.7" iPad line next.

I'm only upgrading my Air 2 next month for a 128gb model of it, and giving my current Air 2 to my mom to upgrade her from a iPad 2.



With all the apps, movies and etc you're going to need 128GB lol


c7ba304e079ca8100c9fbc60068a693b.jpg



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Evilguppy

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Eh Idk how much of an upgrade an Air 3 will be lol. It will get force touch and perhaps love photos but Idk is it enough to upgrade the iPad? Right now I'm happy without it but who knows a year from now. I also have the 128GB LTE model so I invested a lot into this one atm


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Honestly? I don't know how they can improve the Air 2, at this point. But if they make one with comparable or better battery life, with all the goodies already in existence with the Air 2 and with extra bells and whistles, I might be talked into it.
... Unless of course I decide to not replace my MBA and get an iPad Pro instead, (as a home device) then I'll be happy to keep my Air 2 as is.
But then, I have many months to decide, so there's no rush.
I'll decide when I really have to. :dancing:
 

Closingracer

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Honestly? I don't know how they can improve the Air 2, at this point. But if they make one with comparable or better battery life, with all the goodies already in existence with the Air 2 and with extra bells and whistles, I might be talked into it.
... Unless of course I decide to not replace my MBA and get an iPad Pro instead, (as a home device) then I'll be happy to keep my Air 2 as is.
But then, I have many months to decide, so there's no rush.
I'll decide when I really have to. :dancing:



I'm actually interested in perhaps getting a Macbook Air because it's light and a true laptop. I have a behemoth of a laptop that is meant to be plugged in. It's a gaming laptop that ways like 5-7 pounds or something lol.

One of the reasons why im not terribly in a rush to upgrade my Air 2 considering its specs are still top notch


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SquireSCA

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I am an Android guy. But I do enjoy my iPad Air 2. There are things about iOS that drive me insane... how they sell it as simple, but what they don't tell you is that simple=limited, and so when you want to do things that are very common and simple on other platforms, you have to jump through lots of hoops on iOS.

They made it too *****-proof, so that if you are more of a power user, iOS is actually more difficult and less intuitive than Android or Windows.

That said, the quality construction, the brilliant display and most of all, the insanely good battery life, allows me to look past the OS limitations(of which there are many), and I use the iPad Air 2 all the time.

It's a great device once you adjust your expectations. It's not a PC in tablet form the way Windows and Android tabs are. It is a media consumption device that you can do *some* PC functions on, in a great tablet form...

I won't go into the details of my critiques unless anyone asks, lest I be assaulted for "bashing Apple"... haha
 

Channan

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With all the apps, movies and etc you're going to need 128GB lol


//images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/05/c7ba304e079ca8100c9fbc60068a693b.jpg


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Jeez! How many apps do you have? Lol Your screenshot only shows about 60GB worth of apps and data, so there's still over 50GB left of apps that have to be less than 736MB each.

I manage with a 16GB iPad. I download and clear my pictures when my iPad gets pretty full on storage, which is fine because all of my pictures are uploaded to Google Photos, and I stream all of my music and videos. This works well for me because I don't really use my iPad when I'm off of Wi-Fi. I use my phone then.
 

Closingracer

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I am an Android guy. But I do enjoy my iPad Air 2. There are things about iOS that drive me insane... how they sell it as simple, but what they don't tell you is that simple=limited, and so when you want to do things that are very common and simple on other platforms, you have to jump through lots of hoops on iOS.

They made it too *****-proof, so that if you are more of a power user, iOS is actually more difficult and less intuitive than Android or Windows.

That said, the quality construction, the brilliant display and most of all, the insanely good battery life, allows me to look past the OS limitations(of which there are many), and I use the iPad Air 2 all the time.

It's a great device once you adjust your expectations. It's not a PC in tablet form the way Windows and Android tabs are. It is a media consumption device that you can do *some* PC functions on, in a great tablet form...

I won't go into the details of my critiques unless anyone asks, lest I be assaulted for "bashing Apple"... haha




Err what? I've had Android in the past and went with iOS for a few reasons.... It's not that restrictive
 

Closingracer

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Jeez! How many apps do you have? Lol Your screenshot only shows about 60GB worth of apps and data, so there's still over 50GB left of apps that have to be less than 736MB each.

I manage with a 16GB iPad. I download and clear my pictures when my iPad gets pretty full on storage, which is fine because all of my pictures are uploaded to Google Photos, and I stream all of my music and videos. This works well for me because I don't really use my iPad when I'm off of Wi-Fi. I use my phone then.



362 apps a lot of them are ones for my niece
 

SquireSCA

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Let me list a few things...

Can't easily use it as a USB storage device.

Can't set app preferences.

Still no real-time widgets. The iOS desktop is still just a slab of icons, same as it has been since 2007. I can't even arrange them the way I want, like on the outer edge of the screen, so that my wallpaper isn't covered up with icons.

Here is another example...

I have a very large PDF, it is a shop manual for an ATV. Figured it would be nice to have on the larger iPad screen, so just copy it over, right?

On a Windows or Android device, it is simple. Plug in the device, it pops up on your PC like any thumb drive would, drag the PDF from your PC to the device, done. No apps, no uploading to the cloud and then downloading it to the device, drag, drop, walk away.

When you want to open it, you just click on the PDF and it automatically opens. If you have multiple apps that can open it, it asks you if you want to use one of those other apps from now on. If yes, it never asks you again. Every time you click it, it just opens with the app you want. All of this, the copying, the setting the preferred app and the opening, takes less time than it took you to read these past two paragraphs, literally. Set once and done.

On the iPad... Well, you can't just drag and drop a file. I have to download some sort of file manager app, then plug in, launch iTunes, and then use the two together to copy that file over.

Easy right? Wait, there is more. Now where is that PDF? As there is no visible file system to the user, I cannot simply have a "My Files" folder on the desktop... so what do I do? I have to launch that file manager app and go find it. Once I locate it, I can click on it. Unfortunately, iOS forces you to open it with whatever default app that Apple has mandated that you must use... because... nobody knows why, but Apple must surely know... Anyway, that app on my iPad Air 1, can only open a PDF up to 50mb in size, so after launching the first file manager app, and then loading the mandated app, which imports the file only to tell me it cannot access it, then and only then am I able to select the app that I want to use... so now I launch a 3rd app to open the file, which it imports and then I can use my large PDF.

Now the real kicker, or kickers, is that there are now 3 physical copies of that large PDF on my iPad! All three apps, because every app much be locked into its own file sandbox, has a copy of that large file, taking up 3 times the storage that it needs to.

But there is more!

iOS isn't intelligent enough to remember all those steps and just jump to the correct one next time. The next time I want to open it, I have to jump through all the hoops again, unless the app I want remembers where to find that file.

The point being, that this is anything but user friendly. This is an idiotic system, where Apple designed something and wanted to force people into a certain way of doing things, and in the end, their efforts to make it "***** proof", actually made it harder to use in many cases. They built system that is easy to use, so long as you stay within the very narrow scope of what they want you to do. As soon as you step outside that box, things are way more difficult than they need to be.

Apple has the reputation for being easier to use, but the reality is that it isn't. It's easier for people that have only every known Apple. To them, they don't see it as a limitation because they haven't really experienced anything else. It's just how it is, and so they don't see the problem with it.

To a caveman, he probably doesn't see a need for a car, until he sees one and realizes how much walking sucks. LOL

When you come from a more forward thinking OS that gives you the freedom to customize or just perform common tasks in 1 or 2 steps instead of 5 or 6, going to iOS is clearly a downgrade.

All that said, I enjoy my device, because I just use it as a glorified eReader, for email, browsing, a game or two... it's a toy, and it works VERY WELL in that arena.

When I need to get actual stuff done, I go to my Android, Windows or Linux machines.

Now, I will get the usual responses of people who "get real work done" on their iPad.

Of course. As an Apple fan, you have learned to adapt your usage habits around the limitations of the platform. But that isn't how technology is supposed to work. The platform should adapt and facilitate how YOU want to work, not the other way around.

Apple is realizing this, hence their migration to becoming more like Android... Larger screens, finally getting some sort of multitasking, an almost copy of Android's notification bar, etc...

It isn't the hardware. I *love* the hardware. What bothers me is seeing so much potential in this hardware, and then seeing them cripple it with a sub-par OS.
 

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