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iPad Air

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What's Hot: The iPad goes on a diet and gets a makeover-- it's much slimmer, lighter and better looking.

What's Not: As ever, no SD card slot or USB host port and no direct access to the file system.

Reviewed December 3, 2014 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief (twitter: @lisagade)

Update 10/2014: Read and watch our iPad Air 2 Review.

Apple's 5th generation iPad Air fixes the one thing we disliked about the outgoing iPad with Retina display: the old iPad was too darned bulky and heavy. Android tablets and even some Windows 8 tablets bested Cupertino's 9.7" tablet with slimmer designs and lighter weight, making the iPad seem a tad behind the times. Now Apple has reset the bar with a 10" tablet that weighs just 1 pound and is 0.29" thick, making it the lightest tablet in the 10" space. Sweet. That translates into less hand and arm fatigue when reading for extended periods of time and when playing accelerometer based games, you no longer feel like you're waving a brick around.

Inside, as per usual for new generation consumer tech and computers, things are faster. The iPad gets the same extremely fast Apple A7 dual core CPU with Power VR SGX graphics and M7 motion co-processor as the iPhone 5s, but clocked 100MHz higher at 1.4GHz. I doubt anyone thought the iPad 4 was slow, but everyone loves a specs jump and the new 64 bit CPU will handle whatever demanding 3D games you throw at it for at least a few years to come. It's a remarkably power-friendly chip, so battery life remains at the same 10 hours of quoted use time even though the battery went on a diet to achieve the new slim and light design.

The iPad Air runs iOS 7, Apple's new OS with a flatter user interface and usability enhancements that make it quick to get to frequently used settings, notifications and the camera. Apple's iWork (MS Office compatible suite) and iLife (Garage Band and iMovie) are included as a free download from the app store. Starting with the iPad Air and iPhone 5s and 5c, these two software suites are included gratis with every new iOS model. The iPad Air is compatible with the 475,000 tablet optimized apps in the app store, that still puts it significantly ahead of Android and Windows Metro apps. From music production apps to Amazon Prime video, you'll find them for the iPad.

In terms of design, Apple took the lovely and fresh iPad mini design and enlarged it to make the 9.7" iPad Air. The tablet is available in Space Gray with a black face and silver with a white bezel, as are the iPhone 5s and iPad mini with Retina display. Either way, you get a slim and classy looking product with Apple's signature aluminum unibody design and metal buttons that are tactile and easy to operate. Controls are in the same basic location with the power button and headphone jack up top, volume buttons and rotation lock/silence slider on the right and the Lightning port on the bottom. This is the first full size iPad with stereo speakers and they surround the Lightning port. Sound quality isn't noticeably better or louder than the last gen iPad with Retina Display (aka iPad 4).

The display is bright, color accurate and has a very wide color gamut. Apple uses the same IPS technology and 2048 x 1536 resolution as on the iPad 3 and iPad 4, and it's still one of the best tablet displays on the market. Colors pop, brightness is high and at 264 PPI text and graphics are very sharp.

Deals and Shopping:

iPad Air Video Review

Pricing remains unchanged, with the base 16 gig WiFi-only model selling for $499. Each storage increment increase raises the price a painful $100, and 4G LTE (also supporting 3G) costs $130 more. The iPad Air is available on all major US carriers without contract commitment. The iPad mini with Retina display is $100 less, and for that relatively small price difference, we suggest you buy based on preferred size rather than price. Either way you'll get the same resolution Retina display and Apple A7 processor for similar performance. The iPad Air has dual band 802.11n WiFi with MIMO (including LTE models), Bluetooth 4.0 and 4G LTE models have a GPS. As always with iOS devices, there's no microSD card slot, and your best alternative for storage expansion are cloud services like iCloud and DropBox.

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