The iPad Air Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 29, 2013 9:00 PM ESTWiFi
The iPad Air moves to a 2-stream dual-band 802.11n solution, a sort of compromise between where the iPad was with its previous single-stream implementation and some of the newer devices shipping with 802.11ac. Moving to two spatial streams obviously helps improve performance tremendously. Peak performance on 5GHz 802.11n, assuming an equally capable AP, went as high as 180Mbps in my tests. I was able to average 168Mbps during our standard UDP WiFi test on 5GHz.
Cellular
Apple continues to use Qualcomm’s MDM9615 modem in the iPad Air, the big difference this round is there’s only a single SKU (A1475) for the cellular model covering a total of 34 countries across the Americas and EMEA. The LTE iPad Air supports a total of 14 LTE bands (1,2,3,4,5,7,8,13,17,18,19,20,25 and 26). In his usual awesome fashion, Brian speculated that the increased number of supported LTE bands was partially a function of moving to Qualcomm’s WTR1605L transceiver.
| iPad Cellular Speeds | ||||||
| Property | iPhone 3G/3GS/iPad 1 3G | iPhone 4 / iPad 2 (GSM/UMTS) | iPhone 4 / iPad 2 (CDMA) | iPad 3 | iPad 4/iPad Mini | iPad Air/iPad Mini w/Retina |
| Baseband | Infineon X-Gold 608 | Infineon X-Gold 618 | Qualcomm MDM6600 | Qualcomm MDM9600 | Qualcomm MDM9615 w/RTR8600 |
Qualcomm MDM9615 w/WTR1605L |
| Max 3GPP Release Feature | Release 5 | Release 6 | Release 7 | Release 9 | Release 9 | Release 9 |
| HSDPA Category | Cat.8 - 7.2 Mbps | Cat.8 - 7.2 Mbps | N/A | Cat. 24 - 42 Mbps | Cat. 24 - 42 Mbps | Cat. 24 - 42 Mbps |
| HSUPA Category | None - 384 Kbps WCDMA only | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps | N/A | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps | Cat.6 - 5.76 Mbps |
| EVDO | N/A | N/A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A | 1x/EVDO Rev.A |
| LTE | N/A | N/A | N/A | 100/50 UE Cat. 3 | 100/50 UE Cat. 3 | 100/50 UE Cat. 3 |
From a spec and performance standpoint, the LTE modem in the iPad Air is no different than what was in the 4th generation iPad. Consistent cellular connectivity options remains one of the staples of the iPad lineup. Although WiFi tablets still tend to be the more popular, it’s hard to argue with the productivity benefit to having LTE on a tablet. Being able to just reach for the iPad Air and know it’ll have connectivity regardless of where I am, without having to search for and log in to a WiFi network, is tremendously convenient.
Just as before, there’s no contract commitment necessary to buy an LTE iPad Air. You can manage your account directly on the device itself. Furthermore, at least in the US, the LTE iPad Air isn’t locked to any one network operator. You specify what provider you’d like to go with at the time of purchase, but afterwards you’re able to swap in any other activated nano SIM from a supported network operator. You could feasibly start out with a Sprint iPad Air and later switch to a Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T SIM and continue using the device. The flexibility offered by a single SKU with support for a ton of bands is pretty awesome.
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Wilco1 - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
The "cheats" do not prevent thermal throttling down at all - they simply switch to maximum frequency immediately. The issue is that many of the popular benchmarks run for such short periods (~10 milliseconds) that the DVFS has no time to switch to maximum frequency. A long running benchmark always runs at the maximum frequency.KoolAidMan1 - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
CPU throttling for thermal reasons, one of the most common functions in CPUs and GPUs, is the exact opposite of an application boosting clock speed based on triggers from specific benchmarks and applications in order to game performance numbers.Blown away by the lack of thinking in the comments
KPOM - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Maybe because he had previously commented that Apple, Motorola, and Google don't cheat on benchmarks.Graag - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Look, lilo, we all know that you're an anti-Apple shill based on your posting history, so it's probably too much for you to actually understand what you're writing.The kind of cheating you are incorrectly remembering occurred when a device that *usually* throttled its frequency to save battery power did not throttle its frequency when it detected that a benchmark program was running.
Obviously, that's not what's going on here.
tential - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Dunno where all the hate is on this review.I read the Engadget review first, and was meh about it. I come here and I read a full hardware review. It's just amazing the amount of effort that goes into these reviews.
My only complaint is that anandtech doesn't review more products! Haha. I'd really like to see some ultrabook/lower end laptops reviewed. Some more routers as well. This is a great review though, I realy don't even want to waste my money now on a new tablet/phone when apple seems to have went full steam ahead to destroy competition in performance. it's too bad the average consumer knows nothing about this stuff though.
tential - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
To further elaborate since people are saying this review favors Apple. The review of the Nexus 7 was also VERY NICE in terms of what google did. Anandtech is praising apple in this review, but they praise companies that do a good job period. I don't hitnk this review favors apple at all. It does point outa number of short comings as well.I think the Ipad Air is great, but Google NExus 7 definitely holds its own at the price point given and clearly there is an advantage for Apple with it's focus on its own ARM processor development because they develop their own processor for their own new OS while SnapDragon and Google work independently (to my knowledge at least).
Streamlined - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
It's because the web is full of paid shills who post comments for money from Apples competitors.KoolAidMan1 - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
Its because tech forums are filled with paid shills from Apple's competitors and anti-Apple fanboys who will jump through as many mental hoops as possible to deny any positives their products and ecosystem hasprashy21 - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Anand,A very nice and detailed review ( as always ).
I have couple of points
"Touch ID" should have been part of it ( it's deal breaker for me to upgrade my 3rd gen iPad ).
As you pointed out 32GB should be norm now as Apple charges premium for their product.
azazel1024 - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - link
Good overall review.However, I have to disagree a lot with the comment on speaker location.
Yes, you have trade-offs between both on top or bottom if held in portrait postion or one on top one on the bottom in portrait position. However, I do think Apple choose poorly with this. I can't believe I am the only one who pretty much watches movies 100% in landscape postion. On top of that probably 90% of my gaming is in landscape with the rare exception of a game that is only portrait (cut the rope for example). Probably more than 75% of my music listening is also in landscape (either because it is on a stand in landscape, or I am browsing the web in lanscape).
So for me personally, and I'd bet most other users, the times they'd be using the speakers, they are going to be using their iPad in landscape mode...which means they get no stereo.
The RF window could have been relocated to what is the side in portrait mode, or top when in landscape to accomodate repositioning of the speakers. Well, it should have anyway, though it might not be feasible with the internal layout of battery and boards.
One of those things that interests me in the T100 (other than, well, full windows) is proper placement of the speakers for stereo sound when I'd actually be using the speakers 90+% of the time (and better speakers it sounds like?).
Apple has kind of lost me through no real fault of their own though. The iPad was amazing when it first came out. The iPad 2 was great. The Retina iPad 3 had some big trade offs but an amazing screen (weight and charging time). The iPad 4 is...uh...an increment. The Air looks great and seems to be a huge improvement over the iPad 3/4.
The problem is that others have improved their game. Android has gotten much better as an OS over the intervening years and OEM/ODMs have really stepped up their game in Android tablet designs.
Windows 8 was an okay touch OS. 8.1 was a better (if not great, an okay) touch OS. Intel finally came out with a good enough (and in some ways, damned good) x86 Atom processor in Silvermont/Bay Trail.
iOS just doesn't have productivity potential in the areas I am interested in and zero compatibility with the productivity apps I use on the desktop/laptop (Lightroom being one of the main ones). For general content consumption, Android is cheaper with some rather good designs. Windows tablets, with the T100...are also cheaper and so much more productivity potential when needed.
I'll keep my iPhone, thank you very much. For a phone and phone OS, iPhones and iOS are great IMHO. For a tablet though, now that the hardware has continuously improved, I feel like it can finally deliver on productivity like I've always wanted it to. So an "appliance" operating system is no longer appropriate to me in a tablet (well, not a tablet I'd buy). The hardware is great, but the OS not so much anymore (for a tablet).