The Apple iPad Air 2 Review
by Joshua Ho on November 7, 2014 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Apple
- Mobile
- iOS
- ipad Air 2
CPU Performance
Now that we’ve managed to take a good look at the changes between the A8 and A8X, we can get a good idea of what those differences translate to in some real world performance. While we’ve already seen pure CPU performance, such differences can be small when viewed from real applications. To this end, we use a few browser benchmarks and similar benchmarks. I definitely want to caution against comparing SoCs across platforms though, as rendering engines have a significant effect upon the performance of the device.
There's really not too much that needs to be said here, as the extra core and minor clock speed bump make for ridiculous amounts of performance. The A8X is class-leading here despite generally having fewer cores and lower clocks than the rest of the competition. However, in comparison to A8 we don't see a massive jump in performance. This seems to suggest that even a third core will invoke diminishing returns in general, although these changes mean that it's enough for the iPad Air 2 to be one of the fastest ARM-based devices on the market. One can see an odd regression in the Basemark OS II storage test, but this is likely to be production variances in NAND quality rather than anything notable.
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darkich - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
What a disaapointing review.After all of this waiting I was expecting some deep chip architecture dive, something we havent read in other reviews ,but NOTHING here came across as new and interesting.
Also, it was written rather poorly ,with a lot of grammar mistakes and bad, half hearted sentence structure.
And this was supposed to be the review highlight of the year on AT.
wyewye - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
Joshua, this article is horrible:1. Extended use of "aforementioned" when refering to stuff you dont know and already mentioned, like some magic "arhitectural" benefits.
2. There is no need to inflate the article by saying the same thing over and over again.
3. "In the basic definition of a tablet, the iPad Air 2 definitely fits." - No shit sherlock the ipad is a tablet - what is this, retard bingo?
4. You randomly switch sorting order of the graphs so the better is no longer on top, conveniently when Apple performs weaker.
5. On every set of tests that Ipad Air 2 performed mid to low compared to competition, you still present a missleading summary that Ipad was the best.
6. For every weakness of the iPad Air 2, you try to find excuses.
Yes the iPad has both advantages and disadtantages. Try to maintain some reasonable level of objectivity, there are way too many fanboi "reviews" out there.
Since when AnandTech does asskissing "reviews"? Bring back Anand before the site dies!
konradsa - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
Disgruntled Nexus 9 owner? :-)konradsa - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
A lot of people at the mac rumors forum are complaining about a) distortion on screen when pushing on back and b) excessive vibration due to speakers when watching movies or playing games. Bad enough many are returning them again.Can you comment on that? Could you compare the cellular and Wi-Fi versions and see if they behave differently with respect to a) or b)?
JoshHo - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
I can confirm that both of those are present on the cellular version that we were sampled, but distortion from pressing on the back is something that I've noticed on multiple devices this year. The vibration effects are definitely strong but this really isn't an issue.Morawka - Sunday, November 9, 2014 - link
in order to create distortion from pushing on the back, you have to put significant force on my ipad air 2 wifi 64gbYour not going to see distortion just holding it and moving it around, or swapping hands. You have to actually try and push hard.
mrex - Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - link
sorry, but that was the first thing i noticed when i picked up the device. Swapping or even moving my hands positions caused distortions on the screen. I checked both units in the store and both suffered this issue. i dont know about the vibration, because there were too many people to test the sound quality. the distortion was enough for me and didnt buy it. ill check later if apple has fixed it (secrectly as they do). but now, its only place is on a table at a store...tralalalalalala40 - Thursday, November 13, 2014 - link
Any case will dampen that. You use cases to keep the ridiculously high resale value...mrex - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
the lack of info makes me wonder, if anandtech site is just another bitch in apples stall nowadays. no mention the strong vibration... no mention screen distortions which is visible and terrible when keeping it on your hands. it is time to remove anandtech site from the serious reviewers list... seems to be too much connection with apple nowadays to be able to do trusted reviews? :/Ilias78 - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
Anand became an Apple employee - what did you expect, negative reviews from Anandtech? No way