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
GPU Performance
On the GPU side of things the iPad Air 2 seems to have a GX6650, which should provide a healthy boost to GPU performance when compared to the GX6450 in the A8. Apple has placed a strong emphasis on gaming for their iPad line, so there are some obvious comparisons to be made between NVIDIA's Tegra K1 and the A8X as well. To test this, we use a suite of benchmarks that can give a good idea of real world gaming performance.
In practice, while we see that the A8X's GPU is extremely close to Nvidia's single Kepler SMX across the board, with the sole exception of 3DMark which seems to be due to the dependencies present in the physics test that dramatically lower the overall score. NVIDIA's Tegra K1 seemed incredible for its GPU performance earlier this year, so it's just as surprising to see Apple successfully rival NVIDIA in this area. Of course, GPU performance is a function of both peak performance and sustained performance, so we'll have to look at the GFXBench battery rundown test to get the full picture here. If Apple can deliver far superior performance and battery life in such a situation, it's pretty clear that the jump to 20nm will be critical to pushing the limits on what's possible in a mobile device.
NAND Performance
As we've seen before on some tablets, poor storage performance can cause major issues with the overall experience as I/O pauses can far exceed just a few frame drops that one might expect from cases of UI lag induced by insufficient performance elsewhere. In order to attempt to quantify this performance we use a custom utility developed by Eric Patno. While such testing is far from a complete look at performance, this can give a rough idea of what to expect.
Overall, it seems that Apple does quite well on the storage tests. It seems that the iPad Air 2 shares its storage solution with the iPhone 6. While I don't have an iPad Air on hand for testing, it should match quite closely to the iPhone 5s. This represents a generally high-quality NAND solution, but as mentioned before random I/O could stand to improve a bit. Compared to most of the lower-cost Android tablets it's definitely as good as it gets though.
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tralalalalalala40 - Thursday, November 13, 2014 - link
Oh the strained logic of a sterdroid user. One employee of a news site goes and works somewhere else, everyone left behind still works for that employee. lolapplelover2885 - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
I consider myself an apple fan girl for life. I bought my MacBook Pro in 09 and no issues. My finacee has a HP desktop that does. I fear the blue screen of death soon. I want to convert him to the apple side. He has the newest macbook pro 2012 I want him to get an iphone he has a Motorola phone. Most Android and Window's are not as flexible as the Apple. Yes, IOS has issues like other platforms. However, Apple's products are designed to last longer than it's competitors. I had bad taste of both Windows & Android now. I owned a Samsung Galaxy S and Windows Nokia Lumia the problem is their software & battery life. Yes, apple's products are expensive but in the long run it is worth every penny spent on a beautiful product that is going to last. I am off to buy an Ipad Air 2 something I have been waiting on for a while. I'll do a combo pack and give it to myself as a birthday present. I'm a tech junkie and a student. Did you know you can use Window's office mobile on all devices? You no longer need those giant desktop thing's. I don't need a USB to find mystuff when I have airdrop and icloud if you need extra storage use that as your backup for files. I also use Google Drive to do my school work. Good luck with all your apple needs.Ilias78 - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
Lol women... go back to your kitchen.Commodus - Sunday, November 9, 2014 - link
I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to call out this sexism -- criticize the issues, not the gender, please.zodiacsoulmate - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
lolmaximumGPU - Sunday, November 9, 2014 - link
"giant desktop things" are not used just for office you know..asleepy - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
Sound vibrates through the screen even at low volume levels to such an extent that people's fingertips are going numb and they're returning the Air 2s for refunds... yet no mention of that??? Welcome to Apple Corporation, Anandtech. And goodbye.Commodus - Sunday, November 9, 2014 - link
Maybe because it's not as much of an issue as you think it is? If you'd believed the Antennagate sky-is-falling types, Apple was going to have to recall the iPhone 4 and face disastrous financial results... turned out that the problem, while real, was seriously overblown.I've felt it, and it's slightly weird, but I don't think I'd call it a dealbreaker.
tralalalalalala40 - Thursday, November 13, 2014 - link
People's fingernails are literally getting stuck in the gap of the note 4 and people are having to amputate fingers. It's horrible. Goodbye corporate Samsung!!#@$carloshehe - Sunday, November 9, 2014 - link
I got the iPad Air 2 yesterday. I can do more with it I could ever do with a Nexus. I have an Android phone but I wouldn't take a Nexus tablet if you have it to me for free.