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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cygnus1 - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Luddites...tralalalalalala40 - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Ya, your choices will be very limited with the nexus 9. The iPad is supported by every case maker/screen protector maker, so the infrastructure around it just blows the competition away.Desusenam - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
I really like the covers they advertise, I just want to buy one of those...NEDM64 - Sunday, November 9, 2014 - link
But on the nexus 9 you can't plug it to a pic and just use it as an external hard drive...DEAL BRAKER.
vFunct - Saturday, November 8, 2014 - link
Yah, but then you'd be stuck with an Android device, instead of an iOS device.Most people would much rather have iOS, because the apps are so much better than in Android.
Android apps are terrible, if they even exist at all.
asendra - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
I feel the same way.About Android.
nicolapeluchetti - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
I agree that iOs is not perfect and i don't actually like it, but unfortunately some apps are only on it. In my case it's DJ software. I'd love to save money and buy an android tablet, i'll do is soon as Traktor is released for Android.Guspaz - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
As a DJ, you'd care about the quality of the DACs used in the tablet, which would probably rule out cheaper Android tablets anyhow.Impulses - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
I doubt a DJ worth his salt would utilize the DAC and headphone stage within a tablet, in Android's case they'd employ USB OTG and a higher quality external DAC/amp/etc... The same thing can be accomplished with an iPad no?p_giguere1 - Friday, November 7, 2014 - link
Yup, Traktor sell their own line of iOS hardware with integrated DACs. See for instance: http://www.native-instruments.com/fr/products/trak...