Performance and Battery Life

The iPad Air is powered by the same 64-bit A7 chip and M7 movement coprocessor found in the iPhone 5s. This is a scrap of a alter for the iPad as it has traditionally shipped with a slightly modified processor conveying the "X" suffix. Even without the revised moniker, the A7 in the iPad Air is clocked slightly faster than the 5s' (1.39GHz versus 1.29GHz). It's non a significant boost but regardless it's plenty fast to carry the tablet through the side by side few generations every bit it feels just as snappy as information technology does on the 5s despite having to ability a higher-resolution display.

Apple'due south latest tablet debuts with the all-new iOS 7. If y'all haven't nevertheless used iOS 7 or are new to Apple's ecosystem, you'll discover a robust OS that's intuitive, packed with features and like shooting fish in a barrel to use. Information technology'southward non as enthusiast-friendly as Android as much of the OS is yet locked downward simply compared to previous iterations, it's a lot more refined and straightforward. If y'all haven't done then already, I'd encourage y'all to check out our recent iOS 7 editorial where I take a look at several features that Apple nailed with the new Os and many that are still missing.

Speaking of the processor, the iPad Air turned in some fantastic benchmark numbers just as the iPhone 5s did last month. With the 64-bit compages Apple is getting ahead of the game, although in present fourth dimension it doesn't signify much, I wouldn't be surprised if the company shipped software that took better advantage of this within the next 12 months.

Battery Life

Apple says the iii.73V, 32.3 WHr 2-cell battery inside the Air is proficient for up to ten hours of spider web surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music. To put that claim to the exam, I conducted our standard battery test on the tablet by setting the screen to 75 percent effulgence and looping a 720p film until the Air died.

This examination resulted in 10 hours and 44 minutes of uptime – impressive when you lot consider Apple tree significantly reduced the size of the battery in the Air compared to the previous iPad'south 43 WHr, 3-cell battery. Key to the improved battery life is of course the greater efficiency afforded by the A7 processor.