iPad Air Review
Apple has done it again, introducing a new iPad air in March 2019. A 10.5 inch in size, some of the features of this new machine are:
- The home button comes with a touch ID
- A headphone jack
- A12 Bionic Processor
- An apple’s pencil support
- A smart keyboard
- 5-inch retina display
- 8 mega pixel rear camera
- 7 mega pixel front camera
It seems like the iPad air was dead and has now been resurrected by the creator – Apple with the introduction of the iPad air. The iPad air is sandwiched between the lower end 9.7-inch iPad and the higher end 11-inch iPad pro. The iPad air does share some features with the iPad pro but still in a class of its own.
- It has the same thin and light enclosure found in 10.5-inch iPad pro
- It weighs about a pound and its 6.1mm thick
- Great for its portability
- Available in different colours of gold, grey and space grey
- Storage are 64GB and 256GB
Compare to the iPad pro, it lacks the thin wrap around bezels, the square enclosure and the front facing ID camera. It comes with a tapered body design with thick bezels at the top and the bottom to support the touch ID. It has the headphone jack not included in the iPad pro. The laminated display technology built into the pro is also found in the air, offering 2224 x 1668 retina display with true tones for white balance adjustments to display lighting match in the room and wide colour for vivid, true to life colours.
- Support first generation Apple pencil
- It has a smart connector which can be connected to the smart keyboard
- A lighting port at the bottom for charging
- It comes with an A12 Bionic chip with neural engine and M12 coprocessor
- It’s built with most hardware found in the latest iPhone models
- The battery lasts up to 9 to 10 hours depending on usage
- An 8-megapixel f/2.4 rear camera instead of the 12-megapixel f/1.8 in the pro model.
- It has the same camera found in lower cost iPad and iPad mini 5
- It maxes out at 1080p video recording
The front part boasts of a 7-megapixel face time HD camera, the same camera installed in the previous generation of iPad pro. It supports:
- Retina flash
- Live photos
It has a smart HDR feature which comes with true depth, camera such as portrait mode and memoji. It has two speakers compared to four in iPad pro and uses:
- Bluetooth 5.0 technology
- WIFI 802.11ac
- Gigabit – class LTE on cellular models
- Esim technology
- Dual microphones
Apple iPad Air 2019 – Design
The iPad air 2 was on the top of the chart back in 2014 and was replaced with the pro specs, now that air model is back topping the chart again with the aim of replacing the 10.5-inch iPad pro which was still on sale with the release of the air. The older pro was replaced by the air, in other words the 10.5-inch pro was recycled to produce the 2019 iPad air. It’s identical in size and thickness to the iPad pro just slightly lighter and features:
- Same slimmest design
- Tapered side and wide top and bottom bezels that houses the front camera and ID home button
The air is different because older design was made with thicker bezels and different from the 2018 pro models that has edge to edge display with slimmer bezels and no home button. It features a lighting port at the bottom for charging instead of USB – C like the iPad pro models. The dual speakers can be found at the bottom and the back has a single lens camera with no flash., located at the top is the sleep/wake button and the up and down volume.
Touch ID
Apple iPad air 2019 has a touch ID home button for biometric authentication purposes, the same as the one in the 9.7-inch iPad. If you prefer touch ID as compared to face ID, you might want to consider this iPad compared to the pro models for this reason. Touch ID can be used to unlock, access apps and make transactions with Apple pay.
Smart Connector
The smart connector on the left side was designed to work in conjunction with the new smart keyboard released with the new air.
Apple iPad Air 2019 – Display
- It features the same multi-colour fully laminated display
- Resolution is 2224 x 1668 at 264 pixels per inch, does not feature promotion technology
- 500 nits brightness and 1.8 percent reflectivity due to anti reflective coating
- Fingerprint resistance oleophobic to prevent fingerprints
- Touch sensor, cover glass and LCD are combined to reduce the thickness
- LCD layer is closer to the eyes for a better-quality experience
- Supports P3 wide colour gamut for rich, vivid colours that are life and accurate, ideal for artists.
- White balance adjustments by true tone to match the ambient lighting for easy viewing
- Avoid stark contrasts between colours and the lighting in the room.
Apple Pencil
The pencil is included which means the pencil works with most models, the air is compatible with the first-generation pencil, the model with the lighting connector at the end. It won’t work with the second-generation Apple pencil introduced in the release of the pro models.
Apple iPad Air 2019 – A12 Bionic Chip
- The A12 bionic chip is the same used for 2018 iPhone line up
- Clocked at 2.4 GHz, same as the iPhone A12 chip
- The performance is like iPhone XR, XS and XS max.
- A12, offers boost performance and twice graphics capability due to 4 – core graphic engine.
Neural Engine
The 8-core neural engine on the A12 bionic chip uses a real time machine to power features across IOS:
- It improves photo quality
- It improves gaming quality
- Augmented reality
- And more
The neural engine was opened in 2018 to its core ML platform, this offer developers the opportunities to take advantage of the real time learning features in their apps. The A12 bionic power faster detection of the AR surfaces for the rear and front camera and good 3D gaming experiences.
RAM
It has a 3GB RAM, 1GB more than the 9.7 inch and 1GB less than the pros. This is also the same amount of RAM in the iPhone XR.
Cameras
- An 8 mega pixel rear camera with f/2.4 aperture, the same with the 9.7-inch iPad. It supports:
- Live photos
- Auto HDR
- 43 megapixels panoramas
- Burst mode
- Time mode
- Captures 1080p HD video at 30 frames per seconds
- 720p slow – motion video at 120 frames per seconds
- Front camera at 7 megapixels and a f/2.2 aperture
- No true depth camera system
- No face ID Animoji, memoji or portrait mode
- Front camera is more advance and supports with colour capture and retina flash.
Apple iPad Air 2019 – Battery Life
The battery is meant to last for about 10 hours, which is termed an all-day battery, although this depends mainly on usage.
Smart Keyboard
Apart from the on-screen keyboard, the hardware solution is also available known as the smart keyboard that works with the smart connector on the side. The keyboard was made of a woven fabric which is laser ablated to the shape of each key with a soft feel. The keyboard maintains a thin size of 4mm due to the tension provided by the fabric and because of less needs for traditional hardware.
The keyboard has no wires or components, but a thin sheet of nylon etched with metal inside the two layers of the accessories, this serves as the base conductive material for a two-way flow of power. If not in use, it serves as a cover for the iPad. If use as a keyboard, Apple iPad air 2019 has a portion that folds into a triangle for the iPad to rest on and can also be folded up behind for better views.
In conclusion
One of its major unique is its portability which offers the perfection of getting everything done wherever you are, thin and light with advanced wireless connectivity. The battery will survive a whole day on a single charge. A new level of power and intelligence is enabled with the neural engine A12 Bionic chip. A real time machine is used to experience various activities such as: video editing, presentation, design a 3D model and more.
This cutting edge device provides the benefit of effortless high performance and comfort, thanks to an outstanding innovation. The secret behind this stunning device is the amazing design which provides much functionality with effortless power. The device offers an amazing feeling of comfort and control.
