[iPad Air] iPad Air: Testberichte, Reviews und Eindrücke der Presse

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Hier sammeln wir einfach mal die Testberichte der Fachpresse auf der ganzen Welt. Viele renomierte Magazine wie The Loop, All Things D oder aber auch The New York Times, haben Apples neustes Tablet unter die Lupe genommen. Hier mal einige Auszüge aus der Pressewelt.



Jim Dalrymple von The Loop (ACHTUNG: Auf Apple spezialisiertes Magazin!)

It's very hard to describe how good the iPad Air feels in your hand without actually picking one up. It’s kind of like the first time you saw a Retina display for the first time—shock.

This smaller size is great. If you have decent sized hands you can type with two thumbs on the iPad in portrait, something I wasn’t really able to do with the last generation iPad without a lot of stretching. Clearly a full-size iPad is not something you will be thumb typing with all the time, but it does give you an idea of how much smaller the iPad Air is.

Brad Molen von Engadget

Yes, as strange as it may sound, the latest iPad is actually just a larger version of the 7.9-inch mini. It's as if the smaller device -- which launched at the same time as the fourth-gen iPad -- was a pilot test for Jony Ive's new design language. Calling it the "Air" was fitting indeed, since it's ridiculously small and light compared to previous models.

It measures 7.5mm thick and weighs only one pound (1.03 pounds, to be exact), making it 1.9mm thinner and 0.43 pound lighter than the iPad 4. Apple's also trimmed the left and right bezel by roughly 8mm on each side. If that doesn't sound significant, just hold the Air for a minute and then pick up an older iPad; the difference is immediately noticeable. Simply put, the iPad Air is the most comfortable 10-inch tablet we've ever used.

Damon Darlin von The New York Times

What you may not know is this: Those 6.4 ounces make all the difference when, as you recline while reading or watching a movie, you conk out and the iPad falls forward to bonk you on the nose. The Air won't hurt you the way the old iPad did.

The weight reduction and a 20 percent slimmer profile provide other benefits, too. My messenger bag strap didn’t dig into my shoulder as deeply when my iPad was in it. My hand didn’t cramp up while grasping the iPad Air for an hour while watching movies or playing games.

Edward Baig von USA Today

As it happens, though, this latest full-size Apple tablet is the most tempting iPad yet, better than its already best of breed predecessors, superior still to each and every rival big screen slate that I've tested. Apple dominates the tablet apps ecosystem. Its tablet remains the easiest to use.

In a side-by-side comparison against its immediate predecessor, the new iPad indeed opened apps more quickly and booted up and shut down slightly faster, though not to such a degree that I expect most people to notice.

Matt Warman von The Telegraph

Its light weight and thin form mean it gets out of the way – you don’t notice it, but you notice what you're doing on it. That, potentially, unleashes a new generation of tablet-based productivity. The fact that Apple is now giving away even more software means that perhaps the rebranding is, therefore, more than simply a marketing exercise. Air may yet be the oxygen for a new wave of uses for the iPad.

Walt Mossberg von AllThingsD

In a feat of design and engineering, Apple has slashed the iPad’s weight by 28%, made it 20% thinner and 9% narrower, while increasing its speed and retaining the brilliant, 9.7-inch Retina display.

The new iPad weighs just 1 pound, down from 1.4 pounds for the previous top-of-the-line model, the iPad 4, which is being discontinued.

And it has done all this while maintaining the iPad's industry-leading battery life. In my tests, the iPad Air far exceeded Apple's claim of 10 hours of battery life. For over 12 hours, it played high-definition videos, nonstop, with the screen at 75% brightness, with Wi-Fi on and emails pouring in. That’s the best battery life I’ve ever recorded for any tablet.

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Anand Lal Shimpi von Anandtech.com

The iPad Air is the most significant upgrade to the 9.7-inch iPad in its history. It’s lighter, more portable, more usable and faster than any previous iPad. It doesn’t fundamentally change what you can do with a tablet, but if you’re in the market for one the iPad Air really is the best iPad to date. Competition is definitely more stiff among the smaller tablets thanks to the Nexus 7, but in the nearly 10-inch tablet space it seems like Apple is going to continue to enjoy a great position there.

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Tim Stevens von CNet.com

If you found yourself tuning out the last few generations of iPad thanks to their extreme familiarity, it’s time to get yourself dialed back in. The iPad Air is worth getting excited about. Though it brings no new functionality to the table, and we can’t help being disappointed about the lack of Touch ID, the performance increase and solid battery life show that progress is still being made on the inside. It’s the new exterior design, however, that really impresses. The iPad Air is thinner than any tablet this size deserves to be, and lighter, too. The old iPad always felt surprisingly hefty. This one, compellingly lithe.

However, there is one tablet that’s thinner and lighter still, yet holds the promise of great performance and build quality: the upcoming iPad Mini with Retina Display. At $100 cheaper, that slate could prove the stiffest competition the full-size iPad has yet seen. Time will tell on that front (the new Mini won’t ship for a few weeks), so we’ll withhold judgment for now. If you’re willing to consider a smaller tablet, hold off clicking “buy” for just a little while longer. If you’re looking for a full-size tablet and don’t mind paying a premium to get the best, this is it.

[Isobuster]

Fazit der c't aus Heft 24/13…

• Aufwertung in allen Bereichen
• Viel Leistung auf kleinstem Platz, die sonst kaum ein Konkurrent bietet
• Wer ein großes Tablett braucht, ist beim iPad Air richtig (gilt auch für Leute, die ein iPad 4 haben)

[kahe40]

Das Review bei Anandtech.com ist überaus lesenswert, hat etliche Benchmarks und auch kritische Töne, z.B. ist das RAM mit 1 GB sehr dürftig, insbesondere bei kommenden 64 bit Apps.
Aber so kennen wir Apple, es geht nicht darum das technisch Mögliche zu produzieren, sondern dem Kunden häppchenweise das Geld aus der Tasche zu ziehen, wie hier beim RAM und evtl. mit einer besseren Kamera, dann im 2014 Modell (dem Air-2).

[Isobuster]

Machen das andere Hersteller anders?

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Das Review bei Anandtech.com ist überaus lesenswert, hat etliche Benchmarks und auch kritische Töne, z.B. ist das RAM mit 1 GB sehr dürftig, insbesondere bei kommenden 64 bit Apps.
Aber so kennen wir Apple, es geht nicht darum das technisch Mögliche zu produzieren, sondern dem Kunden häppchenweise das Geld aus der Tasche zu ziehen, wie hier beim RAM und evtl. mit einer besseren Kamera, dann im 2014 Modell (dem Air-2).

Nicht immer so Herstellerfeindlich denken und selber mal den Kopf benutzen Warum haben nun alle Neuerscheinungen bei Apple den exakt selben Chip?

Apple hat in ALLEN seiner Topprodukte den SELBEN SoC drinnen. Das ist alles eine frage der einheitlichen Kompatibilität. Somit wird bewusst der Optimierungsbedarf bei Apps klein gehalten.

Das iPad 2 hat 512 MB RAM und fällt damit im Zyklus noch nicht ab, da man davon ausgehen kann, dass 99% der Apps auch weiterhin für das nun 3 Jahre alte iPad laufen. Natürlich hätte man gleich 4 GB einbauen können. Aber warum das Ökosystem auseinander reißen?

Bei Apple geht es nie um den letzten Tropfen Leistung. Sondern um ein gut funktionierendes, aufeinander abgestimmtes Umfeld ^^ Und das funktioniert einfach unheimlich gut.

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Fazit von TheVerge.com

These lines are both a deep statement of Apple’s purpose and mission and an easy shot at Samsung, which has never said no to any half-baked product idea. But they also reveal an Apple that now thinks its primary task is to refine and enhance — an instinct that’s in tension with the idea of the iPad as a replacement for traditional PCs. That mission requires invention and exploration and risky bets that may not pay off, but the iPad Air instead puts its money on sure winners: thinner size, more power, longer battery life.

These qualities are terrifically important, and not to be understated: the iPad Air is the best large tablet ever made, and its only real competition will be the forthcoming Retina iPad mini, which will offer the same experience in a smaller form factor for a lower price. If you have anything older than the fourth-generation iPad, the upgrade to the Air will be worth it. I’m certainly going to buy one. (I would advise fourth-gen owners to wait a year; the performance boost of the Air won’t be all that noticeable yet, and I’m betting next year’s model will add the TouchID sensor.)

But if you’re waiting around to see if tablets are for you, or you just want a supplement to your laptop, you should look at the Retina Mini or perhaps another great small tablet like the Nexus 7. You’ll spend less money to do most of the same things you’ll do on the Air.

But I don’t think most people can fully replace their PCs with an iPad Air. Not just yet. The potential is there, just off in the distance and over the next hill, but we won’t get there until iOS sheds the culture of no and embraces the fundamental truth about cars: they’re about freedom. They’re about personality and expression and waking up early to stare down the sunrise on the coast with a heart full of possibility and the means to achieve it.

Am geilsten ist einer der Kritikpunkte zum iPad Air: "Das Safari Icon sieht entstellt aus" <- Na wenns sonst nichts ist