Apple iPad Air review: Sun and heir

Performance

Apple iPad Air is running on the same chipset the Apple used within the iPhone 5s - the A7. It's company's first 64-bit mobile system-on-a-chip and as usual Apple claims it is twice as fast as the previous A6 chip.

The Apple A7 28-nm chip is comprised of a 1.3GHz dual-core CPU dubbed Cyclone which uses ARM's ARMv8 microarchitecture (yet to premiere with the Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 processors). The GPU, while not officially confirmed, is believed to be the PowerVR G6430. The use of a 64-bit instruction set for the CPU enables Apple to put more than 4GB of RAM on its future generation of products, but the iPad Air, just like the iPhone 5s, packs just 1GB. Not that this feels insufficient - the way iOS handles multi-tasking you are extremely unlikely to run out of operating memory.

Moving on to actual benchmarks we start with the Geekbech 3 test to see how the CPU and memory are doing. The iPad Air blasted through the test managing to beat every device we've tested so far but the Galaxy Note 3. It scored very close to the iPhone 5s and the Snapdragon 800 competition though.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Apple iPad Air
  2688
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• LG G2
  2243
• HTC One
  1972
• HTC One Max
  1899
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• LG Optimus G
  1623
• Meizu MX3
  1579
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• LG Nexus 4
  1288
• HTC Butterfly
  1257
• Oppo R819
  1047
• HTC One mini
  887

We also ran the iOS version of Linpack. Once again, iPad Air scored a hair better than the iPhone 5s, which has the same chipset. It is also twice as better as the previous A6 chip, just as promised.

Linpack

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air
  1008
• Apple iPhone 5s
  970
• Apple iPhone 5
  546
• Apple iPhone 5c
  532

Now, it's time for the multi-platform GFX Benchmark that gives the GPU a run for its money. The iPad Air took the second place in our all-time chart, just few fps shy of beating the Galaxy Note 3 for the top spot. The iPad Air did better than the iPhone 5s by a whisker, again.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  68
• Apple iPad Air
  63
• Sony Xperia Z1
  60
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  60
• Apple iPhone 5s
  56
• LG G2
  54
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  43
• HTC Butterfly S
  42
• Meizu MX3
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  41
• HTC One Max
  41
• HTC One
  37
• Oppo Find 5
  32
• Google Nexus 4
  32
• Sony Xperia Z
  31
• Sony Xperia ZL
  31
• Sony Xperia SP
  31
• Apple iPhone 5
  30
• LG Optimus G Pro
  30
• LG Optimus G
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  17
• HTC One mini
  15
• HTC One X
  11

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26
• Apple iPad Air
  25
• Sony Xperia Z1
  23
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  23
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• LG G2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  17.1
• Apple iPad 4
  16.8
• HTC Butterfly S
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  16
• HTC One Max
  14
• Google Nexus 10
  13.9
• LG Optimus G
  13.9
• Sony Xperia Z
  13.5
• Meizu MX3
  13
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  13
• Sony Xperia ZL
  12.8
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  6.3
• HTC One mini
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  4.9

We also ran the GFX Benchmark on-screen tests. Quite expectedly, because of the iPad Air's higher resolution screen, it delivered a lower framerate than the iPhone 5s on the high-quality T-Rex graphic test. Still, the iPad seems perfectly equipped to handle every modern game hassle-free.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (on-screen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  53
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  53
• Apple iPad Air
  49
• LG G2
  48

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (on-screen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  37
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26
• LG G2
  22
• Apple iPad Air
  21

Finally, we put the iPad Air through the SunSpider and BrowserMark benchmarks to test Safari's JavaScript and overall browsing performance. The iPad Air with its new iOS 7 operating system scored the same as the iPhone 5s on SunSpider and just a few points better on BrowserMark 2. Clearly, Apple has put special attention into the web browsing performance.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  403
• Apple iPad Air
  405
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  587
• Apple iPhone 5
  694
• Apple iPhone 5c
  704
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  750
• Sony Xperia Z1
  845
• LG G2
  908
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1046
• Meizu MX3
  1085
• HTC One
  1174
• HTC One Max
  1295
• LG Optimus G
  1293
• HTC One mini
  1375
• LG Nexus 4
  1379
• HTC Butterfly
  1397
• Oppo R819
  1423
• Huawei Ascend P6
  3858

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air
  3659
• Apple iPhone 5s
  3549
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3041
• Apple iPhone 5
  2825
• Apple iPhone 5c
  2799
• LG G2
  2718
• LG Optimus G
  2555
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  2438
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2419
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2398
• HTC Butterfly S
  2378
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  2338
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2314
• HTC One
  2262
• HTC One Max
  2243
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  2170
• HTC One mini
  2164
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2107
• Sony Xperia Z
  2093
• Meizu MX3
  1832
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1801
• Oppo Find 5
  1797
• Nexus 4
  1794
• Nokia Lumia 920
  1774
• Google Nexus 10
  1773
• HTC Butterfly
  1475
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1247

Basically the iPad Air is as fast as the iPhone 5s. It has higher resolution to handle though, so it delivers a bit lower GPU performance than the iPhone 5s, but is still one of the most capable and powerful devices we've seen so far. The new CPU architecture and the latest generation PowerVR Series 6 GPU are currently the best performers on the market and will leave nobody disappointed.

New Siri does more, understands new languages

A new iOS version just can't afford to pay no attention to Siri. After more than two years in development the assistant has finally graduated from beta.

Just as the rest of the iOS 7, Siri now looks different. It always launches in full-screen and has a real-time voice graph. Another UI novelty is the option to edit your voice request with the keyboard in case Siri didn't hear you right.

Siri supports and understands English (American, Canadian, Australian, British), French (France, Canada, Switzerland), German (Germany, Switzerland), Japanese, Italian (Italy, Switzerland), Spanish (Mexico, Spain, US), Mandarin (China, Taiwan), Korean, and Cantonese (Hong Kong) languages.

The new Siri UI

The most important Siri upgrades, of course, are under the hood. Siri now has Wikipedia integration and it offers new voices, there is both female and male English US for example.

Siri in action

Siri can also carry out commands affecting the iOS - it can turn Bluetooth or Wi-Fi on/off, increase brightness, play voicemails, check other people's social network status, play iTunes Radio stations, etc.

Siri is a really powerful voice assistant capable of POI search. Assistance with restaurant booking is part of Siri's set of skills. It will find you exactly the restaurant you are looking for and filter the results based on user reviews. You can run impressively detailed searches based on food type, location, outdoor, pool, price range, ratings, etc. This feature is not available in every country, though.

Siri also answer slots of questions and isn't limited to game scores. History, stats, player bios, player comparison, teams, records, etc. Siri should be able to return most of the info right onto its own screen, without switching over to the browser. The same applies to movies. You will get all of your movie-related answers right inside the Siri window - anything about actors, directors, awards, movie stats, premieres and tickets, reviews, trailers, etc.