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Apple iPad Air reviews are in: World's best tablet gets even better

The Apple iPad Air launches this week and the reviews have been posted. The iPad Air is universally praised and there doesn't seem to be any downside, except for the high price.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer
Apple iPad Air reviews are in: World's best tablet gets even better
Image: Apple

The reviews for the latest full size Apple tablet, the iPad Air, are in.

As you can read in the following reviews from around the Web, the iPad Air is universally praised for Apple's ability to make a fantastic large tablet narrower, lighter, and faster.

CNET's Tim Stevens is new to the network, welcome Tim, and offers up a solid review and video walk-through while echoing my disappointment in the lack of Touch ID.

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.

AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi presented us with yet another comprehensive review and if you want to dive into all the technical details of the new iPad Air and get the scoop on the latest and greatest technology then check out the detailed 10-page review.

Two weeks ago I had all but written off the bigger iPad. It was too bulky and just no where near as portable as the iPad mini. Once the latter gets a Retina Display and equal hardware across the board, why would anyone consider the bigger model? The iPad Air changed my perspective on all of that.

Fox News' Clayton Morris centered his article on the size and weight of the new iPad Air.

At 1 pound, the new iPad Air is impressively light, barely heavier than the iPad mini. My toddler can waddle around the house with it a lot more easily, and I can now use it in bed without worrying that it will smack me in the forehead if I doze off while reading Frank Miller’s "The Dark Knight Returns."

My friend, Vincent Nguyen, from SlashGear gave the global LTE support in the iPad Air a real test and successfully toured with it in Tokyo.

The iPad Air is the no-compromise tablet. Beautiful display, crisp design, premium build quality: it’s the gold-standard by which tablets are judged, and rightly so. If Apple’s full-sized slates had fallen into the shadow of their mini brethren over the past twelve months, the iPad Air brings the larger tablet right back into the spotlight.

Time's Harry McCracken made statements comparing the older generation iPads that may help convince me to pick up the new iPad Air.

No, the iPad Air’s best feature is the 475,000 third-party offerings tailored for it in the App Store, still by far the most bountiful collection of tablet software in quantity, quality and sheer diversity, from entertainment to Web tools to education to mundane business stuff. No competing model has anything like it, which is the single biggest reason why no other full-sized model has made much of an impact on the market.

Engadget's Brad Molen provides some great photos, videos, and detailed testing results in his thorough review.

Surprise: the iPad Air is the best iPad we've reviewed. In addition, though, it's also the most comfortable 10-inch tablet we've ever tested. Not every manufacturer can produce a thin and light device without also making it feel cheap or flimsy, but Apple nailed it.

TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington walked through all of the specifications and functions, along with showing photos of the cases. His screenshot of a 128GB model has me drooling.

The iPad Air is a huge improvement over the iPad 4th-gen, or the iPad 2, pictured in the gallery. Its form factor is the best currently available for a 10-inch tablet, and it provides a great blend of portability and usability that leans towards the media device end of the spectrum.

I currently own the 3rd generation full size iPad and use it daily for media consumption, email, surfing the Web, and writing during my daily commute. It works very well for me and I haven't ever though to myself that something needs to improve for my usage scenarios. Thus, as much as I would love to pick up another LTE iPad, I think I will be skipping the iPad Air for now.

Then again, with T-Mobile's new payment plan and data option you may just read a Tweet from me on Friday that I am at my local T-Mobile store.

Related ZDNet iPad Air coverage

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