SpecEagle review · Apple

Apple iPad Air review: First iPad Air.

Item: Apple iPad Air
Rating: 75
Author: SpecEagle Editorial

SpecEagle Editorial·Nov 2013·$499

Overall

75/100

Class rank

#2 of 9

Tier

Tablet

Buy?

At the right price

The verdict, up front

iPad Air (1st gen).

First iPad Air slimmed the 9.7" iPad to 469 g — Apple's 2013 lightweight Retina tablet.

01Display

80/100

80/100 puts it above the 77-point average for tablet phones of 2013.

TypeRetina IPS LCD

Size9.7"

Resolution2048 x 1536

02Performance

64/100

64/100 — right at the average for tablet phones of 2013.

ChipsetApple A7

RAM1 GB

Storage32 GB

03Camera

64/100

64/100 puts it above the 61-point average for tablet phones of 2013.

Main5 MP

Front1.2 MP

04Battery

84/100

84/100 puts it above the 80-point average for tablet phones of 2013.

Capacity8,827 mAh

05Software

80/100

At 80/100 this is one of the strongest software showings among tablet phones of 2013 — 6 points above the cohort average.

What works

First iPad Air — 469 g.
Retina + A7 64-bit.
8.8 Ah battery.
Slimmer than iPad 4.

What doesn't

1 GB RAM.
No Touch ID.
5 MP cam basic.
$499 base 32 GB.

Cross-shop it against

Nexus 7 (2013, Asus)

$229 · score 82/100

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 9-phone cohort of tablet devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .