Apple iPad Air 2 review: His Airness

Apple's best chip yet - A8X

The Apple iPad Air 2 has the best chip to come out of Cupertino yet - a beefed up variant of the 64-bit A8 dubbed the A8X. The new chip has a triple-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz that's said to bring a 40% improvement over the previous A7. It also brings a 2.5x improvement in graphics performance. The RAM is, for the first time ever at 2GB.

Apple has developed its own api for gaming developers - Metal. It will allow devs to create apps with very little overhead.

So without any further ado let's jump straight into the CPU performance. We tested Geekbench 3 and Basemark OS II on the latest iPad and it managed to top both benchmarks with relative ease. The processor of the A8X was able to outdo the 64-bit Tegra K1 on the Nexus 9 tablet. Samsung's Exynos-powered Galaxy Tab S 10.5 was extremely far off the mark.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  4464
• HTC Nexus 9
  3470
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2925
• Apple iPhone 6
  2924
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  2884
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  2881
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  2781
• Apple iPad Air
  2388

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  1937
• HTC Nexus 9
  1890
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1509
• Apple iPhone 6
  1252
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  1222
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  1181
• Apple iPad Air
  1128
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  829
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  768

Graphics are extremely well handled on the iPad Air 2 as well. It outscored just about each and every one of its opponents only succumbing to the iPhone 6 in the GFX 3.0 Manhattan onscreen test which is understandable given the huge difference between the resolutions of the two devices.

What's most impressive is that Apple's slate was able to outdo the powerful 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 and its supercharged GPU, a feat that no other tablet managed so far.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  70.4
• HTC Nexus 9
  60.2
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Apple iPhone 6
  42.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  41.7
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Apple iPad Air
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  22.5
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  20.5

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  52.2
• Apple iPhone 6
  51
• HTC Nexus 9
  46.2
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  26.4
• Apple iPad Air
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  14
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  13.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  32.6
• HTC Nexus 9
  31.5
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18.5
• Apple iPhone 6
  17.7
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  5.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6
  29.2
• Apple iPad Air 2
  24.7
• HTC Nexus 9
  22.6
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  11.2
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  2.9
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  2.9

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  29753
• HTC Nexus 9
  28244
• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18684
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• Apple iPhone 6
  17054
• Apple iPad Air
  13597
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  6875

And finally we're looking at JavaScript performance on Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 test. Here the Apple iPad Air 2 was beaten by the HTC Nexus 9 running the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop. There isn't much between the two so both offer extreme browsing prowess.

We couldn't test BrowserMark 2.1 as the iPad Air 2 had an issue with its page and kept reloading so we cannot give a statement on HTML 5 performance just yet.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  3953
• Apple iPad Air 2
  4054
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Apple iPhone 6
  4710
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (Exynos)
  4777
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 (Exynos)
  4927
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  5351
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088

The Apple iPad Air 2 is the best iOS performer to come out of Cupertino yet. The new A8X chipset is up there on top of the mobile chipsets and offers outstanding CPU and GPU performance alike. What's mostly impressive isn't the fps or scores you see above but the real life performance of the iPad Air 2.

It didn't once stutter or run out of breath. It didn't get too heated either and battery life wasn't too hindered by our intensive testing - top notch.