Apple's standard, sleek packaging gives way to a beautifully designed device. It is 18% thinner than its predecessor, and a fair bit lighter too.

Beautifully slim design; Improved display; Phenomenal A8X chip; Good battery life; Impressive tablet camera

Very expensive; Pixel density could be higher; iOS is not for everybody

The iPad Air 2 is undoubtedly Apple's best tablet to date. Its Touch ID fingerprint scanner works well, it's thin, light and powerful and lasts a long time on a single charge. But it no longer stands head and shoulders above the competition.

thin; light; long battery; powerful processor; fingerprint sensor; decent camera

expensive; small upgrade over last year; square screen; no expandable storage

The form-factor didn’t change since last year’s redesign, but even though the iPad Air 2 is slimmer than its predecessor, Apple didn’t sacrifice battery life. The company claims up to 10 hours using Wi-Fi, and in three battery rundown tests I averaged 10 hours and 14 minutes of continuously watching...

Incredibly fast A8X processor makes everything feel more immediate; same great battery life; easier to see in bright sunlight, Comes in gold and has Touch ID

16GB isn’t enough storage for the entry level model, Otherwise it’s the same as last year’s

Summary: The iPad Air 2's performance enhancements will appeal to those who run graphically demanding apps, although Apple's quest for thinness comes at the cost of reduced battery capacity. Last year's iPad Air remains a good option, but the Air 2 will be the power user's choice.

Thin, light and elegant design, Excellent build quality, Excellent performance, Low-reflectivity Retina HD display, Touch ID support, Improved iSight and FaceTime HD cameras

Lower-capacity battery than the 2013 iPad Air, No MicroSD storage expansion

A selection of small but meaningful changes means the best tablet in the world just got even better

Stunningly slim and beautifully made, Screen is better than ever, Vastly more powerful

Very small hit to battery life

Apple's aging mid-range tablet is still the perfect mix of size and performance for nearly everyone.

The iPad Air 2 has a great balance of size and weight. Crisp, bright display. iOS 9 runs perfectly, including split-screen apps.

Priced relatively high for a tablet; single speaker isn't that loud compared to iPad Pro.

Amazon's Fire HDX 8.9" is the best value tablet for media out there, but its ecosystem doesn't match up to other operating systems for general-purpose use.

Easy to use., Light, durable body., High-res screen., Solid audio., Excellent technical support.

Tied tightly to Amazon's services., Limited storage in the initial configuration.

Since the launch of the iPad Air 2, Apple has released two new tablets – the larger, 12.9in iPad Pro and more compact iPad Pro 9.7 . These two new tablets aren’t designed to replace the iPad Air 2, but to complement it, with support for official keyboards and the pressure-sensitive Apple Pencil, for...

While we were a bit skeptical at first mostly driven by the sale price of the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad Air 2 tablet, our impression has changed quite dramatically after using the tablet extensively on a two-week period.

Overall, there’s a lot to go over on the iPad Air 2. While the name suggests that it’s an iterative update in nature, in practice these updates add a lot of compelling hardware to the high-end iPad line. One of the first areas worth looking at here is the design.