Although every Apple product goes through a well-established four-stage life cycle - introduction, growth, maturity and decline - the same is also true of its product families, which begin by building awareness (introduction), begin to increase in sales through advertising (growth), rocket upwards...

A comprehensively superior replacement for 2012's third- and fourth-generation iPads; packing almost twice as much horsepower and noteworthy extra battery life into a considerably narrower and lighter body.

Industrial design is new to full-sized iPad but highly familiar given last year's iPod touch and iPad mini releases, feeling lighter than past 9.7" iPads but heavier than iPad minis, and still not comfortable for truly extended hand-holding; stands are required yet sold separately.

There's no question that you'll get a thrill the first time you pick up the iPad Air. It's so much more holdable, even in just one hand, than the previous full-size iPads. The new iPad has shed a quarter of the old weight, has the nicer-feeling case design of the iPad Mini, and has lost a quarter of...

Whether you like or loathe the company it's hard to dispute that Apple is still the king when it comes to tablets with its market share hovering around the 30% mark just before the release of these new models.

The consensus is that this is the first, real successor since the last major iPad, the iPad 2. And that consensus is correct. The iPad Air not only feels different (lighter, faster, less calories) but it is different, from the way it has been designed, to the hardware lurking inside it, to iOS 7...

The iPad Air is a great tablet, yes. But is the iPad still the one you should buy Our in-depth iPad Air review looks at all the iPad Air specs, benchmarks, and our own time with the tablet to give the definitive verdict on the iPad Air.

For a company that obsesses over making devices thinner and lighter, it must have been torture for Apple to spend nearly three years making a series of iPads that were better than their predecessors, but not smaller. Now it has.

Ten hours of battery life; twice as fast as fourth-generation iPad; light and thin

Still too big for long-term one-handed use; no Touch ID

Summary: Apple's large-format tablet is thinner, lighter and faster than ever, and delivers good battery life. We'd like to see the biometric home button and a wi-fi upgrade as soon as possible, but it's still a high-quality, if premium-priced, device.

Thin and light, Classy design, Fast 64-bit A7/M7 platform, Excellent LTE frequency band support, Good battery life

No Touch ID, No 802.11ac wi-fi or NFC, Expensive, especially when accessorised for maximum business productivity

Imbued with first class design and aesthetics, within the full-size tablet universe, the iPad Air is second only to its newer sibling, the Air 2.

The iPad Air delivers solid performance and battery life in an attractive and impossibly thin-and-light package. The front-facing camera delivers excellent FaceTime capabilities and the Retina Display is top-notch.

No Touch ID fingerprint scanner, meaning you’ll have to type in a passcode with every unlock and a password with every purchase.

Had the iPad lost its way? Not as a range, certainly; over the last twelve months, the iPad mini has been the darling of the tablet scene, coupling affordability with convenience and build quality.

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.