The iPad Air 2, with a tri-core CPU, is almost as fast as a modern PC

[froggyboy604]

This morning, the embargo lifted on reviews of the iPad Air 2. If you don’t have time to read a full review, here’s a summary: The iPad Air 2 is a thinner and lighter version of its predecessor, the first iPad Air. Yes, the camera is better — but it’s still not as good as the iPhone 5S or 6. Yes, it now has a Touch ID sensor, which will utterly blow your mind — and yes, the new “bonded” display feels like you’re touching the pixels. What interests me the most, however, is that the iPad Air 2 is powered by the A8X SoC — a chip with three billion transistors, and a tri-core CPU that gets uncomfortably close to laptop levels of performance, with a decent GPU to boot.
 
While the physical design of the iPad Air 2 is utterly iterative, the hardware inside is actually quite exciting. Since the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S — three years ago — Apple hasn’t used more than a dual-core CPU or 1GB of RAM. With the iPad Air 2, Apple finally steps up to 2GB of RAM and a tri-core CPU.
 
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It's good to know that tablets are becoming as fast as laptops, so someday we don't need to carry both a tablet and laptop around for doing stuff. Hopefully future ipads will have USB ports to support keyboard and mouse to do laptop tasks like playing PC games easier.
 
I think saying a laptop is a modern PC is not a very good comparison for the iPad Air being almost as fast as a modern PC. A laptop usually run slower to prevent overheating, and using up the battery in a few minutes like how the iPad Air 2 needs to run slower to prevent overheating and using up all the battery power in minutes.
 
I think a Gaming desktop computer would be considered more of a modern PC's performance,  

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I really hope tablets don't take over, I like my PC set up over a tablet set up.

 

[IntoxNitram]

I also prefer laptops or PCs. I'm not a fan of tablets that much.

 

[froggyboy604]

I'm fine with Laptops being taken over by tablets because I rarely use laptops, and it is pretty easy and cheap to plug in a $20 USB keyboard and mouse combo, or use a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to turn a tablet into a laptop. Windows 8.1 and some Linux tablets also has a desktop mode, so using it with keyboard and mouse is similar to a laptop.

But, I would not want the desktop computer to be less popular because the desktop PC is still the best way to play games at the highest video quality settings, and desktops are easier to upgrade the hard drive, RAM, video card, motherboard, and CPU.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I'm fine with Laptops being taken over by tablets because I rarely use laptops, and it is pretty easy and cheap to plug in a $20 USB keyboard and mouse combo, or use a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to turn a tablet into a laptop. Windows 8.1 and some Linux tablets also has a desktop mode, so using it with keyboard and mouse is similar to a laptop.

But, I would not want the desktop computer to be less popular because the desktop PC is still the best way to play games at the highest video quality settings, and desktops are easier to upgrade the hard drive, RAM, video card, motherboard, and CPU.

oh my god, I had to take a laptop apart this last week in my PC class and it was a complete pain to do, everyone in class was having issues verses taking a PC apart. Unless it's a mac, those were built for no outside tampering.

 

[froggyboy604]

oh my god, I had to take a laptop apart this last week in my PC class and it was a complete pain to do, everyone in class was having issues verses taking a PC apart. Unless it's a mac, those were built for no outside tampering.

I think one of the reason that most people don't upgrade or replace laptop parts except for the RAM, and hard drive is because you have to unscrew so many screws, and remove so many cables just to replace the screen, Processor, keyboard, motherboard, touchpad, and other stuff.

Those very thin laptops are hard to repair because the screws are smaller, and all the parts are small, and packed together.