Couldn't wait to upgrade to the iPad Air 2.
Our old iPad was the iPad 2nd generation. So, it's quite a leap for us getting the iPad Air 2.
The first thing we noticed was how light and thin it is. Then you turn on the screen, and wow. The retina display is amazing, especially since we've come from the iPad 2nd gen which did not have the retina display.
Aside from it was time to upgrade for us, one of the biggest attractors is TouchID. Touch ID on the iPhone is amazing. It's the perfect blend of security and usability.
Now TouchID comes to the iPad, and it's even better. The TouchID button feels solid. The silver ring( or gold if you get the gold) around the touch plate is distinctive and elegant.
So with the iPad Air, you have the color options( Silver, Gold, Space Gray) .
We'd never tried the other colors before( there was only white and black back when we got our old iPad) .
The reason we got the Silver is because that's all they had at the store. A silver and a gold. Gold seemed a little much for us, and we would have been happy with the Space gray, but we've come to really like the white front and silver edges of the silver.
I thought the back of the iPad would be the same brilliant silver color, but it's actually only on the TouchID, the edges of the iPad, and the Apple logo on the back. The rest of the back casing is the finely brushed aluminum.
Drawbacks is too strong a word when dealing with such an elegant piece, but there are a few wrinkles that we encountered when first using the iPad Air 2.
- Form Factor
The edges are more narrow, this is not new to the iPad Air 2, but upgrading from the 2nd gen iPad, it's been an adjustment of how to hold it without fear of dropping. On the iPad 2nd gen, there was plenty of space on the side for your thumb to hold on to. Now that space is smaller, and has taken more adjustment than we thought.
- Where did the Sound go?
Somehow along the way, we locked the sound. Some apps just wouldn't produce sound, and the keyboard and the sleep button wouldn't give their little clicks.
We thought something was wrong with it. We adjusted the volume up. Checked the settings.
Turns out there's no silence button like on the iPad 2nd gen.
However, there is a button( we discovered) if you swipe up from the bottom of the screen that has a bell on it. It's the mute button.
Somehow, I must have hit that button, and it caused most of the apps to go silent.
- iCould Restore
I used an iCloud backup of our old iPad, and then used that to restore to the new one saving( we had hoped) our settings from our apps and such.
The restore did help to save our old iPad settings, backdrop, and apps, but a few apps lost their history/data. Not a big deal, but definitely an inconvenience when game data was lost. Maybe that's the apps fault for not storing their data in the right place.
The restore put back the apps we had on our old iPad, except for the apps made by Apple such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote. Those ones took the longest to get on the iPad, and I had to go to the purchases section and download them. Weird.
The other question we had after the restore was where was the Passbook app?
We set up Apple Pay, and knew that it used Passbook, but where was the app( like the iPhone has)?
I thought that maybe our restore kicked out some of the default apps, but after a lot of searching( ain't searching the internet hard work?), I found out that there is no Passbook App, or Health App, or Voice Memo App that comes with the iPad Air 2( at least as of this writing) .
I thought it would have the new stock apps that come with the new iPhones, but it doesn't have them( health, passbook, even weather) . So that took a little bit of searching to figure out.
The process of the restore itself was easy( minus those questions) . It said it could take 6 hours, but it doesn't tie up the iPad for all that time. It restores settings, then lets you use the iPad while the apps are downloaded.
The iPad Air 2 is light. It's thin, and it's oh so beautiful.
The ease of the Touch ID makes it worth it as security that most of us use for the 4 digit pass codes doesn't help much when someone is looking over your shoulder. The Touch ID makes it so easy, and if you don't have an iPhone 6, you can use Apple Pay with the iPad. More and more retailers are accepting Apple Pay for web payments too.
It's a great iPad. You will love it.
