iPad Air review: The top tablet — at least until the new Mini arrives

Wilson Rothman NBC News

• Facebook Share on Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• GooglePlus
• Email

Nov. 2, 2013 at 3:52 PM ET

Wilson Rothman / NBC News

The iPad Air, sitting on top of a fourth-generation iPad, which has the same size screen but is much wider.

Pick up an older iPad after handling the href="http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ipad-air-reviewers-praise-tablet-being-slim-speedy-long-lasting-8C11494242">like my colleagues, I’d prefer if the screen was more visible outdoors, but I don’t feel like this is missing a fingerprint scanner or a USB port or any hardware frill like that. Its capabilities already exceed my creative drive, especially now that there’s a bucket full of previously spendy software included with the Air’s $499 purchase price — iMovie, iPhoto, Garageband, Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

In fact, I’ve already done two things I never felt inspired to do on a previous iPad: Shoot and edit a series of photos, and record myself playing a song.

Wilson Rothman / NBC News

The back of an iPad Air.

The 5-megapixel camera takes competent pictures, if you don’t mind waving a tablet around, and the latest version of iPhoto for iPad makes short work of most basic photo tweaks.

As for recording music, the dual microphones and surprisingly rich speakers make for a fun studio experience, if not exactly a professional one. (That said, hook up a good mic and some high-grade monitor speakers, and you have a better recording system than anything my cronies and I messed around with a decade ago — 32 tracks of audio is nothing to sniff at.)

In my brief review period, I’ve been able to confirm what has been said already: This is the best full-size iPad ever made, and a physically impressive improvement over the last one. But that’s always the case — there’s rarely an Apple product that isn’t “the best yet.” That’s where the name change comes in.

Remember, this isn’t just a new iPad, says Apple. It’s an iPad Air.

Wilson Rothman / NBC News

Having the larger screen of a full-size iPad is nice when you're editing photos in iPhoto, one of the apps now included when you buy an iOS device.

The trouble with iPads — with tablets in general — is that nobody needs them. You need a phone. And you need a computer. Gravity pulls us towards them, so it’s usually a “Which one should I buy?” decision. But the wizards in the marketing department are needed to build the same kind of sales momentum for tablets. For three long years, the iPad has had a popular image, but it sorta peaked. Cheaper competition running Android have made inroads, and the href="http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/">all-new $399 iPad Mini that’s soon to be flying off store shelves in a

Something as nice (and as catchily marketed) as an “iPad Air” should make you the envy of the block for more than a week or two, but it looks like it’ll soon be upstaged by its own kin.