iPad Air ( Price > Review > Features )

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg called the iPad Air the best tablet he has ever reviewed.

It’s just 7.5 millimeters thin and weighs just one pound. The stunning Retina display sits inside thinner bezels, so all you see is your content. And an incredible amount of power lies inside the sleek enclosure.

“That isn’t just because of its slimmer, lighter design, but because Apple boasts 475,000 apps optimized for tablet use – far more than any other tablet platform,” If you’re a hard-core write-on-an-iPad person, the Air’s physically larger size and virtual keyboard might make more sense. But you can do everything else fine on a Mini. It’s just more compact. For me, that e-reader-plus-extra feel of the Mini made it a perfect companion. It has The redesigned Smart Cover and Smart Case are a perfect fit for iPad Air. They automatically wake it when opened and put it to sleep when closed. They also fold to create a great stand for reading, viewing, and typing. And they come in a whole range of colors. So they don’t just work smart, they look smart. The new os iOS 7 was designed to take advantage of 64-bit architecture. So it’s every bit as advanced as the iPad Air it runs on. And with new features like smarter multitasking, Control Center, and AirDrop, iOS 7 makes the experience of using iPad Air even more beautiful and simple. Because iOS 7 and iPad Air weren’t just designed to work together, they were designed to enhance one another.

In more locations than ever. Using two antennas instead of one and MIMO technology, iPad Air delivers up to twice the Wi-Fi performance of its predecessor. And the Wi-Fi + Cellular model supports more LTE bands than ever, so you can make quick, easy connections the world over.

The iPad Air comes in either Space Gray (which has a black bezel) or Silver (which has a white bezel), and starts at $499 for the Wi-Fi version, which has 16GB of storage. A 32GB model costs $599, a 64GB model is $699, and a 128GB version costs $799.

Apple also sells versions of the Air with built-in mobile broadband. Those versions cost $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, $829 for 64GB, and $929 for 128GB. While you can opt for data plans from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, monthly rates vary. For example, 5GB of data on AT&T and Verizon costs $50 per month, whereas you can get 6GB on Sprint for the same price.

We would have liked a TouchID fingerprint sensor, as on the iPhone 5s, which would add an extra layer of security to the iPad Air. And while Airplay works well with Apple TV, we’d like greater integration with our home entertainment system, such as the remote-control features on the Galaxy Note and Xperia Tablet Z.

My advice is, get thee to an Apple Store and just look at the size of the Mini and 9.7-inch iPad screens. See if that 7.9-inch screen works for you. You don’t need to see the Retina version to understand if the display feels too small for your everyday needs.