iPad Air 2
6.1mm thick, with a fully laminated anti-reflective display, Touch ID and 2 GB of RAM. The thinnest iPad Apple has made.
Released October 22, 2014 · Discontinued March 21, 2017 · From $499 (16 GB, Wi-Fi)
The Air 2 is 6.1mm thick, which was thinner than any tablet anyone had made and thinner than Apple has managed since. Apple got there partly by laminating the display, bonding the glass, touch layer and LCD into one piece with no air gap, so the image sits right under your finger rather than a millimeter below it. That is why drawing on an iPad started to feel direct. Glare dropped 56 percent. The A8X added a third core, and Touch ID arrived on an iPad for the first time. RAM doubled to 2GB, which is why this model aged considerably better than the Air before it and kept getting iPadOS updates until 2022.
Reviews & Reception
At 6.1mm the Air 2 was the thinnest tablet on the market, and the laminated display drew as much comment as the A8X.
It may not be a brand-new design, per se, but its thin frame helps keep the marquee tablet looking sleek and exciting, and the extra burst of performance ensures that it stays among the most powerful tablets on the market for the next year.
Most importantly, the Air 2 feels like Apple hasn't given up on the tablet form factor, even if it's experiencing a dip in sales.