iPad Air 2 vs iPad mini 3 specs comparison: Battle of best new iPads

iPad Air 2[Photo credit: Facebook]

Tim Cook announced during the media event last October that Apple Inc. will come out with two new devices for their iPad line, giving consumers more options when buying a new mobile tablet.

The latest iPads, dubbed as the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, both feature exceptional upgrades from the company's last-generation tablet devices. But why should a customer choose to buy one over the other?

Here is a close comparison between the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3:

Dimension and Display

Since the iPad Air 2 is the bigger product between the new Apple tablet releases, it comes in a 9.4 x 6.6 x 0.24 inch body and weighs 0.96 lbs. It also has a 9.7-inch LED multi-touch display with 2048 x 1536 resolution and 264 ppi pixel density.

Meanwhile, the smaller iPad mini 3 has a 7.87 x 5.3 x 0.29 inch body and weighs just 0.73 lbs. It has a 7.9-inch LED multi-touch display with the same 2048 x 1536 resolution, but the smaller screen has bigger pixel density at 324 ppi.

iPad Mini 3Apple

Internal Parts

The iPad Air 2 is equipped with the Apple A8X chipset with Triple-core 1.5 GHz CPU. It also has 2 GB RAM and comes in 16 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB internal memory variants.

On the other hand, the iPad mini 3 comes with an Apple A7 chipset with an ARM v8-based Dual-core 1.3 GHz Cyclone CPU and PowerVR G6430 GPU. It has a 1 GB RAM and is also offered in 16 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB internal memory variety.

Both devices run using the iOS 8.1 software.

Camera

The primary camera featured in the iPad Air 2 has 8 megapixels with autufocus, touch focus, and face/smile detection features. It also has a 1.2 megapixel secondary front-facing camera.

The iPad mini 3 also comes with a powerful 5 megapixel primary rear camera with autofocus and face/smile detection features as well as similar 1.2 megapixel secondary camera.

Pricing

Since the iPad Air 2 is bigger, it generally is more expensive compared to the iPad mini 3, wherein the 16 GB is being sold at $499, the 64 GB has a price tag of $599, and the 128 GB can be bought for $699.

The more affordable iPad mini 3 also has varied prices, starting at $399 for the 16 GB variety, $499 for the 64 GB model, and $599 for the 128 GB variant.