Looks like I'm getting an iPad Air 2. It's a clear upgrade for anyone on the older 9.7 inch non Air iPads. It's also the first time Apple has varied the power of the tablet from the phone significantly. iPhone 6 has an A8 dual core CPU with 1GB of RAM. iPad Air 2 has the A8X, a triple core CPU and 2GB RAM. Past iPads have used X variants of the processor, though it's been a GPU only boost to help with the larger resolution screens, never a CPU boost until now.

I think the CPU and RAM increase is to help support the rumored split screen mode, allowing multiple apps to run at the same time on screen. This is one aspect of the Surface RT based devices I liked.

Thanks to T-Mobile offering 24 month 0% loans on the cellular iPads, it's an easy sell for myself. I use the cellular features of an iPad, since it costs me $0 a month to do so. I was on the fence about a mini or Air, but with the new performance gap, I can't justify a new mini this year. My iPad 3 is already starting to slow me down when using it.

Pure CPU benchmarks are placing the thing at levels that beat a 2011 MacBook Air, and sit below the 2012 MacBook Airs. For those using a tablet a s a computing device, and not just a media consumption device, this is damn impressive.

http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ipad_air_2 is a good review of it.