It's a conflicting time for Apple. On one hand, it's a joyous
occasion for the company because its latest iPhones, which come in
larger screen sizes than the last, set
new sales records
worldwide; but on the other hand, its lineup of iPads just experienced
its third straight quarterly decline. Coincidentally, this comes just a
week after Apple announced its annual tablet refresh, which includes a
thinner and more powerful version of the
iPad Air along with a Touch ID-enabled
mini with Retina display.
Just because it's down doesn't mean it's out. Giving up on a product
category isn't really Apple's style, and last week, it offered up the
Air 2
as exhibit A. The company made it clear that making a solid
top-of-the-line tablet is on the top of its to-do list, so naturally the
new 10-inch device got plenty of upgrades in nearly every aspect of its
design. Curiously, it didn't give the mini lineup the same kind of
treatment: The mini 3 got so little love this time around that the best
news about it is the fact that last year's version is now $100 cheaper.
Should the new iPads still get a place in the consumer's backpack? Read
on to find out.
Gallery
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44 Photos
iPad Air 2 review
Gallery
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72 Photos
iPad Air 2 camera samples
90
Apple
iPad Air 2
Pros
- Beautiful, thin aluminum design
- Incredibly powerful A8X chip
- Touch ID included
- Upgraded camera
Cons
- Battery life could be better
- Some will miss the mute switch
Summary
The iPad Air 2 is Apple's most powerful tablet yet, and is
incredibly thin and light. It's a solid upgrade over last year's Air,
and should definitely be one of your top tablet considerations.
85
Apple
iPad mini 3
Pros
- Touch ID now comes included
- Long battery life
- Good performance
Cons
- Only a couple of upgrades
- Commands a $100 premium over last year's model
Summary
The iPad mini 3 is just as good as its predecessor, but its lack of
feature upgrades doesn't justify its price and places it behind the Air
2 in specs. Unless you love Apple's fingerprint sensor and Apple Pay,
you may want to opt for last year's model instead.
Hardware
iPad Air 2
Thinner, lighter, more powerful. It sounds a lot like last year's iPad Air, which was reduced to the thickness of a
pencil,
but in fact, I'm talking about the sequel. At 6.1mm thick, an 18
percent decrease from the original Air's 7.5mm, you'll be hard-pressed
to find a thinner tablet;
Samsung's Tab S
comes close at 6.6mm. It's not easy to build such a thin device that
feels just as sturdy as its thicker brethren, but Apple nailed it with
the Air 2. The new slate has lost weight, too, but not as much as the
last one did: While the first Air managed to lose nearly half a pound
over the
iPad 4,
the next version only trims off 0.04 pound (32g) for a total of 0.96
pound (the LTE-enabled version is a few grams heavier). So, it's
lighter, but the change isn't anywhere near as noticeable this time
around.
The design language hasn't changed: The Air still features an
aluminum build, chamfered edges and the same footprint as before. But
Apple insists that it rebuilt the new tablet from the ground up. After
all, cramming better specs into a thinner package requires some creative
thinking. The good news is that it looks and feels fantastic, and it
comes with a no-gap display, better camera, more powerful chipset, Touch
ID and stronger wireless connections. The bad news is that some
compromises were made -- specifically in the area of battery size, which
has plummeted from 32.4Whr to 27.3 (more on this later).
Aside from being thinner, there are a couple other ways you can tell a
new Air from an old one. The first is the inclusion of Touch ID,
Apple's fingerprint sensor that was introduced last year in the iPhone
5s. It's certainly a welcome feature, and one I've been hoping to see on
an iPad ever since the iPhone 5s debuted; I can't count how many times I
tried unlocking my iPad this way before remembering it doesn't have
this feature. What's more, Touch ID is even more useful now than it was
before; iOS 8 enabled third-party developer support for the fingerprint
sensor, so you can use it to access sensitive account information or
passwords. It also facilitates online payments through Apple Pay, but
since no new iPad comes with NFC, you won't be able to use your huge
tablet at a tap-to-pay station.
The Air 2 also doesn't have a mute switch, which I didn't think would
be a huge loss until I actually found myself trying to use it and
becoming frustrated more frequently than I expected. Your new options
are to press and hold the volume down button or go into the Control
Center and press the mute key; if you used the switch to lock screen
orientation, you'll need to do that in the Control Center as well. A
microphone now sits where the mute switch once was; there's another one
right next to the camera. This means the antenna on the top of the
WiFi+Cellular model is no longer interrupted by mic holes.
Inside, the Air 2 comes with a new A8X chipset, which I'll discuss
later on. In short, Apple has added another CPU core, boosted graphics
performance and doubled the RAM. But it's also followed the iPhone 6 by
adding the M8 motion coprocessor, which includes a barometer so you can
track flights climbed. Other additions include 802.11ac WIFi, which can
get you faster connections (provided you have a compatible router);
20 LTE bands,
which should be more than enough for most international travelers; and
up to 150 Mbps cellular download speeds if your carrier offers it.
iPad mini 3
Apple's message for the iPad mini changed dramatically in the past
year. When it debuted last fall, the iPad mini with Retina display was
given feature parity with the Air. The two devices were nearly twins,
with the exception of size and a difference in color accuracy (which
we'll get into soon). In the end, iPad buyers found that the toughest
decision was which size to pick. Fast-forward a year, and the mini 3 has
been largely forgotten. Even the fourth-gen iPad, which was released
only eight months after the previous version with a performance boost
and Lightning port, looks like a bigger upgrade.
Indeed, there's only one major feature change on the mini 3: Touch
ID. Yep, that's all, unless you count a gold color option as an actual
feature (I don't). Otherwise, the hardware is completely identical to
last year's mini. All of the stuff you just read (and will continue to
read) about getting improved on the Air 2? Nowhere to be found. The
dimensions and design style all remain the same as the last mini.
Whereas Apple says it built the Air 2 from the ground up, the mini 3
just seems like an afterthought to make it look like the mini line
hasn't been forgotten. Well, it hasn't been, but it does look strange
that the larger tablet is once again considered the premier option with
the best specs. The sudden change in product strategy doesn't add up.
Apple SIM
This may be the very first time a SIM card has earned its own section
in an Engadget review. But a new type of nano-SIM card preinstalled in
the Air 2 and mini 3 is worth a mention. Buried in the last few lines of
a press release is Apple's first mention of a new "
Apple SIM,"
a first-of-its-kind card that lets you change your cellular carrier
without also changing the SIM card. This convenience is limited to just a
few countries and carriers at launch -- Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T
in the US and EE in the UK -- but over time, the selection of willing
operators may improve. It's still very much in the early stages right
now, but the idea is a natural fit for an iPad, which doesn't come with a
carrier lock or a contract; people will want to switch among carriers
depending on what kind of coverage they need and what types of data
plans become available.
My review units came with carrier-branded SIMs, but the
Apple-specific chips should come preinstalled when they're shipped. (If
you prefer a non-supported carrier, such as Verizon, a new chip will be
provided for you.) There's still no way of knowing whether this is a
proprietary technology or if Apple is licensing it; if it's the latter,
it's possible that the option will eventually be available for non-Apple
devices as well.
Display
The Air 2 has the same 2,048 x 1,536 resolution as all the Retina
iPads that have come before it; Retina HD does not exist in the tablet
lineup. But as I mentioned earlier, Apple was able to trim down the iPad
by using a laminated, optically bonded, no-gap display similar to the
ones used on the iPhone and even the Microsoft Surface tablets. Not only
does the new panel save vertical space by eliminating any gaps of air
between the display layers, but it also makes the screen significantly
less reflective. This is meant to reduce the amount of glare hitting the
screen, whether you're reading in direct sunlight or watching movies
under harsh fluorescent lights. I'm happy to report that it works as
advertised; I was able to read text and look at photos much better on
the Air 2 than the previous version. Tapping on the screen also doesn't
feel as hollow on the new tablet as it did on last year's. Still, Apple
seems to have achieved this at the expense of white balance, which seems
slightly colder than on the first Air.
For the iPad mini, I have a confession to make. As I reviewed last
year's model, I praised the display for its high pixel density and good
looks -- and in many ways this still rings true a full year later -- but
I didn't catch a glaring difference between it and the original iPad
Air's display: The colors on the mini with Retina display have a
narrower gamut than the Air, so the hues are flatter; they simply don't
provide the same kind of punch that the Air does. That was something I
didn't want to miss again, so I took a closer look to see if Apple had
corrected anything on the mini 3, or if the color gamut would remain
consistent among all three devices in the series. If you didn't like it
before, expect to see more of the same; any changes in color accuracy
are extremely minor, as the Air lineup continues to offer a better
experience here than the mini. The below image shows the difference
between the Air 2 and the mini 3 displays.
iOS 8.1
iOS 8.1 is the third update to Apple's new mobile OS in just over a
month, after a bug fix that was immediately followed by another fix to
correct the problems introduced in that initial update. The refresh was
made available to every compatible iPhone and iPad yesterday, and the
new iPads will come with it preinstalled, bypassing the lengthy download
and install process.
Because the Air 2 and mini 3 both use Touch ID, they can take
advantage of the biggest new feature in the update: Apple Pay. But since
they don't have Near-Field Communication (NFC) chips installed, you
can't do tap to pay; you can only use the service for online payments.
This isn't a huge issue, since most people will prefer using their
phones (or Apple Watch) to buy stuff in retail outlets; it'd be much
easier to whip out my wallet and swipe my card than take an iPad out of
my bag to use tap-to-pay.
Apple Pay isn't the only benefit you get in 8.1. In the initial iOS 8
release, the company oddly left out the Camera Roll. You could still
see all of the images you took on your phone or tablet, but if you were
using iCloud and had multiple devices, there was no way to tell which
photo or video was taken on which product. This week, it's back in the
Albums tab.
With 8.1, you'll also get to beta test the iCloud Photo Library,
which uploads and stores your collection o' memories so that you can
edit and share them from any of your Apple devices. If you have less
than 5GB in your album and don't want to pay anything, it's definitely
worth doing. If you've got more than that, you'll need to pony up
some cash in order to store it all: 20GB costs a dollar per month in the US; 200GB is $4; 500GB is $10; and 1TB is $20.
Finally, 8.1 enables some of the Handoff and Continuity features I
discussed in the iOS 8 review, such as sending and receiving text
messages on your Mac, and Instant Hotspot, which makes it possible to
automatically tether your computer to your mobile device. These features
were announced as part of iOS 8 in June, but needed Apple's new desktop
operating system, OS X Yosemite, to work properly.
Camera
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the target demographic for a
tablet camera. I used to make fun of the whole idea of taking pictures
with a 10-inch gadget, but clearly it's a trend that's not going away,
as a brief visit to any theme park, tourist attraction, concert or Vegas
sidewalk will prove. So, I can't blame Apple for catering to this
growing group of people who prefer a large viewfinder. The iPad Air 2 is
a prime example of this. While the mini 3 doesn't gain improved imaging
capabilities, the Air 2 steps up to 8MP resolution (versus 5MP in the
Air) and has a new Image Signal Processor (ISP) as part of the new A8X
chipset. On the software side, the new camera comes with Burst Mode, as
well as slow-motion video capture in 720p at 120fps. There's still no
LED flash on front or back this time around, however.
Gallery
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72 Photos
iPad Air 2 camera samples
Overall, the improvement in detail is obvious, and imaging is
noticeably better in a few other areas as well. The white balance is
slightly improved; colors are a little more accurate; and harshly
backlit images aren't as blown out as they were on the previous Air. And
although the f/2.4 aperture is the same on both cameras, the new ISP
manages to filter out more noise in low-light situations; it still won't
catch as much errant light as the iPhone, however. Apple also says the
1.2MP FaceTime camera should do a better job of reducing noise, but I
couldn't see any real difference in side-by-side comparisons.
(You can see full-res images taken by the Air 2 camera
here, and samples from the original Air can be found
here.)
Performance and battery life
|
iPad Air 2 |
iPad Air |
iPad mini 3 |
NVIDIA Shield Tablet |
| Geekbench 3.0 |
4,510 |
2,646 |
2,470 |
3,423 |
| Basemark X |
29,518 |
15,231 |
14,839 |
TBD |
| 3DMark IS Unlimited |
21,659 |
15,536 |
14,595 |
30,970 |
| SunSpider 1.0 (ms) |
303 |
404 |
439 |
463 |
| GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan Off/onscreen (fps) |
32.4/24.6 |
13.0/8.8 |
13.0/8.8 |
31.0/29.7 |
| SunSpider: Lower scores are better. |
Strap on your seat belts, kids -- the iPad Air 2 is speedy. The irony
is not lost on me as I say it, given that we seem to say the same thing
with every new iPad. Indeed, the Air 2 fits that bill perfectly: It's
predictably more powerful than its predecessor, thanks to the A8X
chipset inside, but there's a bit more to the tablet's
oomph this
time around. Apple's making a jump from a dual-core processor to one
with three cores; the CPU is clocked at 1.5GHz, a 100MHz bump from the
original Air; the L2 cache doubled from 1MB to 2MB; and it also comes
with 2GB of RAM, twice as much as the last few iPads. It's no surprise,
then, why the company is boasting a 40 percent boost in CPU performance
and an increase in graphics prowess by a factor of 2.5.
So yes, the iPad was powerful before, and it's even more so now.
Apple says the new chip is optimized for apps and games that use Metal, a
framework that gets rid of a lot of the overhead that gets between a
developer and the GPU. It also takes advantage of 3D graphics processing
and other advanced computing capabilities. The A8X will increase the
performance of every app regardless of whether or not they use Metal,
but I focused more heavily on apps and games that do.
One such app was Replay, a video highlight tool featured in last
week's keynote. The app takes images you've curated from your photo
library and puts them into a cool montage-like video; you can add music,
text and other effects to give some extra pizzazz to your Facebook
slideshow of the family trip to Disneyland. The A8X showed its chops
when it was time to save and render the video; I did the same exact
video on both iPad Airs (iPads Air?), and the original wasn't even
halfway through the job when the Air 2 completed the task.
It's clear that the A8X can make a huge difference over the A7 in
many areas, but I didn't see as drastic a performance improvement with
existing games that use Metal. I tried several, such as
Asphalt 8, Beach Buggy Racing, Modern Combat 5 and
Epic Zen Garden.
As expected, I experienced fewer frame skips, smoother play and faster
load times, all of which are nearly givens anytime there's a boost in
graphics capacity. And the Air 2 is a winner for this alone. The only
downside was that I saw the same number of fine details in the A8X
during gameplay as I saw in the A7. When comparing the two Airs side by
side, I saw the same reflections in puddles, blazing fires, other
characters, falling buildings, exploding helicopters and other elements.
Still good, but not a night-and-day difference. The improvements in
this area were not as noticeable as I'd anticipated, but hopefully
A8X-optimized games will come out soon that push the chip's graphics
capabilities to the limit.
The benchmarks sided with Replay in terms of performance. I saw
massive bumps in test scores on Geekbench 3 and Basemark X (nearly
double that of the Air), as well as a 6,000-point increase on 3DMark. I
also notched a 25 percent decrease in SunSpider, which was the lowest
score I've ever seen on any mobile device (SunSpider scores are like
golf -- the lower the better); finally, I was also impressed by the
onscreen and offscreen GFXBench results. However, while the iPad is
still among the most powerful tablets on the market, it's got some
serious competition; the NVIDIA Tegra K1-powered Shield Tablet crunches
some numbers that surpass the Air 2's scores, with others getting
incredibly close.
| Tablet |
Battery Life |
| iPad Air 2 |
11:15 |
| iPad mini 3 |
13:45 |
| Microsoft Surface 2 |
14:22 |
| iPad Air |
13:45 (LTE) |
| Apple iPad mini |
12:43 (WiFi) |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S (10-inch) |
12:30 |
| Apple iPad mini with Retina display |
11:55 (LTE) |
| Apple iPad (late 2012) |
11:08 (WiFi) |
| Apple iPad 2 |
10:26 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 |
10:04 |
| Apple iPad (2012) |
9:52 (HSPA) / 9:37 (LTE) |
| Acer Iconia W4 |
9:50 |
| Nexus 7 (2012) |
9:49 |
| Microsoft Surface RT |
9:36 |
| Toshiba Encore |
8:45 |
| Sony Xperia Tablet Z |
8:40 |
| Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet |
7:57 |
| Nexus 10 |
7:26 |
| Dell Venue 8 Pro |
7:19 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 |
7:18 |
| Nexus 7 (2013) |
7:15 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 |
7:13 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 |
6:55 |
A thinner profile comes at the expense of battery size. The new Air's
is 5.1Whr smaller than the old one, but Apple still promises that
you'll get the same 10-hour battery life because the A8X is more
power-efficient. Real-life use shows that the original Air still rules
the roost; after a day of heavy use, I typically went to bed with around
20 percent left in the tank. If you're only using it moderately -- say,
for casual content creation or consumption -- you should get a little
over two days. In our video test, in which an HD movie plays through the
life of the battery, the Air 2 squeezed out 11 hours and 15 minutes,
significantly lower than last year's Air and about an hour short of the
Samsung Tab S. That said, I'm using the WiFi+Cellular version, so keep
in mind that the WiFi-only option should get longer results. On the flip
side, the mini 3 actually improved in battery life over the last model,
getting nearly 14 hours of video before dying.
On the plus side, the loudspeakers have improved. In side-by-side
tests with the original Air, the sequel's speakers produced even louder
and fuller sound than its predecessor, which came in handy while
listening to podcasts and streaming music around the house.
The competition
As usual, the new iPads come in WiFi-only and WiFi+Cellular options,
with the WiFi-only models beginning at $499 for the Air 2 and $399 for
the mini 3. In both cases, the base models have 16GB of storage.
Meanwhile, the cellular options start at $629 for the Air 2 and $529 for
the mini 3. If you need more storage -- and given how much available
space is required just to update your devices these days, I strongly
recommend it -- you'll need to add an extra $100 to get 64GB of storage
and $200 for 128GB. As with the new iPhones, the iPads are no longer
offered with 32GB.
The new iPads aren't the only show in town. Google's Nexus 9, which
comes out in two weeks, will likely be a strong performer thanks to its
NVIDIA K1 chip, a 2.3GHz dual-core processor with 64-bit support. (This
is the "Denver" variant of the chip inside the NVIDIA Shield, so the
Nexus 9 should keep up with the Air 2.) Apple got a nice head start on
64-bit support when it released the A7 chip last year, so it'll take
some time for developers to take full advantage of their newfound
abilities. The baseline, WiFi-only Nexus 9, which includes 16GB of
internal storage, will go for $399; this puts it as solid competition
against the mini 3, although its screen size is right in between the
mini and Air. There's also the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet, which is now going
for around $460 and packs plenty of punch, and the Samsung Tab S, which
comes with an octa-core chip and 3GB of RAM for the same price as the
Air 2.
The mini 3 will also soon have to compete against Sony's Z3 Tablet
Compact, an 8-inch waterproof slate that is now available for pre-order.
It's 6.4mm thin and comes with a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor
with 3GB of RAM, but you're also paying for the extra features: it's
priced starting at $499, which is a fair amount higher than Apple's
already high-priced option.
If you like the smaller form factor, but don't love the price,
there's also the Shield Tablet, which comes with the aforementioned K1
chip and is available starting at $299; it's more gaming-minded than
your usual Android tablet, but it's a fantastic performer that soundly
beats out the mini 3. There's also the Google Nexus 7, which was
discontinued, but still available on Amazon and other retailers for
around $200. And finally, last year's iPad mini with Retina display is
now $100 cheaper at $299, while the original mini is $249. However, that
$50 difference also means you lose the Retina display; it's definitely
worth the money to go with the higher resolution. Likewise, the original
Air is now $399, $100 cheaper than its successor.
Wrap-up
In the wake of dire sales, the Air 2 is exactly what Apple needed to
keep the lineup fresh. 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. It could use a little
help with battery life compared to the Air, but it's still an
improvement over the iPad fourth-gen and older. 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.
That said, I'm not sure where the mini 3 fits into Apple's strategy.
Since the only hardware improvement to the new slate is Touch ID, the
mini lineup is no longer on par with the Airs; it's now a second-class
tablet citizen. I love Touch ID, and I favor the screen size of the
mini, but it's not worth paying an extra $100 for Apple's fingerprint
sensor unless you use a ton of passwords or want to make a lot of online
Apple Pay purchases. It's still a great performer, but I can't help but
wonder if the mini lineup can remain relevant at its price point --
especially now that 5.5-inch iPhones are even more portable and still
offer a large screen.
Self-stirring mug
Look and feel
The
hinge is a bit tight, and you'll have to hold the base down with one
hand while lifting the lid with the other. This is the clever bit - you
can push the screen back till it's flat, and then keep going till it
folds right around the other side of the base. The hinge is firm enough
that you can stop at any point, which allows for interesting
possibilities such as the "stand mode" in which the touchscreen is right
up front with the keyboard and trackpad out of reach.
The
keyboard and trackpad are shut down when the lid is pushed back more
than 180 degrees. This means you can switch the Pavilion 11 x360 into
tablet mode and lounge around with it in your lap without worrying about
the exposed keys and trackpad on (what would then be) the bottom.
The stereo speakers are on the bottom,
angled forwards. This means they'll fire backwards in stand mode and be
slightly obscured in tablet mode - there isn't much anyone could have
done to avoid this. We also found that the hinge, while stiff, could not
prevent the lid from wobbling uncontrollably whenever the screen was
touched. You can comfortably use the touchscreen with the lid folded all
the way back, but even a light tap when the device is sitting on a
table will set it off.
Specifications
Windows 8.1 comes
preloaded, as do a few bundled apps that you might or might not find
useful. There's a limited trial of McAfee Live Safe Internet Security,
which we found to be highly intrusive. WildTangent Games is a spammy
storefront that bombards you with ads while trying to sell you games.
Then there's the Kindle app, YouCam, and a few assorted Windows Store
apps.
Performance
As
far as formal benchmarks go, the Pavilion 11 x360 performed as well as
other entry-level laptops do. It scored 1,853 and 1,524 points in PCMark
8's Home and Creative (accelerated) test runs, and 314.5 in SunSpider,
which are just about okay. These are the kind of results we'd expect
from basic netbook or tablet devices. POVRay took 16 minutes, 50 seconds
to trace its benchmark scene, and Cinebench returned a score of 146.
3DMark failed to run despite three attempts.
We're usually not thrilled with the
keyboards and trackpads on convertible devices such as this, since
manufacturers tend to sacrifice comfort for slimness and weight.
However, we were quite happy with the business side of the Pavilion 11
x360. The keyboard is only slightly cramped - especially the arrow keys -
and a few keys are missing, but it's comfortable to type on. Likewise,
the trackpad is large and smooth enough to be used without any problem. 
Verdict
Look and feel
All
the physical buttons - camera, volume rocker and power - are lined up on
the right edge. The top of the phone has the 3.5mm jack and the
Micro-USB port. Above the display there is the front-facing camera and earpiece, and below it are three capacitive buttons for
navigation, which we are familiar with by now.
Specifications and software
The screen also benefits from Nokia's ClearBlack
technology and has Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. While the
display doesn't have the deep blacks we are accustomed to seeing on
AMOLED screens, we think the colours are quite natural, and the warm colour tone is easy on the eye. Sunlight
legibility is insanely good and no matter how brightly the sun shone, we could see the screen clearly. Viewing
angles on the other hand are not too great as we noticed the screen
washing out pretty easily when seen at an angle.
Windows
Phone is catching up to the competition in terms of features and
usability. While not as extensive as the implementations in Android and
iOS, the fact that there is an Action Centre is a definite advantage.
Features such as Battery Sense and Storage Sense are really good
too, letting users understand vital statistics and
take decisions accordingly. Bing now lets users
perform a full device search instead of just searching the Web. We are
also fans
of the new Word Flow keyboard which builds upon the already robust
performance of the regular keyboard so users can swipe to type.
Camera
Apart from these embellishments, there are two
camera apps - the default Windows Phoen app and Nokia Camera (soon to be
rechristened Lumia Camera). Nokia Camera is a feature-rich app with a
lot of manual options that would make any pro user happy. The only caveat is
that new users might find the app slightly difficult to use. 
(click for full size)
(click for full size)
The Lumia 830 features Dolby
Surround Sound. The enhancement option is in switched on by default.
Leveraging this feature, the speakers emit really loud sound but at
high volume we could clearly hear crackling. The bundled headset
is good enough for most purposes but after plugging in our reference
earphones, we were treated to some really tight sound.
Verdict
