iPad Air和Mini新機初體驗
If you're the undisputed tablet market leader, how do you one-up yourself? Simple. With serious upgrades to the full-sized iPad and iPad Mini.
如果你是平板電腦市場無可爭辯的領導者，你會如何超越自我，繼續領先對手呢？很簡單，下大力氣升級全尺寸iPad和iPad Mini。This Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPad Air, a redesigned full-sized tablet with 9.7-inch display that takes design cues from the iPad Mini, including diamond-cut chamfered edges and thinner vertical borders. The "Air" moniker refers to the tablet's newfound lightness: at 1 lb., it weighs .4 lbs less than its predecessor. (It's also 20% thinner overall.) The iPad Air begins shipping on Nov. 1, starting at $499 for the 16-gigabyte WiFi version and $629 for the 16 GB version with 4G cellular network connectivity and going all the way up to $929 for a 128 GB version with 4G cellular network capability.
本週二，蘋果公司（Apple）推出了iPad Air。這是一款經過全新設計的全尺寸平板，屏幕尺寸爲9.7英寸。它的設計靈感來自iPad Mini，這一點主要體現在鑽石切割的斜邊和更窄的豎邊框上。“Air”這個名字主要是指這款平板所達到的全新輕薄水準：它重1磅，比上一代要輕0.4磅（也薄了20%）。iPad Air將於11月1日發售，16G的Wifi版起價爲499美元，16G的4G版售價爲629美元，128G的4G版售價則高達929美元。Up close, it looks how you'd expect: like the iPad Mini, only, well, bigger. But the lighter weight is immediately noticeable and welcome, bringing it within spitting distance of the iPad Mini's .75 lb featherweight status. So users keen on this larger model will find it's easier to hold for longer stints.
近距離觀察，它的外形完全符合大家的預期：它和iPad Mini很像，就是大了一點。但你馬上就能感覺到它更輕，這會讓它更受歡迎，也讓它和重僅0.75磅的iPad Mini幾乎不分伯仲。喜歡這款大尺寸的用戶會發現它更方便握持，也能拿得更久了。
The Air houses the A7 processor, the same chip found in the iPhone 5s, launched this September. With 64-bit architecture, Apple says iPad Air users can expect faster overall performance, but huge performance gains will become noticeable as more developers code apps specifically for it. Truth be told, the previous iPad, with its swift A6X processor, was no slouch, but everything on iOS 7 runs a tad smoother. Certainly, during my hands-on with the tablet, apps -- with the sole exception of Facebook -- launched faster.
Air用的是A7處理器，和今年9月發佈的iPhone5S處理器同款。蘋果表示，憑藉64位的架構，iPad Air用戶可以享受到更快的整體性能，而隨着更多開發者爲這款處理器度身打造應用，它的性能將得到顯著提升。說實話，老款iPad用的A6X處理器也不慢，只是iOS 7的應用跑得更快了。實際上，在我親手把玩這臺平板時，它的各種應用——除了Facebook外——確實運行得更快。The award for "most improved" ought to go to this year's iPad Mini, which ships in late November, beginning at $399 for the new iPad Mini with 16 GB and $529 for the iPad Mini 16 GB with 4G. Having spent months with first-gen model, I found much to like. (Indeed, 7 inches to me feels like the ideal tablet size.) But the Mini's Achilles Heel was a low-resolution 1,024 by 768 display. On its own, the screen was adequate, but compared with recent iPhones, MacBook Pros, and the full-sized iPad, text and media appeared inferior and pixellated.
不過，“大幅提升”獎應該頒給這次推出的iPad Mini，它將在11月下旬出貨，16G版的起售價爲399美元，16G的4G版售價爲529美元。我入手第一代iPad Mini已經好幾個月了，很喜歡它（我覺得7英寸是很理想的平板尺寸），但美中不足就是那塊1024*768的屏幕。從它本身來說，這塊屏也夠了，但是跟最新款的iPhone、Macbook Pros和全尺寸的iPad一比，它的文本和視頻顯示就相形見絀，顆粒感太強了。That's no longer the case. Now, it sports the same resolution as its larger sibling, but actually benefits from its smaller size. (If you found it hard to pick out pixels on the regular iPad, it should be even harder on the Mini, thanks to a higher pixel density.) In practice, everything appears just as you would expect: sharper, clearer and brighter.
現在這種局面終於改觀了。它擁有了和全尺寸平板分辨率一樣的屏，但又更受益於較小的尺寸（如果你發現在全尺寸平板上比較難看出像素點，在Mini上就更難了，這主要是得益於它更高的像素密度）。實際使用中你會發現一切正如你所預期：更銳利、更清晰，也更明亮。If there was one surprise, it's that Apple didn't carry on the tradition of using last year's parts in this year's model. The Mini runs off the same A7 processor as the iPad Air and iPhone 5s. This translates to processor performance up to four times faster and graphics eight times as fast as last year's model, according to Apple. And while we didn't have enough time alone with a Mini to verify the veracity of the company's claims, everything appeared to zip along just as quickly as the Air.
如果說有什麼驚喜的話，那就是蘋果公司這次不再在新款產品中採用去年的零部件了。Mini採用了與iPad Air和iPhone 5s一樣的A7處理器。據蘋果稱，這使它與老款相比處理器性能快四倍，圖形處理能力快八倍。儘管我們沒有足夠的時間來驗證蘋果這一說法，但Mini上的各種應用跑起來確實和Air一樣快。
