“Apple was the first company to make a viable mass-consumer-market tablet with the iPad brand, and it had one hell of a headstart in doing so,” Richard Goodwin writes for Know Your Mobile. “With the iPad virtually creating the consumer tablet market from nothing in 2010, the iPad was not only the only tablet anyone knew about, it was also the only tablet worth bothering with. Rival manufacturers took forever to catch up, and initial rushed offerings were pretty abysmal, cementing Apple’s dominance in the space it had created.”

“In 2013, Apple introduced the iPad Air, a re-branded version of the 9.7in iPad tablet which had been shaved, slimmed, and refined into the most advanced slate we’d seen so far. I gave the iPad Air full marks in our review last year –– that was a first,” Goodwin writes. “We seldom give out five star reviews on KYM, simply because 5-out-of-5 means the product is perfect or cannot be improved upon. And whether you love or hate Apple, most would agree the iPad Air was about as good as it gets when it comes to a tablet, having excellent design, excellent performance, excellent battery life, and a superb ecosystem. How can you improve upon perfection? It’s an interesting question and one we’re eager to address in our review of the iPad Air 2.”

“The iPad Air 2 really is a very impressive piece of kit that brings together everything that made the iPad Air great and adds in a raft of refinements designed to further improve the general user experience,” Goodwin writes. “The end result of all this is a fantastic tablet that is arguably the best money can currently buy.”

Read more in the full review here.

MacDailyNews Take: Well, now, there’s a fairly positive review.

SEE ALSO:

AnandTech reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPad Air 2: Delivers the best tablet experience – November 7, 2014
Fortune reviews Apple’s new iPad Air 2: Best for work, not play; shines as a PC replacement – November 5, 2014
Gruber: High performance iPad Air 2 marks a turning point – October 22, 2014
T-Mobile to offer $0 down on iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3; pre-orders start October 22nd – October 21, 2014
Apple’s new iPad Air 2 is 13% thinner than a pencil; Touch ID a boon for enterprise users – October 16, 2014
Apple unveils iPad Air 2 – the thinnest, most powerful iPad ever – and iPad mini 3, both with Touch ID – October 16, 2014