A customer holds a new Apple iPad Air tablet inside the Apple Store on New York's fifth avenue, after the new iPad went on sale, November 1, 2013.
A customer holds a new Apple iPad Air tablet inside the Apple Store on New York's fifth avenue, after the new iPad went on sale, November 1, 2013. Reuters/Mike Segar

Apple is known for manufacturing some of the most popular tablets on the market, but Samsung's Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is proving to be a tough competitor to the Cupertino giant's iPad Air 2, particularly as it comes with a cheaper price tag.

So is it worth splashing out more for the iPad Air 2, or will Samsung's tablet deliver the same, if not better, results for users? We review and compare the specs and features of both devices to see which one you should stick with...at least until a new product comes out.

Design and display

Both the Apple iPad Air 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 comes with the same screen size and resolution, but Samsung has managed to make its device thinner (5.6 mm) and lighter than its competitor. The Wi-Fi model weighs just 389g as compared to the iPad Air 2's 437g.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 comes with a 9.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. On the other hand, the Apple iPad Air 2 sports a backlit IPS LCD display. On this end, the AMOLED display in the Galaxy tab S2 results in better colour reproduction than that of the LCDs used in iPad Air 2.

In terms of design and colour variations, Apple offers the iPad Air 2 in Silver, Gold and Space Grey, while the Galaxy Tab S2 comes in White, Black and Gold.

Related: Apple iPad Air 3 vs iPad Air 2: A comparison of specs and features

Processor and storage

The Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is powered by a Samsung Exynos 5433 octa-core processor, including four cores running at 1.9GHz and four cores clocked at 1.3GHz. This measures up against the iPad Air 2 which runs on tri-core 64-bit Apple A8X processor.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 sports 3GB of RAM as compared to the iPad Air 2's 2GB of RAM.

The Apple iPad Air 2 is available in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB of internal storage capacities, whereas the Galaxy Tab S2 offers only 32GB and 64GB variants.

Software

Launched back in 2014, the iPad Air 2 runs on Apple’s latest IOS 9.0.2, while the Tab S2 runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, although it is expected to get Marshmallow soon.

Thanks to the latest iOS version, the iPad Air 2 features split-screen multitasking which gives it an edge over the Tab S2, as reviewed by TabletPC Review. Both tablets also feature a fingerprint scanner.

Camera and battery

Both tablets feature an 8-megapixel rear facing camera with auto-focus, but Samsung's Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 can capture 4K video at 30fps (frames per second) while the iPad Air can only record in 1080p HD. For the front camera, Apple uses a 1.2 MP sensor whereas the Galaxy Tab S2 features a 2.1MP camera unit.

According to a battery life test by Laptop Mag, The Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 lasted for only seven and a half hours as compared to the iPad Air 2, which stays alive for nine hours and 22 minutes.

Price

This could be biggest advantage for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. The Wi-Fi only 32GB 9.7-inch Galaxy Tab S2 price starts at US$499 (AU$698) while the 64GB comes with a price tag of US$599 (AU$838). The prices of the cellular models vary with carriers.

Apple’s iPad Air is slightly more expensive. The base model with 16GB storage starts at $499 which goes up to US$699 (AU$978) for the 128GB version.

RELATED STORIES