The iPad Air 2 inherits hardware similar to both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with a major change in processor to the Apple A8X, the high-end 3-core variant of the Apple A8. The iPad Air 2 has 2 GB RAM (making the iPad Air 2 the first iOS device to have more than 1 GB RAM) and the PowerVR GPU has 8 cores. It also uses the Apple M8 motion co-processor which has a barometer and is the first generation of the iPad to inherit the fingerprint Touch ID sensor from the iPhone. In addition, compared to the iPad Air, it includes an improved 8-megapixel (3264×2448) rear-facing camera with 10 fps burst mode and slow motion video at 120 fps, similar to the iPhone 5S camera capabilities. The front-facing FaceTime HD camera has also been improved with a larger ƒ/2.2 aperture, which allows 81% more light in the image. Apple added a gold option to the existing silver and space gray color choices for the iPad Air 2, the previous existing colors were used on the preceding iPad Air.
Unlike its iPad predecessors, the mute/orientation lock switch has been removed to accommodate the reduced depth. Instead, the user must use the Control Center to access these functions.
It has a slightly smaller battery compared to the iPad Air, although Apple claims the same 10-hour battery life as before. The iPad Air 2 is available in 16, 32, 64 or 128 GB storage options with no storage expansion options. Apple has released a "camera connection kit" with an SD card reader, but it can only be used to transfer photos and videos to an iPad.
