DisplayMate posted a new review of the display in Apple's new iPads - both the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3. DisplayMate says that Apple used a major innovation in the iPad Air 2, a new anti-reflective layer coating that is scratch- and fingerprint- resistant. This results in a display that reduces ambient light reflection and performs better in that regard than any smartphone or tablet ever tested at DisplayMate.
Besides the anti-reflectance coating and the bonded cover glass (which has been used in many competing tablets and smartphones for years, according to DisplayMate) the iPad Air 2 display is essentially unchanged and identical in performance to the iPad 4 introduced in 2012 (and actually slightly lower in performance than the original iPad Air).
While the iPad Air 2 display is very good, DisplayMate says some tablet displays from other vendors (Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft) offer better display performance in brightness, color accuracy, efficiency, viewing angle and contrast ratio. In fact, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, with its Super AMOLED display, is still the best overall tablet display ever tested at DisplayMate.
The iPad Mini 3 display, by the way, is a major disappointment. It has a reduced (62%) color gamut, it does not have the anti-reflection coating or bonded cover glass, and suffers from showing washed-out, under saturated and distorted colors.
