Slimmed down. The second generation of the iPad Air got even thinner. The new Apple A8X triple-core processor is a surprise. Not only the additional core makes the iPad the new performance reference, but also the powerful GPU. Many details have been improved, but the battery is smaller.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/First-Impressions-Apple-iPad-Air-2-Tablet-in-Review.128958.0.html
"We cannot confirm this statement yet, but the performance advantage is definitely enormous and can even beat the Tegra K1" So this is because it beats the Tegra K1 by 3% on basemark x 1.1 but gets soundly beaten in 3dmark 2013? Not saying that the a8 isn't an amazing chip, tablet chips are reaching tremendous hardware potential (the software hasn't been able to keep up to take full advantage of the raw processing power). But give credit where credit is due, the Tegra K1 is the gpu king of arm chips on the market today, not the processing champ though.
It can beat the K1. Don't let Nvidia's marketing go crazy, the GX6650 running at the same clockspeed as the K1 has the same GFLOP rating.
Nvidia beats its drum loudly about beating the currently Apple product, than, Apple releases its new product which beats Nvidia's. It has happened a few times. This time Nvidia is at worst barely behind and at best a considerable amount ahead (I don't think apple will clock their chip at 951Mhz XD). ON that note, basemark X is based on mobile chips iirc. 3dmark is ported from desktop environment... basemark X favor Apple, I believe... but, 3d mark INSANELY favors Nvidia.
I dont think it can beat Nvidia K1 64 bit Edition... nexus 9 comes out soon.. and we will see.