Apple and Samsung's rivalry continues as both companies work on releasing tablet and smartphone offerings. This time as Apple prepares for the release of the iPad Air 2, the company will challenge upcoming and current offerings of Samsung. The Korean tech giant has been gearing up for the release of the Galaxy Tab S offering a combination of smartphone and tablet experience but can it offer a better alternative as the iPad Air 2? The iPad Air 2 series will reportedly come with a major design tweaks including slimmer build for enhanced portability.

Despite months before the expected release, details about the iPad Air started emerging already. According to Phone Arena, the series may come either as the iPad Air 2 or the iPad 6 but it appears the recently leaked photos indicate the device will feature the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. The device will also sport a re-designed speaker grille with rescaled volume buttons. According to Geeky Gadgets, the same design may also find its way to the iPad Mini 3. The following sections provide a breakdown of what people can expect from Apple and Samsung's tablets.

For leaked photos of the iPad Air 2, click here.

Screen Display

According to Christian Today, Apple's iPad Air 2 will reportedly feature a 9.7-inch screen plus 2K display resolution. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 version, on other hand, features a Super AMOLED screen offering 2,560 x 1,600.

Processor

The iPad Air 2 will feature the next generation A8 processor based on Apple's 64-bit structure. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is available in: Snapdragon 800, quad-core Krait 400 clocked at 2.3GHz with 3GB RAM for the LTE edition and Exynos Octa 5422 quad-core Cortex-A15 clocked at 1.9GHz, quad-core Cortex-A7 at 1.3GHz including Mali-T628 MP6 GPU and 3GB RAM for the WiFi edition.

Operating System

The iPad Air 2 will be running on iOS 8 which reportedly has multi-window support allowing users to multitask similar to the Android feature. Samsung went for the Android 4.4 KitKat with its Galaxy Tab S.

If recent reports were to be believed then Apple has secured sapphire materials to produce its upcoming products. It is not clear yet if it will push through with a sapphire-based iPad but if it will then people can expect a super tough display on the next tablet series.