Now with Tim Cook taking over the reigns at the House that Jobs built, there was some pressure building on whether or not Apple’s latest iPad can keep up with the public’s demands. This new iPad marks take three on Apple’s rendition on the tablet PC with the new iPad. In the tablet market Apple has been running lonely race, not because they are the only ones or the worst. Quite the opposite, they have been running circles around the competition (HP, BlackBerry, Android) and have been dominating in sales. When creating their new tablet, Apple made sure not to interrupt the design on the exterior too much and focused more on the internals. Now armed with even more to raise the standards, was Apple able to create an even better tablet experience or just tweak the iPad 2? Continue below for our two cents.
Display
This iPad was the first to offer a high resolution Retina Display. This is not, I repeat, not just your average HD display like on your smartphone or even HDTV. At a quick glance you may not notice the difference between this display and its predecessor but when high quality media or an app supporting the display is present, you will become a believer. Apple made sure to set an entirely new standard on visuals by offering a display w/ 2048 x 1536 resolution (Damn!) pushing 264ppi. If you thought the individual pixels were hard to see on the iPhone 4/4S, they are barely noticeable with a camera up close. Keep in mind your HDTV has a 1920 x 1080 resolution so the quality of apps updated on this thing along photos & media will look absolutely stunning on the new iPad. Trust me, you have never seen a display like this before in your life.
Even up close with the camera, you can barely notice any pixels
The downside is that not everything viewed on here will look its best. Not all apps have been updated for the new Retina Display as well as the Internet. There are plenty of apps (so far a good 40 or so ready to go) already updated so its not like you don’t have the proper app support. Not that everything will look like 8-bit graphics but they just won’t look are crisp & sharp as visuals that support the new display. So you will definitely need to keep that in mind until most developers play catch up.
Performance/Battery Life
The consumer’s user experience is where Apple has always nailed it on the head and continues to do so. Apple made sure to equip the new iPad to an even faster processor than the previous models with the A5X. The A5X offers an enhanced dual-core processor coupled with a quad-core graphics chipset and double the RAM at 1GB, all working together to make the new iPad perform flawlessly. The new chipset doesn’t offer a noticeable difference over its predecessor but you will encounter no lag or stutter what so ever within everyday navigation or usage. The new internals makes Apple’s new slate ideal for high-graphic gaming and using multiple apps/processes. Add all of that with the iOS 5.1 software for the Apple experience consumers known to love, a smooth & problem-free tablet.
photo courtesy of iFixit
The new iPad is armed with a huge 11,666 mAh battery inside that Apple suggests it offers up to 10 hours of continuous use on Wi-Fi and 9 hours on 4G LTE. As they certainly didn’t fib on their battery life estimations. When taken apart, it reveals that the underneath the display lies three battery cells making it all battery and done without sacrificing the build or weight. But keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to fully charge. Moderate use can easily get you several days before having to charge it again while heavier use will land you at under 20 hours on a single charge. Nothing wrong with a good product that’s hard to kill – its battery that is.
Note: Since I handled the Wi-Fi only model, I was not able to do speed test or compare the battery life on LTE.
Cameras
While most people would cringe at the idea of using a camera on a tablet, the new iPad may encourage you to do it more often. The latest iPad is armed with a 5MP iSight camera on the back which is leaps and bounds improvement compared to the iPad 2 which was less than 1MP for grainy results. The results of the optics involved should be familiar to those with the iPhone 4 as it uses the same lens. The lens offers face-detection, tap-to-focus, and auto-focus on the photography side that takes great shots in almost any environment despite the fact that it lacks an actual LED flash.
On the video side of things, the rear shooter offers image stabilization and offers HD video quality. The front shooter offers the same VGA resolution with 720p HD grainy-quality video. Pretty much for FaceTime and using it as a mirror. An overall improvement on the rear optics side of things as user will enjoy the 9.7inch viewfinder as long as they are comfortable holding it.
“Apple continues to make other tablets not matter with their newest slate.”
TG 2 Cents
Apple made sure with the new iPad that they take a great product even better. They have done so in an effortless execution. Simply by adding more RAM, a more powerful processor/GPU, LTE & Bluetooth 4.0 radios, Retina Display, and a 5MP shooter to improve an already great tablet experience. Although they didn’t add Siri to their latest product, you still have the superb results of using the voice dictation feature built within the keyboard.
Whether you still view the iPad as jut a giant iPod Touch or not, it is still a great product that works as advertised which is something some companies fall short of doing. Apple continues to make other tablets not matter with their newest slate. Easily the most pleasurable tablet experience on any platform.
So is the new iPad worth your $$$? Depends on what your budget is looking like. If you are looking to get a tablet but don’t have a lot to spend, we recommend the Kindle Fire. But if you own the iPad 2, you may not feel compelled to make the leap and spend more $$$. As the Wi-Fi 16GB model starts at $499.99 and the Wi-Fi + 4G starts at $629.99, it depends on your need (or want in most consumers’ cases). If you are looking for a solid tablet offering the best experience, look no further than the new iPad.
