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New iPad Review: the tablet’s 3rd generation

The New iPad

About a week ago Apple released the 3rd generation iPad. Despite some drawbacks, it is the best iPad ever released, with improvements that make an upgrade from the iPad 2 worthwhile. For this review, I’m comparing the two top-of-the-line models, the new iPad 64GB WiFi + 4G vs. the iPad 2 64GB WiFi + 3G.

(Updated: 2012-04-17 – Added 4G LTE test results)

New iPad: The looks

The design is nearly identical to the iPad 2. There aren’t too many noticeable changes and even the box is very similar, only slightly thicker. The new iPad box contents are still the same: a USB cable and an AC adapter.

The New iPad vs. iPad 2 - Boxes

Looking at the front, they are identical. The only difference you will notice is when you turn them on and the Retina Display on the new iPad makes the iPad 2 look like an Atari 2600.

The New iPad vs. iPad 2 - front

At the back, you will notice the larger camera lens, one of the improvements over the iPad 2 (more on this later). Other than that, it’s pretty much the same design.

The new iPad vs. iPad 2 - back

Two things that went backwards from the iPad 2 are the thickness and weight. It is 0.6mm thicker than the iPad 2 and it weighs 47g more. The thickness is negligible (see below) and it won’t impact compatibility with most accessories. The weight added is annoying, but it’s a compromise to reach the same battery life as the old model, even with all the extra new power-hungry features (new screen, processor and 4G LTE). Nevertheless, this 4G unit still weighs less than the WiFi-only model 1st generation iPad.

The New iPad vs. iPad 2 - Thickness

New iPad: Retina Display

The new display is the feature that makes an upgrade from the iPad 2 worthwhile, especially if you read a lot on your iPad. It doesn’t have the same pixel density as the iPhone, but who cares? It’s still far superior to anything that’s been in the market so far. In fact, now I also want this kind of image definition in my Macs. 🙂

It’s very easy to notice the improvements at a moderate distance from the screen. It feels like when you change your reading glasses and suddenly everything is sharper. Take the following images as an example: the first is from an iPad 2, and the second, from the new iPad. I tried to get approximately the same viewing distance and angle, and the shallow depth-of-field is on purpose, to make the differences more evident in a photo.

iPad 2 - Text example
Macworld article on Zinio — iPad 2

New iPad - text
Macworld article on Zinio — New iPad

The closest analogy I can make to describe the difference is like reading the same thing on a newspaper and on a high-quality paper, hardcover book. If you want to get really anal and go inspect the pixels with a magnifying glass, you will see the 4x difference in pixel density.

The New iPad vs. iPad 2 - Pixel density
The New York Times app, pixel density — iPad 2 (left) vs. New iPad (right)

If possible, go to an Apple Store and check this out for yourself. Odds are that you are going to walk out there with a new iPad to replace your iPad 2, just because of this screen.

New iPad: a better camera

The camera in the iPad 2 was borderline useless, to be very polite. This is another area Apple improved the iPad and it now features a decent lens, 5MP sensor and shoots video in 1080p. Compared to the 0.7MP “camera” on the iPad 2, this is a huge improvement.

iPad 2 - Camera sample
Camera sample — iPad 2

New iPad - Camera sample
Camera sample — New iPad

The front camera is still the same Facetime camera featured in the iPad 2.

New iPad: A5X processor

In order to drive the higher resolution, the new iPad has an improved version of the A5 processor, now with quad-core graphics processing. The performance on daily use seems a bit better than in the iPad 2 and it really shines on complex games, like Infinity Blade 2, which already supports the new display resolution and looks great.

New iPad - Infinity Blade 2

New iPad: 4G LTE

Another big thing coming to the iPad is the support for new 4G LTE networks in the United States. Unlike all the 4G LTE smartphones out there, the new iPad doesn’t suffer from the poor battery life issue because of its enormous new battery (42.5 Wh vs. 25 Wh in the iPad 2).

Unfortunately, I am not in the U.S. now so I can’t test this unit on AT&T’s 4G network. I’ll try to do it over the next weeks and update this section.

(Update)

The extra speed compared to the 3G networks is awesome, but in my tests, the download speed was not excellent because of AT&T’s lousy network in the Bay Area. The maximum download speed I got was 27.74 Mbps and the maximum upload, 19.25 Mbps, which are closer to the excellent Verizon 4G LTE network in NYC. But overall, the average speeds were about 10 Mbps upload and download. Slow when compared to the Verizon network, but still pretty decent for my daily iPad usage.

New iPad - 4G LTE test, max download  New iPad - 4G LTE test, max upload

Test speeds and latency, taken 3 times a day at random times and locations around the Bay Area, for 4 days:

  • Maximum download: 27.74 Mbps
  • Minimum download: 0.34 Mbps
  • Average download: 10.12 Mbps
  • Maximum upload: 19.25 Mbps
  • Minimum upload: 1.09 Mbps
  • Average upload: 10.84 Mbps
  • Minimum latency: 37 ms
  • Maximum latency: 562 ms
  • Average latency: 284 ms

The battery life is awesome. It’s pretty close to the advertised 9h on 4G LTE. The competitors still have much to learn in this field.

Conclusions

Comparing the new iPad vs. the iPad 2, the new Retina Display alone makes an upgrade to the new iPad worthwhile. It’s something that you have to see for yourself; pictures can’t do any justice to this. After 15 minutes using the new iPad, I had to pick up the iPad 2 to check one configuration option and it was like removing my glasses. Or watching TV on a CRT display again. The screen is that good.

The new camera is a nice addition and some people will find use to it. I personally think it’s stupid to use an iPad (or any tablet) to shoot pictures and video — it’s too big and cumbersome, and it makes you look like an idiot in a crowd. But if you really need a camera to register anything and you don’t have a proper camera or a smartphone, the iPad will do it nicely now.

LTE support is another nice feature, especially because it doesn’t impact battery life much (according to Apple — I haven’t tested this feature yet) and gives you better network performance than most home connections. And since the iPad now works as a wireless access point, it makes much more sense now to buy the WiFi + 4G model over the WiFi-only.

The bad thing is that the added weight is very annoying, but I understand it’s a price worth paying for all the new features. And given the fact that the battery capacity increased by 70%, adding 0.6mm of thickness and 47g seems acceptable.

Overall it’s a great tablet, and the best iPad released so far. It’s the tablet I recommend to anyone willing to enter this device category.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

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