Apple iPad 3 Review
The new iPad (iPad 3) is a successor to the most popular tablet in the market, the iPad 2. The most important highlights of the new iPad are the LTE (4G) data connectivity and the Retina Display. The introduction of Retina Display into the iPad family effectively expands the iPhone experience onto a larger display; it’s crisp, bright and clear. The build quality is something that many manufacturers long for and you might not easily be sold on the fact that it’s thicker and heavier than the predecessor. Then there’s a significant improvement graphic, although that doesn’t necessarily mean a huge jump in gaming experience. The new iPad uses PowerVR SGX543MP4 (quad-core graphics), a major improvement over iPad 2’s PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. Other significant improvements are LTE 700MHz which supports up to 73 Mbps of data transfer, 5Mp rear-facing camera which can record 1080p videos at 30fps, Bluetooth 4.0 and the much improved A5X dual-core processor.
Despite all of its improvements, there are a few things that Apple can improve. First, depending on the apps or games you are running, after awhile, the new iPad heats up considerably, a fact that has disconcerted some users. However, the heat issue doesn’t seem to have an impact on battery life. Also, the lack of Siri (you get only dictation) and Reminders can make the owners of the new iPad feel like second class citizens.
As a company, Apple prides itself on sleek design and the design of the new iPad is by no means terrible. The extra thickness and heft might be unavoidable as the tablet uses more powerful hardware and larger battery, but if you’re a seasoned user of the iPad 2, after 30 minutes of use, you’ll feel like that you’ve given you arm an unwanted workout.
You should steer clear of the 16GB version unless you are an occasional user or really want to save some money, but if you’re going to download HD films and use plenty of apps, the empty space could be used up very quickly and you’ll need to decide which movies or songs to delete.