Apple has just finished the official unveiling of its third generation iPad tablet computer, with CEO Tim Cook and his band of merry men unveiling a product known simply as ‘the new iPad’, as opposed to the iPad 3 or iPad HD that many had expected at the Yerba Buena Centre, San Francisco.
The new iPad’s main feature, and the big upgrade from the iPad 2, is the high-resolution, HD quality Retina Display. The screen size and device size remains the same as the iPad 2, but Apple has stepped up the quality by some margin.
Screen
The new iPad has a 9.7-inch touchscreen in the 4:3 aspect ratio, with an increased resolution of 2048 x 1536, which equates to 3.1 million pixels – the most ever found in a mobile computing device. To put that into perspective, a tablet with a Full HD 1080p screen would have a lower resolution of 1920 x 1080, which is 1 million less pixels. Apple says the new screen tech carries 44% better colour saturation as well, which should result in deeper hues and more vivid images all round.
Processor
The new iPad has an upgraded A5X processor, which provides Quad-Core graphics processing power for even better gaming. Apple claims that the A5X processor is “twice as fast” as the Quad-Core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor found in most new Android tablets, such as the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime. We’ll need to wait to see the official benchmark stats before we believe that claim, Apple.
Camera
The camera is an upgraded ‘iSight’ 5-Megapixel camera that’s backside illuminated for a much better low-light performance. It’s also got an Infrared filter and 5-element lens, which together makes the iPad HD’s camera practically identical to that of the iPhone 4S. It does autofocus, auto-exposure, software stabilisation and also Full HD 1080p video recording, bringing Apple’s tablet in-line with the quality found on recently released high-end Android Tablet.
The new iPad also features an improved front camera, which is known simply as the ‘Facetime Camera’. Apple hasn’t confirmed if this has received an upgrade from the iPad 2 or not.
Voice Dictation
Apple has added voice dictation to the iPad, learning that it can be a little unwieldy to hold and type comfortably. A microphone icon now sits to the left of the space bar, allowing you to dictate what you want to type by voice. This will support US English, British, Australian, French, German and Japanese, and runs on the Siri tech.
4G LTE Connectivity
Apple’s new tablet will still be available in Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 3G models, but Apple will also be selling a 4G LTE compatible option which offers lightning fast mobile internet speeds in America, Germany and Canada. The 3G iPad 2 was capable of speeds up to 21Mbps, whereas the 4G iPad HD will do up to 73Mbps. The LTE is provided by the U.S and Canadian networks AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus and Verizon, who will be selling the model on a contract basis when it comes out. Unfortunately this model won’t apply to the UK and most of Europe. The 3G models will be world-ready, so you can take them anywhere in the world and connect to the web.
Software
iOS 5.1 will be running on the third-gen iPad, a new software update which will roll out to all iOS devices as of today. It contains support for Japanese, French, German and Australian languages in Siri, voice dictation and many fixes and minor tweaks. Apple has updated all native apps to reflect the upgrade to a Retina Display, so everything should look much better.
Garage Band and iMovie have both been updated to bring Retina Display support for the new iPad, and Apple also introduced iPhoto for iPad for easy photo editing and sharing.
Battery and Size
Despite a much higher resolution screen and a more powerful processor, the new iPad retains the same 10 hour battery life found in the iPad 2 – slipping to 9 hours if you’re using a 4G model. However, fitting everything in to a shell the same size as the iPad 2 wasn’t possible – the new iPad is slightly thicker at 9.4mm, and slightly heavier at 1.4lbs.
When Can You Get One, and How Much?
All models will go on sale March 16th, that’s next Friday, in the U.S, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. Many other countries, including Italy, Austria, Belgium and Spain, will get the device on March 23rd. All models are the same price as the iPad 2, in the same 16, 32 and 64GB sizes.
Wi-Fi Only:
- 16GB – £399
- 32GB – £479
- 64GB – £559
- 16GB – £499
- 32GB – £579
- 64GB – £659
The 4G models are priced at $629, $729 and $829 respectively for each size, all of which will be available in the same black and white options.
Pre-orders start today when the Apple store goes back online shortly, so if you like the sound of the new iPad, get online and claim yours for collection or delivery next Friday!
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.