The New iPad!

The New iPad!

So the new iPad was literally just announced and so the whole world has been watching and reading liveblogs for the past hour or so. Many new things were announced during this event and I’m going to cover everything that will matter to the UK users that are hoping to purchase an iPad 3 on the 16^th March or anyone who has planned to pre-order the iPad 3!

Retina display

The first feature that was announced was the retina display which is what everyone expecting and I doubt there were any surprises when it was announced in the auditorium. However, it is still pretty staggering to see some of the figures that go into the iPad’s new display that we recently saw on the iPhone & iPhone 4S. The resolution of the screen is that of 2054 x 1536 pixels which is quite simply outstanding, that is higher than any HD TV out at the moment and higher than 1080p computer monitors that many computer owners own these days. For more specific details on the retina display, the screen contains 3.1 million pixels on the 9.7” display and this results in 246 pixels per inch; now some people may argue this isn’t true retina as true retina is said to be 300 ppi, but then when you look at the iPad’s screen I doubt you’ll give a damn about stupid nit-picky things such as this. Obvious news is that the default applications such as email, browser, music etc. will all support the brand new retina display and so everything will look beautiful the moment you get your new iPad.

A5X Chip

The new iPad also has a new updated chip named the A5X (not the A6 which we all expected) which is a dualr-core CPU running a quad-core GPU which confused a few people as there are tablets and phones coming out with quad-core processors; however, apparently, the processor runs “twice as fast” as the Tegra 3 dual core chip that we are seeing in Android smartphones and tablets of late. Obviously with the new chip they were loving the fact they could announce how amazing the new games would play on the iPad and so they then brought up developers who had already built games for the brand new iPad’s quad-core graphics engine and retina display. There are developers that have jumped on the bandwagon early; Namco have developed an Ace Combat type application which uses the retina display, but the biggest gaming announcement had to be the announcement of Infinity Blade: Dungeons. The original Infinity Blade game broke boundaries on the graphics department for the iPad and then Infinity Blade 2 went even further and now with the new hardware enhancements of the new model of the iPad, I’m sure IB: Dungeons will look truly beautiful and play quite superbly.  I’m sure a lot of iPad gamers are excited to see what developers will bring to this new iPad and I’m sure we’ll see a breakthrough in portable gaming during 2012.

Better camera

Another feature that was accented was the new rear facing camera that has been placed within the new iPad; it now has a 5mp camera as opposed to the less than 1mp on the previous iPad. In addition, it nows supports 1080p video recording with stabilisation technology. I see this as the new iPad having the iPhone 4S’ new camera technology within the iPhone 4’s camera which is a little weird considering it’s a downgrade from the recent hardware release from Apple. But you can argue that no one is going to be taking pictures with their huge 10” tablet so the rear camera doesn’t really matter. You also get face-recognition and auto focus within the camera if you’re interested.

Still 10 hour battery life

What impressed me was that they insisted that the battery life would stay the same as the previous ipads despite having the incredibly high resolution display and the new gaming chip they’ve put onto the device. This will obviously have to be tested when the iPad is officially released, but if it really can last 10 hours with some solid gaming, solid use of the browser, solid use of the new display then that is something I doubt any tablet will be able to do that for a long time.

For those from America

If you’re reading this from America, you’ll be pleased to know that the device will support LTE 4G with all the popular carriers. Leading on from my last point, it’ll be interesting to see if the battery can last using the 4G speeds on your new iPad.

A few other things...

OS 5.1 was briefly touched over and was said to be available today which was nice to see, however (unless I wasn't paying attention) it wasn't obvious as to what would be in iOS 5.1. We assume 5.1 is simply the upgrade so that the default applications will support the new iPad, but maybe we are missing something. Another feature that was brushed over was the type-to-talk feature which Apple are calling "dictation." Simply put, there is a microphone button on the keyboard which when pressed allows you to say what you want written down which is nothing new and it was a little disappointing to see the novelty Siri app, but maybe that will be brought into an update.

Pricing

The new iPad is going to stay the exact same price as the release price of the previous two iPads. See prices below:

£399 16GB Wi-Fi only                   £499 16gb Wi-Fi + 3G

£480 32GB Wi-Fi only                   £580 32gb Wi-Fi + 3G

£560 64GB Wi-Fi only                   £660 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G

This is good to see as people were worried that with all this new technology built in that the new iPad would be pricier because the components probably cost more. However, Apple are by far the best in the world and sending out products at very competitive prices (excluding their computers) and so I had a confident inkling that they would be the same price as the previous iPads.

Conclusion

To summarise I think the new display and the quad-core processor will be enough to satisfy the general public but as a technology nerd, before the iPhone 4S, I knew Apple as the creator of technology and they do everything first. However, with the new iPad, it appears they’re atching up to the Android tablets that have 5mp cameras and quad=core processors. The only thing that will take some time for other tablets to catch up to is the retina display, but then is this display really enough? Yes, there will be millions of people buying the new iPad and millions selling their old iPads & iPad 2s to get the new iPad, but until we see Google’s 5.0 update and Windows 8 on tablets later this year, I’m not confident in saying that the iPad 3 is going to be the best tablet we are going to see this year. But you cannot doubt that Apple really know how to get nerds excited. The liveBlog I was watching alone had 3 million people watching… pretty intense huh?

Side-notes

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to comment on this blog or tweet me at @l_harkness with the hashtag #TheNewiPad.

Finally, you can pre-order the new iPad at the following link: http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad