iPad 3's New Specs

As expected, the price of the iPad 2 came down from at least £70 with the arrival of the new iPad. What can you get with paying £70 more? Is it worth it? Let's see what's really new and weigh the difference.

Form Factor

The new iPad (iPad3) has the same form factor like that of the old iPad 2, surprisingly it is a bit thicker at 9.4 mm compared to the old at 8.8 mm. It is also heavier by 51 g and topped the scale at 652 g. This means another adjustment to be made for the folio and case makers. Another promising business at the cost of slashing the price on the old cases.


Resolution

The immediate distinguishable difference  is in the graphic's retina display. While the iPad 2 has a resolution of  1024 X 728(132 ppi), the iPad 3 doubles the figure at 2040 X 1536 (264 ppi). This means the tendency for the display to show pixelated images goes a longer way than the iPad 2. This is noticeable specially when displaying fonts magnified as much as you like. It can also display HD images onto a bigger screen without the rugged square edges of pixels. This is very good when you use your iPad 3 as a video source.

The Processor

There's much of a confusion when Apple says the iPad 3 is a quad core. People then has the impression that the processor of the iPad 3 has 4 cores! The truth is, it is a dual core processor, the same dual core like the iPad 2. The processor is a dual core A5X 1GHZ with quad core graphics compared to the dual core A5  1GHZ with dual core graphics. Both devices are capable of multi-tasking without being stunned specially when using multiple applications at the same time. Where's the right place for the quad core hype then? It is in the graphics (GPU), which has nothing to do with the brain of the computer.  While this helps in the burden of the CPU to process images, which in turn makes the CPU process data faster, having more CPU cores would really make a big difference.

The iPad 2 has 512MB Ram and the new one has 1GB.

Mobile Internet

The new iPad is 4G enabled. This new wireless protocol for mobiles offers 10 X more speed than 3G. This will be good in facetime and other VOIP communication or video calls. And of course  for normal browsing and surfing the internet. But users with this technology should be aware about their data bundle limits as it might also be consumed as fast with the very fast connection. It would then be more practical to opt in for unlimited data.

There's no worry in the UK, as there's no network transmitting 4G signals yet. 

Camera

Obviously, the camera on the new one is superb for these reasons. It has 5-megapixel backlight-illuminated sensor (BSI), a five-stage lens configuration, 1080p video recording, face detection and image and video stabilisation. 

iPad Dictate

This is not the SIRI virtual assistant in iPhone 4S, it is a  feature that turns spoken word into text on applications that has a text entry field like email, messaging, or notes. While this is helpful with devices that doesn't have physical keyboards, the accuracy of translation depends on many factors like noise and distance from the device. If the translation is not reliable in a certain distance, why not just type it?  

So there you go, the list of the things that can make you decide if you are really up to grab the iPad 3 or just get the cheaper iPad 2 for the meantime while waiting for the real iPad  QUAD CORE!

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