After Jono’s mission to Sydney last week I’ve been lucky enough to be using a new iPad (black 32GB wi-fi + 4G) for a few days and WOW everything about this device is amazing. The speed, the apps, the games and the camera are all made better by the retina display.
Firstly a bit about me, I’ve been a bit of a screen geek for the last decade always needing the clearest and highest resolution display – whether on a phone, laptop or my desk. I sold my iPad 2 pretty quickly as it was just too jarring to look at switching between my 960×480 pixel iPhone 4 (at the time) and 1440×900 pixel 13″ MacBook Air.
The Retina Display
Amazing. Having used an iPad .I think if you’re coming from the original iPad, iPad 2 or another tablet you’ll be blown away as the difference is night and day.
The 5MP Camera
It’s good but not great, using the retina display as a view finder is a novelty and being able to view photos straight away on the large bright screen is the best part. The default camera app doesn’t do HDR so you’ll need an additional app for that.
In bright light the camera performs better and without a flash lighting is going to have the biggest impact on your photos.
Setup & Apps
Easy. Mail, contacts and calendars synced quickly from my multiple Exchange and Google Accounts. I re-downloaded a few apps from iCloud and bought a few more from the app store. Music is there on-demand from iTunes match and all down over-the-air without hooking up to USB to iTunes. The one app I’m still looking forward to playing with is iPhoto which I’ll most likely sync some albums over USB. Everything flies with the A5X chips and my favourite app so far is Ashphalt 6 – a $1.29 car racing game from Gameloft that’s seriously impressive on the retina display.
The Battery
Battery life is the same as iPad 2 and considering the quad-core graphics power of the A5X driving the retina display it’s a much larger battery powering the new iPad. Not larger physically as the new iPad is just a barely noticeable 1mm thicker than iPad 2 but larger in density with 42.5Wh packed into the similar enclosure providing 70% more juice than the iPad 2.
It’s here where the only real con of the new iPad becomes apparant and that giant battery takes a long time to charge so get used to leaving your iPad plugged to a wall socket over night to be ready for the next days use.
I’ll post some more thoughts soon, if you have any questions ask away in the comments.
Might be a dumb comment.. but are the included chargers still 2.1amps?
(Dano1nz has made 35 comments)
I’ve been using mine since Sunday. My jaw hit the floor when I fired it up and saw that display. It just has to be seen to be appreciated. Everything is quicker, apps launch and are ready to use in a second. The extra weight and thickness are a complete non issue for me. The camera on the iPad 2 was pretty poor in my opinion, I highly doubt I will ever use an iPad for taking pictures but it’s nice now to have a pretty decent camera to do so if I wish. It does take longer to charge, those reports are true but the key is to get a full day out of it and leave it on overnight. I’m getting through a day very very easily.
I wouldn’t blame anybody for sticking with the iPad 2 but for me “The New iPad” is almost perfect.
(Paul has made 337 comments)
Does anyone know whether the current smart covers work on the ipad 3 or do you need to buy a new one? Thank you!
(jdmwellington has made 10 comments)
Yep charger is the same 10W 2.1A USB power adaptor as iPad 2 and so far the current smart cover is working fine for me
@Mike:
Thanks bud just curious if they had upped the amperage on the charger.
(Dano1nz has made 35 comments)