Why the new iPad is great, but it isn't

this personal opinion. i'm posting sake of discussion. i'm not native english speaker, apologize upfront grammatical errors.

wednesday apple announced successor of ipad 2: third generation ipad ("the new ipad", here on: "ipad 3").

ipad 3 solid , decent upgrade. biggest new feature retina display. not text extremely crisp , images crystal clear, apple claims ipad 3 offers 44% greater colour saturation. in combination amazing pixel density of 264 pixels per inch, ipad 3 show best tablet display far.

apple gave newer, faster a5x chip, lte, 5 megapixel rear camera lenses of iphone 4s , 1080p video recording , voice dictation.

sounds great upgrade, doesn't it? isn't. solid, decent upgrade. that's it. , i'm going tell why.

retina display
let's dissect ipad 3, starting retina display. retina display real upgrade here. it's extremely sharp , gives great colour saturation. ipad 2 didn't have terrible display, ever since apple showed retina display, knew wanted 1 in ipad well. far, good, great.

isight camera
let's take @ cameras. apple gave us, call, isight camera.

"on have camera, , when camera gets of such quality , capability you're proud use everyday camera photographs, call isight camera. , new ipad has great isight camera."

, it's true i've seen. ipad 3 appears have great camera , can isight camera. according apple it's got similar optics iphone 4s, , iphone 4s takes beautiful pictures mobile phone. argue 'only 5 megapixels', doesn't matter. iphone 4's got 5 megapixels , iphone 4's camera isn't bad. it's perfect compromise between costs , image quality: same great optics iphone 4s, decent amount of megapixels.

so, @ first glance seems perfect. what's catch? catch front facing camera. apple seems have forgotten people more use front facing camera rear camera: because ipad ideal video calling. apple did not upgrade front facing camera. wrong them? expected @ least 2,1 megapixel camera hd video calling. apple have given facetime hd, on mac. , perhaps, skype have thrown in support full hd video calls.

instead, apple choose give exact same, terrible, front facing camera. might me, rather have had full hd front facing camera , same 720p rear facing camera found on ipad 2, same crappy camera @ front , 5 megapixel camera @ rear.

voice dictation
honest, love it. feature rather basic: talk , text appears on screen - we've seen similar technology years now, in apple's own app store. best thing works in every app.

so, again, what's catch? well, first of all, it's siri without personal assistant. ipad different device iphone, it's understandable can't bring on all of siri's functionality have @ least given part of siri us. somewhere read theory apple might have decided not implement siri because requires internet connection - , wifi ipads not have internet connection brings me issue number two.

voice dictation requires internet connection. voice dictation should happen locally, on device itself. it's unlikely want use voice dictation if i'm not going internet-related (sending e-mail, twitter, facebook, etc.), still happen.

third, , last, issue supports number of languages. realize doesn't matter living in area english number 1 language, there lot of countries on earth english isn't main language!

so, voice dictation might appear great, isn't: it's siri... without personal assistent, requires internet connection , supports 4 languages far (english, japanse, french , german).

ios 5.1
ios 5.1 disappointing well. ios 3.2 gave first ios-version ipad. ios 4.2 gave multitasking , great new apps. ios 5.1 gives us... camera button @ lockscreen?!

scott forstall comes stage show great new ios software. year didn't.

ios 5.1 stable version of ios, doesn't offer new.

lte
apple has added true 4g lte. gives amazingly fast data speeds, faster own wi-fi network. thing wants. so, catch?

well, first of all: there 2 versions. 1 verizon , 1 at&t. doesn't make world tablet, it? more notable that, verizon 4g version, can roam on both gsm , cdma networks abroad. can't roam on cdma networks when own at&t version. oh, , can't connect verizon lte at&t lte tablet or vice versa.

there's second catch. apple ignored europe. ipad 3 can't connect lte networks in europe. there decent lte networks in europe, more reliable , faster in united states. apple, unfortunately, has decided not build in support lte networks in europe.

third actual data speed: it's disappointing. in united states, both at&t , verizon have average data speeds of 25 mbps. at&t appears little bit faster , can reach 40 mbps or more. ipad 3 supports 72 mbps. disappointing thing here, that, in europe, there lte networks offer 100 mbps in real-world usage. now, mentioned before, ipad 3 doesn't support lte in europe, these european speeds expand united states well. if lte speeds in united states going cross 72 mbps year or next year? ipad 3 limiting factor.

a5x chip
a5x chip build retina display. a5 chip not give same, graphical performance know ipad 2... that's why a5x chip invented. amount of cores doubled (from 2 4) smooth graphical user interface.

that's it.

, that's problem. a5x solely , alone exists purely because otherwise graphical user interface stutter. , that's it. doesn't anymore that. doesn't give additional performance. it's same gpu utilized in ipad 2 (except amount of cores).

@ least expected apple give sort of improvement. think have done 2 things a5x chip:

- switching architecture (from cortex a9 cortex a15)
- increasing clock speeds

both great options give ipad 3 better performance on ipad 2, when comes simple tasks browsing or opening app.

cortex a15 architecture gives huge performance gains @ lower clockspeeds. give example: dual-core 800 mhz cortex a15 processor blows away quad-core 1.3 ghz cortex a9 processor (like nvidia tegra 3).

increase in clock speed have been option. wouldn't give quite performance gain cortex a15 processor, make smoother.

it's disappointing didn't else chip. wasn't expecting quad-core chip, kind of improvement have been welcomed everybody.

conclusion
ipad 3 solid upgrade missing out on features. performance of ipad 3 shouldn't on par ipad 2, should exceed it. facetime video calls shouldn't same on ipad 3 on ipad 2, facetime calls must in hd - make use of beautiful retina display.

ipad 3 seems fine. , that's it: fine.

 

on site macrumors looking @ difference last years model. irrelevant.

every unit apple sells likes of sell hundreds people not interested in specs , such like, , never going buy upgrade every year.

apple has 2 things:

encourage general public buy ipad in first place.
give people reason upgrade every few years.

people considering upgrading every year in small minority.

given that, think points valid, majority of people considering getting new ipad, irrelevant, don't have ipad 2.

that's opinion anyway.

 

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