Apple IPad 3 Features: Review

Apple unveiled the new Apple IPad 3 on Wednesday. It is expected to have a 9.7 inch retina display and a higher resolution of 2048 X 1536 and around 44% more colour saturation. It delivers four times the pixels, compared to the iPad 2, and the 3.1 million pixels in the Retina display are more than one million more pixels than an HDTV. It is fuelled by the powerful A5X dual core processor with quad-core graphics designed for swifter performance and responsive user experience to support the Retina display. It offers twice the performance, compared to A5 chip, while maintaining the power efficiency.

After camera-less original iPad, the company has shown room for improvements and gladly the iPad 3 features the 5 megapixel iSight camera with support for 1080p video recording. It comes with 5-element lens and IR filter. The new iPad will bring in voice dictation, giving everyone the taste of Siri. As expected, it also supports 4G LTE, it now supports 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, with LTE at 73Mbps (Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&T will be the LTE partners). The battery life is maintained 10 hours, while 9 hours on 4G. 

The iPad Wi-Fi + 4G comes with built-in next generation 4G LTE that supports faster networks for HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, and both CDMA and GSM iPad users can reap the benefits. Personal Hotspot can be used to share the fast network connection on your iPad with up to 5 other devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB. On typing the microphone icon on the keyboard, iPad listens to you and converts it into text.  This can be used to write messages, take notes, search the web and more. It works with third-party apps and capable of updating Facebook status, tweeting, or writing Instagram captions.

The new iPad also brings in the latest update to the OS as the iOS 5.1. Chris Cheung from Autodesk showcased the new SketchBook Pro, a drawling app that focuses on art line for artists, exclusively available for iOS from April. Mike Capps, President of Epic Games launched Infinity Blade: Dungeons. Randy Ubillos, Chief Architect for Photo and Video apps talks about reinvention of iPhoto with new gestures, new effects, multi-touch editing, and you can beam photos directly between devices. There’s a new bezel gesture, too. Other elements to be updated are iWork and GarageBand. 

A quick look at the highlights of the new iPad:

• A5X chip with quad-core graphics
• 9.7" Retina display with 3.1 million pixels
• 5 megapixel iSight camera
• 1080p video support
• 4G+LTE
• iOS 5.1 operating system

The new iPad has been dipped in shades of Black and White and will be made available starting March 16. It is now available for pre-order for select countries - Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the U.S Virgin Islands. The end of March will see the device reach another batch of countries, like New Zealand, Greece, Hungary, to name a few. Obviously, you won't see India making it to any of these lists, but going by the latest trend, we shouldn't have to wait too long, till the dainty devices reach our shores. The 16GB iPad is priced at $499 (approx Rs.25,092), 32GB at $599(approx Rs.30,120) and $699 (approx Rs. 35,150) for 64GB. For 4G services, the prices are $629 (approx Rs. 31,630), $729 (approx rs. 36,652) and $829 (approx Rs. 41,679), respectively. Obviously, one needs to keep in mind, when the new tablets hit the Indian markets, prices are bound to be on the higher side of the approximate rates mentioned above.

With the launch of the new iPad, the iPad 2 is made available at an affordable price of Rs. 24,500 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and Rs. 32,900 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.