kornchild2002
New member
First off, I don't really know what this is going to be but I thought it would be fun to share my recent iPad 3 experience.
As some of you may know, I had no iterations of buying an iPad 3. Honestly, the internal hardware isn't much of an upgrade (the GPU in the SoC was already overkill for the iPad 2) and there isn't anything my iPad 2 couldn't do over the iPad 3 aside from 4G connectivity and built-in iOS voice dictation.
Well, I was all set to wait for the iPad 4 since we all know it is going to be better than the current model. However, a friend of mine was looking to get an iPad 2 (they can't afford the iPad 3) and I offered to sell them mine for a nice price. Seeing as I sit right next to them at work, having that sort of tech support being there was a plus for them. So they gave me the cash today and I was without an iPad, for the first time ever, in roughly two years.
I was actually going to see if I could continue to wait things out but I stopped over at Best Buy to pickup my new Apple TV. They had an iPad 2 and iPad 3 out on display and I made the mistake of looking at the display on the iPad 3. I pretty much stopped what I was doing, asked if they had any left, and they kindly sold me a white 32GB 4G iPad 3. I went with the 32GB capacity simply because I am never really in a situation where I need 64GB of (mainly) video content. My apps, HD music videos, and about 5 movies only take up about 21GB.
So I took the plunge and went back on what I said. How am I liking it so far? Well, I have spent all day with the iPad 3 so I can only make initial comments.
1. The screen is probably the best portable display I have ever seen. Apple was correct when they said the color saturation was much better on the iPad 3. Additionally, I can't see the individual pixels in the display. Even when I hold it close to my face, I have to close one eye and really look just to see any hint of a pixel. It still was extremely wide viewing angles.
2. HD videos really look a whole lot better mainly due to the increased color accuracy and saturation. 1080p videos pop but 720p videos still look really good. I am not about to upgrade my 720p videos to 1080p anytime soon simply because they look nice. Unfortunately, HD videos stick out even more than on the iPad and iPad 2. I can watch a video and clearly tell whether it is at 480p or below. I have a harder time with 720p and 1080p videos though.
3. The iPad 3 is a little heavier than my iPad 2, it is also a hair thicker. According to reviews, even the standard wi-fi only iPad 3 is heavier and thicker than the iPad 2. This is due to the increased display and it requiring more backlights and a larger battery. I don't think it is a real killer though. The iPad 3 is still pretty damn light and thin and I doubt the average person is going to notice the differences between the two.
4. Just as I have been saying, the A5X doesn't offer a boost in overall performance. It still uses the same dual-core CPU as the iPad 2. The main difference is that it adds two more graphical cores for pumping out a higher resolution. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Not really. iOS still isn't that nice of a multi-threaded OS and the vast majority of apps don't properly use the original A5 (in the iPad 2) to their advantage either. All-in-all, developers need to step up in order to start producing multi-threaded apps in the first place. Then I can start worrying about having a quad-core CPU. The added RAM does allow apps to load a little faster though.
5. The battery life is the same, this is extremely nice as I will now be browsing via 4G wireless quite a bit. I have to stay under 2GB/month but I think that is manageable.
6. The upgraded camera on the back is extremely noticeable even on the iPad 3's display (or should I say especially on the display). I am still not going to use my iPad 3 as my primary picture taking device but now I can use it if I am in a pinch and forgot my camera. I also think that the pictures look better than what my Droid X takes despite the later having a dual-LED flash and 8MP sensor. It just goes to show you that the sensor will make all the difference in the world regardless of resolution. The 1080p videos really look nice once they are given a run through iMovie. Still not as smooth as videos taken with my digital camera (which is at 1080i/60fps) but the image stabilization is actually better than what my camera has. I wish Apple would have thrown a Flash on the back but the low-light backlight image sensor should do OK without one. The front facing camera is still 640X480 and I imagine it will stay that way for a while.
7. Apps not made for the higher display resolution still look really nice and scale appropriately. Apps made for the iPad 3 look better but I don't think the difference is night and day. Games made for the iPad 3 are going to set it apart from the iPad 2 but those won't start coming out until next month.
That is about it for now. It's funny as I went through the same thing last year initially refusing to upgrade to the iPad 2. Then I saw the keynote speech and used one in-person. The much faster loading times and re-design had me hooked. I just hope I don't do the same thing next year as I don't like having to go through the hassle of selling my iPad 2 and my bank account will thank me for not spending another couple hundred every year.
As some of you may know, I had no iterations of buying an iPad 3. Honestly, the internal hardware isn't much of an upgrade (the GPU in the SoC was already overkill for the iPad 2) and there isn't anything my iPad 2 couldn't do over the iPad 3 aside from 4G connectivity and built-in iOS voice dictation.
Well, I was all set to wait for the iPad 4 since we all know it is going to be better than the current model. However, a friend of mine was looking to get an iPad 2 (they can't afford the iPad 3) and I offered to sell them mine for a nice price. Seeing as I sit right next to them at work, having that sort of tech support being there was a plus for them. So they gave me the cash today and I was without an iPad, for the first time ever, in roughly two years.
I was actually going to see if I could continue to wait things out but I stopped over at Best Buy to pickup my new Apple TV. They had an iPad 2 and iPad 3 out on display and I made the mistake of looking at the display on the iPad 3. I pretty much stopped what I was doing, asked if they had any left, and they kindly sold me a white 32GB 4G iPad 3. I went with the 32GB capacity simply because I am never really in a situation where I need 64GB of (mainly) video content. My apps, HD music videos, and about 5 movies only take up about 21GB.
So I took the plunge and went back on what I said. How am I liking it so far? Well, I have spent all day with the iPad 3 so I can only make initial comments.
1. The screen is probably the best portable display I have ever seen. Apple was correct when they said the color saturation was much better on the iPad 3. Additionally, I can't see the individual pixels in the display. Even when I hold it close to my face, I have to close one eye and really look just to see any hint of a pixel. It still was extremely wide viewing angles.
2. HD videos really look a whole lot better mainly due to the increased color accuracy and saturation. 1080p videos pop but 720p videos still look really good. I am not about to upgrade my 720p videos to 1080p anytime soon simply because they look nice. Unfortunately, HD videos stick out even more than on the iPad and iPad 2. I can watch a video and clearly tell whether it is at 480p or below. I have a harder time with 720p and 1080p videos though.
3. The iPad 3 is a little heavier than my iPad 2, it is also a hair thicker. According to reviews, even the standard wi-fi only iPad 3 is heavier and thicker than the iPad 2. This is due to the increased display and it requiring more backlights and a larger battery. I don't think it is a real killer though. The iPad 3 is still pretty damn light and thin and I doubt the average person is going to notice the differences between the two.
4. Just as I have been saying, the A5X doesn't offer a boost in overall performance. It still uses the same dual-core CPU as the iPad 2. The main difference is that it adds two more graphical cores for pumping out a higher resolution. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Not really. iOS still isn't that nice of a multi-threaded OS and the vast majority of apps don't properly use the original A5 (in the iPad 2) to their advantage either. All-in-all, developers need to step up in order to start producing multi-threaded apps in the first place. Then I can start worrying about having a quad-core CPU. The added RAM does allow apps to load a little faster though.
5. The battery life is the same, this is extremely nice as I will now be browsing via 4G wireless quite a bit. I have to stay under 2GB/month but I think that is manageable.
6. The upgraded camera on the back is extremely noticeable even on the iPad 3's display (or should I say especially on the display). I am still not going to use my iPad 3 as my primary picture taking device but now I can use it if I am in a pinch and forgot my camera. I also think that the pictures look better than what my Droid X takes despite the later having a dual-LED flash and 8MP sensor. It just goes to show you that the sensor will make all the difference in the world regardless of resolution. The 1080p videos really look nice once they are given a run through iMovie. Still not as smooth as videos taken with my digital camera (which is at 1080i/60fps) but the image stabilization is actually better than what my camera has. I wish Apple would have thrown a Flash on the back but the low-light backlight image sensor should do OK without one. The front facing camera is still 640X480 and I imagine it will stay that way for a while.
7. Apps not made for the higher display resolution still look really nice and scale appropriately. Apps made for the iPad 3 look better but I don't think the difference is night and day. Games made for the iPad 3 are going to set it apart from the iPad 2 but those won't start coming out until next month.
That is about it for now. It's funny as I went through the same thing last year initially refusing to upgrade to the iPad 2. Then I saw the keynote speech and used one in-person. The much faster loading times and re-design had me hooked. I just hope I don't do the same thing next year as I don't like having to go through the hassle of selling my iPad 2 and my bank account will thank me for not spending another couple hundred every year.