Review: The New iPad
It took me a few days of heavy use before I finally “got” the new iPad. I was an early adopter of the original model, so much so that my laptop hasn’t once in two years left the studio desk where it runs my teleprompter. When the iPad 2 came out last year, I never even considered upgrading. Sure, it was faster and thinner and weighed less and had better graphics and it could take pictures and make video calls — but it still didn’t really do much of anything my old one didn’t do.
So here’s the new iPad. It’s a little thicker and a littler heavier than the 2, although still thinner and lighter than the 1. It sports even faster graphics, albeit wedded to the same-speed CPU. And both the front- and rear-facing cameras, which I will almost never use, are much nicer.
So why am I so completely jazzed about the new iPad?
It comes down to just one thing: That screen. That gorgeous, lickable, touchable, incomprehensible screen. Every time I see it, I feel like David Bowman in his own personal orbit around Jupiter: “My God, it’s full of stars!”
Apple took the acceptable 1,024 x 768 screen of the previous iPads, and doubled the linear resolution to 2,048 x 1,536. That’s four times as many pixels. It’s 50% more pixels than your 50- or 60-inch HDTV musters. At that density, it’s simply impossible to distinguish individual pixels at a typical reading distance. Perhaps just as important, color saturation is increased almost 50%.
That sounds nice on paper, but does it really mean anything?
You’re making things hard on me, Steve. I was unemployed the year the iPad came out so I got an iPad 2. 9 months ago.
Should. Not. Justify. To myself. A new. iPad.
I’m an every-other-year upgrader my own self. I’d wait for the new-new iPad next spring.
Thanks for that. I think I’ll get a Mustang instead.
You’ve written a very nice review of that new IPad screen’s resolution…..but is that alone worth $500.00?
Apple’s marketing and advertising folks deserve heavy kudos for creating a “need” for such electronic gadgetry. Customers eagerly lining up for twenty four hours before doors-opening is a marketing dream come true.
As someone who would much rather do his three or four hours a week of photo editing upstairs on the sofa with his family, rather than downstairs in the studio, let me tell you the need ain’t “manufactured,” bub.
As someone who barely does three hours of photo editing a year I can say “meh”. I’ve had my (original) iPad side by side with a co-workers New iPad this week and for what I use a tablet for (web surfing, videos, remote server administration, and light gaming) a Retina Display doesn’t add enough to justify the price of an upgrade.
Is it worth $500 “alone”?
Not for most people – but contra your implication, Apple hardly expects people who already have an iPad 2 to buy one just because it’s new, or just for the screen… or at all.
If you have an iPad 2 and it’s not feeling EOL for you, do as Mr. Green says and don’t buy a New iPad now (I have one and I am not upgrading now either).
But people with an Original iPad? Or none at all? They’re not paying $500 for the screen “alone” – they’re getting more than an iPad 2 for the same price they would have paid for one last month.
Nobody is expected to buy a new iPad every year; the yearly updates are (mainly) for people who didn’t buy last year’s or don’t have one at all.
(Also, trying to credit “marketing” and “advertising” for the success of the iPad is foolish. No amount of money and skill outside of the product design and implementation make something that popular.
It’s popular because it really is “insanely great”.
Which is exactly in contrast to why all the competition are currently not even also-rans. Because they suck in comparison, marketing be damned.)
Ka-Pow! Biff! Bam!!
Ok! I’m ducking your shoes….but you read to me as someone completely hooked, and……. good for you…..but I still don’t see the Ipad being much more than a “fondleslab” as the wits over at “The Register” are fond of calling these gadgets.
I guess portability, amazing clarity, long battery life are fine things as applied in our 21st Cent., but we’ve all done so well all these centuries since cuneiform on soggy clay that I’m amazed at guys camping out days in advance at the pad-locked door for the release of a mere superbly hyped five hundred dollar convenience.
I knew I’d hit a charged-ionized (!) nerve when Stephen Green called me….”bub”, but I remain unconvinced.
I’ll just wander off into the sunrise tapping on my large keyboard and wrapped in all of my wires.
Ahhh . . . but standing in line is part of the fun! Similar to standing in line from 4:30 AM to 8:00 AM to buy World Series tickets. Which I have done. It’s a cultural event.
I’m actually seeing a fair number of local amateur musicians using an iPad (presumably the 2) to display the music at jam sessions. No need to fumble with paper – just flick to the next song. The only time it doesn’t seem to work well for them is when the song doesn’t fit on one page.
I have seen church organists use the iPad filled with the music they were playing. Cool.
Your first rule of commenting says no profanities. Why then, does your writer take God’s name in vain twice in this article?
Not to worry: he’s going to hell.
That little admonition you see doesn’t really reflect PJM’s hands-off approach to the comment section (which I admire, BTW). I wish they would remove it, as it’s just a waste of space. But hey, it’s their website.
You are licking the screen? Eeeeyuuuuuw.
Aw, it’s all right as long as no one licks after him….
With everything, & the new iPad is apparently no exception, caveat emptor applies: There are reports that watching movies on it eats up data like nobody’s business due to the LTE feature. There have also been reports of the case that it emits quite a bit of heat in some instances. I have not seen one yet & figure I won’t be tempted to buy one, as I have not had my iPad 2 for an entire year yet. I am rubbing my hands together though in anticipation of the new iPhone, which I figure will have some (if not all) of these nifty new features.
Have you seen the German comedic “review” of the iPad yet? If not, here’s a link (the movie is only about 30 seconds and pretty funny): wdtprs.com/blog/2012/03/dad-how-do-you-like-that-ipad-we-bought-you/