New iPad 3 (2012) hands on, videos and first impressions

Apple dominates the tablet market since the first introduction of the iPad, two years ago. I still remember the first reactions to the 10 inch slate, which were not that encouraging, and certainly didn’t prevision what was to follow: tens of millions iPads sold. Fast forward to 2012, when Apple still holds the majority in this new niche, but the Android competition is closing by fast.

That’s where the new iPad (3rd gen 2012 model) comes into play, with a vastly improved Retina Display, that counts no less than 3 million pixels (2048 x 1536, four times the count from the iPad 2), a new 4G LTE chip and double the RAM. These changes are meant to put some distance between the New iPad (odd name, I know) and the competition, who just announced Full HD screens at CES 2012.

New iPad Box contents

But before we get to the product itself let’s take a look a the product specifications outlined below.

Quick specs table:

The first thing you say to yourself when you take it out of the box is that you should check if it’s really the new iPad, and not the old iPad 2. It looks extremely similar in size and weight, and without having the two tablets in both hands it’s impossible to make the difference. That is until you turn it on and you’re welcome by the amazing Retina Display.

It makes all the difference and makes up for the lack of improvement in other departments, and is THE REASON to buy the new iPad tablet. The huge battery, which is 70% larger than the previous one keeps the tablet running for longer, but also takes a huge amount of time to charge: 7 hours, give or take a few minutes. So plan ahead if you’re going to be away from the plug for a long time.

The A5X processor is very similar in performance in day to day tasks, but shows its strength when it comes to 3D games. That’s where the quad-core graphics kicks in. All in all the new iPad is a good improvement and is worth the upgrade for the screen alone. That’s my take on it.

Here’s the playlist with the new iPad 3 tablet. It includes an unboxing video & quick preview, a quick overview of ports and design, first setup walk through, speed comparison with the iPad 2, outdoor screen visibility test and a Full HD 1080P sample shot with the 5 megapixel camera:

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