iPad review: What I learned after a week with the new tablet

Long lines are snaking around Apple stores today, with some people even camping out overnight – a common event whenever the world’s hottest tech company launches a new gadget. Even rivals like Samsung poke fun at “Apple-mania” in its latest television advertisements.
This time it’s the third-generation iPad (from $519), a 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet that looks virtually identical to last year’s model – at first glance, that is.
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But having spent eight days with this latest iGadget, I can confirm it outperforms its best-selling predecessor on every level – except battery life, which remains the same. The new features help Apple maintain its huge lead in this booming space, if not further distancing itself from the competition.
That being said, those with an iPad 2 need not make the upgrade to the new iPad (not iPad 3). Why? As with other Apple products, it makes sense to skip a generation or two to truly experience the difference (and in order to justify the cost).
But if you’re curious about what all the hoopla is about, here’s what you need to know about the new iPad:
Display: The screen on the new iPad is what you’ll notice first. While it’s the same size as previous iPads, the quality is, in a word, extraordinary. Apple calls it a Retina display, which refers to the fact the human eye can’t distinguish the millions of individual dots (pixels) that make up the text and images. In fact, if you can pardon the geek speak, this 2,048 x 1,536-pixel screen has a higher resolution than your HDTV (at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels). The colour and clarity is unprecedented, whether you’re viewing photos, watching video or playing games, and text on e-books, digital magazines and websites looks super crisp.
Speed: The new iPad has a beefier dual-core processor and with better graphics capabilities, resulting in faster app launch times, smoother gaming performance and more responsive tapping and swiping. More importantly, perhaps, some iPad models support 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks in Canada, which lets you get online via cellular connectivity at speeds that rival or exceed your home’s Internet connection. The 4G-enabled iPads start at $649. I tested one in Toronto and was able to download 120 emails in less than two seconds. While not available in all markets yet, Bell, Rogers and Telus all offer data plans that cost $15 a month for 250 megabytes of data or $35 a month for 5 gigabytes of data (Bell also has a $5/month plan for just 10MB).
Camera: One of my beefs with last year’s iPad 2 was a weak rear camera with a 0.69-megapixel sensor. As a result, photos looked grainy. The new iPad has a 5-megapixel camera with image stabilization, face detection and the ability to shoot 1080p HD video at 30 frames per second (up from last year’s 720p video capability). I took photos and shot video in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where I was on business this week, and they look fantastic. OK, so you’re not going to reach for a tablet as your main camera, but if it’s already in your hands or at arm’s reach and you want to capture something, it’s a convenient feature to have. The new iPad has the same front-facing camera as the iPad 2, designed primarily for video calls over FaceTime or Skype.
Voice dictation: I’m disappointed the new iPad doesn’t have Siri – the voice-activated personal assistant built into the iPhone 4S that can talk to you in a human-like voice – but the tablet does have speech-to-text technology. You need to activate it in the keyboard settings first, and when you do a small microphone icon will appear on your tablet’s virtual keyboard, to the left of the spacebar. When composing an email, jotting down notes or browsing the web, you can talk into the iPad and within a second or two your words will be transcribed into text on the screen. This isn’t anything new – Android devices have been able to do this for a while now – but it does work well on the new iPad. It also works with any third-party apps, such as Facebook or Twitter, that let you use a keyboard.
Miscellany: Despite all of these new features, the iPad still enjoys very long battery life at 10 hours for most tasks or about 9 hours on 4G/LTE. It is a bigger battery, however, so be aware it does make the new iPad a smidge thicker (now 9.4mm opposed to the iPad 2’s 8.8mm) and it’s heavier, too, at 1.44 pounds for the Wi-Fi version or 1.46 pounds for the Wi-Fi + 4G version (compared to 1.33 pounds for the iPad 2). Splitting hairs? Perhaps, but iPad 2 users will likely notice the weight difference with the new iPad. I’ve also noticed the new iPad also gets warmer than the previous models.
Sure, the iPad is more evolutionary than revolutionary, as I like to say, but when you look at the entire package – not just the improved specs but also smooth iTunes and iCloud integration, support for nearly 600,000 apps and plenty of hardware accessories designed for iPad – it’s clear why Apple’s tablet is unrivalled.



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