Three Reasons You Want The New iPad

By Rob Boggan

After sitting and watching the official unveiling of the new iPad, I, like many other people felt a sense of underwhelming blah. Sure, they added LTE, and a true Retina Display. Yes, the quad-core graphics chip sounds awesome, but what about an actual quad-core CPU? I hotly debated not even reviewing it, but then I got one in my hands and almost instantaneously seen and felt a huge difference. I only got to spend a week with the new iPad, but already owning an iPad 2, I got the chance to really see the improvements in action and they suddenly didn’t seem so minute. Here’s a couple of the biggest wow factors that made me, and I would imagine would make any consumer want the new iPad:

Graphics Processing:
Packing Apple’s new quad-core A5X graphics chip, the new iPad literally makes everything look so much more superior than on any other mobile device. There’s no display touching the pixel density of the new iPad, hell, it even bests a couple HDTV displays. I noticed an immediate up-tick in graphics performance in just about every part of the new iPad, compared to my iPad 2. I watched a couple videos on YouTube with my son, then popped onto the new iPad and watched the SAME exact videos, and my jaw almost hit the ground when I seen the difference. YouTube videos on the new iPad almost always look like they are being shown in HQ, or HD, even when they aren’t. While I was connected to Wi-Fi on my iPad 2, and Verizon LTE on the new iPad, one would think that the iPad 2 would garner the better video quality due to the faster Wi-Fi connection, but the new iPad consistently outperformed the iPad 2. Gaming on the new iPad also seen a major improvement due to it’s enhanced graphics processing.

Literally, graphics as strong as a PS2 on a tablet. This is a huge step forward not only for Apple and the legions of iPad faithful, but also a gigantic step for the mobile gaming genre. It’s amazing how much work Apple put into making sure that you notice all of the 3.1 million pixels in the iPad display without ever noticing one.

LTE Connectivity:
Having any kind of mobile data subscription can be both a huge blessing, and a royal pain in the rear if you happen to be a hardcore user. I find it more helpful than anything having that data connection, but I often wished that my speeds were faster given that I’m using a 3G AT&T iPad 2. Using the Verizon LTE powered iPad felt like a gigantic weight had been lifted off my back, and the work load suddenly felt lighter. I use my iPad for everything, movies, music, streaming, update Nerd News, the whole shot. Not to discredit the AT&T iPad, but in my area Verizon definitely has the advantage solely because they already have LTE deployed. Being connected constantly at speeds between 10Mbps – 14 Mbps, made downloading/uploading photos, documents, and videos super easy and hassle free. There’s always a time during the day with my current iPad that I wish I could have more speed for viewing attachments, downloading games, or watching videos without having to guess what it is I’m even looking at due to the video buffering, and the new iPad happily accommodates that.

Dictation Mode:
Even though it was a huge bummer to see that Siri hadn’t been included, it was still a massive relief to see that Apple had included some sort of voice to text option. Although it’s no Siri, voice dictation works fairly well, and is available in just about any app that allows for text input. Thankfully, dictation mode works well and there was ne need to speak robotically or unnaturally, as Apple’s software picked up everything I said with ease.

Combining these features with the enhanced on board photo editing software and a new and improved iMovie app prove to be an extremely powerful combo. Packing a gorgeous screen, 3 different storage options and the choice of either AT&T or Verizon LTE (We prefer the Verizon model ourselves) I see why these things are selling like hotcakes.