It was March 7th, the Wednesday and we were there at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts, San Francisco witnessing the birth of the new iPad from Apple as Tim Cook, CEO of Apple took stage to unveil this new product. Well, this was a bit strange when people were expecting the folks talking about the new iPad on stage to ‘actually’ say the name of the iPad. And finally, the name of the iPad was called, the ‘new iPad’. Now, we have got something really important to talk about the new iPad.

The HD Retina Display:

The device now sports a 2048×1536 Retina display with a 264 pixels per inch, displaying stunningly clearer and sharper pictures than the iPad 2. You won’t be able to distinguish individual pixels when you hold the device at 10-inches. And the display is completely astonishing that you would feel like you are holding the next-gen HDTV in hand.

Well, Apple has optimized all the stock apps that come with the new iPad to the Retina Display. The existing apps would automatically scale up for the new higher resolution display, but still, that might look a little odd as of now. But as the days move on, and as the developers update their apps to higher resolutions, the quality of apps would be mind blowing.

Quad-Core Graphics & Processor:

The new iPad comes with a Quad-Core graphics processor which Apple claims to be much faster than the existing iPad 2 and the Nvidia Tegra 3 processor that are available in the market. The demo of Infinity Blade: Dungeons by Epic Games was really Epic to see the gameplay on the new iPad. The device is damn fast and has definitely put the other tablets that claim to be fastest in the backseat with the new iPad. 

The iSight Camera:

While the Retina Display is amazing, Apple has also scaled up the camera that comes with the new iPad. The iSight Camera comes with a 5-megapixel camera with a backside-illuminated sensor that can record videos at 1080p resolution with real-time video stabilization. Besides these, the camera handles auto-exposure and this is a really huge advancement when compared to the iPad 2 and other not-so-great looking tablets available in the market.

The Networks:

Apple has also built-in the 4G LTE chipset with the new iPad, giving us download speeds of upto 74mbps when on 4G networks. The video demo that Apple displayed on March 7th was pretty amazing. It was damn snappier and much much better in streaming HD videos.

The new iPad also comes with some more advancements. Besides the 4G LTE network capability, the device also sports the latest Bluetooth 4.0 and is now Worldwide 3G network compatible. And Apple has proudly said that the new iPad is the only device with the maximum number of networks capability built-in into a tablet.

Battery Life:

Having said all these enhancements, the battery life of the new iPad was not compromised. The iPad still serves 10Hrs of battery life on regular use and 9 hours on the 4G networks. We are yet to see this in person, but we guess the device does well when they are in the hands of the customers.

Build & Design:

There were slight compromises made to the device’s build, but quality has not been compromised. The new iPad still weighs 1.4 pounds and 9.4mm thick. But the iPad 2 weighs 1.35 pounds and is 8.8mm thick.

Pricing:

There is no change in the pricing of the new iPad when compared to the iPad 2. Here’s the price list:

• WiFi Only – 16GB – $499
• WiFi Only – 32GB – $599
• WiFi Only – 64GB – $699
• WiFi + 4G – 16GB – $649
• WiFi + 4G – 32GB – $729
• WiFi + 4G – 64GB – $829

Availability:

As of now, the new iPad will be available on March 16th to the customers and is initially shipping to US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan and to 100 more countries in the next few months.

Bottomline:

The new iPad has once again set the standards for the tablet devices in the market. We had an Android fan present at the event and he was mind-blown by the new Retina Display and the processing power that the new iPad gave him. What do you think? Voice out your views on the new iPad!