10:27 PM
Lecor Martineau
Well, seems like the rumors were true (some of it anyway) and today we’re finally seeing the official specs of the third generation iPad. As expected, the main draw here is its beautiful 9.7-inch, 2048 x1536 resolution display, that quite frankly, blows everything else out of the water. That’s 264 pixels per inch, and Apple says that the new iPad has 44 percent better color saturation than before. To put that in perspective, the new iPad has more pixels than current full-HD TVs. Powering the entire thing is the new A5X quad-core processor, and Apple says that the new processor is twice as fast as NVIDIA’s Tegra 3.
The new iPad also uses a 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor and boasts slightly better specs than the camera on the iPhone 4S. The device also features 1080p video recording, which is on par with most hi-end smartphones currently out in the market.
The new iPad now features Siri-like functionality in the form of a dedicated microphone soft button at the bottom of the virtual keyboard (right beside the spacebar). Also a surprising feature: 4G LTE connectivity. We guessed that the new iPad wouldn’t have it, well, we guess we were wrong. The new iPad will feature 4G LTE right out of the bat, though how that’ll work in multiple countries with different LTE spectrums, we don’t know (you can’t just bring an LTE device provisioned for a certain carrier to another place and expect it (LTE) to work). You can of course just buy a version without the LTE capability built-in (or just use 3G), but were’s the fun in that? As an added bonus, the new iPad can be used as a personal hotspot too.
Probably the best thing about the new iPad is that it’s able to squeeze out 10 hours of battery life – 9 on 4G. The device is about 9.4mm thin and weighs in at 1.4lbs.
The new iPad will cost you $499 bucks for the 16GB version, $599 for the 32GB and $699 for the 64GB version. LTE versions of the device will retail for $629, $729 and $829, respectively.
First countries to get dibs on the new device will be US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Austria on March 16, with other countries getting theirs on March 23.
For more detailed iPad specifications, visit: http://www.apple.com/ipad/
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