New iPad Photos, Retina Screenshots Hit the Web

As The Mac Observer discussed Tuesday, Vietnamese tech site Tinhte.vn was able to obtain a 16GB WiFi + 4G iPad several days before the official launch. After spending the past 24 hours getting acquainted with Apple’s latest tablet, the site has now posted a series of pictures taken with the iPad’s new and improved 5-megapixel camera, as well as some screenshots of the high quality “Retina” resolution display.

Of note, the significantly higher resolution apps now available on the iPad come with the cost of increased storage space requirements, with many apps more than doubling in size. Examples Tinhte provided include Keynote increasing from 115 MB to 327 MB, Numbers from 109 MB to 283 MB, Pages from 95 MB to 269 MB, and iMovie from 70 MB to 404 MB.

Retina Apps Size Increase

If this significant increase in app size continues for third party apps, iPad users may be forced to reconsider their capacity options to account for the loss of space available for media and documents.

The iPad’s camera was also tested with a series of images which appear to be taken at Tinhte’s offices. While the quality still seems to be far below that of the iPhone 4S and entry-level point and shoots, it is nevertheless a dramatic increase from the arguably pointless 0.7-megapixel camera found on the iPad 2. The more awkward form factor aside, the new iPad shouldn’t be considered by anyone to be a primary camera, but the improved quality certainly helps when needed in a pinch.

New iPad Camera Sample

Sample image from the new iPad camera via Tinhte.vn

You may not have gotten your iPad early, but you can pick one up this Friday at 8:00 AM local time.