Is the high-resolution “Retina” display on Apple’s new iPad as amazing as the company claims?
Consumers will find out Friday, March 16, but I got an hours-long sneak peek at the third-generation iPad on Thursday afternoon.
And, yes, that display is like nothing you or I have ever seen on tablets. The reason: pixel density.
If you have an older iPad or other tablet, look closely at the screen. You’ll see it split up into those little squares called pixels. Once you’re aware of them, they become annoying.
But on the latest iPad, the pixels are so small as to be all but undetectable, and so many of them are packed onto that screen (which is the same size as the previous iPad) that it has 1 million more pixels than a high-definition television.
So what? If you like to read on a tablet, this makes a big difference because text looks smoother and sharper. I did a bit of reading on the new iPad by a variety of means, such as Apple’s iBooks e-book app and the St. Paul Pioneer Press app, and was amazed at the difference.
Videos and photos look much better, too.
I was impressed with other iPad improvements, though not all are perfect. These include:
— High-speed wireless-data access. Versions of the new iPad work with the super-speedy Long Term Evolution wireless-data networks being deployed by AT&T and Verizon around the country. AT&T’s version of LTE hasn’t reached the Twin Cities yet, but I experienced sometimes stunning LTE download and upload speeds on a Verizon version of the new iPad. I could use the Verizon iPad as a “hotspot” to get other devices (such as my iPhone) on the Internet at blistering speeds, as well. AT&T’s iPad will not have hotspot capability, but the wireless carrier could roll it out later.
— A better rear-facing camera. The first-gen iPad has no camera, and the iPad 2 has a camera of such lousy quality as to be all but worthless. The 5-megapixel camera on the latest iPad is hardly cutting-edge, but it snaps nice shots. I posted several that I took at on flickr.
There’s a front-facing camera for videoconferencing on the new iPad, as well, but it has not been dramatically improved over the one on the iPad 2.
— Voice dictation. The new iPad doesn’t have the seemingly sentient Siri voice assistant found on the latest version of the iPhone, but it does have a simpler dictation feature with pretty good voice recognition.
How good? I dictated a big chunk of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” a song I long ago committed to memory, and the iPad nailed most of it. But, strangely, it kept messing up “I’m testing the new iPad with a Retina display.”
Apple claims exceptional battery life with the new iPad, but this is not something I could verify in the relatively brief time I had with the product. I’m receiving a loaner from Apple on Friday and will write a more exhaustive review in the coming days.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata writes about consumer technology. Read him: twincities.com/techtestdrive andyourtechweblog.com. Reach him: jojeda@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5467. Follow him: ojezap.com/social.
