PERFORMANCE
The iPad 2 had a 1GHz dual core processor named A5 and 512MB RAM. The iPad 3 went with an even faster processor and larger RAM, each at 1.2 GHz and 1GB respectively, the processor named as A5X. But these figures are just figures and the true utilization of resources lies in the heart of iPad’s iOS. All the iPads are smooth to operate and only the first generation of iPad felt sluggish while using, the other two have no noticeable lag to the everyday user. It is a complete end-to-end device with almost no hassles from internet surfing to playing hardcore games, everything feels buttery smooth to execute.
BATTERY LIFE
True to their claims, every iPad has proved its mettle in terms of longevity and survive the day. Heck, it even goes a mile ahead and homes a peace in your mind that you still have that little battery left to shoot an important mail. iPad, iPad 2 and the iPad 3 all have exceptional battery life which outlast even Apple’s claims of lasting upto 10 hours. The iPad 2 and iPad 3 both survive for 10 hours 30 minutes before they need to be docked to the wall socket. The life can be increased even more with the Wi-Fi turned off. That’s the beauty of integration of hardware and software. The software knows what and when to use and how to bring out the maximum of the available resources.
CAMERAS
The first iPad didn’t have any camera. iPad 2 had two cameras and were the same as the ones on iPod Touch, front and back. The front one was a VGA camera, strictly good enough for a video call via FaceTime and the back one was capable of capturing 720p videos and 2MP images, which are even in broad terms are okay. They were dubbed as iSight camera, just as in Macbooks and iMacs.
The iPad 3 was given some back camera treatment but they left the front VGA camera as it is. The rear camera was replaced with a 5MP sensor and f/2.4 lens, along with the image stabilization technique of the 8MP iPhone 4S, and the results are downright appealing and appreciable. The video capture resolution has been bumped uptp 1080p and the images taken by the rear camera are sharper and with much added detail than the images taken by iPad 2.
Although taking snaps and shooting video with a 10-inch slab in your hand may look a little anarchy, but is none-the-less helpful in that occasional “OMG!” moments while you are busy slicing the fruits.
APPS
Success of any tablet or mobile platform today depends upon the number of useful apps it has. And iPad (iOS) has plenty of it. iOS has more than a million apps in their AppStore, 225,000 of which are specifically tailored for iPad! Even if you took one day to test each one of the app, it’ll take more than 616 years to test all of them, so to make you understand the sheer diversity of apps available.
And that’s not all. More than that, now even the magazines and comics are available for the iPad in separate apps, which don’t count in standalone apps.
With the inclusion of new major apps, the iPad is now much more than what it used to be before. GarageBand, iMovie, iBooks and NewsStand have changed the way people used to interact with music, books and magazines available at the corner of the street. The iPad has given Kindle and other e-book readers a run for their money as when more than just book reading can be done by a device, why to go for a device which just can “read” books??
The iBooks app keeps all the PDFs and the epub files bought off any online book hosting website and you can read them just as at your convenience.
The NewsStand keeps the tab of all your subscriptions of magazines and other periodicals, as well as newspapers and gives you access to all of them at one place without clutters.
What is the Price???