Everyone has weighed in on the iPad 3. Anandtech published the only review that I will recommend. It’s the only iPad review that is a real review covering everything a potential buyer would like to know. I will be speaking in bullets because it’s important to keep this review short. I’ll wrap up with some overall thoughts.
The Good:
- iPad 3 is slightly snappier over the iPad 2 and a lot snappier over the iPad 1.
- The speed at which apps open and close isn’t that great but camera opening or refreshing of a web page is all faster. more tabs remain open in Safari but I don’t keep tabs open in Safari so I had to intentionally test it. I believe this is more related to the increase in ram. The CPU is unchanged and the GPU is “four times as fast” according to Apple but it’s a claim I can’t test.
- The screen is beyond gorgeous. I don’t see this as too amazing because this should have been included last year. Price point be damned! The iPad 3 has the screen the iPad 2 should have had. It’s still not right against the front though like the iPhone. It’s not sealed to the front glass which is a bummer but it’s still a step up. I’d like to see screen and glass flush together.
- More on the screen. Text is wonderful and apps updated to take advantage of the new screen benefit. Webpage logos and images look like crap and older apps look bad. If you noticed non retina optimized things on the iPhone, you really notice them on the iPad.
- The single biggest reason you’d buy this iPad is for text and the second being the free WiFi hotspot that you get through Verizon with a data plan. If you live in an area with 4G, lucky you. I don’t but travel to places that do.
- The buttons feel more solid on the front and top. Then again, it’s new so maybe not.
- This felt like the first complete iPad from a setup point of view. I say that’s mostly due to iOS 5 and iCloud. I unboxed it and set it up completely wirelessly…almost. We’re getting there on completeness of this being a singular devices but not there yet.
- The camera is better on the back but no on the front. Who uses the back camera? No one. I’d prefer the front facing FaceTime camera saw a better quality than VGA.Maybe the next version.
The Bad: (Setup)
- I unboxed the iPad. It was at 90% battery life. It was covered in scratches on the back and over the speaker grill. There was glue all over the body I had to remove with rubbing alcohol and fingerprints all over the screen. Worst unboxing experience ever. I live in the woods so I’m used to things being dirty but, an iPad should arrive spotless and it didn’t. This isn’t white America entitlement. This is Apple user for 10 years expectations. I’ve never had a device arrive in such a bad condition.
- iCloud restore took 40 minutes on my 50 megabit connection. This is way too long. Apple fix this.
- App installs took 30 minutes before I gave up and connected the iPad to my iMac and installed them via the machine as they were already downloaded. The iPad was not happy with this. I had to do multiple hard resets of the iPad and force quits of iTunes to get this going including putting the iPad in airplane mode to keep it from auto-downloading apps.
- Total setup time was over 3 hours for a device with 50 apps and a thousand songs. Windows XP is faster to setup. Hell, my restore of an iMac from Time Machine backup over Firewire 800 is faster than that and my iMac drive has 1.5 terabytes of content.
The Bad: (The Device)
- It’s noticeably thicker. iPad 2 users, you will notice how much thicker it is and it’s very disappointing. iPad 1 users won’t. This aligns with my thoughts on Apple upgrade cycles now being every 2 generations and not every 1 generation.
- The iPad is also noticeably heavier than the iPad 2. You feel it as soon as you pick it up. For the iPad to be heavier and thicker is, as many have said, the iPad battery is almost twice as large because of the screen, new chip and 4G LTE built in. Fine. I am a bit bitter because I don’t have 4G where i am but still suffer this thickness. Oh well.
- The iPad is incredibly hot. It’s hotter than my i7 MacBook Air. I melted a stick of butter and slice of cheese on the back of it. My hand sweats while holding it which isn’t good for a device that’s aluminum and gets slipper when wet. Seriously, this thing is hotter than any PlayBook or Galaxy Tab that I have used. It’s hot and I hate that.
- The battery life is noticeably worse than the iPad 2. I used to never really watch or see the battery life dropping. Now I do and it’s very noticeable. Half a day of use meaning half of the day it was on the dock and the other half of the day I was using it casually from time to time and the iPad was dead by midnight. This is with the iPad cellular service completely disabled as in the radio is turned off and I’m only using WiFi. I’m using this at home the same way I used my iPad 2 and battery life is NOT 10 hours. This does not get 2 days of use now. It only gets 1 and that’s very disappointing.
- I wouldn’t care too much except charging it takes more than one evening. I get 6 hours of sleep a night. Getting the iPad from 0 to 100 % takes more than 6 hours. It takes 8 hours. By my calculations, it takes longer to charge it than it was actually operated. I get 8 hours of use and over 8 hours to charge it. That’s with the iPad plugged into the wall via the included adapter. One night, I put the iPad in airplane mode (from the previously cellular off, wi-fi only mode) and it charged in 4.5 hours to 100%. I shouldn’t have to put my iPad in airplane mode to charge it overnight.
- I did a full restore of my iPad. These issues still exist.
- Out of the box, fresh iOS installation and my iPad can’t handle my calendar. Neither can my iPhone 4S. I have 8 calendar items a day and meetings are all repeating so I have some that go through the next 12 months. Loading Calendar on iPhone and iPad takes 45 seconds. I hoped my iPhone was just needing a reset. Nope. The iPad has this issue too. Apple can fix this, right? Am I too busy to be an iPad user? Maybe.
Apple has embraced the 2-Year upgrade cycle. Apple doesn’t expect iPad 2 users to buy the iPad 3. Why would they? Within the last 12 months, they paid $500-$900 on a device so why buy another one? Exactly. So, iPad 1 users who upgrade will be in awe of the new device. The iPad 2 users won’t notice it’s thicker or heavier or has worse battery life. They’ll skip this and move right to iPad 4 next year which will be thinner and improved in every way over the 3 and they’ll be happy.
I’ve noticed not to be too mean to Apple or at least, if I am, that I put in my reviews that I buy EVERY new model. iPhone 3GS to 4S (as my girlfriend did) is a HUGE upgrade to her. For me, going to iPhone 4 to 4S is a meh upgrade and one that I sort of regret. If you don’t want device remorse, buy a new Apple devices every 2 years. rust me on this.
The iPad 3 is disappointing for a lot of reasons as you can see above. I’ve spent 8 hours setting up the device then resetting the device trying to fix issues with heat and charging. I’ve killed the battery down to zero every night with normal use. I read the iPad NYTimes App for 2 hours in a cafe on Monday and used 50% of the battery. Once again, I’m not activating Verizon on this until I travel so I’ve had cellular deactivated since I unboxed it. The first thing I did was go to settings and deactivate the cellular radio. That should give me an extra 10% of battery according to Apple. That’s a bummer.
The new iPad looks like the iPad 2, is heavier and thicker than the iPad 2 and is not that much faster or better than the iPad 2 and has worse battery life than the iPad 2 and is very hot compared to previous iPads but the screen is nice. That’s about it. The screen is pretty cool looking and that’s the only really great thing about it. If you’re not a big reader of books or newspapers, skip the iPad 3. Well, if you’re an iPad 2 owner (as the majority of you are), skip the iPad 3. If you have an iPad 1 then it’s a good time to upgrade. iPad 2 users should wait.
I give this a 3/5 as an iPad 2 owner a 5/5 as an iPad 1 owner. It’s important to differentiate that. This is the most negative iPad review you’ll see. I’m critical of my devices. Please not death threats for this post.
