In one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the year, technology giant Apple yesterday launched the follow-up to the hugely-successful iPad 2 – simply titled “the new iPad”.
The 9.7-inch screen is capable of displaying 3.1 million pixels in 2048 x 1536 resolution, and features a Retina display.
Under the hood, it boasts an A5X processor and quad-core graphics chip delivering four times the performance of a Tegra 3. The iSight on-board camera is similar to the one used in their latest mobile handset, the iPhone 4S.
“It’s only five-megapixels, but it does have a backside illuminated sensor with a five element lens. It’s also capable of capturing 1080p video, which should come as no surprise,” Endgadget writes.
One of the biggest new additions is the dictation function, which lets users dictate to the device instead of typing on a keyboard — similar to the Android OS feature.
“The new iPad is sporting 21Mbps HSPA+, but it’s also rocking an LTE radio capable of pulling down 73Mbps on both Verizon and AT&T here in the US. Amazingly enough, even with an LTE antenna on board, Apple is still claiming to get 10 hours of battery life,” Endgadget concluded.
The new iPad will be available on 16 March in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, with plans to ship it to the rest of the world by 23 March. In the US it will retail at $499 (R3500) for the 16GB WiFi model and scaling up to $829 (R5800) for the 64GB version with 4G.
Charlie Fripp – Online editor
