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You've got the new iPad (iPad 3), give us your review / impressions!

12K views 49 replies 32 participants last post by  Mocha 
#1 ·
Those of you who have picked up the new iPad, or iPad 3 as some are still calling it. Now that you've gotten a chance to play with it and run it through it's paces, give us your review?

Really curious, has anyone connected theirs to an LTE network or Rogers or Bell etc..? What's the speeds like?

Is the Retina display impressive, or what? :heybaby:
 
#2 ·
Mine just walked in the door. It'll be a little while before I can really use it. But looking forward to others feedback.
 
#4 ·
Me too! :) Two things I'm most curious about:

1. Retina display. Is it jaw dropping, kind of cool, or just meh.. kind of nice.

2. LTE. How fast is it? Anyone know of a site or app to test download speeds on iPad? Would be kind of nice to test speeds of LTE around Canada on various networks.
 
#7 ·
One thing I was curious about with other people that own it. Does anyone notice that the brightness settings are dimmer for the same settings vs iPad 2? I don't have my iPad 2 any more so i can't compare side by side but it seems like the new screen can dim a lot lower than the old iPad(which is a good thing for night time reading).

The retina display is amazing. Reading text seems to be a lot easier on my eyes like in iBooks. Other than that, there aren't that many optimized apps out there for this great display but what I've used so far makes the upgrade worth it to me since it is my most used device especially for reading books/webpages/RSS etc.
 
#8 ·
This is my first iPad and so far I'm finding it awesome! Retina is very clean and easy to read. Would like to compare to an iPad 2. Running some of my bigger apps is very smooth. I used to have an iPhone so I had a lot of apps in iTunes and I copied them onto the iPad. They run a lot faster than my iPhone ran them thats for sure. Works really well with my ZaGGfolio bluetooth case and keyboard! Surprised that my laptop (new Tecra M11) can't charge the battery on this thing.
 
#17 ·
Most laptops don't charge them.. You need USB 3 if I recall correctly..I have a griffin powerdock dual which charges my iPad and iPhone at the same time

Someone posting screenshot for Telus LTE from downtown Toronto:

I gotta say, seeing the speedtest images is really making me mad.. 5-6 times faster than my HOME HIGHSPEED NETWORK... That just isn't right, and is making me consider calling my ISP to figure out why a home network is 5 times slower than a cellular data network

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
#9 · (Edited)
The retina display is cool especially side by side with the old iPad2. For example, in the Apple iPad ad with the flower you can clearly see finger prints on the person pinching the screen. These are not visible on the iPad2. My own photos tend to look the same. New issues of SI and Time look sharper than older issues. They must have upped the resolution.

Clearly this iPad is easier to read from. Didn't check iBooks before I restored the iPad2.

The most obvious thing I've noted is the heat! I actually took it out of my cover to cool down. Not sure how it would do on a long flight.

Edit -

Downloaded an HD TV snaek peak (to save time) from the us iTunes store. Excellent quality and clarity. You can notice the difference from the SD iTunes material. Home 720p videos look great too.
 
#10 ·
I'm in the processing of setting mine up so I can't tell you much yet, but I can say this: while I know the new iPad is a bit thicker and heavier than the iPad 2, I'm coming to it from the iPad 1 so for me it seems much lighter and thinner. :)

The initial setup screen was MUCH dimmer out of the box, but this may be because I put it in my old original Apple cover (remember those) for the iPad 1 (it fits okay, not perfect), which may be messing with the light sensor. I'll adjust the brightness once I'm done restoring from my iPad 1 backup, and I'll post some thoughts (I'm keen to load a couple of short 720p video files I have lying around to test out that function as well, will download a 1080p sample too if I can find a good one).
 
#11 ·
I'm in the processing of setting mine up so I can't tell you much yet, but I can say this: while I know the new iPad is a bit thicker and heavier than the iPad 2, I'm coming to it from the iPad 1 so for me it seems much lighter and thinner. :)

The initial setup screen was MUCH dimmer out of the box, but this may be because I put it in my old original Apple cover (remember those) for the iPad 1 (it fits okay, not perfect), which may be messing with the light sensor. I'll adjust the brightness once I'm done restoring from my iPad 1 backup, and I'll post some thoughts (I'm keen to load a couple of short 720p video files I have lying around to test out that function as well, will download a 1080p sample too if I can find a good one).
I agree with the size/weight. I'm also coming from an original iPad and the difference is significant. I'm sure it helps that I've moved from a Dodo case to a Smart cover as well. A lot less bulk!
 
#12 ·
I went to the Waterloo store and loaded up ehmac on an iPad 2 and iPad3 side-by-side and there's a huge difference in the text! SO much clearer, and the ipad 2 is very easy to read. That was the thing that made me actually pick one up. Plenty of stock at the Waterloo store around noon. :)

I use my ipad2 primarily for surfing so the improved text rendering I'm sure is going to keep me happy. I seem to downgrade the memory each time though. My ipad is 64G, my ipad2 is 32G and this new one is only 16G...
 
#13 ·
I haven't noticed the extra weight.
The screen is awesome.. I've loaded some pictures and I can say that I have a really crappy camera haha
The only minor beef I have is I have to re-enter all my passwords again after a restore. not major, but.. I can't remember half of them! :eek:
 
#15 ·
The new iPad is amazing. When I first powered up the display I was wowed at its clarity. It almost feels like I could reach my hand into the screen it's so vivid and life like. The text from sites is so crisp and easy to read. Photos have exceptional depth and detail. The Retina Display alone is worth upgrading from an iPad 2 in my opinion!

Everything also runs very smooth. Not much different from the processing power of the iPad 2, but there is a slight increase in responsiveness. And the weight difference between this device and the previous gen is negligible.

The camera is pretty solid, though I wish the front facing camera had gotten a spec bump. But I don't really use the iPad for that reason much anyway! And the dictation is pretty smooth and quite a nice feature. Overall I'm quite pleased with my newest iPad purchase :D
 
#19 ·
My first iPad....couldn't be bothered with the earlier versions - wasn't interested in the first because of the limitation on flash (some of the websites I stream from didn't support it eg. Motogp.com). 2nd gen didn't tempt me because the screen was a step down from the iphone 4, which is gorgeous.

This did the trick....wow....going back to my "old" Macbook (2006?) is like using an old vintage computer or something.....the screen is absolutely stunning. Tempted to try the LTE......but not sure I want to shell out the cash....yet!
 
#20 ·
Is the Retina display impressive, or what? :heybaby:
No. it's like the iPhone display. if you're used to that it's nothing special. But then i never used a previous iPad

I think it's good but I'm struggling with the reason to have it....

Macbook air does 95% of what i do and the iphone fills in for the rest.... gotta play with it some more but I may end up returning it.
 
#23 ·
I'm on Bell and went and picked up an LTE micro-SIM this afternoon on a standard $10 data share plan with my existing Bell account, but can't seem to actually get my iPad to do LTE, nor can I get any straight answers from Bell so far as to why not. Tech support answers range from "the iPad doesn't show the LTE indicator on Bell" to "20mbps is all you should be getting" to "you're probably not in an LTE coverage area" (I'm at Yonge & the 401). I'm not buying any of this, so I'm going to call again tomorrow and see if I can get some additional answers.

Of course, the good news is that I'm getting 20mbps down and 6mpbs up simply on HSPA+ (with the "3G" indicator showing). I know that definitely can't be LTE because that's the same performance I"m getting with the older, non-LTE micro-SIM.

I'm curious if anybody on here is getting the "LTE" indicator on Bell, and if so, what kind of speeds are you getting and what type of plan are you on? Bell techs keep telling me that LTE should "Just work" and there's nothing special they have to provision, but if that's the case it makes no sense that I'm stuck on "3G."
 
#39 ·
Bell techs keep telling me that LTE should "Just work" and there's nothing special they have to provision, but if that's the case it makes no sense that I'm stuck on "3G."
Just to follow-up on this previous post, I did speak with a Bell tech yesterday who seemed to be a bit more on the ball and informed me that the $10 "tablet share" plans are in fact not LTE compatible. He moved me over to the $5/15/35 tablet flex plan, and although it took a while for LTE to actually start showing up -- perhaps due to provisioning delays and/or weak LTE coverage in my area, that seemed to do the trick. There were a number of things he had to specifically confirm were provisioned, so there's definitely stuff to be done on Bell's end -- in the very least making sure you're on an LTE-compatible plan and don't have LTE blocked for some reason.

I'm at Yonge & York Mills and at this point I'm getting only a single bar of LTE in my apartment with HSPA+ like speeds. I get a solid 5 bars of 3G/HSPA+ coverage, so the weaker signal is specific to LTE. Outside walking along Yonge street I get about three bars and 45mbps down and 27mbps up, so considerably more respectable.

 
#24 ·
The more I use the new iPad the more I love the display! Everyone needs to download the Metro newstand app for their city. In portrait mode when you view a page of the paper just look at how tiny the words are yet they are still so clear that you could read it like this if you really wanted to!
 
#25 ·
Can anyone report whether or not they get that checkerboard pattern when scrolling through large news sites i.e. NY Times?

Some have said they haven't even seen this on the iPad 2, but I know I have. With the added RAM, I would hope it's a thing of the past. Then again, I would think the retina display, it might be a challenge.
 
#34 ·
Now that I've had a full day to play with it, some further thoughts:

The thing that has tickled me most about the new iPad is how comfortable it is to read for long periods now (text ... so sharp!) and how much fun the Siri dictation is. I rarely use dictation but I've tried it with composing responses in this forum as well as dictating email and it works surprisingly well (though as with all dictation-product users, you really become aware of how many homonyms there are in the English language!). I have to do a little correcting on the dictation most of the time, but I'd say it's about 90 percent accurate, maybe even higher. Perfect for short posts, messages, emails, etc.

I was afraid that older apps (I have a couple on my iPad that aren't even iPad apps -- they're iphone-sized only!) would look terrible on the new display but the upscaling is EXCELLENT. Even old SD videos look just fine.

Speaking of which, I compared a 1024x768 (ish) video from an HD source I had converted before I had this new iPad to a new video I copied in at full 1080p. The difference is exactly as you'd expect it would be, WOW.

Did a FaceTime chat today, nothing new with the front camera so no surprises there. Haven't used the back camera for anything at all yet, it wasn't my motivation for buying the new iPad so it may be a while on that.

Again, the screen is just WAY more comfortable for reading for longer periods, and the text scales BEAUTIFULLY when you zoom in. Really wish you could do it that easily and beautifully on a Mac.

Oh, and photos!! Again, WOW. Also, iPhoto for iOS is absolutely REMARKABLE. I'm not going to throw out my notebook's copy of Photoshop, but frankly I can easily see iPhoto for iOS becoming my favourite editing tool routine jobs. It's not laser-precise but it really is pretty amazing.

As far as battery goes: I used it literally ALL DAY today and very often yesterday and it only just got down to one percent battery. I have the Wi-Fi only so I appear to be getting the benefits of the big battery without paying the 3G/LTE penalty. As for getting warm (as I've heard some people say, I stuck mine in my old Apple cover (for the original iPad) right away so I haven't noticed any heat at all.

Now to start thinking about what I want for a case ... gonna need one of those HDMI adapters too for presentations ... and maybe iMovie and iWork for iOS ... oh dear ...
 
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