New iPad 3 Review

 New iPad 3 Review

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New iPad 3: Build

Launched alongside the new Apple TV, the new iPad 3 looks much the same as the Apple iPad 2. The Home button remains, despite the big tease of the launch invite’s imagery, but where successive iThings of the past have been thinner, lighter and the proud owner of new monikers, Apple’s latest tablet is thicker (by 0.6mm), heavier (by 50g) and has no identifying numbers or letters to its name.

However, the third-generation iPad is also faster, more powerful, has by far the best screen ever seen on a tablet and will allow developers, including T3, to create apps of greater power than ever by exploiting all of the above. So, should you be shelling out for one?

New iPad / iPad 3 unboxing video: The coolest unboxing ever (review continues after the video)

New iPad 3: Screen

Android aficionados will find 2048x1536 reasons not to buy, but a bitch of a screen ain’t one. Some 3.1 million pixels at 264ppi are now crammed into the 9.7-inch display – the leading Android tablets, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Asus Transformer Prime, come in at 1280x800.

Put the new iPad 3 side by side with the iPad 2 and the improvement is, quite visibly, clear. On the older iPad, apps in folders are just blobs of pixelated colour; on the new one you can almost make out text.

The Apple Retina Display smooths out edges and renders text pin-sharp so ebooks, websites and documents are so much easier on the eye. There’s better contrast, greater definition with still and moving images, and better colour saturation – an improvement of 44 per cent over the iPad 2, Apple reckons.

New iPad / iPad 3 video: Ultimate Retina Display test (review continues after the video)

New iPad 3: 1080p HD

Another Retina reward can be seen with HD video now up to 1080p – yes, Apple is updating its iTunes movie catalogue to full HD – and stills up to 19 megapixels, though you’ll have to import the latter as the onboard camera only boasts five. Both look stunning in terms of reproduction clarity, mind.

Developers will also need to optimise their digital nuggets to take advantage of the display hike; until then, you may suffer some slight blur. Needless to say, we’re hard at work making T3: iPad Edition Retina-ready.

New iPad 3: Performance

To power this next-gen display the new iPad needs extra processing grunt, and it’s provided by an improved dualcore chip, the A5X, with a quadcore GPU. While HD video and menu swiping don’t appear any smoother than before – they were already plenty smooth – gaming, as you’d anticipate, really benefits.

Playing the upcoming Infinity Blade: Dungeons, the polygonal-pushing experience is exceptional, with quality not far off what we’ve seen so far on the Sony PS Vita. There are multiple layers, complex shading, frenetic action and minimal slow down.

Non-optimised games look pretty much identical to those on iPad 2, however. Will developers patch older games to bring them up to Retina standards? We’ll see…

Asus and Toshiba may be rubbing their hands in glee, with both having announced “proper” quadcore tabs in recent months. However, with the dedicated chip handling graphically intensive tasks, the dualcore A5X seems more than adequate, keeping the new iPad quick and slick, even when processing the likes of iPhoto and GarageBand.

Can the new iPad / iPad 3 take on the Amazon Kindle Fire? We put the two head-to-head (review continues after the video)

New iPad 3: Camera

A lesser upgrade is the rear-facing iSight cam. Its f/2.4 aperture optics are pinched from the iPhone 4S, but with a five-meg resolution rather than eight. Images are better than the iPad 2’s but tablet cams are still hardly the last word in convenience – one-handed tap-to-focus is mission impossible – and results remain a way off dedicated compacts, especially indoors or in overcast conditions.

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Top 10 Full Sized Headphones

Full-size headphones are exactly that: the largest headphones that are generally designed for home use. Indeed, many of these models have a full-size "phono" jacks designed to match your AV receiver or stereo, and their larger drivers often require more power than some portable music players can muster. The headphones are either circumaural (with ear cups that fully enclose your ears) or "open-backed" (unsealed earpads that let external sounds in--but are generally more comfortable to wear). And finally, some of these are superluxury models that cost hundreds of dollars--sometimes even north of a grand. That said, this list includes some of the best-sounding, most transparent headphones we've ever heard. True audiophiles may consider these to be investments well worth a lifetime of exquisite listening.

Aiaiai TMA-1 Professional DJ Monitoring

The sleek TMA-1 headphones by Aiaiai are ideal for traveling DJs who need tough headphones with an up-front, bass-slamming sound profile.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50

The Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Professional Studio Monitor Headphones are among the best available for less than $200, offering excellent sound and build quality.

Sennheiser HD280 Pro

Sennheiser's versatile headphones sound great on DVDs and all kinds of music.

Noontec Zoro (Black)

Bona fide $100 audiophile headphones are rare, but the Noontec Zoros' remarkably clear and balanced sound will wow the cognoscenti.

Sennheiser HD 598

The new HD 598's "wow" styling updates the classic Sennheiser look, and the sound has more detail and higher resolution than previous models. We recommend these cans to anyone looking for a pair of headphones with precision sound quality and a wide-open soundstage.

Panasonic RP HTX7 (White)

While their sound and design may not appeal to everyone, the Panasonic RP-HTX7s are excellent entry-level over-the-ear headphones that are a good bargain.

Focal Spirit One

Focal may be new to the headphone market, but its Spirit One is an auspicious debut with the look, feel, and sound of a winner.

Audio-Technica ATH-M30

While they're not in the same league as the step-up ATH-M50 headphones, the Audio-Technica ATH-M30 set costs a lot less and offers impressive performance and decent build quality for the money.

 

Shure SRH550DJ (Smokey Gray)

The Shure SRH550DJ headphones strike a solid balance of durability and     respectable sound definition, worthy of hard-hitting DJs who play pop, rock, hip-hop, and electronic music.

Ultrasone HFI-680

The Ultrasone HFI-680 headphones' abundant bass power, forgiving treble, and isolation from external noise should make these an attractive choice for some buyers.

V-Moda Crossfade LP headphones

The V-Moda Crossfade LP headphones look good, feel durable, and offer plenty of desirable extras, but the clubby leaning to the sound space does not lend itself well to all genres of music. This set is best suited to DJs and dance music aficionados.

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Amazon Kindle Fire HD

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD certainly matches the Nexus 7 in terms of price and raw hardware, and it comfortably trumps the iPad mini on price and screen resolution.

But, as we've come to realise, Apple's dominance in the tablet market has been built on strong design, coupled with a peerless content ecosystem and a super-slick UI.

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD may be cheap, but ultimately it will still need to embrace all three of these key elements if it's to succeed.

If you still think of Amazon Kindles as those little monochrome holiday companions, then you should know that the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a completely different beast.

Rather than focusing on the very specific job of downloading and reading electronic books, this is an all-purpose tablet that acts as a window onto Amazon's wider multimedia world - films, music, apps and games are all included in the Kindle Fire HD's remit.

With that in mind, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a much simpler, purer design than the original Kindle.

The emphasis here is on the screen first and foremost, with the only hardware controls coming in the shape of some weedy and difficult-to-locate volume and power buttons on top of the device, right alongside its 3.5mm headphone jack.

The lack of a fixed home key adds to that minimalistic vibe. The only detail on the front of the device is a 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls - there's no rear-mounted camera here.

Despite that impossibly cheap price point, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD doesn't feel like a cheap device. It's solid in the hand, with none of the creak you find in many budget Android tablets.

There's a nice contrast between the Amazon Kindle Fire HD's smooth, glass front and its grippy matte back. It's quietly pleasing from a tactile perspective, even though it lacks the sheer machined precision and premium feel of Apple's tablets.

While Apple has opted for a super-slim bezel for its iPad mini - partly to facilitate that wider 7.9-inch display - Amazon has been more generous with its own offering.

Indeed, the thick border around the smaller 7-inch screen brings it closer to the full-sized iPad in design than its miniature brother.

I like this approach from a purely practical perspective (it actually makes it look a little chubby, if I'm honest).

It's still comfier to hold the Amazon Kindle Fire between your thumb and fingers than it is to rest it in the span of your hand, even when held in portrait view. Of course, that's partly because it's slightly chunky for its size - at 395g it's almost 90g heavier than the iPad mini.

One area in which Amazon would hope to gain a big advantage with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD over its rivals is with its display. As we've mentioned, we're talking about a 7-incher here, but it's the quality of that screen that's causing Amazon to boast.

The company claims that the display features a polarising filter and anti-glare technology, which apparently boosts colour and contrast, as well as improving viewing angles.

Despite such claims - not to mention early positive reports from the US - we have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed by our initial experience with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD display. It seems distinctly yellow to our eyes.

Of course, it could just be that we've been conditioned by Apple's slightly cooler, bluer high-definition displays.

Indeed, once your eyes have grown accustomed to its warmer hue, you'll no doubt begin to appreciate the Amazon Kindle Fire HD display's more naturalistic colour contrast - particularly when viewing video content. It's certainly richer than the somewhat washed-out and dim Nexus 7 screen.

That's only half the story with the Kindle Fire HD display, too. The clue is in the name - that 7-inch display is sharp. It's high-definition-sharp. In fact, with a resolution of 1280x800 and a pixel density of 216ppi, it's considerably sharper than the iPad mini equivalent.

This isn't particularly apparent within the main Kindle Fire interface, but it certainly bears fruit when reading a book or browsing the internet, where small text remains clear and eminently readable.

This display is powered by a capable 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 CPU. While this is far from the most powerful processor on the market, it is very well balanced and certainly doesn't come up short when faced with demanding tasks like high-definition video and 3D games.

One final piece of hardware-related info we really must cover is the Amazon Kindle Fire HD's impressive speakers. Positioned on either side of the device (if you're holding it in landscape), they're surprisingly punchy, given their size.

They really do crank out some respectable stereo sound - both in terms of volume and clarity.

Naturally, we'd recommend using earphones whenever possible, but for those times where you're just following a quick email link to a YouTube video, they're more than adequate.

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