Yesterday Apple unveiled its third generation iPad, simply called the new iPad, at an event in San Francisco. The form factor remains mostly unchanged with a 9.7-inch display, however the new device is thicker at 9.4mm vs. 8.8mm for its predecessor. The added thickness was necessary to support the iPad's new 2048 x 1536 Retina Display.
| Tablet Specification Comparison | ||||||
| ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity | Apple's new iPad (2012) | Apple iPad 2 | ||||
| Dimensions | 263 x 180.8 x 8.5mm | 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4mm | 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8mm | |||
| Display | 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 Super IPS+ | 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 IPS | 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS | |||
| Weight (WiFi) | 586g | 652g | 601g | |||
| Weight (4G LTE) | 586g | 662g | 601g | |||
| Processor (WiFi) | 1.6GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 T33 (4 x Cortex A9) | Apple A5X (2 x Cortex A9, PowerVR SGX 543MP4) | 1GHz Apple A5 (2 x Cortex A9, PowerVR SGX543MP2) | |||
| Processor (4G LTE) | 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 (2 x Krait) | Apple A5X (2 x Cortex A9, PowerVR SGX 543MP4) | 1GHz Apple A5 (2 x Cortex A9, PowerVR SGX543MP2) | |||
| Connectivity | WiFi , Optional 4G LTE | WiFi , Optional 4G LTE | WiFi , Optional 3G | |||
| Memory | 1GB | 1GB | 512MB | |||
| Storage | 16GB - 64GB | 16GB - 64GB | 16GB | |||
| Battery | 25Whr | 42.5Whr | 25Whr | |||
| Pricing | $599 - $799 est | $499 - $829 | $399, $529 | |||
Driving the new display is Apple's A5X SoC. Apple hasn't been too specific about what's inside the A5X other than to say it features "quad-core graphics". Upon further prodding Apple did confirm that there are two CPU cores inside the SoC. It's safe to assume that there are still a pair of Cortex A9s in the A5X but now paired with a PowerVR SGX543MP4 instead of the 543MP2 used in the iPad 2.
Read on for our analysis of Apple's 3rd generation iPad.
