Opinion: 5 Letdowns of the New iPad - Is It Good Enough?

[belardo]

This is a rather sour and unimpressive article about the iPad2HD. For the most part, all your reasons are plain weak. The only let-down about the New iPad is the stupid name, which may not be the name when it ships. "I'm selling a Used New iPad" or in 2015 "I've got a new ipad for cheap"- Ugh. They should gone with iPad3 or iPad2-HD or iPad2G. One of the rumors about the new iPad was going to have an intro price of $650... ouch.

Lets go over Wolfgangs' issues:
1: Layered 3D display and gesture expansion = NONE ISSUE
3D is in the future... not for today and keep the prices reasonable. The Display on the Nintendo 3Ds is fuzzy compared to a high quality 2D display, it still looks good - but its not usable for the functions of a tablet... a business product. THANK GOD it doesn't have 3D.
Not really sold on the bezel gesture, Apple may not want to pay royalities on that... the big bezel area is used as a place to HOLD the unit without covering the screen.
Really: I thought "what a stupid looking big bezel, they should make it edge to edge". (A) the battery is bigger than the screen area. (B) holding the unit.
Instead, for the same price - Apple comes out with a product with twice the resolution (okay 4x if you really do the math), same size & type of body so almost all current the accessories fit it. beefed up GPU, etc... For the most part, there is nothing on the market that is currently competing against the iPad2, other than the top end ASUS Transformer Prime.

2: No quad-core CPU = none issue
Actual usage and battery prevents a quad core setup. Also, there has to be worthwhile gains.
Compare the AMD FX8150 "8 core" CPU which is constantly slower than intel's 4-core CPUs... besides requiring less power and generating less heat... oh yeah, costs less too. My iPad1 (single core) still performs quite well with what it came with.

3: Where is my cheap iPad 2 = You got it
$400, its cheaper.... okay, its about $70 cheaper. Give it 6 months and they'll be down to $350 or. Who knows... but its not a $200 Kindle Fire which doesn't have any cameras, or larger screen and battery of iPads. It also puts it in direct competition with the $400 ASUS Transformer.

4: A 5MP camera? = Really?
Perhaps your weakest argument. This is a tablet, not a CAMERA. The sensor and other factors are more important than MP. The iPad2-HD has a 3MP display... what is it going to do with a 40MP camera? Also such high MP images sucks up far more space. My little 8MP P&S camera is on 5MP mode... I won't be making prints with it. My $6000 Nikon DSLR Camera is an old 6MP D1x model... it'll smoke any 12MP $100 P&S camera every time. I also have a Canon semi-pro 8MP camera (when I need features, but don't want the bulk) which does great... but its not as good as a good DSLR camera.

I'd like to see Apple and others try to fit slightly bigger sensors.... rather than more MP.

5: Storage = your best one
This could be valid... but I'm not close to filling up my iPad1-32GB model. As prices come down, we will see 128GB tablets. Not today... maybe in 2016 or so. Anyone else thinking about a 128GB tablet?

The good thing about NOT having an external memory card: another hole for which to damage the unit. A cheap memory card that could fail = loss of data or stolen data card. The market share of 64GB tablets is tiny. The 32GB model sells the most.

The stupid "New iPad" is the worst thing about this new product.

* the iPad is the ONLY apple product I have ever bought in my life. All my desktops and notebooks are Windows7, my phone is Android. I won't be going to AppleOS any time soon.
My next tablet maybe the iPad2-HD... unless Windows8Mobile or Android does somethings to make them worth buying.... I'm not married to my iPad, but what I get must work just as good or better.

 

[back_by_demand]

The good thing about NOT having an external memory card: another hole for which to damage the unit. A cheap memory card that could fail = loss of data or stolen data card

The data is only lost if it's the only copy you have, the idea is you transfer from your collection on your PC / Mac. It doesn't matter if the memory is removable or not, if your only copy of the data is on a device that is inherantly losable or stealable you deserve everything you get.

OK so the 1000 to 1 chance an SD card fails and you can't listen to 2Pac or watch the latest episode of Walking Dead that was on it, you get home and put it on again - for those that are really desperate and you have good connection, you could even run TVersity and stream it from your home collection (assuming you can use Flash)

 

[tmshdw]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Apart from:-#6 - No widescreen[/citation]

Perhaps you are unable to figure out that HDTV resolution fits entirely in this screen?

 

[fulle]

Will probably be a Cortex-A15 based CPU, that will benefit from all the archetecture improvements that that means over the Prime's A9 based Quad... with a die shrink helping with better power consumption at a higher clockspeed. Plus the SOC will have significantly better graphics than current tablets.
I'd bet money on it.

Don't fool yourselves, Apple haters. The likelyhood that Apple will release a POS is actually pretty low.

Of course, the likelihood that this new iPad will support microSD for additional storage, or have a decent camera sensor are very low... but, Apple users have proven that they're used to living without those features... and honestly, they wouldn't mean much to me either, when selecting a tablet.

 

[watcha]

[citation][nom]msgun98[/nom]If you think game devs can code 3D games in the iPad 3's new native resolution, I have a lot full of bridges to sell you. No, Apple didn't "magically" shoehorn in a GTX580 into the iPad. They will probably make the games at something closer to 720p and upscale them.[/citation]

I have actually developed 3D games and written 3D engines myself.

Typically in both Open GL and Dirext X the programming is resolution independent, and the programming itself doesn't change depending on the resolution. 3D developers work with vertices, shaders, lights, cameras and matrices. Not pixels or resolutions. That is all taken care of by Open GL or Dirext X respectively.

Whether Apple manages a layer in-between the code and the graphics layer I don't know because I've not yet built a 3D app for an iPad or iPhone, but having the option to either develop higher quality models and shaders or have a lower quality run and be up-scaled is the ideal scenario. The programmer can choose whether or not they want to prioritise performance or quality. What is certain is that some games already take advantage of the higher resolution, as demo'd during the launch.

 

[watcha]

Direct X*

I made that same mistake twice, weird.

 

[fulle]

Or.... perhaps I should have checked facts before I wrote the above. Wow, I'm embarrassed.

The dual core A5X will more likely be Cortex A9, and just have a bump in the memory supported.... looks like the majority of the SOC improvements were in graphics, but less so on the processor... making what I said above pretty dumb...

I'm going to just go hide now...

 

[watcha]

fulle - it's been confirmed to be the Cortex A9 at heart, with the same Power VR SGX543 GPU (as found in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S). This is the fastest GPU used in any mobile devices that I'm aware of.

The upgrade they made for the iPad 2 was switching from the MP2 (dual core) to the MP4 (quad core) - giving a full name of SGX543MP4, in theory doubling the graphics capability.

It has yet to be confirmed whether the A9 is clocked higher in the iPad 3 or not when compared to the iPad 2.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]tmshdw[/nom]Perhaps you are unable to figure out that HDTV resolution fits entirely in this screen?[/citation]
Of course it fits, the problem is the amount of screen space that will be black bars, what a waste

 

[watcha]

The upgrade they made from* the iPad 2. Sorry, typing awful tonight.

 

[alfaalex101]

[citation][nom]djfv[/nom]Everything that had to be said, was stated here.Good article and summary.[/citation]

I'd like to add how they missed out true stylus support (not a stylus that imitates a stubby finger and draws like a marker) and a tactile screen.

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

[citation][nom]raincenter[/nom]Apple has always been pay more, get less. This 'new' ipad is no different...except the display. 🙂[/citation]

I thought the New iPad was a "Pay Same Get More" type of affair.
And the iPad 2 is now a "Pay Less Get Same" kind of deal.

I'm all for pointing out Apple's foibles, but we should at least be honest about it.

 

[halcyon]

Well, I'm getting 2 new iPads. A 64gb for me and a 16gb for my Kaptain Kaos daughter ...who will give her Christmas-gift 16gb iPad 2 to her 2-year old brother (who will share w/mom). I'll let you guys know all of the flaws of the new ones. I'm thinking that the display quality will indeed be better than what I saw with the 5 Transformer Prime I went through (dead and stuck pixels).

Also, the Transformer Prime's battery life was not nearly as good as what I see on the iPad 2. When the iPad goes to sleep/standby it wakes up with nearly the same battery life left as it went to sleep/standby with. With the Transformer Prime this was not the case for me. It would wake up with significantly less battery life. ...and yes, I tried to tweak the power settings. ...didn't make any difference.

Having spent 5 weeks with the Transformer Prime I can certainly say that it's build quality and overall experience certainly is not the best out there. I'm much happier with the iPad. It cost more but I feel like I got a higher quality product. ...which is more important to me. I don't love Apple but the truth is the truth.

 

[Augray37]

Honestly, the only thing that didn't impress me was the 5MP camera. I think people are really underestimating the ridiculous resolution this new iPad has, 2048x1536 absolutely blows away the competition. Speaking of that, that's why it requires the bigger battery in order to power that quad-core GPU. I don't think it's a step back at all, but it's not a grand slam exactly either.

 

[bigbaconeater]

[citation][nom]nforce4max[/nom]The lack of removable storage and the locked down application support turns me off besides the high cost of an iPad.[/citation]

I don't own any Apple products, but everyone keeps talking about the "high price", but I looked up the transformer prime, and it's the same price $499!!!

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]bigbaconeater[/nom]I don't own any Apple products, but everyone keeps talking about the "high price", but I looked up the transformer prime, and it's the same price $499!!![/citation]

Ssssshhhhh....don't tell them. They all think the Transformer Prime is cheaper. Don't spoil it.

 

[Guest]

Won't be getting a new iPad for all the things Android tablets CAN do:

Flash/Java Support
Removeable/upgradable external card slot
Customization - 1 button iPod vs multiple button Android
Ease of use: Android = you're in control; iPod = Apple's in control

By ease of use I mean how incredibly easy it is to get files on/off the device memory. Apple - has to sync up first requiring computer on. Android - can do all file management from device, including downloading from the internet. Additionally, with a card reader, using a computer is simple drag and drop without Apple "checking" if you're allowed to do so. The original iPad was the last Apple device I'm getting. I got a Samsung Galaxy Nexus Tablet and have been spoiled by being in control of my own device. Get the message... BYE BYE APPLE!!

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]thegustaffa[/nom]Won't be getting a new iPad for all the things Android tablets CAN do:Flash/Java SupportRemoveable/upgradable external card slotCustomization - 1 button iPod vs multiple button AndroidEase of use: Android = you're in control; iPod = Apple's in controlBy ease of use I mean how incredibly easy it is to get files on/off the device memory. Apple - has to sync up first requiring computer on. Android - can do all file management from device, including downloading from the internet. Additionally, with a card reader, using a computer is simple drag and drop without Apple "checking" if you're allowed to do so. The original iPad was the last Apple device I'm getting. I got a Samsung Galaxy Nexus Tablet and have been spoiled by being in control of my own device. Get the message... BYE BYE APPLE!![/citation]

I know that Apple is just devastated to see you go. 🙁