As Apple prepares to launch the third-generation iPad this Friday, several sites have published their exhaustive reviews. Hint: they like it. A lot.
The retina display is amazing, everything in the UI feels faster, and the price points remain the same. What’s not to love? It’s that simple.
Let’s be clear: the new iPad is in a class by itself, just as its predecessor was. As the latest product in a lineage of devices that defined this category, the iPad continues to stand head and shoulders above the competition. With the addition of the Retina display, LTE, more memory, and a more powerful CPU, Apple has absolutely held onto the iPad’s market position as the dominant player and product to beat.
But the moment you pick up a third-generation iPad, you can tell the difference. All the slight jagginess and oddly misshappen characters we take for granted on lower-resolution displays just vanish on the Retina display, and you’re left with the same sort of typographic excellence you’d expect in a printed book.
The iPad 2 is still far and away the best tablet on the market today (the iPad 3 officially comes this Friday, of course), and the new iPad screen manages to make it look like antiquated technology.
Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet. With the new, third-generation model, it still holds that crown.
So, what did I like about the iPad? Simple — the experience. Nobody in the market today can touch the Apple experience.
But the new iPad snatches the crown from its predecessor as the finest tablet you can buy. Period.
Apple doesn’t need another revolution, it has already started one, and the new iPad brings a fresh degree of refinement to a segment in which it is undoubtedly the king.