It?s brilliant. In every sense of the word

Pick up the new iPad and suddenly, it?s clear. You are actually touching your photos, reading a book, playing the piano. Nothing comes between you and what you love. To make that hands-on experience even better, Apple has made the fundamental elements of iPad better?the display, the camera, the wireless connection. All of which makes the new, third-generation iPad capable of so much more than you ever imagined.

The new Apple iPad may resemble its precursor the iPad 2, but with its stunning features the latter does appear out-dated. Noticeable amongst the many upgrades is the retina display, improved user interface, amazing multi-touch use, better camera and some solid hardware boost to the quad-core graphic user interface (GPU).

Despite the same looks as the iPad 2, the new iPad is 50 gms heavier at 652 gms and slightly thicker at 9.4 mm. It has a 9.7-inch display that graces the entire front panel. The few buttons that are present on the tablet include volume and screen lock/unlock keys along with a 30 pin dock connector slot at the bottom and a 3.5 mm port. The new iPad looks immensely stylish with its solid metal back and stunning display at the front.

With retina display and a scratch resistant oleophobic glass, the device has an immensely crisp and stunning screen, which leaves the iPad 2 far behind. Its 9.7-inch display has a resolution of 2048 x 1536, which is twice the iPad 2?s screen resolution. The display renders the overall experience to more realistic levels with clear text and sharp edges in the visuals. Also, the multi-touch gestures can be used to perform plenty of tasks like five finger pinch to see multiple apps that are running in the background. Also, multi-touch gestures can be used to adjust screen brightness and zoom.

The tablet is faster due to the A5X dual-core chip, with a Quadcore GPU and so is immensely responsive. The iPad boasts of clear Wi-Fi signals, 4G SIM support and has a battery that lasts almost 10 hours, along with tasks like Web browsing, video or music. There were some initial reports about its heating up, which may be the case in certain units but we didn?t feel it in the one we reviewed. Due to better graphics and processor one can run games on it. The best part that it is 4G ready, so when 4G services do arrive in India, buying it makes more sense.

The new iPad has a 5 MP iSight camera with auto focus, white balance and face detection capability and can shoot videos at 1080p. It also has a VGA camera on the front panel which is quite handy for video chats or Skype calls. The little speaker is very good and produces decent sound. The camera shoots decent quality images in daylight; however, the 1080p HD video recording is brilliant. It also features iCloud functionality, which allows users to store any form of data on remote computer servers, which can be accessed from multiple iOS based devices.

The device doesn?t have an external memory slot or HDMI slot and that seems to be the only flaw in it. It is available in three variants 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB with Wi-Fi and 4G. The new iPad will be available in India from tomorrow. It is priced between R30,500 and R50,900 depending on the variant.

? CyberMedia?www.LD2.in Mail: talkLD@cybermedia.co.in