New iPad is bad news for Android tablets

Summary: This hardware refresh is more than enough to keep the iPad ahead of the Android competition for the foreseeable future.

Well, we now know a lot more about the new iPad than we did a few hours ago. ZDNet’s Jason D. O’Grady has a quick rundown in case you’ve not been keeping up.

Related: The new iPad’s great but what’s wrong with a good, inexpensive Android tablet?

Is this an evolutionary upgrade or is it revolutionary? Personally, I think that it’s evolutionary. There’s nothing here that stands out as particularly revolutionary, but Apple tends to use the iPhone as the platform for revolutionary updates. Think Siri. Possibly the most revolutionary aspect of this device is not the technology, but how it will be put to use, especially that high-resolution display.

The biggest disappointment? No Siri. Strange and somewhat surprising. I wonder if this is because Siri is still in beta?

This iPad refresh is bad news for Android tablets on a number of fronts:

• The iPad has a tremendous graphics advantage over Android tablets, even ones powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. Apple claims theA5 chip in the iPad 2 had twice as much graphics power as the Tegra 3. The new A5X has four times the graphics power.
• Screen density will blow away the competition.
• Price is exactly what consumers expected it to be. No nasty surprises.
• Awesome battery life for a high-end device.
• Availability is a little over a week away, not weeks or months like many tablets.
• The 16GB iPad 2 will continue to be sold at a reduced price of $399 for the WiFi model and $529 for the WiFi+3G … that’s a clever ploy that helps stitch up the mid-range market.

Bottom line, this hardware refresh is more than enough to keep the iPad ahead of the Android competition for the foreseeable future.
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/new-ipad-is-bad-news-for-android-tablets/18959?tag=content;siu-container>

Design

• Device type:
  • Tablet
• OS:
  • iOS (5.1)
• Form factor:
  • Candybar
• Dimensions:
  • 9.50 x 7.31 x 0.37 (241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4 mm)
• Weight:
  • 23.00 oz (652 g)
    the average is 16.8 oz (481 g)

Display

• Physical size:
  • 9.70 inches
• Resolution:
  • 2048 x 1536 pixels
• Pixel density:
  • 264 ppi
• Technology:
  • IPS LCD
• Touchscreen:
  • • Capacitive, Multi-touch
• Features:
  • Light sensor

Battery

• Capacity:
  • 11560 mAh

Hardware

• Processor:
  • Dual core, Apple A5X
• Graphics processor:
  • • Quad core PowerVR SGX543MP4
• System memory:
  • 1024 MB RAM
• Built-in storage:
  • 64000 MB

Camera

• Camera:
  • • 5 megapixels
  • Aperture size:
    • F2.4
  • Features:
    • Back-illuminated sensor (BSI), Auto focus, Touch to focus, Video stabilizer, Face detection, Geo tagging
• Camcorder:
  • • 1920x1080 (1080p HD) (30 fps)
• Front-facing camera:
  • 0.3 megapixels VGA

Multimedia

• Music player:
  • Filter by:
    • Album, Artist, Genre, Playlists
  • Features:
    • Album art cover, Background playback, Dolby Digital
• YouTube player:
  • Yes

Internet browsing

• Browser:
  • • Yes
  • Supports:
    • HTML, HTML5
• Built-in online services support:
  • Facebook, YouTube (upload), Flickr, Twitter

Technology

• Positioning:
  • Wi-Fi positioning

Phone features

• Phonebook:
  • Unlimited entries
• Organizer:
  • Calendar, Alarm, Document viewer (Office 2007, Office 2003, PDF, Other, .jpg, .tiff, .htm, .html, .key, .numbers, .pages, .txt, .vcf), Calculator
• Messaging:
  • Threaded view, Predictive text input
• E-mail:
  • • IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange

Connectivity

• Bluetooth:
  • • 4.0
• Wi-Fi:
  • • 802.11 b, g, n, a
  • Mobile hotspot:
    • Yes
• USB:
  • • Yes
  • Connector:
    • Proprietary
• HDMI:
  • • Yes
• • TV-Out, Computer sync, OTA sync

Other features

• Notifications:
  • Silent mode, Speakerphone
• Sensors:
  • • Accelerometer, Gyroscope
• • Voice commands, Voice recording

Availability

• Officially announced:
  • 07 Mar 2012

Shopping information

• Accessories:
  • Dock Connector to USB Cable, 10W USB Power Adapter, Documentation