As with every other Apple release held on a Friday, the new iPad reviews started pouring in on Wednesday night. So were the pros wowed by the Retina Display and the 4G LTE wireless? You betcha, and the battery life also takes quite a bow this time around as well.
MacRumors has compiled notes from six of the most prominent reviews of the new iPad, and the verdict is pretty much unanimous: The Retina Display is simply gorgeous, the battery life is virtually identical to the previous iPad models and the 4G LTE wireless is smoking most everyone’s Wi-Fi connection at home.
"I'm not being hyperbolic or exaggerative when I say it is easily the most beautiful computer display I have ever looked at,” writes Josh Topolsky for The Verge, while The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple compares the “startling” difference as going from “one of those giant standard definition projector TVs to an HDTV.” The new five-megapixel camera also received some high-fives, particularly for its 1080p video recording, which is said to look quite good even in low light.
Pretty much everyone praised the new 4G LTE wireless capabilities of the iPad, with connection speeds averaging or exceeding 20Mbps for both upload and download, which TechCrunch calls “Really fast. Faster-than-my-Wi-Fi fast.” AT&T took a few knocks for not offering Personal Hotspot at launch, particularly from Macworld’s Jason Snell, who otherwise called the carrier’s 4G LTE network “impressive” in San Francisco. One downside noted by several reviews: FaceTime still requires Wi-Fi, despite the blazing-fast LTE.
Battery life was also praised, which lives up to Apple’s claims of 10 hours via Wi-Fi and nine hours using 4G LTE -- a small miracle to be sure, considering the battery life problems for 4G smartphones. TechCrunch noted that the new iPad got “noticeably warm in the lower left corner after prolonged use” compared to the iPad 2, and everyone noted that the new iPad now takes longer to charge as a result of the larger battery.
Not everyone heaped on the praise, however. David Pogue over at The New York Times seemed a bit grumpy about the refreshed tablet, claiming that “the new iPad should have been called the iPad 2S” and that “Apple just took its white-hot iPad added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies.” AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg was more positive, but noted "If you already own an iPad 2, and like it, you shouldn’t feel like you have to rush out to buy the new one."
With Apple’s retail stores opening in less than 24 hours, we’ll all have a chance to try it out for ourselves soon enough…
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
