What's hot: Superb display, future-proof speed, great app and media selection.
What's not: Not much of a reason to upgrade from iPad 3 (aka new iPad).
Review
The iPad with Retina Display is the newest iPad, not to be confused with the new iPad released earlier this year. More simply put, this is the fourth generation iPad, released in late 2012. Apple announced it alongside the iPad mini, and the new small iPad stole enough thunder that some folks actually didn't know about the updated full size iPad. Like the mini, the 4th gen iPad 4 with WiFi went on sale November 2, 2012. The WiFi + 3G/4G LTE version went on sale later in November in your choice of Sprint, Verizon and AT&T flavors.
So what's new with the iPad 4? It runs on Apple's new A6X processor with an even speedier graphics chip. It benchmarks twice as fast as the New iPad that we'll refer to as the iPad 3. It has the new Lightning 8 pin small connector rather than the old 30 pin connector. Battery life is improved a bit.
What isn't new? The iPad 4th gen uses the same casing as the iPad 3 you just bought a few months back. The only way you can tell them apart is by looking at the dock connector. It has the same superb Retina display running at 2048 x 1536 with 264ppi pixel density. It's available in the same black or white bezel with an aluminum back. It weighs 1.44 pounds and is 0.37" thick.
Is the newest iPad faster? It benchmarks twice as fast in Geekbench 2 (1766 vs. 757) as the iPad 3. It earns an excellent Sunspider score of 913 and 219 fps on GLBenchmark's Egypt Offscreen test. Was your iPad 3 feeling slow? Likely not. And I don't think Apple expects iPad 3 owners to run out and upgrade to this model. Rather the late 2012 iPad serves to keep the iPad competitive with other tablets during the holiday season, to unify Apple's products with the Lightning connector and to match the iPhone 5's performance and CPU spec. For those buying their first tablet or upgrading from an iPad 1 or iPad 2, it's as ever a compelling choice.
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