Apple revealed "The new iPad"

Today is the day. Apple introduced their newest tablet. And while several possible names have been rumored, Apple has decided to just call it "The new iPad". Well, to our mind "iPad 3" would have been the obvious choice and totally suitable. Just "iPad HD", "iPad LTE" or something like that would have been fine, too. But "The new iPad" just seems kind of odd to us. Especially if you think of the name for the next iPad - maybe "The all new iPad"? We don't know.

But as the name is probably the one thing most people don't care about, let's go ahead and talk about the changes that really matter...

Specs

First of all, the one thing almost everyone expected - a retina display. To be exact, the new display sports a 2048x1536 resolution which leads to a pixel density of 264 ppi - the highest of any tablet worldwide - yet.

Second of all, the new iPad boasts a new processor - Apple's A5X which has now two CPU cores (just like before) but four GPU cores. According to Apple, it can deliver up to four times the performance of NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core processor.

Last but not least of the (in our opinion) three most important improvements is the also awaited LTE radio. Alongside HSPA+ with 21Mbps it finally sports LTE with speeds up to 73Mbps - for the customers of Verizon, AT&T, Rogers, Bell and Telus anyways. And despite that, Apple claims that the battery still lasts just as long as the one within the iPad 2.

Beside those three important features, Apple also kind of included Siri in their newest tablet. Well, unfortunately it's not the whole Siri experience as we know it from the iPhone 4S. Actually, it's only integrated to the keyboard and if you like you can now speak your texts instead of typing them.

To round the specs up, Apple also improved the camera of the device sporting now practically the same one that we know from the iPhone 4S. Except for two things - it's 5MP instead of 8 and there's still no LED flash.

Design

As you can see from the pictures, the design hasn't changed much. With 9.4mm and 1.4lbs it is just a little bit thicker and heavier than the iPad 2. But believe us, as long as you're not holding on in each of your hands, you're barely gonna be able to spot the difference.

Pricing / Availability

As for price and availability, Apple's new device is going to cost exactly as much as the iPad 2 (the prices of the iPad 2 will be cut, of course) and it will start shipping on March, 16th.

Wrap-up

To sum up, Apple certainly hasn't surprised anyone with "The new iPad". But if you think about the introduction of the iPhone 4S, you surely agree that something we had expected would have often been better than something we had not expected. Stay tuned and enjoy the pictures below.

click to enlarge each picture