IPad 4 review. Faster, higher, stronger!

As you know, Apple's recent presentation at the California Theater, along with the reduced iPad mini was announced a new model of "big brother" - the fourth generation, or, as the official name on the Apple site, «iPad with Retina display ». For ordinary users in the United States and other countries (not in Russia, unfortunately), the novelty will be available for purchase in retail stores Apple Store tomorrow, on the second of November.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the week Apple sent out a limited number of copies of the tablet journalists reputable western media with a request to write their thoughts about the new generation of devices. The most interesting and informative article seemed to me blogger Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear, free translation of which I present to your attention.

hardware component

I propose to begin our acquaintance with the tablet with the most interesting - with a hardware component of iPad 4. In fact, the "untrained" observer is hardly the first time will be able to detect any differences in appearance between the fourth-generation iPad and its predecessor. The only difference lies in the lower end of the body and is a modified form of connector for charging and syncing with your computer. To be precise, the standard 30-pin dock connector was replaced with a new, more modern the Lightning connector, also used in the iPhone 5, iPad mini and the new generation of iPod touch.

As he said in his Article by Ken Segall (Author of the popular book «Insanely Simple» about the history of Apple's success, one of the founders of the campaign iMac and Think Different), this kind of upgrade was necessary both for the company and for its consumers. Apple is unlikely to be like in the traditional Christmas period to sell millions of tablets with built-in, which by and large is gone forever. If you for some reason need an adapter with the old version of the Lightning dock connector, you can purchase this accessory to the Apple Store for $ 30.

Let's take a look inside the "hardware filling» iPad 4, because there are differences from its predecessor will be typed much more. Let's start with the fact that the A5X chipset has been replaced by a more efficient and powerful processor A6X, which, according to the company's management, is the fastest among the mobile devices Apple. On A6X paper twice as fast as the A5X, both in terms of rendering graphics and CPU.

In addition, in the arsenal of advantages listed A6X support for hardware image processing technology, which, in conceived engineers of Cupertino, should significantly improve the built-in 5 megapixel camera iPad 4.

iPad 4 test performance bottlenecks etc in comparison with the iPad mini:

If we are talking about the camera, it is impossible not to mention the changes in the iPad 4 in this regard. The rear camera is the same, but the front-facing iSight received HD-quality support, has got 1.2 megapixels and is now able to shoot video in 720p.

Among other things, slightly changed the characteristics of Wi-Fi - now the iPad 4 supports 802.11n frequencies (2.4GHz and 5GHz) for better compatibility with the relevant routers.

As for the rest, iPad 4 was identical to its predecessor in terms of hardware. For the same price you get all the same impossibly clear Retina-display, robust housing made of glass and aluminum, as well as three storage options: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB.

software component

As you know, iOS 6 was presented by Tim Cook at the international conference of developers WWDC in June this year and is now available to upgrade ordinary users in the end of September. Not surprisingly, the iPad 4 runs on the latest version of the mobile operating system, so all your favorite applications and services (Safari, Apple Maps, Messages, Game Center, App Store, Siri, etc.) will work without problems, moreover, at a faster processor.

Using the iPad 4 for the past few days, I came to the conclusion that A6X processor compared to its predecessor A5X is not some grand difference in speed and in terms proizvoditlnosti vzaimodeysvtiya with iOS interface 6. In other words, the transition to a new generation of chipsets is not felt as strongly as it did, for example, when switching from the first iPad model on the iPad 2.

However, do not get me wrong - I did not mean that the capacity of the new model of the tablet does not exceed its predecessor. Rather, as is confirmed by data Geekbench benchmark, the new iPad (1.4GHz A6X) score of 1768 points, more than double the iPad 3 with 751 points. For comparison: iPhone 5 A6 chipset showed 1616 points, while the iPad mini A5 processor set a mark at a rate of 757 points.

The only place where you will surely notice the speed boost - is a browser. We launched from the SunSpider test of JavaScript performance and fixed the results in 879 milliseconds. This indicator is very close to the results of the "real" desktops (286 milliseconds MacBoook Pro 13 "Retina with Intel i5 processor) and left far behind 1689 milliseconds, which were recorded in the previous iPad.

In addition, we tried to video processing iMovie HD, and were impressed by the performance of the CPU and GPU. C each new model of its brand tablet Apple is gradually increasing the processing speed and output quality of material, fine balancing between these two components.

In terms of pure speed, fourth-generation iPad has managed to process minute video in 720p 45 seconds and 1020r 48 seconds, while his predecessor, dealt with this same amount of work for 48 seconds and 51 seconds respectively.

I'm sure many readers of the difference in the kind of numbers seemed negligible. However, try to imagine how the number will increase expectations when you need to handle a longer video clip. For example, a five-minute clip as 720r iPad 4 processed in 3 minutes 57 seconds and 3 iPad it took 4 minutes 17 seconds. The performance difference is felt even more strongly, if we consider the rollers of the same length in the format of 1080 - the processing will take 4 minutes 17 seconds and 4 minutes 56 seconds, respectively.

Get yourself the latest generation iPad, you're paying for potential. Maybe it's not all programs are able to take advantage of grammotno in processor performance (Except for the browser, as I mentioned above), but it is on the iPad 4 will be guided by a third-party developers applications. Besides, we should not doubt that on the iPad 4 next mobile operating system will work without problems Apple's, while the iPad 3 is already out of production, so the question iOS 7 upgrade path is unresolved.

Battery

As for battery life performance, Apple promises the same 10 hours for surfing the Internet, media playback and listening to music on Wi-Fi (up to 9 hours, if it is done in the usual cellular). Our tests "in practice" only confirmed data Apple engineers - full discharge cycle takes place with the active use for 10 hours. This means that the company has managed to double the capacity of the device, while maintaining its energy efficiency.

The findings and results

I fully agree with the third-generation iPad owners, who deny the need to upgrade to the latest model of the tablet. The only reason that for someone can serve as a compelling reason to upgrade is the Lightning connector.

In fact, if Apple did not have to urgently pass all mobile devices in the new format the Lightning dock connector, is likely to update iPad line would happen next spring, according to the established "Schedule" for updates.

On the other hand, with the release of iPad 4 was formed "divide" to the iPad 2, which now acts as a second-rate budget tablet. From now on, the consumer has the opportunity to choose between the power and display iPad 4, iPad mini compactness and portability, attractive price for clarity iPad 2. What option is more advantageous? Up to you.