The “New iPad” Announced – Features, Pricing and Launch Date

new ipad launch

For those amongst us who have sold our souls to Apple (several times over) in exchange for an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Mac or anything else of equal awesome proportions that they make, Apple announcements are a bit like Christmas is for kids. We wait and wait eagerly, speculating on what goodies they might deliver for months on end. Then the big day either delivers epic happiness (the likes of which we enjoyed when the 3G became the iPhone4) or bitter disappointment (the type you get when you’re waiting for a 5 and get a 4S).

Today’s new iPad launch was the former – albeit that many of the features announced were very much expected. The rumour mill was, in most cases, pretty accurate. We got many the features we wanted to see from our iPad 3 features wish list.

What wasn’t accurate was its name! The new iPad wasn’t introduced with any fancy name, no numbers, no ‘HD.’ It was simply introduced as ‘the new iPad,’ and all the new information on the Apple website seems to confirm this simple name really is accurate. It does make you wonder what they’ll call the next one… “The Even Newer iPad?”

Anyway, here’s a rundown of the new iPad’s features, launch date and pricing info.

New iPad Retina Display

new ipad retina display

Yes, we got it! Tim Cook proudly unveiled the 2048 x 1536 retina display boasting that it had more pixels than the giant wall screen behind him and 1 million more than a HDTV.

We all fully expected a retina display on the new iPad and this is a significant improvement.

A5x Chip with Quad Core Graphics

new ipad a5x chip

That superb display will require more graphics processing power. The new iPad has an A5x chip with quad core graphics. iPad gamers will be particularly pleased with this.

New iPad Battery Life

There wasn’t a great deal said at the announcement about battery life. That might be own to the fact that the best news they had to offer with this is ‘it hasn’t gotten any worse!’

That’s not as poor an announcement as it might seem. With the best mobile display ever seen, 4 times the pixels of the iPad 2 and its quad core graphics, keeping the battery life at “up to 10 hours,” in line with its predecessor’s could be seen as a reasonable achievement.

New iPad Camera

new ipad 5mp isight camera

We all wanted an upgrade to the camera and we got one. It’s not quite the 8 megapixel camera than the iPhone 4S offers, but instead a 5 mega pixel camera. The new iPad also has 1080p video recording capabilities, image stabilisation and a 5 element lens. All in all, a notable upgrade on its predecessor’s camera.

New iPad 4G LTE Support

new ipad 4G LTE

The new iPad supports 4G LTE networks, for examples those on offer from Verizon and AT&T. While Apple works with Verizon and AT&T in the USA, they’re also working with Rogers, Bell and Telus on LTE in Canada.

To account for the fact that other countries aren’t getting there quite as quickly with 4G (yes, I’m looking at you, UK) the new device also supports another two faster network technologies – HSPA+ and dual channel HSDPA.

The biggest inconvenience for Apple in all of this is having to produce 2 versions of its LTE iPad, one each for of Verizon and AT&T as they use two different bands.

New iPad Apps

new ipad apps

With every new gadget announcement comes something on the software front too. And this was no exception. GarageBand has been updated so up to 4 iPads can ‘jam together.’ iWork has also been upgraded for the new iPad and the new iPhoto is coming to iPad and enables multi touch intuitive photo editing. It has to be said, the apps look decent and the demo of iPhoto was impressive. It also allows you to create photo journals and share them via iCloud.

iMovie’s update for the new iPad also offers a host of new features, including the ability to ‘one touch’ make your own movie trailers from your video files.

As something of an Infinity Blade fiend, I was particularly impressed with some of the images I’ve seen from the demo of the new version, ‘Infinity Blade: Dungeouns.’ The developer behind it, Epic Games, was given the new iPad early and the latest instalment of arguably one of the best app store games ever complements that new retina display perfectly. Infinity Blade has always been renowned for its graphics and they really pulled out all the stops for this version. I want a retina display iPad for this reason alone!!

Does the New iPad Have Siri?

No. Not quite. However, voice dictation for emails, text messages etc is available. Upon launch, this will be available in US English, UK English, Australian English, French, German and Japanese.

New iPad Dimensions

The new iPad is very similar the iPad 2 in terms of design and dimensions. It’s 9.4mm thick and weighs in at around 635 grams.

New iPad Launch Date

The new iPad will launch on 16th March. It’s available for pre-order, however, right now!

New iPad Pricing

The new iPad pricing is exactly what the iPad 2 pricing was. Prices start in the UK from £399 and in line with this, the iPad 2 pricing has been reduced to £329 upwards.

About Stacey Cavanagh

I’m the Digital Marketing Manager at Tecmark and a lover of all things Internet and Apple. I’m a chronic #hashtagger, social media-er, compulsive blogger and a self confessed lover of inexcusably terrible jokes.