Analysis of the new Apple iPad
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 9, 2012 1:37 AM ESTA Much Larger Battery
Apple claimed no decrease in battery life for the new iPad compared to last year's model and only a 1 hour drop over LTE. The problem is that the combination of A5X SoC under GPU load, the LTE baseband and driving/lighting all of those pixels in the Retina Display has a significant impact on power consumption.
Apple addressed the issue by increasing the new iPad's battery capacity by 70%. If the leaked PCB photos are accurate (they look to be), Apple increased battery volume by shrinking the motherboard size and increasing the thickness of the tablet.
The new 42.5Wh battery is downright huge. To put the new iPad's battery in perspective, this is nearly the same battery capacity as the what was shipping in the 2008 13-inch MacBook Pro. This is also a bigger battery than what's used in the 2011 11-inch MacBook Air:
Over the next two years you can expect to see the line between ultraportable and tablet blur considerably. Looking at where the new iPad falls in the chart above really begins to exemplify just how blurry that line is going to become.
With the display off, the new iPad looks and feels a lot like the iPad 2. The additional thickness is hard to see, but the additional weight is definitely noticeable. The new iPad isn't as heavy as the original model, but it's clearly heavier than the iPad 2. I don't believe the added weight is a deal breaker, but it is a step backwards. Maintaining battery life however obviously trumps added weight.
The math is pretty simple. If Apple is claiming 10 hours of battery life with a 42.5Wh battery, the new iPad with the iPad 2's battery would likely be good for just under 6 hours. Such a drop would be unacceptable and thus the new iPad gets a bigger battery and incurs additional weight from the new battery and display components.
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tipoo - Saturday, March 10, 2012 - link
Maybe I'm more sensitive to it but I can definitely see the pixels in the borders of things like the Safari icon. The AT images are zoomed in of course so you notice it more, but its pretty easy to see at a glance on the iPad 1 and 2.ananduser - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
What you didn't mention in your analysis is that the "new" resolution is the result of a need and not a wish to trump competition on specs. Apple couldn't have chosen 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 or standard 1080p because of ios' lack of resolution independence. As they did with the iphone, Apple invested in a custom screen size just so that the ecosystem would introduce a x2 and voila, instant upgrade.ZeDestructor - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Not really custom. High-end 19"+ CRTs back in the late 90s did 2048x1536@72+Hz as a matter of routine.Roland00Address - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Nobody is shipping a device with a 1600x1200 or 1920x1200. Yes there will be competitors later on this year with those resolutions but no body is shipping an ips panel with those resolutions in a 10 inch form factor right now. Thus Apple is not saving money by merely retooling some other panel.Yet there is a reason besides higher dots per inch for choosing something with greater than 1200 height. When you turn the tablet so the skinner side is going from left to right that means the maximum webpage it can draw is 1200 pixels wide without zooming or not showing the entire website. Most webpages are designed for the following resolutions. 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1366x768. By picking something that is at least 1366 wide you are guaranteed to display the entire webpage.
Furthermore merely doubling the resolution makes it a lot easier to port apps to the higher screen resolution.
If you need to get custom panels anyway why not pick a resolution that makes sense from an app development perspective as well as being more useful at displaying webpages. Why do you need to follow the resolutions that are traditional on desktops, an ipad is not a desktop device so why situate it with desktop baggage when you are starting from scratch?
joelypolly - Saturday, March 10, 2012 - link
It isn't a new resolution and has been a standard LCD resolution call QXGA for many years. In fact IBM shipped a 15" Thinkpad with QXGA screens which looked awesome compared to the standard XGA screens at the time.doobydoo - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
It's not because of a 'lack of resolution independence' at all. The iPhone and iPad both have different pixel ratios and both run iOS.It's to make life easier for app developers, and means that any existing apps for the iPad 1 or 2 can be scaled up automatically.
The Samsung Galaxy got this wrong by switching the ratio between generations. It quickly gets very messy for developers.
prophet001 - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Hey Anand,I was wondering if you could elaborate more on the differences between the usability of a tablet and that of a laptop. Perhaps write a short article. I know that there are substantial hardware differences. However, what are the OS level differences that restrict what things you can do on a tablet? Thanks for this article and all you guys do.
classy - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
It looks like a true top notch tablet, but the price just seems to high. I have found more often than not, unless you are a reader, a laptop is better.jihe - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
And if you are a serious reader, kindle is betterSixOfSeven - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Depends on what you're a serious reader of. If it's technical literature, you need size and resolution. If it's a novel, pretty much anything will do (hence the Kindle). The first two iPads require too much panning and zooming for the sort of stuff I read; perhaps this one will be better.