Hey, guys.
Eric Franklin from CNET here and instead of burying the lead, I'm just gonna come out and say it.
The 4th generation iPad is our favorite tablet of the year.
How does it compare to the new iPad, you know, the old one released in March, well, this latest version of the tablet has an upgraded front facing camera and a new A6X processor.
That's it.
What the iPad lacks in new features, it more than makes up with older, awesome features like it's premium bill quality that app store, and a deep and robust media ecosystem supporting the best in movies, music, TV shows, games, books and apps.
Its speed of performance has also noticeably increase, thanks to its new processor.
App selection is still the single most impressive iPad treat.
If there's an
app worth having it will likely be on the app store before anywhere else.
From cool finance apps to tons of educational, cooking, and productivity apps, to a whole [unk] section of apps, with healthcare professionals, if you're interested in doing things on a tablet, you know, like useful fun things, this is your place.
Now, given the iPad's graphical capability, I really wanted to single out games.
I'm not what some would call a casual gamer.
I play console games and I
still game on a PC and yet, I still love playing games on this thing.
Like with general apps, the iPad has the most best and best-looking games of any tablet platform.
Why you eventually find some of these games on Android, the vast majority of the time, the best version is the iPad version.
Some of my favorites that really show up the system's horsepower are NOVA 3, Wild Blood, and Need for Speed Most Wanted.
Now, the iPad's resolution isn't as high as the Nexus
10 but the iPad's deep, black level, superior color reproduction and overall higher polygon pushing horsepower more than makes up for that.
I also love just how smooth and zippy it performs.
When navigating through menus across screens and when opening apps, there's just a quickness here that really outshines anything else.
At an average brightness, the iPad last over 14 hours playing a local movie at 720p, which again, no other tablet has been able to rival.
The iPad is an excellent tablet but it's not perfect.
If you want deep OS customization options, you want to look elsewhere, namely, the latest version of Android, Jellybean, specifically, the Nexus 7 or Nexus 10.
And for getting any real work done on the tablet, the iPad hails in comparison to the Microsoft Surface with its comfortable keyboard cover and the inclusion of Office.
Also, at 500 bucks for 16GB, you're paying more for less storage compared to other leading
tablets.
And speaking of stoage, there's no micro SD option.
Still, when it comes to speed, battery life and an incredibly large and varied app store media ecosystem, the iPad has no equal.
Once again, this is Eric Franklin with a Product Spotlight on the 4th Generation iPad.
