I went to test-drive an iPad 4. Seriously, its hard to tell the speed difference. I've seen the geekbench reports and know that the A6X blows the A5X away, but it practical use, I can't really tell the difference. Programs *seem* to open faster, but thats pretty much it.
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iPad Hard to tell difference between iPad 3 and 4
- Thread starter Booji
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that is b.c no apps really push the a6x. The difference will be more noticeable in later IOS version...7, etc
very true. It is a lot like our iphone5's....by time the processors would really be put to use, a new phone will be out. Phones are definitely at a peek
I'm happy enough with my iPad 3. My view is this though, should I sell now and upgrade to iPad 4 for a small price or wait until the 5 and upgrade at a higher price?
I am assuming the iPad 3 will devalue a lot more when the 5 comes out
I am assuming the iPad 3 will devalue a lot more when the 5 comes out
I'm just out the Glasgow store, had my 3 side by side with a 4, and had to look for the Lightning port to tell the difference.
iOS 6.0.1 is as smooth on both, no difference at ALL in UI animations, smoothness, pinching in/out of photo piles, etc.
Sure, bigger games will load a few seconds quicker but right now the iPad 4 is more about being future proof rather than making an immediate impact.
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He's not lying or delusional. Until apps come which push the A6X you will see NO difference other than marginal load time improvements (few seconds).
iOS development history has proven that newer devices don't see peak performance apps for 6/8 months due to developers catering for older devices (see 3GS still being supported on the iPhone platform).
iOS 6.0.1 is as smooth on both, no difference at ALL in UI animations, smoothness, pinching in/out of photo piles, etc.
Sure, bigger games will load a few seconds quicker but right now the iPad 4 is more about being future proof rather than making an immediate impact.
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He's not lying or delusional. Until apps come which push the A6X you will see NO difference other than marginal load time improvements (few seconds).
iOS development history has proven that newer devices don't see peak performance apps for 6/8 months due to developers catering for older devices (see 3GS still being supported on the iPhone platform).
One of the reviews actually had the iPad 3 encoding clips in iMovie a little quicker than the 4 although I'm sure they said the 4 would perform better with longer movie clips. Not quite sure why this was though - I found this surprising and would like to see some real world users giving their thoughts on this.
exactly. If you were to remove LTE and have the same design....very few people would be able to notice a speed difference. Twice the speed sounds nice on paper, but when the apps don't demand it you really cannot tell.
If I had an iPad 3, I would not upgrade now but wait to see what the 5 brings and possibly wait 'til the 6. However, I have NO iPad and think I will happily buy an iPad 4 sometime this week. The only thing causing me any hesitation is the whiff of a potential March iPad 5 release. Most of us here seem to think this is unlikely, but seeing as the 4 is such a muted release with no publicity (have you seen a single ad or billboard for the 4th generation iPad? I haven't), I'd be kind of surprised but not shocked if 5 comes out in Spring.
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The 4 is a nice processor upgrade, but there's no software out really to take advantage of it. By the time there is, Apple will hopefully be releasing the real sequel to the iPad 3 that incorporates better screen tech and a body design on par with the current Mini, which will then make all the people that jumped on the 4 cry like little girls.
I'm probably going to jump on the 4 and if this mythical iPad 5 comes out in March, I WILL cry like a little girl because who would expect a "generation" of iPad to last 4 months? I can totally wait until March if this drastic re-design is due out then. But if it comes out next November, I'll be perfectly happy that I didn't wait a full year to enjoy having an iPad.
HD FaceTime camera is very nice for my uses. And the lightning connector means no two sets of plugs. So those would be my two main reasons for preferring it. The speed I don't see as a big deal, as even my iPad 2 runs iOS 6 smooth as silk.
This test seems to confirm my experience...even side by side you can hardly tell the difference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HMijuc5qX7M#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HMijuc5qX7M#!
You know what the difference is between Apple and Android? Apple still caters to older devices. From the 3GS all the up to the iPad 4 (only reason iPad 1 cannot run iOS 6 is because of greed). Android on the other hand could release a new OS that has been totally revamped for today's processors. It's call fragmentation. But the way I see it the lack of fragmentation actually hurts Apple in the long run. iOS has been stale for the last 2 years because of it and developers know that people are still using A4 and A5 processors with 512mb of Ram. Why should a developer code for a A6 processor if tons of people are still using iPad 2's and iPad mini's?
The next iOS release should dump the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 so that we can get a full redesign that takes advantage of dual core processors and screen resolution. It's nice that my iPhone 4 still works with the majority of apps but it's not advancing iOS ahead of Android anytime soon. Otherwise you're not going to know the difference between iPhone 5 and iPhone 8.
The next iOS release should dump the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 so that we can get a full redesign that takes advantage of dual core processors and screen resolution. It's nice that my iPhone 4 still works with the majority of apps but it's not advancing iOS ahead of Android anytime soon. Otherwise you're not going to know the difference between iPhone 5 and iPhone 8.
At the end of the video, you see that his iPad 4 was only getting 2.5Mbps on his wireless network. At that connection speed, the iPad 4 isn't the bottleneck.
Thank you for the info! I am curious how warm it would get if it was running a game that fully utilized the A6X's supposedly amazing graphics chip.