Thursday 8 March 2012

Reasons to Not buy an Ipad 3


The web soothsayers had it right again with their Ipad predictions. March 7 has come and gone and the foretold unveiling of Ipad 3 or Ipad 2S or Ipad HD, or whatever they're trying to call it, has come and gone. Does the new Apple Tablet deliver the goods? Is all the fanfare and excitement over the new IOS product justified. I'm going to say no.


Before I'm lynched let me explain that I do own an Ipad 2 , crucial for reviewing all the great apps on the app store. And I might be disappointed with the new Cupertino announcements, but that doesn't mean I'm any less excited.


So what reasons are there not to buy the Ipad HD?



  • You're still stuck with the Apple eco-system. It's Itunes or nothing. So Apple censorship and control is still there, unless you go down the route of jailbreaking your Ipad 3. Do you really want to do that with an 800 Dollar/600 Pound Plus tablet?
  • Apple why do you still not have USB compatability or at least memory stick use for the new Ipad? The largest model, which is still at a premium price, has a paltry 64GB memory. If Apple really wants to make their tablets a household standard and make PC's and Laptops redundant this is simply not good enough. 64GB is a tiny and insignificant amount of memory-especially if you're going to be downloading HD movies for your Ipad 3. It's a travesty that there is not any sort of out the box extended memory capability.
  • Proprietary Apple 30 pin connector. Really? With new USB standards and firewire rearing their heads is this really the best Apple can do.
  • Apple Ipad 3 appearance. Notably on the press releases Apple were reluctant to picture the old and new Idevices together. And rightly so, Ipad HD looks exactly the same as its predecessor but has put on weight! It's 2012 for goodness sake, look at all that tablet real estate lost by having a massive bezel. Again Apple , is this the best that you can do?
  • Still only 10 hour battery life. The new Idevice is an evolution not a revolution. With tech wizards already supposedly trialling new uber long life batteries such as fuel cells one can only say that once again Apple has not tried hard enough.
  • Quad Core Processor. Fantastic. 1GHZ Quad Core?  Not so fantastic. 1GHZ for a laptop beating , cutting edged tablet? Quad Core or not , again Apple seems to have put in processing power that while undoubtedly good, even very good, is already being overtaken by the Tegra 2 and Scorpion Mobile chipsets.
  • The Ipad 2 was not released too long ago, by the fact that Apple haven't evolved the new Ipad to be an everything beater says that the life cycle is again expected to be relatively short. So come a year or at an outset 2 years time, tech that is readily available today is going to be shoehorned into the new super tablet, Ipad 4 emerges and again evolves. But with tech that is already on the shelf now, and should be included in the Ipad 3!
  • Where is Siri on the new Ipad? Oh, wait I think Apple has forgotten to include the voice assistant!
  • 4G LTE connectivity, fantastic if you live in the USA or any other 4G region. But an extra 100 or 200 hundred of your local currency that's going to be wasted if you're still living in the 3G stoneage.
  • The screen is undeniably fantastic on the new Ipad, but at what cost to the processing power and you'd better make sure all downloading is via Wi-Fi , because mobile data plans are going to struggle with those hefty HD movie downloads.


Doubtless Ipad HD will once again sell in its millions and be the best tablet on the market. But I can't but help feel cheated so much more is capable and possible. That said I'll doubtless end up buying the new tablet, the screen at least is cutting edge. And Ipad apps far and away blow the competition out of the water. Still rather then overwhelming excitement for the new Apple device I instead feel just a little bit cheated.


PS. Samsung and HTC and Sony and friends, you're losing the tablet war. So next time we see an Android powered tablet you'd better give us something fantastic. Because we really can't afford an Android Tablet and an Ipad too!


PPS I'm still looking for mention as to Ipad HD's Flash Player compatability. Another question tellingly left out of the Apple press conference.

1 comment:

  1. I agree, iPad 3 is much ado about nothing. There is nothing that wow'd me about this new version, so why throw good money after it? Save the money, buy a laptop.

    ReplyDelete

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