Well, it’s just past 9:30PM EST and Apple has officially lifted the embargo previously put on major technology journalists regarding the publishing of their reviews and thoughts on the device.
First to publish their thoughts of the “Retina” tablet set to launch this Friday is The Washington Post, for which The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky was keen to share his opinions.
Washington Post / Topolsky
Describing the device as having a screen which “look[s] like glowing paper,” Topolsky gushed over Apple’s new tablet, referring to its 9.7-inch Retina Display as “magical.” He continued, noting that the general design and packaging of the new iPad reflected “essentially the same product as the iPad 2.”
By now you’ve heard about the revolutionary screen on the new iPad. But does it live up to the hype? In a word: yes.
This display is outrageous. It’s stunning. It’s incredible. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that you can hold these beautiful images in your hands, or maybe it’s the technology that Apple is utilizing, or maybe it’s the responsiveness of the operating system. But there’s something almost otherwordly about how good this screen is. For rendered text or high-resolution images, it just looks like a glowing piece of paper.
Mossberg
Next up is long-time Apple affectionate and personal friend to the late Steve Jobs, Walt Mossberg for The Wall Street Journal, who in his own review of the tablet tonight noted that whilst there are trade-offs – (such as thickness and weight) – “[the new iPad's] key improvements strengthen its position as the best tablet on the market.”
I’ve been testing the new iPad, and despite these trade-offs, its key improvements strengthen its position as the best tablet on the market. Apple hasn’t totally revamped the iPad or added loads of new features. But it has improved it significantly, at the same price.
It has the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device. The company squeezed four times the pixels into the same physical space as on the iPad 2 and claims the new iPad’s screen has a million more pixels than an HDTV. All I know is that text is much sharper, and photos look richer.
As for if you should buy one if you already have an iPad 2, Mossberg concludes:
“If you already own an iPad 2, and like it, you shouldn’t feel like you have to rush out to buy the new one.”
TechCrunch
TechCrunch’s review of Apple’s new iPad can be summed up in a sentence.
Once you see and use the new iPad, there will be no going back.
Ed Baig
Also joining the lifted embargo fun this morning is USA Today’s Ed Baig, who writes:
The display is spectacular [...] The display becomes your window into all those apps. And the brilliant screen on the new iPad is the thing that will have you salivating.
You’re probably thinking the displays on the first iPad and the iPad 2 were pretty sweet, and you’d be right. Watching movies, reading books, surfing the Web, playing games and admiring photos on the older tablets is not an unpleasant experience.
Pogue
David Pogue of The New York Times is a little less-gushy in his opinions of Apple’s latest tablet, noting the new iPad “doesn’t introduce anything that we haven’t seen before,” adding that Apple simply took a product that was super-hot (the iPad 2), and “added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies.”
But apps that haven’t been rewritten don’t benefit as much. In most apps, text is automatically sharpened, but not in all of them. After enjoying the freakishly sharp text in Mail and Safari, you’ll be disappointed in the relatively crude type in, for example, the non-updated Amazon Kindle app. (Amazon says that a Retina-ready update is in the works.)
Similarly, high-definition videos look dazzling. This is the world’s first tablet that can actually show you hi-def movies in full 1080p high definition. But Netflix’s streaming movies don’t come to the iPad in high definition (yet, says Netflix), so they don’t look any better.
Jason Snell – (Macworld)
Editor of Macworld, Jason Snell, has this morning posted a 5-minute video review of Apple’s new iPad. His written review can be found here.
The new iPad is just that: The iPad, updated for a new year and millions of new iPad users. It’s not smaller or lighter, but it’s got a remarkable screen, a much better rear camera, and support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. It’s the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better.
Users of the iPad 2 shouldn’t fret: Their iPad investment is certainly good for another year. But they might not want to look too closely at the new iPad’s screen. Once you get a load of that Retina display, it’s hard to go back to anything else.
