Apple's new iPad

Without a doubt, the new iPad's headline feature, the retina display, makes a modest first impression. I was hoping for a mind-blowing experience -- I remember being seriously impressed the first time I clapped eyes on the iPhone 4's pixel-packing display. The new iPad doesn't make that kind of impression. While it’s unlikely to drop your jaw, this is undoubtedly still a fantastic screen.Boasting a mammoth 2,048x1,536-pixel resolution, detail on icons and text is incredibly clear, and you may well spend your first few minutes of ownership peering gormlessly at the pre-installed app icons, all of which look gorgeous. Expect photos and HD movies to look a dream.

Examining the new iPad alongside the iPad 2, there is a visible difference in the quality of the display. But that's not to belittle the previous iPad's screen, which is still great. The new tablet looks better, but not to the degree that the iPad 2 looks ugly and dated by comparison.

Feast your eyeballs on the new iPad's retina display, top, and compare it to the pixelated icons of the iPad 2.

Colours are bright and natural, and the viewing angle is impressive, making it easy to crowd several people around a single tablet without anyone missing out on visual detail. The display's close proximity to the top of the screen is another plus, and lends the tablet a luxurious look.

The screen is still intensely reflective though. Stare into the new iPad while the screen is switched off and it may as well be a mirror. As such, you may find your fun hampered by overhead lighting while sat indoors. If you take the iPad outside, you'll have to contend with the biggest overhead light of all -- the sun.

For the most part, the screen is bright enough to compensate for these reflections. But if you're watching a moody movie with lots of scenes set in the dark, expect to spend some time looking up your own nose.Exploring the App Store, there are already a decent number of apps that have been given a retina makeover. It's a good thing too because anything on this screen that's not been tailored for the tablet's high-resolution display sticks out like a sore thumb.

Blurry, unattractive apps and icons were an issue when the iPhone 4 was released, with the device's hi-res screen making apps built for previous iPhones look extremely ugly. That's no longer an issue, but expect a transitional phase in which you'll occasionally be confronted with unsightly, blocky apps.To sum up, this display is excellent. It hasn't rocked my world, but it has massaged my eyeballs with its clarity and colours. It's not hugely better-looking than older iPads though.

Camera

The iPad 2's camera was rubbish, and while it served for taking quick, disposable snaps and concocting moving music videos, a lack of detail in images meant it was unsuitable for capturing half-decent photos. The new iPad sports a beefed-up 5-megapixel snapper that packs fancy-sounding tech like back-side illumination and a 5-element lens. But could the new iPad replace your digital camera?

This snapper is a massive improvement on the iPad 2's effort, as our comparison photos confirm. If you check those pictures out, you'll see that the new iPad particularly excels at capturing close-up shots and far exceeds its predecessor's abilities in low-light conditions. Shots in less-than-bright lighting will still feature lots of noise though.Pictures are reasonably clear if your subject is perfectly still, but it doesn't take much movement to leave your pictures looking decidedly blurry.

Outside shots are balanced, with our shots of a cloudy London day not too plagued by blown-out whites in the sky. There's not a huge amount of detail captured here -- zooming in a little on pictures I'd taken quickly left them looking unclear, with people's faces in crowd shots resembling blobs.

These outdoors shots show the improved performance of the new iPad, top, over the iPad 2, with a well-balanced shot, although it lacks detail when zoomed in .

The new iPad, top, produces far better results close-up than the iPad 2 .

Again, the new iPad's camera's results, top, will show up better than its predecessor's in low light .

Video capture isn't terribly smooth, and once you start moving the tablet, the video is liable to succumb to blur. It's also worth mentioning that the tablet itself is quite cumbersome to hold up in a photography-ready position. Doing so in public will also make you look rather ridiculous.

There are benefits to using the iPad camera. The software is ludicrously simple, and once you've taken a picture, there are loads of apps like iPhoto with which to edit them. It's also dead easy to upload pictures to Facebook or Twitter. But those after a decent snap will find the actual image quality sub-par.

To conclude on cameras, this snapper is a massive improvement over the iPad 2 and will nab a decent photo. The new iPad isn't a suitable replacement for a decent compact digital camera, or a particularly good smart phone camera.

Performance

There's a new processor lurking inside this brand new tablet, dubbed the A5X chip, providing a step-up in power from the A5 chip powering the last iPad.

It's worth mentioning that there's nothing wrong with the iPad 2 in terms of speed. One year on, it's still a very capable device, and feels every bit as slick to use as the new model. The power boost present in the new iPad is necessary though, because powering the high-resolution screen is a demanding process.In everyday terms, you're unlikely to notice much difference in speed between the new iPad and the iPad 2 -- moving through the interface feels just as swift, and apps spring open with little loading time.

There also seems to be little improvement here in terms of graphical clout. The new iPad ran the GLBenchmark 2.1.2 Egypt Standard test at 59 frames per second, compared to 58fps when we ran the same test on our iPad 2.The 'Offscreen' test, which is part of the same suite, showed more improvement -- 140fps for the new iPad versus 89fps on the iPad 2. The GLBenchmark 2.1 Pro test running on high showed remarkably little difference between the two tablets though, with the new slate running the test at 59fps, and the original iPad mustering 58fps.

The SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test, which helps evaluate a browser's speed, again showed very similar scores -- 1,890.9 for the new iPad and 1,884.6 for the iPad 2. Lower is better in this test so the older iPad actually performed better, but only very slightly.

Our scores using the Geekbench app were also similar -- 760 for the new iPad compared with 756 for the new iPad. Interestingly, this test revealed that the new iPad offers 988MB of RAM and is clocked at 1GHz.

The benchmark tests show that in practical terms, you're unlikely to see a great deal more grunt with the new iPad. The A5X chip may make your tablet more useful for longer as new and exciting apps are created, but for now, the practical performance benefits of the new processor appear to be slight. The speed boost moving from the iPhone 4 to the 4S was much more striking.

The snapper on the iPad 2 was rubbish, so the boost to 5 megapixels and its improved camera tech is welcome.

Design

This iPad looks essentially the same as its predecessor, but that's no bad thing. This device is all-over luxury, with the curved metal casing feeling pleasant in the hand. Build quality is excellent, and while this tablet is unlikely to survive a drop onto a tiled floor, you won't notice the casing creaking at all while you hold it -- it's very well put together indeed.

Buttons and ports remain minimal -- there's the home button beneath the screen and volume keys on the right, along with a switch that either locks screen rotation or mutes the volume, depending on the option you select in the settings menu. On the bottom there's a slot for the charger, and at the top you'll find a headphone port and lock switch. Like the iPad 2, the new iPad comes in both black and white options.

There are some differences between the new iPad and the iPad 2. This tablet isn't as thin -- measuring 9.4mm thick compared to the iPad 2, which was 8.8mm deep. It's heavier as well, tipping the scales at 652g for the Wi-Fi only version, compared to the 601g Wi-Fi-only iPad 2. The SIM card-carrying version now weighs 662g.

One of our gripes with the original tablet was that it was too heavy at 680g, which made the slimmed-down, lighter iPad 2 feel like a significant change for the better. I think that while the new iPad is a comfortable weight and still pleasingly thin, it's edged dangerously close towards too-heavy territory.

It's perfectly comfortable to hold with two hands, and I reckon you could easily enjoy a long train journey glued to this device without feeling the dreaded ache creeping into your wrists. But it's probably slightly too unwieldy to hold in one mitt for long.

The extra bulk will be a consequence of the components that Apple's chosen to occupy this tablet's innards. The camera, processor and screen all offer better performance, but the slight extra bulk is the price you pay. If you'd rather own something as thin and portable as possible, then the iPad 2 is still on sale at a reduced cost.

The new iPad, top, is noticeably thicker and heavier than the iPad 2, piling on 51g for the Wi-Fi-only version.

Software

The new iPad's focus may be on swanky new components, but it's Apple's iOS software that has made its tablets so successful. Buttery smooth menu navigation and an intuitive interface make gliding through the iPad's software a pleasure, and you'll rarely struggle to find what you're looking for.

Double-tapping the home button to bring up the apps you've already got running quickly becomes second nature, and multi-touch gestures are in place too. Pinching the screen with four or five fingers to return to the homescreen and swiping left or right with four fingers to switch between running apps are perhaps the most useful digit-induced shortcuts.

The iOS software does have its pitfalls. The 'settings' menu is still a confusing maze of options, making it time-consuming and frustrating to perform a simple task like adjusting brightness or turning Wi-Fi on or off. Options for customisation are also extremely low. Don't expect the dynamic home screen widgets you'd find on Android devices, and in terms of the tablet's display aesthetics, things like icons and fonts can't be changed.

In spite of Apple's restrictive approach, iOS is the best operating system for tablets right now because it has an absolutely vast catalogue of downloadable apps. The iPad's popularity has caused newspapers, broadcasters and games publishers to flock to the platform, so you can expect a near-endless supply of games, digital magazines, music and video applications, as well as all the multimedia offerings through Apple's own iTunes app. Garageband and iMovie, the music and movie editing tools made by Apple, are especially noteworthy.

Most apps are reasonably priced (expect to pay a few pounds at most), many are free, and because Apple enforces a strict approval process, the apps to be found on the App Store are generally polished and of a high quality. The retina display may be the shining face of Apple's new toy, but the App Store is its lifeblood.

4G, but not in the UK

The Wi-Fi + 4G option for this iPad offers LTE connectivity for those using the version that takes a SIM card, but that's not something that'll work in the UK, as our fragile networks don't support 4G yet. Even when they do, this particular model won't work on the spectrum bands we'll be using.

If you buy an iPad in the UK, you will be able to take it to the US or Canada and use the 4G networks over there, though you will need to buy a SIM card for one of those local networks. The tablet still has some speedy connectivity tech including HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA that work in the UK, so as long as you've got decent network coverage, you should find mobile Internet is reasonably rapid.

Battery life

Apple's estimate for the new iPad's battery life is 10 hours, though in practise it's extremely hard to gauge what kind of survivability tablets will offer unless you have a very clear idea of what you're going to be doing with them. Left alone overnight, our model dropped a mere 3 per cent battery charge, which is promising.

Once we started downloading tonnes of apps and running gruelling graphics tests, however, the available charge started melting away. That's to be expected though, and it's not what I'd call typical usage by any stretch. I'll be updating this article if I notice any battery quirks, but my impression so far is that the new iPad will likely be as capable away from the mains as its predecessors.

The iPad is one of the very few gadgets out there to offer battery life I'd actually call impressive, so this is a good thing. Those of you looking to use the iPad primarily as an ebook reader, take note -- the Kindle's battery life is fantastic.

Apple iPad mini

Whether or not you think it's too pricey, the iPad mini feels genuinely luxurious to hold. Its 7.9-inch front is dominated by a single piece of glass with the small, round home button sitting at the bottom.It measures 200mm long and 135mm wide. That's exactly the same length as the Nexus 7, but adds 15mm onto the width. We found we were just about able to slide the Nexus 7 into our jacket pockets, but we're not convinced you'll be able to do the same with the iPad mini -- it's more of a purse or small bag-sized device.

At 15mm wider than the Google Nexus 7, it's going to stretch your coat pocket to tearing point.

The mini has a much slimmer bezel than the Nexus 7, or even the larger iPad, so the bigger screen hasn't pushed out the size of the chassis any more than is necessary.We worried that the slim bezel would cause us to accidentally start an app or turn a page, but Apple has baked in some finger-rejection tech that seems to counter this problem. When reading books, holding onto the side of the tablet wasn't a problem, but when we started typing, the entire edge-to-edge surface became sensitive to our touch.

The iPad mini takes design cues from the new iPod touch, down to the curved wrap-around aluminium casing and flat back. The white model has an aluminium rear, while the black version has a slate-coloured anodised-aluminium back, like the black iPhone 5. 

Apple's non-iPhones from left to right: iPad, iPad mini, iPod touch.

It's only 7.2mm thick, making it thinner than the iPhone 5. The Nexus 7 is 10mm thick, which seems positively portly by comparison -- indeed, this is the slimmest and lightest small-size tablet around. It also weighs around 310g, making it about half the weight of the iPad 3.

Construction feels solid, and the mini is fun to wrap your mitts around. The home button clicks crisply and despite being cheaper than a full-sized iPad, it doesn't feel any less well-built.

The smaller Lightning dock connector sits at the bottom, and although it's easier to connect than the earlier 30-pin charger, it won't fit with any of your existing iPad speaker docks and peripherals unless you buy an adaptor.

Typing on the mini's screen is a little more cramped than the iPad -- you might find one-handed prodding more comfortable.

The iPad mini's neatest trick is that it handles all the larger iPad's duties despite the smaller size. In CNET's tests, ebooks and magazines, media-editing apps, virtual board games with tiny buttons and games that have on-screen touch controls were all usable and comfortable.

To type, you can hold the mini in portrait mode and use two thumbs, as you would on a smart phone. Typing in the traditional style works better than expected in landscape, but takes some getting used to, as the 7.9-inch display isn't as wide as your average laptop keyboard.

Camera

At the top of the mini you'll spy an HD camera for FaceTime and there's a 5-megapixel camera around the back, which can shoot video in 1080p.

You get an HD camera for video calls on the front and a 5-megapixel effort around the back.

We found this snapper is an improvement on the dodgy camera inside the iPad 2, but doesn't measure up to the lens on the latest iPod touch. Photos snagged using the mini are better than most budget tablets can muster, and the small size makes this gadget more practical (read: less embarrassing) than the larger iPad for taking photos in public. Be aware that some features are curiously absent however, including HDR and iOS 6's new Panorama mode.

The mini's 5-megapixel rear camera is more than adequate for the occasional snap.

Screen

The iPad mini's 7.9-inch display offers a resolution of 1,024x768 pixels. That's the same resolution offered on the old iPad 2, although its smaller screen size means its pixel density is higher, at a middling 168ppi -- significantly less dense than Apple's retina displays.

Based on CNET's experience, how you feel about the mini's screen will depend on how many retina displays you've been exposed to. In other words, if you've spent much time with a recent iPhone or third-generation iPad, you'll think the mini's screen is blurry.

It's a lower resolution than the Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD, despite being slightly larger than those tablets. Competition aside, this is the least impressive screen in Apple's clutch of iOS gadgets, with the iPod touch, iPhone 5 and latest iPad all brighter and crisper to look at. The viewing angle is impressive though, so you'll be able to crowd more than one person around this tablet.

The iPad mini's 4:3 screen ratio makes ebooks more book-like than on other 7-inch tablets.

Like the iPad 3, the mini has a 4:3 aspect ratio, rather than a stretched 16:9 display like the iPhone 5. That means all the 275,000 iPad-specific apps on the iOS app store will fit perfectly on screen.It may have the same aspect ratio as the larger iPad, but thanks to the slim bezel the screen feels extra-wide. We found the mini was at its best when tested with ebooks, magazines or textbooks, which are rendered without being unduly compacted.

The bookish dimensions and access to lots of different digital shops make the iPad mini a strong ebook reader, even if it's not the best for pure text. In CNET's tests, magazines and books were enjoyable to read on the mini, even if a sharper resolution would have helped -- especially with comic-book apps.

The iPad mini packs 168 pixels per inch onto the screen -- lower than the Nexus 7's 216ppi.

Ebooks may get a pass, but the 4:3 aspect ratio is a stumbling block for video. Movies and TV shows will be displayed with large black bars at the top and bottom -- something that affects 16:9 gadgets like the Nexus 7 or the iPhone 5 much less.

We found most TV programmes looked okay, and the lower resolution is slightly balanced by the fact the iPad mini has access to so many video-specific apps. Indeed, if anything gives the mini an edge, it's the wealth of apps, services and software it has access to. Two speakers on either side of the charging port pump out a decent amount of noise. We think they're good enough to listen to music or hear video through.

Specifications

The little chap is running on a dual-core A5 processor -- the same chip you find inside the iPad 2. It's disappointing not to see the A5X processor unveiled in the iPad 3, or indeed the A6 chip from the iPhone 5. It's therefore miles behind the A6X processor in the latest iPad, which delivers stonking performance.

With the same processor as the ageing iPad 2, the iPad mini's performance is hardly mind-blowing.

In CNET's tests, apps loaded and operated at the same speeds you'd get on the iPad 2, and generally started a few seconds slower compared with the latest iPad. Similarly, Web pages loaded several seconds slower than the most recent iPad devices.

The iPad mini scored 752 in the Geekbench performance-testing app, compared to the iPad 2's 755. The mini's score pales next to the iPhone 5, which managed around the 1,600 range, while the fourth-generation iPad scored above 1,700. The difference in actual app performance isn't so dramatic, but the mini is no speed demon.

Software

The mini is running on the latest version of Apple's mobile software, iOS 6, which debuted on the iPhone 5. It brings the ability to tweet and post Facebook updates from all over the interface, an updated notifications bar and various other tweaks -- including a Maps app so bad it forced Apple boss Tim Cook to issue a public apology. The Nexus 7, by contrast, has the latest Android Jelly Bean software and Google's own excellent maps.

The iPad mini largely lives up to Apple's 10-hour battery life claim.

In terms of battery life, Apple reckons you can get around 10 hours of use from a single charge. We always take battery claims with a fistful of salt, but CNET's tests saw the mini surviving well beyond a full day's use, even with games, streaming video and downloads in the mix.

4G connectivity

The iPad mini will be offered in Wi-Fi only and 4G versions. It uses the 1,800MHz band for 4G, which is only used by EE. That means if you want mobile Internet on your tiny tab, you'll have to go with EE.

Although other networks are yet to announce their plans for 4G, we do know they won't be using this part of the spectrum. So if you buy an iPad on EE now, you won't be able to use it on a different 4G networknext year.