When Apple introduced the “new iPad” with a retina display a few months ago, the company didn’t discontinue the iPad 2. Apple just made it cheaper, knocking $100 off the base price and offering the iPad 2 for $399 while the new iPad starts at $499.
But it turns out Apple didn’t just lower the price. The company also gave the iPad 2 a slight processor bump — and it turns out that may have had a major impact on battery life.
AnandTech has done a thorough review of the new iPad 2, and the site concludes that the new  32nm HK+MG A5 processor is more energy efficient than the A5 chips found in older iPad 2 models.
In AnandTech’s tests, the new iPad 2 managed to get between 15 percent and 30 percent better battery life than its predecessor. The gains vary depending on what you’re using the tablet for. You’ll see the most improvement while playing games, and less benefit while surfing the web.
Both tablets generally get longer battery life than the new iPad, despite the 3rd generation iPad’s larger battery. That’s because the new model has a much higher resolution display and a faster graphics processor that goes along with it.
Unfortunately Apple mixes the new iPad 2 in with older models and you probably won’t know which one you’ve got until after you’ve already paid for the tablet, opened the box and turned it on.
wow,,what amazing news,,golly,,gee,, im blown away,, next you will tell me a honda civic gets better gas mileage than a chevy surburban
I thought they were only continuing sale of the iPad 2 until old stock was depleted. I didn’t realize Apple was still producing the iPad 2, and even updating its hardware! How long will Apple continue to sell the iPad 2?
Apple is basically doing the same thing as Asus did with their Transformer line when they added the Prime.
So the new iPad is just the premium version, while the original iPad 2 is their consumer model. The 32nm HK+MG was a bit overdue for Apple and also helps them with the lowering of costs for the iPad 2’s new price range.
Meaning expect to continue to see the iPad 2 sold until Apple decides demand is too low to continue it.
Gotta say, if that’s the case, then Apple’s naming scheme sure is confusing. You’d think they would name the mainstream consumer model simply ‘iPad’, and call the premium version something different like ‘iPad Plus’ or ‘iPad HD’ (as was rumored prior to the 3rd gen iPad launch).
Yes, but Apple tends to prefer keeping focus on the idea of their product rather than on what version it is and that’s likely the main reason they’re doing it this way.
While it could also be a marketing experiment to see if it helps repeat sales if the focus isn’t on the fact it’s yet another new model and that tends to automatically get it compared to the previous models.