iPad review roundup (2012)

Apple’s third generation iPad will hit stores tomorrow, and the early reviews are in.

The new tablet has a 9.7 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, and quad-core graphics. It’s a little thicker and heavier than the iPad 2, but gets the same 10 hours of battery life despite the new CPU, higher resolution display, and the addition of 4G LTE wireless.

I was going to round up reviews from top news and gadget sites and provide a little taste of what each review had to offer. But they’re all pretty much saying the same thing.

So here’s the uber-summary: This is the best tablet on the market. It has the best screen and feels at least as fast as its predecessor, if not faster.

If you already have an iPad 2 and you’re happy with it, there’s probably not much reason to upgrade at this point unless you desperately want the better screen or higher quality camera. But if you’re in the market for a new iPad, this is the one to get.

Of course, some folks prefer Android, Windows, Linux, or other operating systems to iOS even though there are probably more tablet-specific apps for the iPad than any other platform. But in terms of hardware it’s hard to find a better tablet, and it plays nicely with other Apple devices thanks to iCloud file synchronization and the Airplay service for streaming media to an Apple TV.

But you can find far more details by checking out some of these reviews from people who have spent the last week with the third generation iPad:

• iPad review (2012) – The Verge (Joshua Topolsky)
• New iPad: A million more pixels than HDTV – AllThingsD (Walt Mossberg)
• New iPad: A polishing of the old – New York Times (David Pogue)
• iPad maintains Apple’s lead – Bloomberg (Rich Jaroslovsky)
• Apple’s new iPad 3 review – The Guardian (Charles Arthur)
• Apple iPad review – The Telegraph (Shane Richmond)
• New Apple iPad, with amazing screen, is a delight – USA Today (Edward C. Baig)
• Apple iPad (3rd generation) review – Pocket Lint (David Phelan)
• Review: iPad third generation – The Loop (Jim Dalrymple)
• Review: The third-generation iPad – Macworld (Jason Snell)
• New iPad Review (3rd Gen) – Slashgear (Vincent Nguyen)
• iPad (3) – Daring Fireball (John Gruber)
• The new iPad makes Apple’s tablet domination clearer than ever – TechCrunch (MG Siegler)

The new iPad goes on sale in stores at 8:00AM on Friday, March 16th. Customers who ordered online should also start receiving their shipments tomorrow.