As promised, Apple has announced a new version of its best selling tablet, the iPad. As reported by Engadget, the tablet has much of what was rumored beforehand to be included in terms of hardware. That includes a Retina touch screen display that supports 3.1 million pixels and a resolution of 2048x1536.
The new iPad also has, as expected, a A5X processor and a quad-core graphics chip which Apple CEO claims is four times as powerful as NVIDIA"s Tegra 3 processor. It also supports the faster LTE wireless networks from Verizon and AT&T. It can also serve as a wireless hotspot. Apple claims that even with LTE running, battery life on the tablet is expected to be nine hours. Users can also check out a five megapixel rear facing camera.
Pricing begins at $499 for the 16 GB WiFi only version with $599 for the 32 GB version and $699 for the 64 GB port. The WiFi/3G/4G pricing starts at $629 for the 16 GB version, $729 for the 32 GB version and $829 for the 64 GB port. Pre-orders are scheduled to start today and it will officially launch on March 16th.
Update 1 - Apple has announced that the 16 GB iPad 2 will continue to be made and it will get a $100 price cut, meaning you can now get a WiFi only 16 GB iPad 2 for $399 and a WiFi/3G version for $529.
Update 2 - In an unusual move, the official name for the third generation iPad has been revealed to be ... The new iPad. Nope, not the iPad 3 and not iPad HD. Weird.
Image via Engadget