Difference Between Apple iPad 3 (new iPad) and Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2 (10.1)

Apple iPad 3 (new iPad) vs Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2 (10.1) | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

It is a well-known fact that Samsung and Apple are arch rivals. This rivalry may be because of the competitive smartphones that comes from both vendors. It may also be because of the competitive tablets that come from both vendors. With the recent market penetrations, it may well continue to be an arch rivalry with the media players both vendors are rather fond of. In our point of view, this rivalry is for the best of the industry, but in their point of view, it may seem like a pressure point. Looking at their track records, we can find a pattern in their product lines. Normally Samsung offers products that would beat the hardware specs of the Apple products without any doubt. On the other hand, normally Apple products have a higher demand than that of Samsung. We can’t give a definitive explanation for this phenomenon, but we reckon this is because of the loyalty of their customers. The fact that Apple is recognized for their highly intuitive and user friendly interaction patterns make the equation unbalanced for Samsung.

Even though this is the case, neither fails to invent and proceed with cutting edge technology to come up with amazing devices with amazing capabilities. This innovative approaches and designs are what make the consumers to stay connected with the market and eagerly wait for the new releases. For instance, there are a lot of Apple fans out there, eagerly waiting until the 3rd generation of iPad is released. The rumor mill has been working relentless on iPad 3 by speculating a wonderful device that attracts consumers from any sector of the market. If you have stayed in touch with the market, you would know that rumor mill has been speculating Samsung Galaxy III as well and there is a lot of consumers waiting for it to be released. But since the iPad 3 is released today, we are going to compare it with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and try to understand the differences the arch rivals have cooked up for us.

Apple new iPad (iPad 3 4G LTE)

There have been many speculations about Apple’s new iPad because it had such a pull from customer’s end. In fact, the Giant is trying to revolutionize the market again. Many of those features in the new iPad seem to add up to a consistent and revolutionary device that is going to blow your mind. As rumored, Apple iPad 3 comes with a 9.7 inches HD IPS retina display that features a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels at a pixel density of 264ppi. This is a huge barrier that Apple has broken, and they have introduced 1 million more pixels to the generic 1920 x 1080 pixels display which used to be the best resolution a mobile device provides. The total number of pixel adds up to 3.1 million, which is actually a monster resolution that hasn’t been matched by any tablet currently available in the market. Apple guarantees that iPad 3 has 44% more color saturation compared to previous models, and they have shown us some amazing photos and texts which looked wonderful on the big screen. They even cracked a joke about the difficulty of displaying the screens from iPad 3 because it has more resolution than the backdrop they were using at the auditorium.

That’s not all about it, the new iPad has a dual core Apple A5X processor at an unknown clock rate with quad core GPU. Apple claims A5X to offer four-times the performance of a Tegra 3; however, it has to be tested to confirm their statement but, needless to say, that this processor will make everything work smooth and seamlessly. It has three variations for internal storage, which is enough to stuff all of your favorite TV shows. The new iPad runs on Apple iOS 5.1, which seems like a great operating system with a very intuitive user interface.

There is a physical home button available at the bottom of the device, as usual. The next big feature Apple introduces is iSight camera, which is 5MP with autofocus and auto-exposure using a backside illuminated sensor. It has an IR filter built into it which is really great. The camera can also capture 1080p HD videos, and they have smart video stabilization software integrated with the camera which is a good move. This slate also supports the best digital assistant in the world, Siri, which was supported by iPhone 4S only.

Here comes another stabilization for the wave of rumors. iPad 3 does come with 4G LTE connectivity apart from EV-DO, HSDPA, HSPA+21Mbps, DC-HSDPA+42Mbps. LTE supports speed up to 73Mbps. However, currently 4G LTE is supported only on AT&T network (700/2100MHz) and Verizon network (700MHz) in the U.S. and Bell, Rogers, and Telus networks in Canada. During launch, the demo was on AT&T’s LTE network, and the device loaded everything super-fast and handled the load very well. Apple claims the new iPad is the device that supports most number of bands ever, but they didn’t say what bands exactly. It is said to have Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity, which was expected by default. Fortunately, you can let your new iPad share your internet connection with your friends by making it a wi-fi hotspot. It is 9.4mm thick and has a weight of 1.44-1.46lbs, which is rather comforting, though it is slightly thicker and heftier than iPad 2. The new iPad promises a battery life of 10 hours on normal usage and 9 hours on 3G/4G usage, which is another game changer for the new iPad.

The new iPad is available in either Black or White, and the 16GB variant is offered at $499 which is rather low. The 4G version of the same storage capacity is offered at $629 which is still a good deal. There are two other variants, 32GB and 64GB which comes at $599 / $729 and $699 / $829 respectively without 4G and with 4G. The preorders started on 7 March 2012, and the slate will be released to the market on the 16th of March 2012. Surprisingly the giant has decided to roll out the device in US, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan at the same time which makes it the biggest rollout ever.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is essentially the same as Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with some minor improvements. It has the same hulk of the same dimensions scoring 256.6 x 175.3mm but Samsung has made Tab 2 10.1 slightly thicket at 9.7mm and somewhat heavier at 588g. It has 10.1 PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen display that features a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 149ppi. The Corning Gorilla Glass surface makes sure the screen is scratch resistant. This slate is powered by 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 dual core processor with 1GB of RAM and runs on Android OS v4.0 ICS. As you have already gathered, this isn’t the top notch configuration available in the market, but it won’t give you any trouble whatsoever since the processing power is enough to get you through any average rough edge you have in mind.

Tab 2 series come with the HSDPA connectivity and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n for continuous connectivity. It can also host a wi-fi hotspot and wirelessly stream rich media content to your Smart TV with built in DLNA capability. Samsung has been gracious to grant Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with 3.15MP camera with autofocus and LED flash that can capture 1080p HD videos. There is also a VGA front camera for the purpose of video calls. The tab has 16GB and 32GB variants of internal storage while having the option to expand the storage using a microSD card up to 32GB. Although we don’t have statistics of the battery usage, we can assume the slate would stay alive for more than 6 hours straight as the minimum with the 7000mAh battery.

Conclusion

It’s rather an easy conclusion to make looking at the respective processors and the screens. Apple iPad 3 (new iPad) comes with a dual core processor with an unknown clock rate, but since it’s going to be more than the iPad 2, it’ll be clocked somewhere around 1.5Ghz which is going to supersede the power of 1GHz dual core used in Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1). The display panel and resolution offered with iPad 3 (new iPad) is simply unmatchable by any device that is available in the market, let alone Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1). Apart from these, what makes you turn towards iPad 3 (new iPad) is the great camera, great apps that were demoed at San Francisco and the super-fast LTE connectivity. The initial price iPad 3 (new iPad) is offered certainly narrows down your choice to Apple. The only hiccough we can see as an issue is the excessive weight of iPad 3 (new iPad), which ranks at 662g and, if that’s not a problem, then your investment decision is crystal clear.