Verizon comes up with a total fail!

AT&T has sufficient connectivity to show the sign-up screen:

new iPad:

Android:

The Android photo claims much higher resolution (3264×1952, compared with iPad 2592×1936), yet the file size is smaller (2MB vs 2.6MB) and overall is much worse quality! But the Android photo is not bad everywhere – look at this comparison crop from the log in the foreground (Android on left, new iPad on right):

In this crop there’s very little difference between the two photos – there’s no big improvement having 8MP on Android, but it’s not so much worse either. But a closeup elsewhere in the photo shows significant differences (again, Android left, new iPad right):

Here, the Android photo is very blurred – though the new iPad is now showing it’s worst resolution with a somewhat more pixelated image.

Clearly the new iPad has the better lens – it is that which causes the Android photo to be horrible except at the center; I definitely prefer the iPad picture …

Using the new iPad, particularly next to an “iPad 2,” the reds and greens are noticeably better, but the blues in particular are quite striking. It actually makes the blue on the iPad 2 seem more ‘aqua’ than pure blue. The color data bears this out:

In the color spectrum chart below, you can see the result of some of the color filter changes that Apple made. Notice how the red peak (on the right, in the 600 nm range) has moved to a longer wavelength. This change in wavelength means reds on the new iPad will have a deeper hue, will be less orange and more distinctly red:

Be sure to click the charts or follow these links and read the original articles:
Apple’s new iPad display; what does 44% more color get you?
Apple’s new iPad boasts better colors – how did they do it?

I wonder how Apple can keep this pace, next year – surely the iPad is getting close to “finished” now?!

Here is the original iPad; note that I’m logging in to a 27″ iMac with it’s 2560×1440 resolution; LogMeIn does it’s best to scale the image, but it’s not great:

Here’s a zoomed in photo to show that this is no more than a suggestion of the home computer screen:

Now, here is the identical LogMeIn to the same home computer at the same resolution, but displayed on new iPad:

Maybe you can already tell that it’s better (especially if you click the images to see them bigger) – but take a look at the same zoomed in closeup on new iPad:

That’s amazing! And no new iPad update needed …

Except for one thing: iBooks. I never really read books on iPad, it just didn’t seem good enough; but on new iPad, books finally seem perfectly readable. And no wonder, if you peek a little closer it’s obvious that book text is one place where the retina iPad display makes an enormous difference!

This is iBooks on the original 1024×768 iPad; it’s clear that text is not perfect:

And the same book, same page, same font size, on new iPad:

Even the reduced images on this page are clearly different – but click either to see “full size” and how much improved the new iPad is. This difference is very noticeable when reading at a normal viewing distance, too; the text is simply crisp and perfect, while iPad text is slightly fuzzy. So if you read on iPad, you really want the new display!

Of course, if we could run the Dish App on Apple TV, it would be a still better solution!

iPad is obviously thicker, but iPad 2 and new iPad and close to identical. From iPad to iPad 2 we saw a big decrease in size:

But new iPad is very slightly thicker, hardly noticeable – although the weight increase (back to about the weight of the original iPad) is definitely noticeable!

As to the screen, new iPad looks brighter and crisper (with backlight at the same setting), but held at a normal distance it’s hard to spot a lot of difference except with text, which looks “higher quality” on new iPad:

Of course if you get in close, the new iPad display is obviously better, but how often do you view any iPad at such a close distance?

If you didn’t see this image of new iPad, you’d think the above image of iPad 2 was quite good enough …

And here is close-ups of this website – the difference between iPad 2 and new iPad here, can be noticed during normal viewing, as the text is crisper and cleaner and the graphics are better defined:

iPad 2:

new iPad:

iPad 2 camera:

new iPad camera:

Click either picture to see it full size, and notice the higher resolution and clarity of the new camera (these are unedited shots transferred straight from each iPad via iCloud Photo Stream)

One side note: the new iPad is obviously heavier – it’s how I quickly tell which one I pick up right now; but I don’t notice any difference in thickness. Text is much clearer, but there doesn’t seem to be any difference in speed.