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5 May 2016

Apple iPad 4 Honest Review: Great Design, Better Display than iPad 3

Hi, friends, this is my first hands-on review in “HonetsReviewNet” website about iPad 4 tablet. Here I discuss about the key features like design, performance, touch screen, camera, detailed specifications and best prices, from personal experience with iPad 4 tablets. Please read full review and feel free to comment about both review and iPad 4 also. Let’s begin with an introduction.

What is iPad 4?

Apple iPad 4 Review

iPad 4 is simply amazing. It is specially designed for people who like to use and carry high performing pc tablet on their hands. The Apple 4th generation iPad have updated with new processor, operating system, RAM and harddisk from the iPad 3. Many improvements make it more comfortable and provide faster performance than iPad 3. I heard one of friend opinion about iPad 3 is heating issue when using internet or gaming apps. In the 4th generation it is completely free from heating and I got up to 12 hours average battery life while continuous (at very small intervals b/w usage time) internet usage only.

iPad 4 Key Features:-
9.7 inch, Retina Display; Apple A6 Processor with additional PowerVR graphics driver; 5MP rear and 1.2 MP front camera; Apple iOS 6.0; 10 hours battery life.

The Pros
  • Great retina display
  • Excellent design
  • Faster performance
  • Value for money
The Cons
  • Only Lighting connector supported
  • No flash light
  • No microSD card support
Ok, Let us see the one by one feature in depth about iPad 4th generation.

iPad 4 Review: Design (9/10)

Indeed considering the design of Apple iPad 4 is similar in iPad 3 while looking in front view, but at the backside, well-filleted curves towards downward (viewing from top) covered with vinyl aluminum coating at the back. Both combination of front glass with aluminum curvy back, feels like pretty tough and solid. I do not know, have you noticed it. If you not just try this. Place your iPad 4 on table and look at it from the top. You cannot see the side buttons or aluminum color, other than glassy white or black front surface (depends on color).

About Size, have 23.75 cm in length, 18.3 cm in width and 0.925 cm thick. The semi-rectangular appearance makes it differ from tablets like surface RT or Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. The touch screen is outlined by around 5 cm thick white or black, depends upon which color you choose to buy and fully covered with perfectly transparent glass with glare protection. The glass covering solves the user’s eyestrain and scratch problems up to certain limits.

It weighs around 0.6 Kg (1.4 pounds), feels like little bit heavy. However, it is easy to handle with one hand and no time limit applies to hold it with one hand. The 4th generation is also inflexible in nature. iPad 4 have less buttons, you can found on the side curvy surface as compared with Microsoft Surface RT. The buttons are power on/off, volume control and screen rotation lock.

Only one button is seeing at the front lower surface for controlling the whole operations inside the iPad 4. The lighting connector port is just below the previous button mentioned and found on the curvy surface. There is an audio output or headphone jack at the top-left curvy surface of tablet, where you can plug 3.15 mm audio jack.

As design conclusion, feel some bigger in size and weight as compared with a smartphone, but easy to handle and have a portable design as compared with carrying a notebook or laptop.  If you are, love to see movies, play games, read books and browse internet in bigger screen, Apple iPad 4 is best suits to you.

iPad 4 Review: Performance (8/10)

The performance is really improved than iPad 3, loaded with new processor “Dual-core, 1.4GHz, Apple A6X” have great graphics and processor performance. The Apple A6X contains 32-bit PoP type chip on the board, which features twice-faster performance than Apple A5. This processor is first includes in iPhone 5 and have great success. So it also used in iPad 4, you can experience the performance power and speed while using the apps, internet browsing and gaming.

It has 1 GB RAM with single inline memory module type (SIMM), which enhances the physical memory capacity and helps to speedup process. The Quad core coprocessor, “PowerVR SGX543MP4” which helps to handle processing of images, videos, games, controls the graphics and graphics supported apps in your iPad operating system. The camera speed and efficiency are improved because of advanced image signal processor (ISP) than Apple A5. ISP enables to speeding up picture capture, less noises, maintain performance even in low light and stabilize the videos while recording.

In terms of performance, iPad 4 is double times in front of iPad 3. The quick opening apps, browsing speed without delay and continues flow of gaming and movies without any lag and less heating issues are better performance features of 4th generation iPad’s.

iPad 4 Review: Display (9/10)

iPad 4 uses the new Retina display owned by Apple Inc. It contains resolution of 2048x1536 pixels and 264 pixels per inch (ppi) which is twice ppi as compared with iPad mini 2 and iPad mini. One of the main benefits of retina display is that more sharper, crystal clear and crisp screen having more detail while looking on images or letters in the user-interface. The human eye cannot detect the images detail, when it having more pixel density. Retina display makes screen more user-friendly and less strain to human eyes.

The touch screen is very sensitive and only very pressure is needed to select each task in the screen. The screen size is around 9.7 inches in diagonal, more enough to enjoy game as well as browsing in bigger interface.

Only con of retina display in iPad is that higher price than the LED display in other tablets. This display feature is the root cause of increased weights, due to more power needed to keep it alive. Overall, more friendly display and sensible touch screen without any distraction.

iPad 4 Review: Storage (8.5/10)

The storage option of iPad 4th generation is ranges from 16 to 128 GB. The harddisk is solid-state drive type which is more faster in operation and ease to access and save contents in it. SSD drives are more efficient than traditional HDD’s, because it have no mechanical moving parts and only have chips with magnetic coating. The electronics storing technology of SSD stores data, in the absence of power.

The boot speed of iPad 4 is enhanced and overall performance improved than previous version. Only problem is the SSD’s are very expensive than traditional HDD. The price is going marginally upward with size of SSD. Another con about storage I found is that no external microSD card support. You cannot add additional storage other than basic storage capacity of the device. If you willing to buy 32 GB or 64 GB iPad 4, no need of external cards. In my experience, 16 GB is enough for business and home uses.

iPad 4 Review: Software (OS) (7/10)

Apple iOS 6 is the OS of iPad 4 and having new features as compared to iOS 5.0 versions. In new version of iOS 6 have major updates on their user-interface and main apps like maps, safari browser, Siri, Facebook Integration, Passbook app, FaceTime etc. The user-interface is well arranged with apps, only need a touch to open and you can swipe into side ways to move to other pages of apps.


To come back immediately to home, press the lower button having symbol of rectangle. The maps app navigation features are improved from the previous one and real-time traffic details, 3D view of buildings, flyover views etc. Siri is updated with more relevant details in your area and now it aloes have multi language user-interface, supports French, Spanish, Italian rather than English.

With new iOS 6 Facebook integration is more effective in iPad 4 and now you can share photos and videos immediately on Facebook. The enhanced Safari browser allows offline reading option. It saves the webpage or material as you wanted to read later without consuming single MB of your SIM data. The photo uploading option also available indie the browser and just take pic and share without exiting the browser.

iPad 4 Review: Camera (7.5/10)

With camera of iPad 4 is such as great experience as compared with Samsung Tab 2. The 5 Mega pixel rear camera, automatically focus the object and fast processing of images with great quality. The image taken using the camera are found to be more natural and it automatically adjust light situation and prevent from over exposure, results less noise images. I feel some difficulty is dark room photo shooting.

Due to absence of flash makes the image more noisy and low quality. The video recording using the rear cam offers 1080p hd recording features. The size of video too big and depends on the video length.

The front camera has 1.2 Megapixel offers 720p HD quality while video calling using FaceTime apps. It provides more clear and detail of your friend face. This front cam does not have any flash, which affects chatting quality if the light is low.

iPad 4 Review: Battery Life (7/10)

iPad 4 is also best in the battery life as compared with iPad mini, iPad 2, Samsung tab2. It provides average of 10 hours with retinal display. That was huge surprise for me, because retina display consumes more power to keep alive. However, the iPad 4 battery (LiPo) size little bit increased to meet the display quality and thereby battery life. The gaming may reduce your charge to 6-7 hours and it lasts up to a week if it is in standby mode. As for the iPad 4, I give full points to batterylife, because it keeps the display quality as well as process duration at the same time.

iPad 4 Review: Other Features (8/10)

In this tablet, only one all in one Lighting connector can be use to connect the iPad 4 with PC, TV, card reader, as a charger etc. The lighting connector is not just, like universal microUSB port in other tablets have and little bit different from it. If you want to connect your iPad with TV, you require HDMI cable (not included), need to buy from the iPad accessories. Like this, other functions like card reading and USB port needs additional accessories costs additionally. However, you can use the charger as for all apples mobiles and tablets are one of the plus points, if you have them.

New iPad 4 supports microSIM (1 No’s) and have Wi-Fi with 3G/4G connectivity. You can have control over the 3G data usage like most of the new generation smartphones have. MicroSIM feature is good for people who have smartphones like Samsung Galaxy, Nokia Lumia 625 etc. Because you can switch the SIM between tablet and phone.

Final Words

In the design and performance ways, iPad 4 is a hero as compared with iPad 3. It not light weighing and thinner than the precious one, but the retinal display makes it classier tablet. I have suggestion is that the apple need to change lighting connector to universal microUSB type, as other tablets have.

The new iOS 6 interface is looking good, easy to use, and completely filled with useful apps only. I also feel lack of support of many apps found on internet. The build quality and design are amazing. The price is too high for 16 GB size and it adds up more and more while selecting 32 GB or 128 GB.

In my experience 16 GB is enough for users who likes to watch movies, using internet, music and gaming. When considering gaming, you need a lot space, because some of the iPad games size is around 1.7 GB. It cannot bet considered as full replacement of your laptop, due to the lacks of low RAM, Graphics, USB ports and external storage expansion. Overall, it’s worth for money and satisfaction with apples product.

Apple iPad 4 Specifications:-

General Specs

Name iPad 4
Storage 16/32/64/128 GB SSD
Operating System Apple iOS 6.0
Dimension 23.75 cm x 18.3 cm x 0.925 cm
Weight 0.6 kg
BatteryLife Avg. up to 10 hours
Connectivity WiFi/3G
Model no MD513LL/A
Manufacturer Apple

Display & Performance Specs

Screen size 9.7 inches
Type Retina display, 264 ppi
Resolution 2048x1536 pixels
CPU 1.4 GHz, Apple A6X
RAM 1 GB
Graphics Driver PowerVR SGX543MP4
Camera
Rear: 5 MP, 1080p Video
Front: 1.2 MP, 720p Video

Miscellaneous

Port Lighting connector
Audio 3.15 mm Headphone jack
Battery 1-Lithium Polymer battery

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