Should i upgrade from ipad 3 to ipad 4?

[applechick]

I really would like to know if its worth it for me to upgrade from my 3 to the 4? I'm having a hard time justifying it as I own two ipad 3's for my own personal use, three ipad 2's and and original ipad for the husband and kids. Can someone who has the 4 tell me if its REALLY much of a change?

 

[Skull One]

Actually I don't think you need a review from someone that owns one to form your own opinion. Lets look at the technical differences to see why. There are only 2 legit differences.

1) A5X vs the A6X CPU/GPU.

2) 30 pin vs lightning.

The connector to me is a wash and doesn't add anything to the conversation. So lets get to the real issue and let me start out with my opinion and the technical basis behind it.

For the first time ever, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, no it is not worth upgrading from the 3 to the 4. So now for the why.

Does the speed of the new CPU and GPU justify an upgrade? There are no apps currently in the App Store that need the new speed. Will there be? Oh yes. Games first and probably will be out very soon. But mainstream apps? Not a chance. The iPad 3s speed is more than enough to handle any 3D modeling like Google Earth and is overkill for Web browsing, Flipboard, Pages, Numbers and a lot of other productivity apps. In fact it can handle any of the top 1000 non-game apps with speed to spare. So let now look at the "how long" portion of the situation.

There are currently 5 mainstream devices that are slower than the iPad 3. The iPod Touch 4. iPhone 4/4S and iPad 2/Mini. They all run on either the A4 or A5 processor. The sheer number of them currently out there means that developers have to keep that in mind to generate the largest revenue base. If they targeted the iPad 4 only, they would have an audience only in the millions. The devices I listed combined are closer to the 100 million and that is in daily use.

Remember, my analysis is based on what I believe the developers will be targeting for the next year. If you for one second think they will switch to the speed of the iPad 4 immediately and you want to be able to use the applications at full speed, then yes an upgrade can be justified. I personally will wait for the iPad 5 before I upgrade my two iPad 3s.

 

[applechick]

Actually I don't think you need a review from someone that owns one to form your own opinion. Lets look at the technical differences to see why. There are only 2 legit differences.

1) A5X vs the A6X CPU/GPU.

2) 30 pin vs lightning.

The connector to me is a wash and doesn't add anything to the conversation. So lets get to the real issue and let me start out with my opinion and the technical basis behind it.

For the first time ever, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, no it is not worth upgrading from the 3 to the 4. So now for the why.

Does the speed of the new CPU and GPU justify an upgrade? There are no apps currently in the App Store that need the new speed. Will there be? Oh yes. Games first and probably will be out very soon. But mainstream apps? Not a chance. The iPad 3s speed is more than enough to handle any 3D modeling like Google Earth and is overkill for Web browsing, Flipboard, Pages, Numbers and a lot of other productivity apps. In fact it can handle any of the top 1000 non-game apps with speed to spare. So let now look at the "how long" portion of the situation.

There are currently 5 mainstream devices that are slower than the iPad 3. The iPod Touch 4. iPhone 4/4S and iPad 2/Mini. They all run on either the A4 or A5 processor. The sheer number of them currently out there means that developers have to keep that in mind to generate the largest revenue base. If they targeted the iPad 4 only, they would have an audience only in the millions. The devices I listed combined are closer to the 100 million and that is in daily use.

Remember, my analysis is based on what I believe the developers will be targeting for the next year. If you for one second think they will switch to the speed of the iPad 4 immediately and you want to be able to use the applications at full speed, then yes an upgrade can be justified. I personally will wait for the iPad 5 before I upgrade my two iPad 3s.

Thank you so much- you made some excellent points!

 

[rhardin]

I did upgrade but I was within my window to return it... Otherwise I don't think I would of.... I was new to the iPad anyway... Can from a kindle fire and really I can't tell much differences... Maybe if I had a 3 and 4 side by side I could....

 

[localhost8080]

+1 for no upgrading. there just doesnt seem to be any point

 

[I_luv_Apple]

If you like the lightening charger then yes... If your not fazed then no lol. I honestly do not see any difference between the 4 and the 3.

 

[Sonicrobby]

Just a new camera and processor and dock. Other than that, it's practically the same. The only reason you should be upgrading is if your iPad is sluggish running all apps, and unless you're from the future and are running iOS 10, I don't think you should upgrade just yet

 

[buerkletucson]

If I had to pay addititional funds I would not have upgraded.....
I was able to receive a full refund for my iPad 3 and AppleCare+ so it was a no brainer to get the iPad 4.

To be fair and let you judge for yourself, here are all the upgrades......not just what others feel are important or not.
Do a search on each to find out more information.

*A6X processor.....2x processor speed & 2x graphics performance
*Lightning connector
*12W charger
*Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) 802.11n Wi‑Fi and support for channel bonding, up to 150 Mbps.
*Front side 1.3MP HD camera
*LTE enabled

 

[applechick]

I appreciate everyone's input. Honestly- I have purchased every iPad the day it came out. This time around I sorta felt like Apple did me a favor and broke the cycle for me- I didn't see enough change to upgrade. But now I'm having second thoughts and I feel silly because deep down I know there's not that much of a difference. I'm not a big gamer- I play the usual words with friends and hanging with friends kinda games. I use my iPad for Facebook, occasionally watch Netflix, read books and email. I was also thinking of getting a mini but passed on that because I am now used to a retina screen. Maybe I'm just grasping at straws wanting to buy a new Apple toy, but there isn't any I can justify buying ;(

 

[kat82]

I received my iPad 4 yesterday. Have been experimenting it side by side with my iPad 3 (which I bought in June). Opening a webpage or a game is so much faster with iPad 4. My 5-month old iPad 3 now seems like 5 years old! However, it is a matter of relativity. If I didn't have iPad 4, I wouldn't have felt iPad 3 is slow. I also have iPad 1 which I bought in Sep 2010. It is untouchable now.

 

[Wingless]

Well what about compared to first gen iPad which I still have?

 

[kat82]

As a rough comparison, I opened www.ipadforums.net on my 3 devices and ran a timer from the moment I tapped "Go" until the blue bar disappeared:-

iPad 1 17.78 seconds
iPad 3 12.24 seconds
iPad 4 7.56 seconds

 

[buerkletucson]

as a rough comparison, i opened www.ipadforums.net on my 3 devices and ran a timer from the moment i tapped "go" until the blue bar disappeared:-

ipad 1 17.78 seconds
ipad 3 12.24 seconds
ipad 4 7.56 seconds

lol

 

[I_luv_Apple]

I received my iPad 4 yesterday. Have been experimenting it side by side with my iPad 3 (which I bought in June). Opening a webpage or a game is so much faster with iPad 4. My 5-month old iPad 3 now seems like 5 years old! However, it is a matter of relativity. If I didn't have iPad 4, I wouldn't have felt iPad 3 is slow. I also have iPad 1 which I bought in Sep 2010. It is untouchable now.

I'm surprised. I had the iPad 3 and now have two ipad 4s but do not seem to see the changes your experiencing. Maybe I need to purchase a new router or something but even when I use the 4G tethering it doesn't seem to be much quicker than the iPad.

 

[Nakedbabytoes]

I don't have a 4, I have a 3. But all my blue progress bars load fully in less than 5 seconds. I tried several websites and the longest one was 6.1 secs for Facebook(Facebook for me, always takes the longest to load).
Most sites were less than 3.5 secs to load. Maybe I have a fast router? I dunno but I have never had slow load issues.
Actually, most of the time, if I mis tap, it's faster to let it load and push back button on my browser than to cancel and reload.