Apple New iPad is Stunning and Razor-Sharp; but is it Better Than iPad 2?

Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the New iPad and revealed details of the company's third-generation and 4G-ready tablet at a tightly scripted event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco Wednesday.

Cheering up the crowd present at the event, Apple officially confirmed that it would still continue selling iPad 2 along with the New iPad, which will be available in the market from March 16.

Since the details about the specs, features and price are available, let check out how Apple has made the New iPad better than IPad 2.

Size - The New iPad has dimension of 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4 mm and weighs 662 grams while iPad 2 has a 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm dimension and weighs 607 grams. The latest one is a little heavier than its predecessor.

Display - The USP of the latest 9.7-inch iPad is its ultra-high resolution Retina IPS LED-backlit display which comes with 2048 x 1536 pixel resolutions at 264 pixels per inch, the most ever in a mobile device say the Apple.

According to an Apple marketing honcho, Until you see it, you can't understand how amazing it is.

The display contains four times more pixels than iPad 2 and will give razor-sharp text, richer colors. So everything looks and feels incredibly lifelike and perfectly detailed, says Apple.

iPad 2, on the other hand, comes with the same 9.7-inch display but with a much less resolution of 1024 x 768-pixel at 132 pixels per inch (ppi).

Processor - The New iPad packs in the latest Apple A5X chip and runs a dual core processor with quad-core graphics to drive all those high resolution pixels. As announced by the Apple execs, the A5 chip is twice as fast as Tegra 3 and the new A5X provides four times the performance.

iPad 2, however, comes with a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor with Apple A5 chipset.

Operating System - The New iPad will support the latest iOS 5.1, which was released at the same event and is just a minor update bringing a refreshed camera app, multi-language dictation and a personal hotspot function, say Apple experts.

iPad 2 originally runs on the iOS 4, which is upgradable to iOS 5.0.1. But iPad 2 will not support the latest iOS 5.1.

Memory - Both the iPads come with 16/32/64 GB of internal memory and support no external SD card slot for expanding the memory. Though the Apple lovers expected to see the company introducing microSD card slot this time with the new iPad, the company finally disappointed them.

Camera - Camera was a major point of criticism for iPad 2, which has one front-side VGA camera and one 0.7 backside camera with 720p video capture capabilities. Apple has addressed the issue and come up with a stunning 5-megapixel iSight camera with CMOS sensor. Designed with advanced optics, it lets you shoot gorgeous photos and 1080p HD video.

The new camera has features like backside illumination, auto-exposure, autofocus, face detection in still images, video stabilization, a fifth lens and hybrid IR filter.

As for the front-facing videoconferencing camera, Apple has maintained the same FaceTime camera with VGA-quality photos and video at up to 30 frames per second.

Battery - Apple provides a built-in 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery with the New iPad whereas the iPad 2 comes with a built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. But, according to Apple, the New iPad will give the same 10 hours of surfing the Web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music like ipad 2 and will maintain the same smoothness and fluidity iPad is known for.

4G LTE - Apple has finally packed in 4G LTE with the new iPad. Apple announced that the high-end model of Apple's latest iPad will be capable of operating on a high-speed 4G LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, network. The New iPad will also support 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, as well as LTE.

The iPad 2, however, does not sport the 4G LTE technology but supports HSPA and HSDPA.

Wireless/Bluetooth - The New iPad comes with Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.0 technology whereas iPad 2 comes with Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology.

Exclusive Features of the New iPad - With the latest iPad, Apple has provided some killer apps, including voice dictation, Apple Care+, iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie.

Price - the New iPad price goes like this - Wi-Fi models $499.00 (16GB), $599.00 (32GB), $699.00 (64GB). And, the Wi-Fi + 4G Models are priced at $629.00 (16GB), $729.00 (32GB) and $829.00 (64GB).

The entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad 2 got a price drop to $399 whereas the Wi-Fi+3G model sells for $529. The price drops will presumably take effect immediately.