You’ve heard all the praises and maybe even queued up on launch day to get your hands on the newest iPad. Everyone knows why you should get the iPad; virtually every tech blogger and pundit out there is raving over Apple’s newest gizmo.

But if you’re still sitting on the fence, here are five reasons why you should not get the new iPad.


1. You’re already got an iPad 2
Apple has the largest market share in this category, so a lot of you are probably reading this on your iPad or iPad 2. Take a trip on the MRT and you’ll see more iPad 2’s than any other tablet.

If you’ve already got an iPad 2, there’s really not much more to the new iPad that’s a must-have, perhaps other than the higher-res screen and LTE connectivity (more on those later). I’m just going to ignore the camera upgrade because photography, even the point-and-shoot kind, is just plain silly on a tablet and should not influence your decision to get one.

If you’ve already got an iPad 2, save your money and give this a pass. And if you’ve got a first-generation iPad, you can get the iPad 2 for a much lower price!

2. LTE only works in North America
Don’t buy into the 4G hype. The standard for 4G has not been finalised, but many brands are using it in their marketing, including Apple. The new iPad uses Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, a high-speed stepping stone to the eventual 4G standard.

Here’s the problem with “4G”: it doesn’t work in the same way everywhere. The new iPad supports North American LTE networks, which utilises the 700MHz and 2.1GHz frequency. But the rest of the world usually uses the 800MHz, 1.8GHz, 2.3GHz or 2.6GHz frequency bands for its networks.

In Singapore, SingTel and M1 has confirmed that their LTE networks operate on 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands, while StarHub does not have any specific information on its planned LTE networks to share.

A My Paper report stated that iDA “does not rule out making part of the 700MHz band available for 4G services in the future”. The iPad does tap onto the faster HSPA+ network, but until the blazing speed of LTE arrives, you might as well stick to the 3G iPad 2.

3. The screen alone is not worth the upgrade

Now that LTE is out of the race, we come to the only major upgrade in the new iPad: the so-called Retina display.

Admittedly, the screen is fantastic. Text looks razor sharp and colours are extremely vivid. But a major reason for the hoo-hah over the Retina display is the fact that the original iPad screen sucked, displaying only 1,024 x 768 pixels worth of information. Still, it was functional enough and did not provide any difficulty in reading and browsing.

If you don’t have a problem with the 1080p display on a 40-inch HDTV, and are completely satisfied with the 1280 x 800 displays on typical 10-inch Android tablets, why fork out extra cash for so many pixels on just a 9-inch screen? You won’t be able to tell much of a difference at a distance anyway.

Plus, developers who want to make their app pretty on the Retina display will have to pack in huge graphics that take up a lot of space. For example, The Verge reports that the Keynote presentation app was previously only 115MB, but its latest version is 327MB.

16GB of storage is starting to look paltry, as you’ll run out of space fast once all the apps start piling up.

4. Still largely the same unexciting hardware

The first iPad had only one proprietary port, the iPad 2 still had one proprietary port, and with the new third-generation iPad, we still get only one proprietary port for charging and data transfer. The iPad is still missing USB ports, and micro SD card slots, among others.

The screen, too, is still the 9.7-inch with no hint of extra enhancements like a piece of Gorilla glass for protection. The aspect ratio is still 4:3, which isn’t ideal for enjoying movies.

In fact, if you put the iPad 2 next to the new iPad, very few people will be able to tell the difference from a distance. Compared to the range of hardware available on Android tablets, and the upcoming Windows 8 tablets, the iPad’s design is getting pretty old.

5. It’s not the only tablet

Most of the new iPad’s features can actually already be found in existing tablets, just not in a slick Apple package. You can also get good Android tablets at lower price-points, or tablets with a full operating system like Windows 7 tablets.

At the end of the day, it depends on what you’re going to use your tablet for, and it’s definitely worth checking out other tablets and not settle on the iPad by default.

one more thing, the design is the same

ip4 n ip4s also same design

I agree with you but the problem is why still so many people buy iPad3? I just don't understand. Over 3 millions sold within days... Hmm...

I'm buying it for just the same price as the ipad 2 when it was launched and i got better features, why not?

Maybe most of those people are iPad1 users who had decided to skip the iPad2 and get the iPad3?

Yeah, same price. Better features. Its a troll for ipad 2 users. But not for the ipad 1 users.

Those people that said new iPad is pretty useless because they are seeing from a iPad 2 user POV.

Which means iPad 1 user like me already obsolete

This post has been edited by XiuKeong: Mar 20 2012, 03:38 PM

I think new owners or iPad1/2 heavy user would still benefit from the retina screen and faster GPU.

Thing is, despite being 600+g, its really annoying to bring out. Glad I didnt waste the extra 400 for 3G. Fun to use at home without needing to stick to the PC. Moreover with Splashtop Remote Desktop, I can control my torrent on my PC. Its more like a lazy man remote from now on.

Better buy an Ultrabook than ipad3

All sore jelly

Ha ha ha, I'm planning to get one

admittedly, I am a little bit of apple fan boy. Their iphone and ipad and mac and OSX are all great invention. It is truly a products that are useful. The best thing about apple's products are the user experience. You can never explain this to people who have never used apply products before. The UI, the design, the feedback, the experience are all the made apple products great. It is not about hardware specs which most people are looking at apple products wrongly.

Here are some of my reasons why you need to get new ipad:

1) retina display!! I have seen the difference it made being a user from iphone 3gs to iphone 4. The difference is really there. It's like comparing between DVD quality movies and bluray. For most people who doesn't care, they won't see the difference. But movie enthusiasts can easily tell the difference. And once you are into bluray, you will never go back to DVD. Same thing here for ipad2 vs new ipad. And the thing is, the content will only get better. Sure, for now most apps are optimized for ipad2. Once all the apps start to become optimized for new ipad, people will start to see the need to upgrade.

2) better camera. The reason why people are not using camera in ipad2 is because it sucks. Given a better camera, people will definitely start using them. Let's look back to the time when camera phones where first introduced. Most people say that's a stupid idea. Ahh...I don't need a camera on my phone. Now...camera feature is one of the top priority for people when buying a phone. So, new ipad users would sure start using the camera. It comes with a large display that is good enough to do on the spot photo editing with iphoto. Great for people on the go who can dish out photos to update their instagram or facebook.

3) better hardware spec. New ipad have dualcore processor with 1GB ram. Ipad 2 have single core with 512mb ram. The better hardware is needed to run the retina display applications.

4) everything but the kitchen sink. Like I said before, apple's philosophy is never about competing in hardware. They sell ideas and usability. Okay, sure there is the new Asus with tegra4 quadcore. So what? Everything that can be done in the asus, ipad also can do it. In fact, don't forget apple is the pioneer in "apps" concept. Everything about apps works in ipad2. All the apps that run in apple, will run well. Hence android is the one playing catchup. In the end, I would not be surprised if android eventually overtake ios. This is similar to PC and Mac. PC/Windows is open market. There will be more vendors or user supporting this but in the end, you get a pile of mess like what Windows is facing now. Hardware compatibility problems, virus, BSOD and so on.

5) open source problem. Apple's product is closed source and remain to be very much in control by them. Open source is a pile of mess. It lack standardization that can never compete with closed software. Once good example is look at Amazon Kindle Fire. They are using opensource android but they keep their product in their own circle. Keep them controlled. They have their own marketplace, own hardware, own android version. All these are closed and it became successful because it is much easier to control.


Sorry..I just babbling...some may disagree with me...but just my 2 cents.

I think the topic title should be "Why you should not upgrade from the iPad 2 to the iPad 3"

I think these post will not stop anyone from buying iPad 3 because it has already sold a few million units.

people that think what it has posted by thread owner are way back to stone age. Sorry to said that because that's what happended to blackberry. It was a pioneer before but because blackberry couldnt catch up with the trend it when way behind what the people has change and the way they love new gadget.

Example! You own a 4 wheeler car which can drive you everywhere you wanted to go. Proton is a car, Toyota, Metz, Honda, etc are also a car but why people willing to pay more and keep on changing their car to newer model?

I'm. Photography fanatic. So I love quality display that is why I change to iPad 3 and also I still love the iPad 2 design. It doesn't matter to me they keep the design for 3rd generation iPad.

It's just my point of view


For photography gears. The lens cost more than the camera body but that doesn't stop those photographer that love quality. Some spent hundreds of thousand because of quality.

This post has been edited by OCMAX: Mar 20 2012, 05:29 PM

Original iPad has a single core A4 SoC.
iPad 2 has a dual-core A5 SoC with dual-core GPU.
iPad 2012 has a dual-core A5 SoC + quad-core GPU. Apple's calling it A5X.

You're right about the RAM though.

that is why i buy s II rather than iphone 4s

dont have money, that THE ONLY REASON for poorfag

Not exactly true.
I have money but I have a 64gb iPad 2 with 3G and it's serving me fine.
Why would I just dump it aside when it's good enough for me ?

For me apps is very important for tablet.....