As Apple's iPad 3 nears its expected official unveiling in early March, solid details and images have begun to emerge, with the most significant report, that MacRumors has obtained an iPad 3 Retina display and has been able to verify for itself that the panels indeed features an ultra-high resolution. How? You may may ask; the good old-fashioned approach of placing the screen under a microscope for scrutiny.
MacRumors found the iPad 3 screen to be four times as dense as that of the iPad 2, confirming a doubling of both the horizontal and vertical resolutions to 2,048 x 1,536. At the same time the screen was also confirmed to be of the same dimensions as its predecessors at 9.7 inches. Images have also now emerged from other sources, strongly hinting towards many of these displays featuring Samsung branding, as previously expected.
Whilst unconfirmed, though certainly a convincing image, evidence has emerged featuring what is claimed to be Apple's new logic board for its iPad 3, with the CPU named the 'A5X' as opposed to the suggested 'A6'. This supports earlier evidence that there was less code-change in the iOS 5.1 beta than would be expected from a completely new chip. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume, should the image be legit, that the A5X is essentially an A5 with double core counts for both CPU and GPU, whilst maintaining similar power-ratings to the A5, having been further optimised and shrunk down to 28nm. This would place Apple's new chip on par with the CPU found in the Sony Playstation Vita portable console.
With the CPU likely a beefed up version of that found in the iPad 2, aside from an increased resolution display and what's looking likely to be an 8 megapixel rear-camera, little seems different about the iPad 3 in comparison to last year's iPad 2 release. Perhaps the rumours of an iPad 2S or a dual-model release were not that far fetched, either way, we'll hopefully find out in under three week's time.
