Photo leaks: iPad 3 Retina display; better cameras confirmed

Posted February 20, 2012 by Istvan in Mobile

The launch of the iPad 3 is so close and the picture leak wave has a fresh breaker. Several reliable channels, such as Appleinsider and Macrumors, have received, and even reviewed, some of the leaked parts.

First, Macrumors reportedly took the iPad 3 display under their microscope to confirm previous rumors claiming that Apple’s next generation tablet would feature a Retina display. As the first to contact the company marketing iPad 3 displays, they have been able to obtain one of the marketed displays, which they describe as having the same 9.7-inch diagonal size as the current iPad models. While it looks similar to the earlier displays, the good news is that the iPad 3 display’s pixels appear to be one-quarter the size of those on the iPad 2.

“Extrapolating out, the iPad 3 screen should carry a full resolution of 2048 x 1536, exactly twice the linear resolution of the iPad 1 and iPad 2 which is 1024 x 768. Such a screen should be able to display much sharper images compared to the previous generation iPads.”

Another Chinese site, WeiPhone, has leaked a photo allegedly of the iPad 3 logic board, showing an A5X system-on-a-chip.

This will come as a disappointment to many who expected the iPad 3 to feature a quad-core processor. According to the latest leaks, that isn’t going to happen. Instead, the pictures point to an upgraded dual-core processor, which does not mean that the iPad will fall below other tablets in benchmark tests. The eagerly awaited quad-core chip sounds good, but if you have a device that rocks, does it matter?

AppleInsider cites a Chinese source when it claims—based on the photo leak—that the iPad 3’s rear-facing camera will likely be the same one you can find on the iPhone 4S. It was only in January, when iLounge Editor-in-Chief, Horwitz, claimed that the next generation iPad would feature improved cameras, both front and rear. Well, it sure looks like those rumors had some basis in fact. As you can see on the picture below, the size of the camera is pretty much the same as the iPhone 4S’ camera.

While it sounds great, these rumors, especially the camera, are questionable. Just a quick example of why I think it is not likely to happen: the evolution of the iPhone cameras. The iPhone 3G and 3GS had 2 MP and 3.2 MP cameras respectively, when Apple improved the cameras to a 5 MP version with the launch of the iPhone 4. The latest iPhone model now features the best camera with redesigned optics and back-lit 8 MP sensor capable of recording 1080p videos.

What is likely to come to the iPad 3 or 2S, as its back is slightly redesigned and we don’t know its exact name yet, is a 5 MP camera, which itself would mean a huge step forward in the camera specs, and a 1 MP camera at the front.