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New iPad/Apple TV reviews are out, everyone loves Retina, LTE, Cameras and dictation [roundup]

Seth Weintraub | Mar 14 2012 - 6:00 pm PT

The review embargo just lifted and everyone has their third-generation iPad reviews up. Here is the breakdown:

The Washington Post/The Verge are the first out of the gate (a bit early). Joshua Topolsky calls the screen something “that looks like glowing paper.” Apple TV gets some love too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Oy6S3_xPY]

Let’s be clear: the new iPad is in a class by itself, just as its predecessor was. As the latest product in a lineage of devices that defined this category, the iPad continues to stand head and shoulders above the competition. With the addition of the Retina display, LTE, more memory, and a more powerful CPU, Apple has absolutely held onto the iPad’s market position as the dominant player and product to beat.

Walt Mossberg:

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Apple’s iPad could be described as a personal display through which you see and manipulate text, graphics, photos and videos often delivered via the Internet. So, how has the company chosen to improve its wildly popular tablet? By making that display dramatically better and making the delivery of content dramatically faster.

Many more reviews are below.

USA Today’s Ed Baig:

If you’re a tablet newbie, there’s no better choice on the market than an iPad, provided — and this is a pretty big if — price isn’t an issue and you don’t want a tablet that would fit in your pocket, such as the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire.

The New York Times’ David Pogue:

The new iPad doesn’t introduce anything that we haven’t seen before, either in the iPhone or in rival tablets. There’s no Steve Jobs “one more thing” moment here; Apple just took its white-hot iPad and added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies.

TechCrunch: “Once you see and use the new iPad, there will be no going back…get the new iPad”

Pocket Lint: “This year, it’s all about the screen. Sure, the third-generation iPad has lots of other improvements but it’s the brilliance of the display which leaps out at you as soon as you wake the screen.”

Macworld’s Jason Snell on the iPad and Apple TV:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NBBXQoSuxn8]

In the old days, we used to talk about “computing,” as if it were an activity. Using a computer wascomputing. Computing didn’t go away. It just seeped into every aspect of our lives. Computing doesn’t happen on a desk anymore. It’s in our laps, in our pockets, perched on the kitchen counter or smack in the middle of the coffee table. The iPad didn’t make computing obsolete. It just brought it out of its shell.

The Loop hit at 8:58 p.m. with its iPad review here and Apple TV “no-brainer” here.

Slashgear:

Steve Jobs would have approved of the new iPad. With its focus on the holistic experience rather than individual boasts around its constituent parts, it’s the epitome of the Post-PC world the Apple founder envisaged. No lag or delay; no frustrating cloud settings or arcane minimum software requirements. Simply pick up, swipe, and you’re immersed in a joined-up ecosystem. Apple doesn’t need another revolution, it has already started one, and the new iPad brings a fresh degree of refinement to a segment in which it is undoubtedly the king.

John Gruber has a nice photo comparison: