Ipad 2 VS Asus Transformer

[poofyhairguy]

Beyond reading, for watching movies bigger is always better.

Not always. The 4:3 ratio of the iPad means I prefer to watch movies on my 16:9 Nook Color. Because of the black bars you end up with about the same viewing area with less bulk.

 

[dpodblood]

Not always. The 4:3 ratio of the iPad means I prefer to watch movies on my 16:9 Nook Color. Because of the black bars you end up with about the same viewing area with less bulk.

This was one of my main concerns with the iPad.

 

[pm]

Not always. The 4:3 ratio of the iPad means I prefer to watch movies on my 16:9 Nook Color. Because of the black bars you end up with about the same viewing area with less bulk.

Yeah, I mentioned that in my comparison earlier in the thread - 16:9 is nice on the Transformer and others with that format for watching movies. I actually think it's a nicer format overall for tablets for everything. But still, bigger 16:9 is better in my opinion for watching movies.

 

[poofyhairguy]

But still, bigger 16:9 is better in my opinion for watching movies.

Agreed. I want an 11-12inch tablet.

 

[dpodblood]

I wonder if the iPad3 will go to a 16:9 or 16:10 ratio.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Yeah, I mentioned that in my comparison earlier in the thread - 16:9 is nice on the Transformer and others with that format for watching movies. I actually think it's a nicer format overall for tablets for everything. But still, bigger 16:9 is better in my opinion for watching movies.

Well, are you going to be using that device mostly for video? I think for other things, web browsing, office documents, its either too long in portrait and not tall enough in landscape.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I wonder if the iPad3 will go to a 16:9 or 16:10 ratio.

I bet it stays 4:3, just with twice the resolution of the iPad 1/2 (just like the iPhone 4).

 

[Oyeve]

I bet it stays 4:3, just with twice the resolution of the iPad 1/2 (just like the iPhone 4).

That would still be a good thing. The screen quality was massive from the 3gs to 4.

 

[Aikouka]

I bet it stays 4:3, just with twice the resolution of the iPad 1/2 (just like the iPhone 4).

Twice the resolution is a lot of pixels that you're talking about pushing... in fact, it's four times as many. The SGX543-MP2 in the A5 is quite powerful, but it will probably begin to falter on some of the fancier games if they attempt to actually render at the resolution that you're asking for. Hell, you really need to consider that current consoles typically render at 1280x720, which is only 17% larger than the iPad's current 1024x768. I do recall the current portable GPUs being considered "PS2-like", so I don't think the SGX543-MP2 could keep up unless you "pulled a console" and rendered at the iPad 1/2's resolution (1024x768) and resized it to the iPad 3's user-proposed resolution (2048x1536).

 

[poofyhairguy]

Twice the resolution is a lot of pixels that you're talking about pushing... in fact, it's four times as many. The SGX543-MP2 in the A5 is quite powerful, but it will probably begin to falter on some of the fancier games if they attempt to actually render at the resolution that you're asking for. Hell, you really need to consider that current consoles typically render at 1280x720, which is only 17% larger than the iPad's current 1024x768. I do recall the current portable GPUs being considered "PS2-like", so I don't think the SGX543-MP2 could keep up unless you "pulled a console" and rendered at the iPad 1/2's resolution (1024x768) and resized it to the iPad 3's user-proposed resolution (2048x1536).

I don't think that Apple will keep the same A5 SOC in the next iPad. Not with quad-core Android tablets coming out. I expect some sort of quad-core A6 with the NGP GPU.

 

[pm]

Well, are you going to be using that device mostly for video? I think for other things, web browsing, office documents, its either too long in portrait and not tall enough in landscape.

I mostly do things other than watch movies. But I don't think it's too long in portrait... it's kind of nice for sites that I read a lot of like Anandtech forums and reddit.com actually. For reading books, I like long and thin. If you need to look at a long list, then narrow and long is a nice size. I'm hearing what you are saying but I still personally like 16:9 more than 4:3 for tablets.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't think that Apple will keep the same A5 SOC in the next iPad. Not with quad-core Android tablets coming out. I expect some sort of quad-core A6 with the NGP GPU.

That may work, but don't forget that the Vita's GPU is simply twice as powerful (i.e. SGX543-MP2 vs SGX543-MP4+). It'd be interesting to see if it could handle possibly four times the workload.

This isn't to say that Apple won't come out with something drastically different and more powerful than we're expecting. I mean, the SGX543-MP2 is still the most powerful mobile GPU (available) on the market and Apple is the only one that's using it.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

but I still personally like 16:9 more than 4:3 for tablets.

Yeah, my friend is exactly the same as you. He wants the 16:9 for the videos even though he mostly uses it for other things. Personal preference. Can't really tell you either way that it's the wrong aspect ratio.

 

[poofyhairguy]

That may work, but don't forget that the Vita's GPU is simply twice as powerful (i.e. SGX543-MP2 vs SGX543-MP4+). It'd be interesting to see if it could handle possibly four times the workload.

This isn't to say that Apple won't come out with something drastically different and more powerful than we're expecting. I mean, the SGX543-MP2 is still the most powerful mobile GPU (available) on the market and Apple is the only one that's using it.

Another thing to consider is that Apple might just say "screw it, this generation is a step back in this department."

That is what they did with the iPhone 4 with its 3GS GPU but twice the resolution.

 

[Aikouka]

Another thing to consider is that Apple might just say "screw it, this generation is a step back in this department."

That is what they did with the iPhone 4 with its 3GS GPU but twice the resolution.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up, because I thought I was being a bit unfair in throwing out such speculative numbers. Now, this isn't going to be much better, but we can take a peek at the 3GS vs 4 to get an idea of what 4x the screen real estate does to us in raw performance:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4483/motorola-droid-x2-review-a-droid-x-with-tegra-2/9

The iPhone 4 performs at 40.7% and 64.8% of the iPhone 3GS in those two OpenGL tests. While we're comparing two different architectures (SGX535 vs SGX543) that are two generations apart (535 -> 540 -> 543), it may give us an idea of what we'd expect. But ultimately, the iPhone 4 doesn't seem to have any problems, which is more than likely the reason why Apple didn't care to upgrade. It also probably meant they could continue to order SGX535 chips rather than split their orders, which I assume is better cost-wise to them.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Do you feel that the iPhone 5 will have the SGX543 for the same cost reasons?

 

[Aikouka]

Do you feel that the iPhone 5 will have the SGX543 for the same cost reasons?

Seems likely that they'd use the A5. I mean, they could technically make something else, but would it be worthwhile? It also wouldn't follow suit with the previous iPad 1 -> iPhone 4 release where they both used the A4.

It'd be interesting too because the SGX543 is still the top dog months after the iPad 2 release... although the A9 is fairly average.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Seems likely that they'd use the A5. I mean, they could technically make something else, but would it be worthwhile? It also wouldn't follow suit with the previous iPad 1 -> iPhone 4 release where they both used the A4.

It'd be interesting too because the SGX543 is still the top dog months after the iPad 2 release... although the A9 is fairly average.

The SGX543 is very nice, I can play 1080p movies perfectly in XBMC on the iPad 2 and updated games look excellent. If the iPhone has it, then it wins the GPU battle for the generation.

I had hopes the Adreno 220 was going to give it a run for the money but that doesn't seem to be the case....