Apple iPad MD329LL/A (32GB, Wi-Fi, White) NEWEST MODELBy Ron Cronovich, This review is for iPad 2 owners trying to decide whether to upgrade. It also might be helpful for people deciding between buying a "new iPad" and an iPad 2 (which is now just 399, 100 bucks cheaper than the cheapest "new iPad").
I was perfectly happy with my iPad 2, a wifi-only model with 32gb. When Apple announced the new iPad, I typed up a long list of reasons why I shouldn't buy it. And then I bought one anyway. (I'll be giving my iPad 2 to my parents.)
You've probably already read up on the new iPad and know the list of new features it has, and how the specs compare to the iPad 2's specs. But comparing specs on paper is different than comparing the actual experience of using the two products, and the experience matters more than the specs. I can tell you which of those features, at least to me, really makes the experience of using the new iPad better. And there's only one: the display.
I do a lot of reading on the iPad, and this is where the retina display really matters. Text is very sharp, even for very small fonts, and this makes reading on iPad much more comfortable. I've been reading Steve Jobs on my iPad 2 (using the Kindle app); I read the next chapter on the retina iPad and then tried to read the following chapter on the iPad 2 again, and going back to the iPad 2 was unpleasant. I had similar results when I compared reading articles on websites using Safari and when reading a few pages of War and Peace in the iBooks app on the retina iPad vs. iPad 2. After reading on the new iPad, you just won't want to go back to reading on iPad 2.
