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I was thrilled when Apple announced the iPad 3. I was in love, I ordered it so that I could receive it on day one...that was the last time that I ordered an iPad one day one.

The damn thing was heavy and thick. Not to mention that it would get extremely warm (I had the iPad 2 for 2-3 months until I sold it for 90% of what I paid for it) compared to the iPad 2. It was sluggish (not just gaming), like opening safari was noticeably sluggish. It was a mistake, Apple realized that it had created a monster and decided to end its fate by releasing the iPad 4 less than 7 months later.

It's the Vista of iPads

It was less than 10 pct heavier. The CPU was the same as the ipad 2, which loaded pages just fine. The processor at its hottest was no more than warm water. Let's not overblow the issues.
 
It was less than 10 pct heavier. The CPU was the same as the ipad 2, which loaded pages just fine. The processor at its hottest was no more than warm water. Let's not overblow the issues.

Agree that people over low the issues and tend to forget how amazing the large Retina screen was upon its release. The beloved iPad 2s screen wasn't even close.
 
My Air 2 is on its way too; i have never had any issues with my ipad 3 in all of its nearly 3yrs until iOS 8.01 & 02 but 8.1 addressed the poor performance sort of.

I decided to upgrade because i needed a tablet refresh in form of a faster, thinner, more powerful iPad.:)
 
The iPad 3 is a useful reminder to those who are proponents of the idea of making devices slightly thicker and heavier to accommodate faster processors, better displays, battery life, and cameras.

Technically, it was way better than the iPad 2; however, the minuscule difference in weight and heat was not well received, particularly to iPad 2 users.

It didn't help that it was replaced 6 months later with a better chip and connector, as well as seeing the future of iPad with the Mini.
 
The iPad 3 is a useful reminder to those who are proponents of the idea of making devices slightly thicker and heavier to accommodate faster processors, better displays, battery life, and cameras.

Technically, it was way better than the iPad 2; however, the minuscule difference in weight and heat was not well received, particularly to iPad 2 users.

It didn't help that it was replaced 6 months later with a better chip and connector, as well as seeing the future of iPad with the Mini.

I totally agree. The ever so slightly increased weight and thickness were immediatly noticeable and kind of ruined the whole device.
 
It was less than 10 pct heavier. The CPU was the same as the ipad 2, which loaded pages just fine. The processor at its hottest was no more than warm water. Let's not overblow the issues.

It was not the same CPU as the iPad 2. iPad 2 had a A5 and iPad 3 had a A5X.
 
Not sure what you are talking about. iPad 3 was one of the biggest updates.

Retina display, double the RAM over the 2. It was significantly better than iPad1.

I still use my ipad 3 and it feels like new, it lags a bit but that is only if you are super picky. I feel like it can last another 2 years without any real issues.

The problem with iPad 3 was that the screens had problems with colour hues. Some parts of the screen looked pinkish or reddish or greenish. I believe this is still an issue with Apple screens.

My iphone 5 has a green glow around the edges, surprisingly I never noticed it until I updated to iOS 8 and played Thief which had a full white background
 
It was less than 10 pct heavier. The CPU was the same as the ipad 2, which loaded pages just fine. The processor at its hottest was no more than warm water. Let's not overblow the issues.

As I said, I owned both and noticed the difference. Exactly, the CPU was the same as the iPad 2 (which was released a year earlier) with the iPad 3 just having an extra 2 GPU cores that was already outdated and not energy efficient.

If the iPad 3 wasn't a flop then Apple would've continued to sell them at just a $100 discount like how they're doing with the iPad air 1 and iPad mini 2. Instead they completely replaced the iPad 3 within 6-7 months. When in heavy usage, the iPad 3 has by far been the warmest mobile device that i've ever used.
 
As I said, I owned both and noticed the difference. Exactly, the CPU was the same as the iPad 2 (which was released a year earlier) with the iPad 3 just having an extra 2 GPU cores that was already outdated and not energy efficient.

If the iPad 3 wasn't a flop then Apple would've continued to sell them at just a $100 discount like how they're doing with the iPad air 1 and iPad mini 2. Instead they completely replaced the iPad 3 within 6-7 months. When in heavy usage, the iPad 3 has by far been the warmest mobile device that i've ever used.

It wasn't a flop. 3 million units sold in the first three days. Shipping times of two to three weeks if you didn't get a pre-order in. Are you seeing any hype like that for the iPad Air 2?

Apple had to turn over the line more quickly than usual to align with the christmas season and to get the iPad specs in line with the iPad Mini. Especially with the cut over to the lightning connector.
 
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I've had an iPad 3 since launch and it has served me well. It's a little stuttery on iOS 7 and 8, but I use my iPad for surfing the web, RSS, music, and some Pages work. Nothing intense. I am considering an upgrade to iPad Air 2 though. But it's definitely a want purchase and not a need.
 
The iPad 3 is a useful reminder to those who are proponents of the idea of making devices slightly thicker and heavier to accommodate faster processors, better displays, battery life, and cameras.

Technically, it was way better than the iPad 2; however, the minuscule difference in weight and heat was not well received, particularly to iPad 2 users.

It didn't help that it was replaced 6 months later with a better chip and connector, as well as seeing the future of iPad with the Mini.

A useful tool to push ones own opinion is more like it. Which I suspect this is what's going on in this post, particularly since you just ignored so many other factors.

Problem with the 3 is that it made too many compromises to get that retina display in there. Size/Weight was just one of them. i probably read maybe 5 members complain about weight. If it did everything better than the iPad 2 with the exception of the extra mm or 2 of thickness, I think it would have been very well received. Problem is the 3 only did one thing better than the 2, which was having a nicer display. Lets also not forget Apple transitioning their devices to lightening connectors as another factor.
 
My iPad 3 was heavy, ran hot, and took forever to charge. I also had to exchange it several times to get an even, bright (but pinkish) screen. I was then extremely irked when Apple released an improved version, iPad 4, only 6 months later. I bought one of those for a family member and it was perfect out of the gate. Strangely, though, I realized my 3 had better overalll build quality than my iPad Air when I upgraded last year. iPad 3 was not an awful device but those of us who bought it felt a little burned by the experience. Kind of like I feel about iPad Air with 64-bit processor but only 1 GB RAM resulting in app crashing and constant Safari reloading. My iPad 3 ran Safari better on iOS 6 than my Air ran iOS 7. I apparently need to be on a different upgrade cycle because i have been burned twice, first with iPad 3 and also with original Air.:eek:

Note: my husband still uses our 3 running iOS 6 with no problems or complaints.
 
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A useful tool to push ones own opinion is more like it. Which I suspect this is what's going on in this post, particularly since you just ignored so many other factors.

Problem with the 3 is that it made too many compromises to get that retina display in there. Size/Weight was just one of them. i probably read maybe 5 members complain about weight. If it did everything better than the iPad 2 with the exception of the extra mm or 2 of thickness, I think it would have been very well received. Problem is the 3 only did one thing better than the 2, which was having a nicer display. Lets also not forget Apple transitioning their devices to lightening connectors as another factor.

Don't forget it had LTE, which was huge. It also had 1GB of RAM, which was equally huge and the primary reason the iPad 3 is still usable today. Apple did compromise slightly on the weight, which why it gets a bit of a rap for not being a total step forward. But at the time the only disappointment for me was the CPU staying the same. It was really a quantum leap on 3 fronts ... display, connectivity, and RAM.
 
I think people needed a reason to justify upgrading from the 3 to 4 in a six month period. Personally, the only problem I had w/ the 3 was the weight and the 4 did not fix that so I stayed w/ the 3 until the Air came out.

Like you, I wanted to get the iPad Air due the weight on this iPad 3 I'm typing on. It is my first iPad. However, I didnt upgrade for 2 reasons: 1) after using the Touch ID on my iPhone 5S I wanted to wait for Touch ID. 2) due to budgeting I could only buy 1 so I bought my mom her first iPad which was an iPad Air! And chose to hold off on my own.

So this year it's my turn! And I get lighter, 2 GB RAM, and Touch ID

Will be waiting til my iPhone 6 Plus arrives next week and trade in the iPhone 5S to go toward my iPad Air 2
 
Because it is objectively bad and was replaced by the vastly superior iPad 4 after about 6 months.

If it’s the only iPad you’ve owned, well... you don’t really have a basis for comparison...
 
iPad 3 scratched my “retina on iPad” itch, but in general it really didn’t age well as far as performance. I sold it as soon as the first Air model came out.
 
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