The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Confirmed: iPad 3 runs hotter than iPad 2

Heat cam shows five-degree difference

Thermal camera imagery has confirmed what iPad 3 owners already knew: the new Apple fondleslab runs hotter than its predecessor did.

The guys over at Dutch-language site Tweakers.net took an infrared camera and snapped the tablets alongside each other. Both iPads were set running GLBenchmark to thrash their CPUs, and after five minutes the team took the following snap:

Tweakers.net thermal pic of iPads

Source: Tweakers.net

The new iPad is on the left. The temperature at the lower right corner of the rear - the bit you hold in your left hand - was recorded to be 33.6°C. The same place on the iPad 2 reached 28.3°C, just over five degrees lower.

That heat zone, according to a dissection performed by iFixit.com, is not where the iPad 3's motherboard is placed. It's a long, thin board that runs down the right side of the iPad - or the left side if you have the tablet's back toward you, as is the case with the thermal shots.

iFixit iPad 3 disassembly

Source: iFixit.com

That puts the heatsource in the battery area, though whether it's a case of the battery getting hot, how the iPad's casing routes heat away from the CPU, or both isn't clear at this stage. ®

Anonymous Coward

Re: Like that other thermal wonder...

That's your core temperature, not what the body perceives as hot.

Though you may run internally at 37C, do your hands feel cold when you're in a room with a wall thermometer showing 25C?

6
0

Re: Just another example of Apple's amazing attention to detail

Someone needs a refresh on Biology 101... I'm certainly glad my body temperature ain't 33.6 deg, otherwise yes I would expect people to be applying lots of warmth to me.

6
0

Re: Gosh. Well, well, well

And, well, the folk out there thinking of buying an iPad, don't you think?

5
0

33.6°C

is not exactly hot. And as others already said: A 70% larger battery being depleted in the same time means 70% more energy is turned into heat.

I'm pretty sure that the next generation will have a more efficient SOC. It's somewhat amazing that Apple managed to pull this off right now, the huge battery and waste heat is a sign that it wasn't easy at all. A 45 Wh battery in a tablet is quite a stunt.

4
0
Anonymous Coward

Re: Battery life?

Hands up whose first (cynical) thoughts were noticeable after "warranty period + 2 weeks"

2
0

More from The Register

The iWatch is coming! The iWatch is coming!
Reports: Apple's wrister to have 1.5-inch OLED, test units being built
MYSTERY Nokia Lumia with gazillion-pixel camera 'spotted'
With 20Mp sensor - NOW will you try Windows Phone 8?
US boffin builds 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster
Beowulf cluster built for the price of a single PC
 breaking news
Dell's PC-on-a-stick landing in July: report
Wyse up, suckers, could this be a new set-side-stick?
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
Review: Sony Xperia SP
The new mid-range marvel? Oh yes.
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner