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:
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.
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. ®
COMMENTS
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?
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.
Re: Gosh. Well, well, well
And, well, the folk out there thinking of buying an iPad, don't you think?
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.
Re: Battery life?
Hands up whose first (cynical) thoughts were noticeable after "warranty period + 2 weeks"
