The Wall St. Journal's Walt Mossberg: A Million More Pixels Than HDTV. "The key upgrades are to those core features — the 9.7-inch screen and the data speed over cellular networks. These upgrades are massive. Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription — you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn't nearly as sharp as it could be."
The New York Times' David Pogue: A Polishing of the Old. "If you're in the market for a tablet, here's the bright side: For the same price as before, you can now get an updated iPad that's still better-looking, better integrated and more consistently designed than any of its rivals. And if you already have the iPad 2, here's an even brighter side: At least this time around, you don't have to feel quite as obsolete as usual."
The Verge's Joshua Topolsky: Does the tablet king retain its crown? "Minor gripes aside, the iPad remains best in breed when it comes to design and materials. Other tablets may have more ports or larger screens, but few can match the elegance, sleekness, or solidness of this device."
Macworld's Jason Snell: Apple advances the ball with a better screen, camera, and cellular connection. "The new iPad is just that: The iPad, updated for a new year and millions of new iPad users. It's not smaller or lighter, but it's got a remarkable screen, a much better rear camera, and support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. It's the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better. Users of the iPad 2 shouldn't fret: Their iPad investment is certainly good for another year. But they might not want to look too closely at the new iPad's screen. Once you get a load of that Retina display, it's hard to go back to anything else."
Fox News' Clayton Morris: Hands-on with Apple's new iPad. "The new iPad includes a better display, faster performance, better camera, and a snappy new operating system. Those may seem like small steps in the tablet space. But having used the new iPad for the past week now, I can tell you it's a giant leap for connected mankind."
Daring Fireball's John Gruber: Pixels pixels pixels. Battery battery battery. Speed speed speed. "Reading on the big retina display is pure joy. Going back to the iPad 2 after reading for a few hours on the iPad 3 is jarring. With bigger pixels, anti-aliased text looks blurry; with smaller pixels, anti-aliased text looks good; but with really small pixels like these, anti-aliased text looks impossibly good — and what you thought looked pretty good before (like text rendered on older iPads) now looks blurry."