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Topic: iPad

What Heatgate? Consumer Reports gives top marks to iPad 3

Summary: In an apparent softening of its previous take on the device, Consumer Reports is giving the latest iPad its seal of approval.

Ricardo Bilton

By for The ToyBox |

Prominent iPad 3 "heatgate" agitator Consumer Reports has issued its final word on the iPad 3, and the results are, well, pretty good.

Describing the latest iPad as "superb", "very good", and "very fast", Consumer Reports is falling in line with essentially every other publication that's reviewed the device. Perhaps predictably, Apple's latest tablet has netted the publication's highest marks in the tablet category.

Consumer Reports is also calling the iPad 3's Retina display "the best we've seen" and has readjusted its tablet review system to compensate for just how amazing the display is.

And that whole "heatgate" thing that has consumed so much time and attention as of late? Consumer Reports echoes previous findings that, yes, the iPad 3 gets warmer than the iPad 2: "But we didn't find those temperatures to be cause for concern," the site says.

The site's relative paucity of comments on this front is ironic, given its previous inclination to approach the issue with headlines like "Our test finds new iPad hits 116 degrees while running games." That headline was meant to be scientific and impartial but only served to shock and scare the pants off of readers at the same time. After all, without context, 116 degrees sounds like some sunshine-grade heat.

But it's hard to pin too much blame on Consumer Reports. As with most online publications, the site faces imperatives on multiple fronts. While its mission to "work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves" is a sound one, dealing with the web means dealing with the obligations of page views and other traffic metrics. That means milking stories like this one for all they are worth.

Topics: iPad, Tablets

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38 comments
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  • Of course, there was no ever "heatgate", considering the fact that the new iPad is less hot than Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, even though it is hotter than iPad 2

    Of course, there was no ever "heatgate", considering the fact that the new iPad is less hot than Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, even though it is hotter than iPad 2.

    Haters can not do a thing against tests.
    DDERSSS
    Reply Vote

    • So since every Toyota didn't have an acceration issue

      none of them did? Even though it was a recuring enough scenerio in claims reports early on to where State Farm noticed and alerted the NTSB?

      Thanks, I understand how it is now - If it doesn't happen to [b]every[/b] unit, then it not an issue with any of them.

      Got it!
      William Farrel
      Reply Vote

      • Uh Wilie...

        Does a car look like an iPad?

        Doh.

        Get a clue.
        ScorpioBlack
        Reply Vote

      • Funny...

        My 09 Tacoma does not have issues. Are you commenting on the brake issue, where pumping the brakes effectively nullified them? I read about that, but seriously haven't pupmed brakes sine the last time I bled my own brakes, about 8 years go.
        Jumpin Jack Flash
        Reply Vote

      • search for toyota acceleration problem

        Could be what you're thinking about
        William Farrel
        Reply Vote

    • What about Laptops?

      Has there ever been a laptop that didn't burn your lap up with it's heat? I don't think so. Over the past twenty years we've come to accept that laptops give off excessive heat. That's just their nature.

      But that said, my new iPad doesn't give off any noticeable heat of any kind. Did I just get a good one? Is it basically just an imaginary problem? Is it even a real problem?

      Okay, in all honesty, whether you like or hate Apple, their iPad is just an incredible device which has no real competition. If a bit of slight heat is the worst that can be found with the device, then it's still the best thing going. All you have to do is look at the numerous Android tablets and their vast amount of problems (has there been one yet which hasn't had a few issues?) and you have to agree the iPad is perhaps the most problem-free tablet on the market.
      camcost@...
      Reply Vote

  • It must be killing the editors...

    Of ZDNet, to not be able to spin this in negative way at all. After the hack jobs that get put out abut Apple products yo think it would help sell more windows phones. Too bad the population sees Windows phone, for what it truly is, junk.
    Jumpin Jack Flash
    Reply Vote

  • Time to follow the money from CR back to Apple. CR just how much did your

    integrity go for? 116 degrees is cause for concern.
    Johnny Vegas
    Reply Vote

    • That's right. Apple paid all of us

      to ignore the searing heat of our fingers. Apple also paid billions to have everyone ignore the fact that their iPhone 4 units didn't work.
      dhmccoy
      Reply Vote

      • Worse, they told users they were holding it wrong,

        even while upper management had been told by an engineer during its development and promptly ignored said engineer...

        http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/07/iphone-4-antenna/

        http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2365705,00.asp

        Shameless...
        HypnoToad72
        Reply Vote

    • Johnny - how much does your credibility go for?

      Oh that's right, you throw it away everyday with idiotic posts like this.
      use_what_works_4_U
      Reply Vote

  • I wonder what happened?

    "Prominent iPad 3 ???heatgate??? agitator Consumer Reports"

    I wonder what happened? Microsoft didn't come with the cash?
    Consumer Reports wanted too much money to go with the "HeatGate" BS?
    zato_3@...
    Reply Vote

    • Microsoft didn't come with the cash?

      Must be. They've been particularly cheap this year.
      ScorpioBlack
      Reply Vote

  • Heatgate was accurate

    They merely pointed out the iPad 3 had higher heat levels on the back than the iPad 2...

    That is not a consipracy just fact..
    On-the-edge
    Reply Vote

    • But facts are useless things...

      :(
      HypnoToad72
      Reply Vote

  • Mike Daisey says "iPads are Dangerous and should be banned"

    Mike Daisey says he plans a new factual drama on the iPad, on a well known talk show he said :

    "Not only is the new iPad as stated by consumer groups so hot you can fry eggs on the back but from my own extensive research iPads are in other ways as well bad for children. I did research standing outside a Grade School and was horrified at what I found about the iPad. Many of the children I met claimed to own iPads and it seems to have completely destroyed their minds. I saw kids running 'wildly' on the playgrounds, rolling in the dirt -- most probably having their minds totally destroyed by hours of playing with their iPads -- whilst others appeared listless and unenthusiastic going to school - doubtless pinning for their addictive iPads instead of school. Has Apple no conscience selling thousands of games to hook kids on their slave labour created devices? I later confirmed my thesis of iPad related brain damage by talking to staff at a hospital namely a janitor and the parking attendant. Come experience my new show on Apple "The IPad , the Seduction of the Innocent". tickets at $80, advance discounts $65"

    CNBC, NYT and Maher have reviewed 'Seduction of the Innocent' -- "I had Tears in my Eyes after watching Daisey's latest masterpiece".

    SumofUs and Change.org have new petitions up against the iPad : "It's a total sin that an American company makes products that are so good they are addictive. Has Apple NO MORAL STANDARDS? As for Consumer Reports they have Caved In to Fanboy pressure. "
    Davewrite
    Reply Vote

    • Was that supposed to be funny?

      It wasn't.
      toddbottom3
      Reply Vote

      • were you one of those that paid $80 to see Daisey's "Agony and Ecstasy"?

        and had tears in your eyes and went out to protest outside an apple store and write comments here supporting Daisey?

        that's why you can't take joke?

        lol.
        Davewrite
        Reply Vote

      • Mike Daisey "Already a Groundswell of support has appeared in Comments.."

        "...in various places like Zdnet. Commentators like toddbottom3 have come out in support of 'Seduction of the Innocent' . The LIES of apple and the its low down business practices can be stopped if people like Toddbottom3 support me. Egg frying iPads are a danger to America".
        Davewrite
        Reply Vote

      • I'm not a supporter of Daisey

        "that's why you can't take joke?"

        Where was the joke? I got that you were trying to be funny, you just failed.
        toddbottom3
        Reply Vote
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