iPad vs. iPad 2 - What's changed?

An updated version of this post is available here.

A lot of people are asking me for a rundown of the differences between the original iPad and the new iPad 2 unveiled yesterday. Here's a quick rundown of what's changed, and what hasn't changed.

Dimensions - CHANGED (slightly)

While the overall footprint of the iPad 2 is the same as that of the iPad, the thickness has gone down from 13.4mm to 8.8mm. The weight is also down for all models (WiFi model down from 680g to 601g while the WiFi + 3G is down from 730g to 613g for the AT&T model and 607g for the Verizon model.

Screen - UNCHANGED

No change here - The iPad 2 makes use of the same 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS 1024 x 768 screen as the original iPad. At this point one unknown relating to the screen is what graphics processor Apple has used. The original iPad used a PowerVR SGX 535 chip. We'll have to wait for the teardowns to find this out.

Processor - UPDATED

Out with the old 1GHz single-core A4 chip, and in with a dual-core 1GHz A5 chip. The original A4 featured 256MB of RAM while the iPhone 4 has 512MB. Again, we're going to have to wait for the teardowns to appear to know if this has changed.

Storage - UNCHNAGED

The options for storage remain the same - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

Radios - UPDATED

While WiFi and Bluetooth ramain the same (802.11 a/b/g/n and 2.1 + EDR respectively) the cell radio in the updated ipad has been updated. The original iPad featured EDGE plus triband HSPA while the iPad 2 features EDGE plus quadband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz) and GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) for the AT&T versions and CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz) for the Verizon model.

Price - UNCHANGED

The price remains unchanged for all models - iPad 2 starts at $499 for the 16GB WiFi-only model.

New features

There are a few features completely new to the iPad 2. Here's a rundown:

• Front-facing VGA camera
• Rear-facing 720p camera
• Gyroscope
• New case (optional) that is attached by magnets (how DO they work? ;) and features a microfibre surface.
• HDMI output dongle (optional).