So, we've established a relationship between the Retina display, gaming, and power consumption. But there is one more thing to consider: though Apple's Retina display is the largest single largest determiner of power consumption, it's not the only culprit behind the tablet's heat. For that, we have to look to the SGX543MP4 GPU's thermal footprint.
The iPad 3 display consumes 3x more power, but heat is dissipated over a larger area. The GPU is much, much smaller. As a result, when you look at a thermal image of the iPad 3 you see a single hot spot.

You can see how the iPad 3 GPU affects surface temperature by comparing our contour charts. After an hour of gaming at maximum brightness, the iPad 2's screen approaches 80-85o F (above), with the back of the tablet spiking as high as 90o F (below).
In comparison, the iPad 3's Retina display (below) gets as hot as 95o—that's toasty, but not hot enough to spark a controversy, considering the surface temperature of human skin is in the same range.

In the chart below we see the back of Apple's iPad 3 after an hour of gaming. It jumps as high as 105o on the rear of the case. But we have to imagine that very few folks game for more than an hour with a tablet in their hands.

Within the first five minutes of game play, the tablet's rear surface temperature is only in the 85 degree range.

Fifteen minutes in, average surface temperature is closer to 95o. At the end of the day, excessive heat shouldn't be a problem unless you're playing demanding games for extended periods of time.

- The New iPad Is Heavier, But Features A Dazzling Display
- Wide-Gamut Color Performance
- Driving Higher Resolutions Requires More Power
- Battery Life: What To Expect
- Is There A Problem With Heat? We Profile Power
- Mapping Out iPad 3's Heat: Surface Temperature
- Taking An Infrared Camera To The iPad 3
- 4G LTE Performance: Verizon Versus AT&T
- HDMI Output Disappoints; Camera Quality Impresses
- The New iPad: Making Life Hard For The Competition, Again

+1 to the keyboard thing. But remember that most tablets (all?) don't have full size HDMI so you probably need a dongle 99% of the time anyway.
Really?
100 degrees is damn hot but I think the results are justified.
+1 to the keyboard thing. But remember that most tablets (all?) don't have full size HDMI so you probably need a dongle 99% of the time anyway.
The port isn't all that's needed. There's also a bit of hardware around it for the socket that makes it a tad thicker and a stretch to fit in the chasis of tablets.
Really?
Yeah I thought that comment was bunk too. Typically I use my tablet 1-2 feet away as less that 1 foot away would have the thing shoved up in my face too much and not give me any arm reach to operate the device properly.
As for the display in the iPad3 I went to the apple store and looked at it side by side with the iPad2. The colors look great but the super high pixel density was not as big of a difference as these reviews made it out to be.
The biggest things I noticed when comparing iPad2 and 3 side by side was the increased thickness and weight. Those 2 factors were enough for me to want to choose the iPad2, especially if I could get it a little cheaper than the iPad 3.
I also am curious about who will get the gaming win (more depends on where the devs go):
android tegra3, ipad3, vita, 3ds, or maybe microsoft will pull a rabbit out of their hat with win8.
I'm just saying if we are supposed to be a technology site we should be sure the facts are correct.
If I am going to pay $830 for a limited use tablet with 64GB storage and 4G, then I think I would rather spend that money on a notebook or ultrabook. I can still get a touch screen, I still get good graphics, I get a real keyboard/mouse, can still get a 4G option, and I get real x86 programs, removable storage, better connectivity options (USB3, thunderbolt), and (most importantly) real storage space.
Also, I would prefer win8 over iOS, but iOS is not a deal breaker if they would come out with something that would fit my use.
My fault. Corrected.
Cheers,
Andrew Ku