Wired have carried out their own new iPad heat tests and found that it is in the middle of the road compared with other tablet models, such as the Kindle Fire and the iPad 2. They carried out the test using Dead Space instead of Infinity Blade 2, as the latter is iOS exclusive.
Wired explain how exactly they carried out their test:
First we recreated the Consumer Reports testing scenario (though in our testing, we used an infrared thermometer instead of a thermal camera, as in the original experiment). After 20 minutes of intenseInfinity Blade 2 action, we were able to get the iPad up to 100 degrees. After 45 minutes, the iPad hit 108 degrees at its hottest point on the back of the tablet.
We then turned our sights to other tablets — how hot would they get when running graphics-intensive games? Infinity Blade 2 is an iOS exclusive, so we needed to find a different control game, something that runs on all platforms, but also taxes a tablet’s processor and graphics engine. We ended up usingDead Space, a first-person shooter that’s available for most tablets on the market, and includes 3-D graphics.
We started our gauntlet of testing with the new iPad. Like all the tablets we cross-tested, we started with a completely cool device, and kept the iPad unplugged to more closely approximate a real-world use scenario. We played Dead Space for 30 minutes, by which point the iPad’s back-panel heat had already plateaued.
The result? The third-generation iPad reached just 94 degrees Fahrenheit in its hottest rear chassis location (slightly below, and to the right of, the Apple logo when the tablet is held in portrait mode). Ninety-four degrees is not an uncomfortable temperature in one’s hands, and it’s also well short of the alarming 116 degrees publicized by Consumer Reports, as well as our own 108 degree reading. Dead Space may not tax the iPad’s internals as much as Infinity Blade 2, but it’s still a demanding 3-D game in the tablet space, and will certainly evoke hotter run temperatures than a mail program, YouTube or Angry Birds during continuous use.
This definitely seems pretty conclusive that the temperature of the new iPad is nothing to whine about, even though there will always be some skeptics who will say that Dead Space 2 is not using the new iPad to its full capacity.
