So the iPad Gets a Little Warm

Consumer Reports, just one of many news outlets, reporting on the iPad’s newest apparent feature: hand warming.

During our tests, I held the new iPad in my hands. When it was at its hottest, it felt very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period.

I’ll grit my teeth and bear the sensationalist headlines. I’m okay with tech blogs comparing temperatures between various iPad models for the sake of “science.” But I’m not okay with the above testimony. It’s a complete white whine.

The iPad 2 could get slightly warm after gaming or watching videos for a period of time, and the iPad (3) gets noticeably warmer (but not hot) at the back left corner where most of the processing components are located inside. While there are sometimes exceptions in the various Apple-gates that the media tends to manufacture with every new product launch — the iPhone 4’s antenna being an actual problem for lots of customers — the fact is that computer chips generate heat and the combination of technologies in the latest iPad (A5X processor and the Broadcom chips) contribute to this non-issue. The problem with a lot of these articles is that they’re completely misleading concerning how hot the new iPad is to the touch.

It’s something else for the press to complain about and get page views for despite the technological accomplishment of not only fitting a 2048 x 1536 resolution display in the space of 9.7 inches, but then being able to smoothly render games like Infinity Blade II and Air Supremacy on top of that. If getting a little warm is the trade-off for having a high performance iPad, then I’m completely okay with that. Unless the iPad is actually scalding your hand or is boiling hot to the touch (it’s nowhere close), the heat dissipated through the aluminum frame shouldn’t be a concern. Apparently, scalding hot laptops aren’t a problem, but a lukewarm iPad is.