When discounting their older product, most companies simply dump it into the market and call it a day. But Apple isn’t just any company -- an updated model of the $399 iPad 2 is floating around at retail, and it might improve battery life by as much as 16 percent.
Engadget is reporting that the lower-cost version of the iPad 2 introduced in March has quietly introduced a new 32nm A5 processor, and that could translate to improved battery life for budget-minded buyers.
The discovery was made by AnandTech, who did an extensive review on the upgraded model, which bears the “iPad2,4” model. Instead of the 45nm process used for the A5 processor used in the original iPad 2 last year, the newer $399 model features “special A5 chips manufactured using Samsung’s 32nm chip-making process.”
In testing, the website discovered that the 32nm iPad2,4 model boasted improved battery life of 15.8 percent, including a video playback test that lasted 15.7 hours -- far better than the original iPad 2 model at 13.3 hours and even the new iPad with its larger battery, which ran for a mere 11.15 hours.
The problem is, there’s no way to tell which iPad 2 you’re buying until you’ve opened the box and checked the system information with something like GeekBench.
"This particular iPad 2,4 sample came from Best Buy, and several attempts to find one elsewhere came up short. All indications seem to point to the iPad 2,4 being relatively rare, which makes sense considering what's inside it," AnandTech reveals.
But fear not -- once your fellow human beings have snapped up available inventory, it’s likely this once-rare version will be on store shelves everywhere, should you still be looking for a cheaper model of last year’s technology with a little extra battery life.
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