We owned an ipad1 when they first came out, didn't bother with the ipad2, but after all the fuss over the ipad3, my partner decided he wanted to upgrade our ipad to the ipad3, so we sold our original ipad to a friend and put the money towards an ipad 3.

This ipad is available in black and white and with 16gb, 32gb and 4gb memory. We went for the black 16gb one as with kids around we decided white wasn't the best option and as we only use it as a gadget and not for business purposes, we knew that the cheaper option of the 16gb would be sufficient for our needs. We purchased ours from a local store for £399.00 a couple of months ago and I have checked the price of these today to see if the current costs have changed and Tesco's are charging the same price for the 16gb.

This was a reluctant purchase in my mind as I couldn't see really what difference there would be between this and the ipad we already owned. The first difference I noticed was the design. Although the ipad3 is the same size etc as the original one, it does have a lighter, more sleek design to it and it does look a little more stylish than the original one but not to a great extent and the differences are quite subtle. I also found it a little lighter than the original one, which is handy if you often take it away from the home.

I think the main difference I have noticed during my usage of the ipad 3 is the graphics. There is a real sharpness to this ipad that you just don't get with the other ipad. It is almost like going from watching a normal film to a film in Blu Ray. A normal film is fine, until you watch a blu ray dvd, then you notice how bad the original film was and it is the same with the ipads. The crispness and sharpness is far greater than the ipad one and it is really noticeable. You also get a few added extras with this one such as an integrated webcam and facetime, giving you a video calling option.

I am not overly technically minded so I am not going to go into all the technical details of the ipad3 so I suggest if you are looking for this kind of information, I suggest you go to the Apple website and it will tell you all you need to know. This is purely a review on my thoughts and usage of the ipad3, it is not a technical specification.

This tablet has a 9.7 inch LED screen which is great and some of the games which I had on my iphone, I have transferred to the ipad as they are far better to play on a bigger screen. This is a gadget that the whole family get use out of. I have downloaded a lot of shopping apps to browse the latest clothes etc and I do a lot of online shopping on the ipad, my partner plays games and uses it to search for cars with apps such as Ebay and Auto Trader and my son has a vast array of games that he has downloaded and the ipad has come in amazingly useful on long car journeys and we now don't hear a peep out of my son as he is too busy playing on the ipad and the great thing about gadget like this is that you don't have to take a quantity of different games with you like you would with a DS or similar, you simply need the tablet and that's it, so nothing will get lost. My son and partner also watch live sport via the Sky Go app and also via BBC iplayer, itv player which keeps the teenagers happy too!

The battery is supposed to last around 10 hours before it needs re-charging. I do find that the ipad battery is better than an iphone battery but I would say it would struggle to do 10 hours and I would personally say it is more around the 5 hour mark at most.

We have found that the screen gets amazingly dirty rather quickly, mainly with grubby fingerprints but we use a specific screen cloth on it to avoid scratches and the fingerprints are gone in seconds so cleaning it isn't a problem, but the cloth does come everywhere with us. I would also recommend getting a case for the ipad as it is an expensive gadget and although it is well made, it also has a fragile element to it and I don't think it would take much breaking. I got our case off Ebay for the bargain price of £2.99 so for this kind of cost, it is definitely worth protecting your ipad3.

As much as we love our ipad3, I personally don't see enough differences between this and the ipad1 to justify spending £399 on a new ipad. Don't get me wrong, we love our ipad3, but apart from a few bits and pieces, our ipad1 was good enough for what we need too as we purely use it for fun and not for business usage. I would definitely recommend an ipad3 if you don't own an ipad as the graphics are amazing, it's lightweight, really handy and basically does everything you could possibly need it to and more! If you already own an ipad though, I personally haven't noticed a great deal of difference between the two models so you could easily stick to the one you have and save yourself £399 if you only use it for fun as we do as I don't believe you will get anything extra from this one that you don't really get from the original.

Overall, we as a family love our ipad and between us it gets daily usage. I have a good array of apps on my phone, but there are some things such as Ebay and shopping apps which are far better on the big screen of the ipad and my son has the same feelings over his games. It is great for playing with at home when you get a spare 5 minutes and it is great for taking out and about too for keeping the kids amused and looking things up when you are looking for activities and interests in towns/cities you are visiting. The battery life is decent but a £1.99 car charger from Ebay comes in handy just in case! Highly recommended.