Well, yeah, the iPad is "cooler" than the competition. But I'm not referring to whether or not Fonzie would have used one, I'm referring to heat. Consumer reports said that the iPad got up to 116 degrees after playing Infinity Blade 2 for 45 minutes. Wired did the same test, but found the iPad got up to 108 degrees. That might sound hot, but it's really not that bad. After speaking with a doctor, Wired was told that even prolonged use of something that was 116 degrees wouldn't be harmful. The bottom casing of your laptop most likely gets much hotter. But, unlike Consumer Reports (and their awful reporting), Wired took the test a step further, and put some perspective on those temperature readings. They did this by testing other tablets, something Consumer Reports neglected to do.
They had to find a game that was available on all the tablets they tested. While the graphics would be different on each device, they would still push that particular device to its limits. So, they settled on Dead Space, which looks pretty good on all platforms, even the lowly Kindle Fire. What they found was that ALL the tablets heated up when playing a game for 45 minutes (no duh), and that the iPad was actually in the middle, not the hottest, but not the coldest either. The Asus Transformer Prime actually got the hottest, although even there, the difference over the iPad was just 4.5 degrees. In fact, the difference between the coldest and hottest was just 8.5 degrees. They also found the new iPad was only half a degree warmer than the iPad 2. All of the tablets scored below 98.6 degrees, or your average body heat although the Transformer Prime by just .1 degrees). Unless you're a zombie, in which case these tablets may feel quite warm.
I'm hoping this is the last we hear of this whole "heat issue".
