Apple's iPad, available in the US and in the UK on 16 March, has been updated to feature a new retina display, which delivers a resolution of 2048x1536, equivalent to four times the number of pixels of the iPad 2. "[The display] is so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when held at a normal distance, making web pages, text, images and video look incredibly sharp and realistic," says Apple.

The firm adds: "The 3.1 million pixels in the Retina display are more than one million [additional] pixels than an HD TV, and with 44% increased colour saturation the new iPad displays colours that are richer, deeper and more vivid."

To support the display, the new iPad uses the A5X chip with quad-core graphics. The chip doubles the graphics performance of the A5 chip, featured in the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4s.

Apple has also updated the iPad's iSight camera, which now includes five glass elements, offering an aperture of up to f/2.4. The camera's sensor is back-illuminated for greater performances in low-light conditions, and Apple's iOS includes image stabilisation technology to remove "bumps and shakes typically seen when filming with a handheld device," says Apple.

Finally, the new iPad is also available in a version that includes 4G LTE connectivity, to deliver "blazing download and upload speeds," claims Apple.

To coincide with the announcement, Apple has also introduced the iPhoto app for iPhone and iPad. "iPhoto includes breakthrough multi-touch features so you can use simple gestures to sort through hundreds of photos and find your best shots, enhance and retouch your images using fingertip brushes and share photo journals with iCloud."

The new iPad will be available on 16 March from £399 for the 16GB Wifi-only model, and £499 for the Wifi + 4G model. The iPad 2, meanwhile, is seeing a price cut and is now available from £329. The iPhoto app is also available now at £2.99.

For more information and pricing details, visit www.apple.com/uk.