What you need to know about iPad 4th generation

Display

In terms of design iPad 4 is much similar to its predecessors, iPad2 and iPad 3. It features an aluminum body and comes in black and white colors. The device is 9.5 inches high and 7.31 width and weights 1.44-1.46 depending on the model, making it a good choice both for designers and family members.

Display

The fourth-generation iPad was praised for its high-quality Retina display, a feature was already on old iPads but improved enormously.
The iPad 4 presents a large 9.7 inches LED display with a resolution of 2048-by-1536(QXGA), resulting a pixel density of 264 PPI. It has 3.1 million pixels, four times that of iPad 2.
Even with today's standards, this big and improved display seems to be good enough for watching online videos or surfing internet.

Performance

The device is equipped with a dual-core Apple A6X system-on-chip processor and 1GB of RAM. Benchmarks show that speed and performance of iPad 4 are drastically improved over the older generations.Apart from a powerful CPU, iPad 4 has a quad-core PowerVR SGX554MP4 GPU which makes a good job supporting its large display as well as rendering images and videos.
This allows your tablet to run smoothly in daily usage but you may experience lags in newer or CPU-intensive apps.

Connectivity

Although all models of iPad 4can connect to the wireless via Wi-Fi, the capability to connect to the 4G cellar network differentiates them.
Cellar and Wi-Fi only models are easily distinguishable by eye. The Wi-fi only version has a solid aluminum back but cellar models have a plastic portion at the top for the cellar transmission.
However, it is not possible to visually draw a distinction between the other models, either by design or specification. The best way is to check their model or serial number.
The Wi-Fi-only version merely supports dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi. The 5GHz channel is new in this generation and claimed to be faster and more stable. The best is that your iPad can connect to both channels at once, increasing the download speed up to 150 Mbps.
Both Wi-Fi/AT&T/GPS and Wi-Fi/Verizon & Sprint/GPS support 4G LTE network and A-GPS and GLONASS. It means that when you are outside you can use them to surf the internet and watch videos. The AT&T model is now unlocked to be compatible with other networks.

Camera

The 4th generation of iPad is shipped with two cameras, A rear camera, and a front camera. The iSight camera (rear camera) is a 5-megapixel lens capable recording 1080 HD videos. It looks very identical to iPad3 and takes similar pictures, except in low-light environments. Thanks to the more efficient A6X chipset, it is able to remove noise from images using a better image processing algorithm improving the quality of images, especially in low-light conditions.
The front FaceTime HD camera has received a huge upgrade too. Apple included 1.7 megapixels and 720p front camera in the 4th generation of iPad, a significant improvement over the lackluster 0.3-megapixel VGA front camera in the previous generation.
Although the FaceTime HD camera is not perfect in selfies, it should be enough for taking profile pictures or making video calls.

Battery

This iPad is sold with a rechargeable lithium-ion polymer (LiPo) battery attached with a capacity of 11,560 mAh. You need use a 12W adapter and lighting connector to charge it.
Apple claims that the battery on iPad 4 resists up to 10 hours of web surfing with Wi-Fi, 9 hours of cellular web surfing or 10 hours of video watching. Measurements have proved that these numbers are close to the real-world experiments.

iOS Support

iPad 4 was originally released with iOS 6 and later upgraded to iOS 7. It is also supported by iOS 8 with the exception of a few features. The iPad 4th generation is compatible with iOS 9 too, but some advanced functionalities such as Slide Over or Split View are not working.
This generation of iPad can be upgraded to iOS 10 and take advantage of better performance and Siri improvement. However, some features such as Raise to Wake, Rich Notifications, or Ride-Booking are not supported.
Unfortunately, it does not support iOS 11 or later versions of iOS.

Pricing and Availability

The 16GB Wi-Fi only model starts at $499 and goes up to $699 for a 64GB storage. The models including both Wi-Fi and cellular connections are more expensive. Buying a 4th generation iPad with Wi-Fi and cellular will cost you about $629 to $829 depending on the storage.
Apple discontinued the iPad 4 October 16, 2014, So it is very unlikely that you can find a new iPad 4 in the market. However, you can buy used iPad 4th Gen at a reasonable price.
The 4th generation of iPad is not too old and, of course, not new. If you use your just tablet to watch videos or surf internet it is a reasonable choice. But if you play games or use heavy apps most often you may consider upgrading to a newer generation.