Apple's iPad 3 is enjoying a healthy amount of attention in the run-up to its official unveiling, which is rumoured to take place in March of this year.

Irrespective of its pros or cons the device, which will undoubtedly sell by the truckload, doesn't have such a clear run at the market this time round.

Devices like Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime have raised the bar in the tablet market and given Apple's slate big shoes to fill, and we've decided to collate all the reliable leaks, speculation and predictions to see if the device has what it takes.

Power

Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime has power to burn thanks to its mighty Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset, which boasts a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.3GHz and the next generation of ULP GeForce GPU's.

The device also has 1GB RAM, offers 32 or 64GB of on-board storage and also supports Micro SD cards up to 32GB in capacity.

According to several leaks Apple's iPad 3 will also boast quad-core architecture, but knowing Apple the A6 chip will be quite conservatively clocked, likely to around 1Ghz. We expect the device will also pack 1GB RAM, rather than the 512MB on offer in the iPad 2

Don't expect support for removable memory though. We can't see Apple changing the habit of a lifetime. Having said that, with a quad-core CPU and Apple's software we can't see Android holding a candle to the iPad 3's processing power.

Winner - iPad 3

Display

The iPad 2's display is excellent, and we expect Apple to push the iPad 3 even further. According to sources we are looking at a display with the same dimensions but double the resolution of the iPad 2 at 2048 x 1536.

The device is also rumoured to have a pixel density well in advance of both its predecessor and Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime, with a rumoured 264PPI.

Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Prime isn't lacking on the screen front though. Its  10.1-inch Super IPS+ LCD display is far and away the best screen we've seen in an Android tablet and with a resolution of 1280 x 800 and a pixel density of 149PPI it's easy to see why.

Corning's Gorilla Glass offers a neat layer of protection on the Transformer Prime's screen and we expect to see a toughened coating over the face of the new iPad too, though whether it will be Corning's next-gen Gorilla Glass 2 is anyone's guess.

Winner - Apple iPad 3

Camera

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime features an 8-megapixel primary camera with autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging and 1080P video capture and a secondary 1.2-megapixel camera for video-chat and vanity shots.

Both cameras on the Asus perform well with the primary offering easily outperforming any other tablet camera we've used to date.

The iPad 3 will likely feature an improved camera, with some parties predicting an 8-megapixel snapper like that seen on the excellent iPhone 4S, which will likely benefit from autofocus, LED flash and geo-tagging.

We also expect the iPad 3 to offer 1080P video capture too.

The secondary camera is a shoo-in for an upgrade too, and we expect to see the VGA offering of the iPad 2 removed and replaced with a 1.3-megapixel snapper capable of offering FaceTime in glorious 720P HD.

If the predictions are accurate users will be very pleased by the upgrades, as the iPhone 4S is one of the finest smartphones for photography on the market.

Winner - Draw

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