While charging and after being on but idle for 5 to 10 minutes, the center of the Galaxy Tab 10.1's front face was 3 degrees cooler than that of the new iPad under the same conditions (77 degrees versus 80 degrees Fahrenheit); the difference jumped to 8 degrees when we measured the temperature on the back center of each tablet under those same conditions (78 degrees versus 86 degrees). At the maximum heat spot on each tablet, however, the difference narrowed to 2 degrees, with the iPad running at 92 degrees and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at 90 degrees.

After 1 hour of game play, the front center of the Galaxy Tab was 9 degrees cooler than that of the new iPad under the same conditions (80 degrees versus 89 degrees), and the back center was 14 degrees cooler (80 degrees versus 94 degrees). But that delta again dropped to just 2 degrees when we compared the two tablets at their maximum hot points on the back (98 degrees for Samsung versus 100 degrees for the new Apple). Bottom line: Like the iPad, the Samsung got warm while simultaneously charging and running our test game, reaching a summery 98 degrees at its hottest point.

The Asus tablet proved to be a somewhat cooler customer. After playing Riptide GP for an hour while plugged in and charging, the Transformer Prime's temperature at its hottest spot topped out at 95 degrees Fahrenheit--1 degree above the iPad 2's maximum, but 5 degrees cooler than new iPad. When running on battery power, the Transformer Prime registered 91 degrees on that same test, versus 97 degrees for the new iPad.

Despite all of the media attention over the iPad's (and other tablets') operating temperatures, the issue seems to be overblown. None of the four tablets we tested ever get so warm that I could detect screen discoloration, of the type that some users of . Given that the new iPad's battery has an mAh rating nearly double that of the batteries on the other tablets here, we would expect it to run at least a few degrees hotter than those units.