Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi) Reviews
Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
- 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology. 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi).
- 32GB flash drive.
- Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
- Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery for up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music.
Apple iPad Wi-Fi is a magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price and the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video.All of the built-in apps on iPad are designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large multi-touch screen and advanced capabilities of iPad. And they work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps that you can’t do on any other device.The high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Wh
Rating: 
(out of 233 reviews)
List Price: $ 599.00
Price: $ 679.00
Related Ipad Products
Review by John S. Dean for Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
Rating:
Just to set the stage correctly - I’m a multiple Microsoft MVP winner for the tablet PC platform. I’ve been using tablets since their inception in the early 2000’s and have used Windows since 1988. I’ve been programming since 1981. My level of knowledge is way, way up there. And until last July, I never even considered a Mac product. Everything I needed to do was available on Windows, most of the critical apps of mine weren’t even available for the Mac OS.
Last spring I purchased another car, and I’ve long had MP3 players, but never an Ipod. This new car had direct plug access to the Ipods, and allowed all the metadata to display on the radio head unit, as well as full control via the steering wheel controls. So I got an Ipod, my first Apple device. For the heck of it I threw the little Apple sticker on my back window and watched everyone who knew me, employees and clients alike (I’m the director of an IT consulting firm), freak out when they saw the apple on my car.
Then last July a friend of mine showed me his new Macbook pro, and what got me was the hardware, NOT the software. The touchpad was just magical, and after trying it, there was no other input method to compare, and all the windows machines had nothing that felt like this glass surfaced beauty. The backlit keyboard, the solid body (My last two Lenovo’s had cracks in their shells just from grabbing one side and picking them up), the design of the hardware was just light years past anything ever done on a PC. And with the new ones running on the intel processor, and able to directly run windows, not just virtually, it made sense for me to get one. So I did.
Then last November I replaced my 1 year old Media center PC with a new Dell Zino, and a month after that replaced THAT with a new Mac Mini. So in about 5 months, I went from a Mac hater to someone who had an ipod, a macbook pro, and a Mac Mini.
So when the iPad was announced, people weren’t sure where I’d fall. I was a longtime Mac hater, now a convert, but this “first ever tablet device” was hardly that, Microsoft has been doing tablets for a long time. And my initial take was very, very negative. Like most of the talking heads out there who didn’t like it, I was wondering what possible use something that wasn’t a real OS would be, something that can’t multitask, and, for my tablet background, why on earth there’s no support for pens. For me, the best thing about tablets and slates has always been notetaking. I loved MS Journal, and Onenote. Not for *converting* the handwriting to text, but for persisting my notes IN handwriting. I liked it. Worked great. And the form factor on this device would have been outstanding for such activity.
But no joy, we all know how Jobs hates pens. Don’t know why, he thinks it’s an “outdated” method of input or some such, yet he puts keyboards on everything, which, according to his type of thinking, should also by now be an outdated type of input…
So I had no plans on getting one. I have been waiting for more info on the HP Slate, which would run Windows 7, have multitasking ability, all the things I was used to on a slate.
But I kept thinking about the battery life. And the form factor. I use a kindle daily, and this would be a great replacement for it since, while I liked the concept, both versions of the device I’ve had just still didn’t do it for me. My eyes don’t get strained from conventional monitors and displays so it didn’t benefit me at all to have the paper ink, but it WOULD benefit me to have a backlit device again for night time reading. And since the iBook app supposedly would allow me to open other books I already had (I’ve been doing ebooks for years and years before the kindle was ever announced, reading them on my windows PDA phones and comptuers), there was potential here.
But I kept going to the single use, non comptuer OS, limitations.
But I also start to twitch when there’s a new toy available. So I started thinking about what I do with computers, both for work and at home, and realized that I didn’t *NEED* a full windows 7 slate device with multitasking and everything, since I did not want a second “main” computer. I keep EVERYTHING for both work and my entire personal life on my laptop, so getting the HP would then necessitate a lot of syncing of data between both the windows side of my macbook as well as the mac side. Something I don’t like dealing with.
So I realized I didn’t want a full computer. I didn’t need the ipad to replace anything, or take over any existing functionality of my computers. I wanted it to take over my kindle, and maybe give me some fun drawing apps to play with my 6 year old in. So I decided to give it a try.
So two days ago I ran to the local brick and mortar, figuring they’d be sold out, but at least I could play with a demo unit and see what it was like, get myself past my preconceptions and all the BS flying on the blogosphere. I picked one up, held it, and two store associates were playing with the one next to me. I asked them how quickly they sold out - they told me they didn’t, that Apple did a great job stocking them, and they had all versions still left. I decided to not even play with the demo, but just take one home. So I grabbed the 16GB version (knowing I didn’t need it for an ipod and such, so 16GB would be sufficient) and went home.
Unboxed quickly since there’s nothing but the unit, USB cable, and power adapter. Came fully charged, so I was up and running instantly. Within about 15 minutes I had 70 free apps installed already and was moving through things like a pro. And it dawned on me that even if i wanted that HP Windows 7 based slate, it would NEVER be this smooth. That is one place where Apple just dominates - the UI. And this one was great. Everything worked intuitively, the apps were well designed, and I found my conversions of some of my ebooks to EPUB format installed just fine in Itunes, and showed up just beautifully in iBook. So the reading experience became way better instantly than the kindle could be. And with the kindle software available, I can already get the books I purchased there as well, so i had the best of both worlds.
The drawing apps were a big hit for my 6 year old, who, like any kid, loves finger painting.
Weather apps abound, my favorite so far is weatherbug (not a shock, theirs was my favorite gadget for Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well). I’ve had storms here, heavy, severe, over the last few days, and my usual thing when dealing with storms at night, while I’m laying in bed reading my kindle, is to randomly get up, go into the great room, and check out the local weather satellites from a few local news stations, see what is still heading this way, how heavy, etc, maybe check mail again while I’m there, then go back and read some more, repeat a few times over an hour or two. So this time, I just changed form iBook to Weatherbug, saw instantly the local radar, what was still on the way, then hopped into the browser, checked all my mail accounts (the built in Microsoft Exchange support is seamless and works great BTW), and enjoyed the browser, which works and looks just as well as my Safari does on the macbook pro. So without having to leave my toasty bed, I was reading, checked three weather sites, three mail accounts, and was back reading, all flawlessly, no running around my house.
The last part I tried finally last night was instant message, which for me is critical since all my employees use it to keep in touch with me, as do a couple friends. With the push technology, all the “you can’t do this and that at once” fell apart for me and was debunked. I already had noted that my ipad, regardless of what I was doing or what app I had open, chimed i had a new mail on my works’ exchange server before even my smart phone, or my computer directly connected to my exchange server. And so went my experience with IM as well. I loaded a client I’ve used in windows, then closed the IM program and opened iBook, and a buddy of mine sent me a message. I got not just the notification, but a bubble with his text actually opened in front of ibook, and had a choice of switching over to reply or just close the text bubble and keep reading. So that really rid me of all concerns about the lack of multitasking since that gives me exactly what I need - notification of an email or an IM while I’m doing something else. This is all the computing power I needed on this.
So I finally realized I didn’t WANT another tablet PC, another full fledged computer. I wanted something to fill a need between my phone’s screen and my computer. Something to replace my kindle, something for some neat games, playing and painting with my 6 year old, and simple/convenient IM and mail access when i’m just vegging at home and don’t always want to pull my laptop on my lap to check something quick.
The keyboard is actually far easier and better to use than I had expected, and much faster to type on than I hoped. Not as nice, obviously, as a full screen one, but works surprisingly well.
Screen is a delight - even hours of reading later it’s still comfortable, bright, but it gets fingerprints easily despite some “non fingerprint coating” they tried to use to minimize it. Still looks awful after a while at an angle when you look at it askew. But not at all noticeable while staring at it straight and using it.
Screen brightness is good, but it doesn’t go down as far as I would’ve liked for ebook reading, but then I found iBook has a separate brightness control that lets me dim it to nearly nothing for use in the dark. Outstanding.
So then I started throwing some music and photos on it, and that’s when I realized I can easily use this to show my grandmother pictures of her great grandson, since she’s in her upper 80’s and refuses to have a computer, so we can’t email her or send her links or anything. So I started playing with music and photos, and this thing became such a cool toy at that point. I had to run back to the store and return it so I could buy the larger 32GB model since I knew by this time I was keeping it. Fortunately I have a 45 day return period with no restocking fees at this place, so the upgrade was painless and free of cost.
That’s when I found out that itunes was automatically backing up my unit when it synced. So when I plugged the new one in, the first thing it said was “restore?” So i tried it. It restored all my settings, including mail, so all I had to do was reenter passwords the first time, and I was back up and running after it resynced my apps again. Those stayed in Itunes so I didn’t have to redownload everything.
Playing with pictures is pretty fun and very smooth, and the speaker on this thing is surprisingly full of bass. There’s even an equalizer for tweaking the sound output to your liking. And the music keeps playing after you close the app so you can have the tunes playing while doing other things (but it will stop when you hit something else that takes over multimedia like a video or some other sound thing from an email of course).
I grabbed the apple book-like cover and the dock, but you can’t charge it in the dock while that cover is on.
So I went from the initial “What a useless piece of junk” detractor to the “I wouldn’t live without it” supporter.
I gave them all sorts of grief for using the term “magical” to describe it, but I have to say, that it actually felt nearly magical that first hour doing things… All my experience with the tablet PC and I wasn’t ready to experience what this interface was like.
And with this, i may finally be able to get my grandma to have something to keep at her condo so we can email her pictures and such… This would make it a lot easier for her than trying to get her to use a full computer…
So for a first revision, it’s a grand slam out of the park hit. Granted, it’s just a big ipod touch or iphone or whatever, but for someone who never used either of those, and wanted something with a useful form factor, this is a BIG hit.
Review by Daniel G. Lebryk for Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
Rating:
From the first announcement of this device, I was prepared to dislike the iPad, on paper it has way too many flaws. With one in hand and actually using the device, I can honestly say it is an excellent, gorgeous, piece of hardware. The biggest flaw, it weighs a ton. The weight doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but after I held this device in both hands while laying down, my arms got sore. It’s a small thing, but you should be aware that it is heavy.
Set up was super simple. Connect the unit to your computer, run iTunes, follow the wizard. About 5 minutes later the iPad is set up and activated. The wizard does call it an iPhone for some strange reason. If you have an iPhone already, the set up is a bit easier. It will inherit most of your settings.
Once activated, you have to unplug the unit and then go through the settings application to set up your wireless network and a variety of other settings. All pretty obvious, top to bottom, essentially all the same as the iPhone.
Do note that the charger is a 10W charger - much larger and different from the iPhone’s 5W charger. So you’ll have to use that charger. There is a big negative, you’ll have to cart around that charger, most USB ports will not charge this device. My beast of a PC has plently of power on all the USB ports, and it will not charge my iPad. External battery packs will work with no trouble charging, or extending the use.
Battery life - I ran video, downloaded a ton of apps, and played with this thing for a solid 2 hours - 10% of the battery life was used. I would guess that reported battery life is right accurate.
Typing is easier than on an iPhone, but still not keyboard easy. There’s a big problem with how to hold the device and type at the same time. I was a master at Blackberry typing with my thumbs. I can’t seem to get it with the iPad. The other problem, the device has a rounded back, so if you place it on a table and try to type, the thing rocks back and forth annoyingly. I don’t think I will spend a lot of time typing long emails on this device.
Apps that are built for or converted to the iPad format are simply gorgeous. They are full of detail and easy to read. Old iPhone apps that have not been upgraded are all blocky and not so great (useable but not great). You have the option to click the app back to native size if the jaggies bother you.
Safari works really well on this device. The browser is a real live browser that displays WebPages beautifully. Bookmarks snap up in an instant. Pages load at almost lightning speed, actually faster than on my desktop computer (quad core 3GHz, gigabit wired connection). There is almost no need to have multiple pages open, since load times are so fast and the favorites menu is so easy to access. There is just no comparison to the iPhone’s horrible display of WebPages.
Email takes on a whole new look. Embedded pictures display beautifully. There is a pop up ribbon to select email from your inbox. Navigation is just a pleasure. Account switching is a little different from the iPhone, but still very intuitive. Apple seems to have figured out how to make the email experience more intuitive and remove the unnecessary from view.
Video is stunning. Netflix over high speed WiFi (my connection is 22Mbps) delivers full screen, highly detailed, smooth video with good sound. Any video created for the iPhone plays, but they are significantly pixilated or blocky, basically you’ve blown up a video designed for a three inch screen to three times that size. Those videos are viewable, but I will be reconverting my source video to the larger size.
Some of the free apps I’ve tried. ABC is simple and stunning for watching video, but lacks a lot of programs. Craigslist adds the ability to view pictures in the preview of a listing, something not available on any other computer - very handy feature. USA Today has done an awful job, the interface is horribly confusing and pretty well useless. Weatherbug is incredible, simple and to the point, but with a ton of forecast information (including webcams for different weatherbug stations). NASA is silly, an enlarged version of their iPhone app. Pandora works perfectly as expected.
The iPod / music side plays like I expected. Nothing really new there. The oddity though, iPod / music is on the home base menu, but video is a separate application. Everyone would expect that Apple got the music player right.
I’ve had an iPhone 3G for almost two years and have disliked almost every minute of use. I got it for work email and it sort of delivers on that promise. The iPad is what the iPhone should have been all along - fast, simple to use, and a gorgeous screen. I also own a netbook. The iPad is a much better device.
I love this device. Is it a revolution in computing? Only time will tell. For the moment, this is the best video, audio, email, web browsing device I’ve ever seen.
Go try it at a store. I think you will fall in love.
April 11 Update - Kindle versus iPad - I own them both. The Kindle is the better e-reader by a long long margin for avid readers. e-Ink is easy on the eyes, it looks just like a book. Where ever you can read a book, you can read a Kindle. The Kindle is light weight, about on par with a real book, maybe a bit lighter. And the plastic has a really fine satin feel. After about ten minutes reading on a Kindle, I don’t think of the device anymore. The iPad - pages look gorgeous. Winnie the Pooh is absolutely stunning, with the color images, the perfect page layout, sharp beautiful type, fun page turning animation, and a kind of 3D look that mimics a book. But, it weighs a lot more than a book, more like a big old heavy text book. The hand feel - aluminum and glass - not as wonderful as the Kindle. I keep thinking, this is such a cool device that I don’t lose myself in the reading.
Buying books with the Kindle is a super snap, under a minute and I’ve got my book. Buying them with the iPad? Sorry I’ll never buy a book through iTunes, just like I’ve never bought a song at iTunes. Amazon has the review world covered and they know how to sell books.
But, and here’s the big but, the majority of the public is going to love the iPad reader software. They will marvel at the color pages and love the book buying experience, just like they love buying music through iTunes. It will be a success. The avid reader will stick with paper or a Kindle, or a Sony reader, or a Nook. There just is no substitute for e-Ink. And, yes my eyes hurt reading the iPad screen; and no you can’t read a book easily in the sun (especially not the beach).
And if you think I’m silly saying the device is heavy - there’s three pretty savvy tech people that agree, Patrick Norton (a big strong guy) and Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla (an intense WOW gamer, so she has strong hands), and Molly Wood of CNet. Molly has returned her iPad because it is too heavy among other reasons.
Review by Glenn R. Howes for Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
Rating:
I’ve had an iPad since the first day they were available. It’s taken it’s place in the household as the preferred way to browse the web, watch bedtime videos with the kids, and play games. Just yesterday, my four year old son sat around the device with his friend playing Plants vs. Zombies HD and it was as easy, natural and comfortable as if they were playing tic tac toe instead of an elaborate tower defense game. It would not have been possible for two four year olds to share a game like that with the mechanics of mousing in the way on a desktop computer or on the cramped screen of an iPhone.
[Update: iPad Camera Connection Kit: I received my iPad Camera Connection Kit recently and that works well, quickly and slickly. It comes as two parts: an SD reader module and a USB port module. The idea being that you can either take the SD card out of your camera or you can connect the camera directly depending on the module. Pop it together and photos and movies are imported into the Camera Roll, and are viewable if the iPad can handle the format, so JPEG images off the SD card from my Lumix can be displayed, as can RAW images imported over USB from my Nikon D-3000. All RAW formats are not viewable, but they should be transferable. I was not able to use a 3rd party SD reader with the USB port as it "used too much power." The USB connector also allows a 3rd party audio device, so you can get digital optical stereo (not surround) out of your iPad instead of the normal dock connectors analog line out. Mass storage devices are apparently not supported.]
In my opinion, the iPad delivers an unmatched content delivery capability. The browsing experience alone is worth the price of admission, but it does so many other activities so well and with such beauty and an organic interaction between user and content that just scratches the surface of what can be done.
This is not a general purpose computer. I am not going to write much source code on it or transcode video or those other activities my laptop and desktop computers do so well. And while text entry is markedly better than on an iPhone, I would not look forward to writing anything longer than this review on its keyboard, although with each sentence of experience I achieve that gets less true. No, what this is is a viewing computer without peer.
You have not browsed the web until you do it with the firm swipes of mobile Safari. I know people have fixated on the lack of Flash and Flash advertising, games and video. And maybe for some people that is a big loss. For me, the only loss is the occasional home improvement show on Hulu, and it seems likely there will be an app for that just as there are ones for Netflix, ABC, Youtube, etc, while sites like CBS put some, but not all, content into DRM free HTML 5 video. What you lose in Flash you more then make up for in the amazing speed of browsing and how natural it all seems. (Having said this, the first time I asked my wife to try answering her e-mail on the device, the first message was to a Flash greeting card.)
The speed of the device is amazing for a low power portable device. Maybe it’s the Apple custom A4 processor, or maybe it’s the limitation of having so few processes, or the optimization of the OS for GPU acceleration, but the iPad is liquid fast at nearly everything.
Video playback is fast. Photo browsing is fast. Mail is fast. The calendar is fast. Large games like Plants Versus Zombies HD launch in a fraction of the time they do on an iPhone. You get the idea.
Third party developers have stepped up to the plate and delivered both beauty and added functionality. The Kindle app is smooth and imported all my Kindle account books quickly–it’s good that there will be competition in the iPad eBook market between Apple’s own iBooks store and Amazon’t Kindle. The Weather HD app is stunning as it embroiders the mundane delivery of a weather report. Wolfram Alpha is big and well laid out and more powerful than ever.
As for the hardware, I am really liking this screen. It is bright, colorful and sharp with an amazing viewing angle. It does get a little smudged which is noticeable when watching movies but its oleo-phobic screen cleans with a quick wipe.. Its wide viewing angle is a great improvement on my MacBook’s screen which would be unreadably dark at the angle I’m typing this. Some people think the iPad is surprisingly heavy, while someone else was surprised how light it was (the same person also expressed remorse at having bought a Nook after about 8 seconds of playing with my iPad).
Be careful with charging this. It likely won’t work with your current iPhone car charger. My wife’s car charger started to burn trying to handle the extra amperage this device demands. Best to only use this with either your computer’s USB ports or the charger it came with. And charging time is slow via a computer, from full empty it takes 7 minutes until reboot, and around 40 minutes per 10% charge (so you are looking at over 6 hours for a full charge from fully drained). The wall adapter is about twice as fast. Regardless, be prepared to make over night charging part of your daily routine, although you will get several days of moderate use between charges given the amazing 10+ hours of activity you get from a full charge. A decade of laptop use has not prepared me for how long you can use this to do everything. It seemingly doesn’t matter what you are doing, you still get 10 hours. Or more.
It goes without saying that you do not want to charge this device from your laptop’s battery like you might do to your iPhone on a lengthy plane trip.
As for the decision to buy the 64 GB model, I think it comes down to perceived usage. I plan to fill it with quality feature length movies for when my wife travels to China. At about 1.5GB per movie (720×480 h.264)–or more if you have 720p content–16GB seemed a little tight while still loading multiple gigabytes of photos and music. 32 GB would probably be sufficient, and it’s going to seem insane in a couple years spending so much for 32 GB of flash memory.
If you get a chance to play with one, try to find a comfy chair where you can put your feet up and make a platform for the device. This will negate the problem of holding its heft and allow you to build up your full speed typing skills. Realize there are all sorts of tricks you will learn and that after an hour you will be a master. Lock the iPad into landscape mode using the hardware toggle switch. I find I never have a need to use portrait mode unless a piece of software makes use of a separate portrait mode. Explore. There are so many little delightful touches to discover like the lock screen photo frame mode, the dictionary in the book reader, tapping on the status bar to go to the top of a web page, etc.
This is a moving target. Every time Apple releases a new version of the OS or a 3rd party developer gets a bright idea, the device will get better. For instance, Apple has announced iPhone OS 4 which addresses many major complaints people have and adds features we didn’t know we needed. This fall, you will be able to keep Pandora and Skype running the background while you are playing a game or browsing the web or whatever; this will make these apps vastly more useable. You will be able to organize your apps in folders. Better organize your e-mail. And look forward to smaller developers coming out with more social network games.
If I were to point out one misfeature it is how badly the 2x mode for legacy iPhone apps looks. It just seems as though Apple could have put more effort in making non-bitmap GUI elements look sharp instead of just stretching all the pixels. You would think they could at least have made text and the built in keyboard look better.
I don’t like the Apple branded optional case, so I would try before buying the case. It just gets in the way making it hard to access the external controls, and should only be necessary in a scratch prone environment. I am thinking about going with a Gelaskin protective skin instead.
In summary, I am a big fan of this device for a wide variety of activities be it web browsing, game playing, enjoying media, reading email (less so composing email), and reading books. I highly recommend picking one up if you have the means, although I would wait a few weeks until they are back in stock at the normal retail prices or even until the 3G version comes out.
Review by Julia M. Walker for Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
Rating:
I’ve never bought anything on the first day it was available, but I was off to Venice on the 5th, so I got an iPad on the 3rd. Even though I’m a Mac-only person, I never had an iPod or an iPhone, so I think that many of my problems arise from that and will probably go away in time.
Right now I’m not sure how to answer the great Wizard of Oz question: good witch or bad witch?
GOOD WITCH:
~light, small, and I didn’t have to play the whole “how many books in my purse?” game for the transAtlantic flight
~beautiful screen
~great battery life — I read the new Maisie Dobbs all the way across the pond
~holds a massive number of books and movies, and I’ve got just the 16gb model
~gets you into many interesting conversations
BAD WITCH
~hard to keep it turned off when not in use and that’s bad for draining the battery
~steep learning curve if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod-touch
~pages on book-mode turn too easily unless you keep a perfect grip on it
~hard to prop up on a table to read while eating
~no substitute for a real book when standing in line, sitting in bright sun, falling asleep …
~no way (yet) to directly up-load pix from camera
~no real photo software
~hard-to-use documents software
~wireless connection not all that enthusiastic compared to my laptop
~sloooooooooooow to charge up, which is a real issue when there’s only one outlet in your hotel room
So am I glad I bought one? Well, sort of. If I weren’t traveling, I might be more grumpy, but the book/movie thing alone is certainly sufficient reason for getting an iPad.
PS/News from the front on 4/15::
~the Netflix thing — which doesn’t work in Europe, so I hadn’t tried it when I wrote the review — is AWESOME. Netflix has really stepped up the available offerings, too.
~there’s a KINDLE app now and you can get books from Amazon that the iBookStore doesn’t have. The special effects aren’t as cool, but it’s still fabulous to be able to get a book in 10 seconds. And this _does_ work in Europe.
PPS 3 weeks in (4/24)
~I’m much happier with this than I was the first week, but that doesn’t mean that it’s entirely perfect.
~Nooooooo, it’s not a lap-top substitute, nor was meant to be, but if it’s gonna offer document software, it would be great if it worked better.
~I very much wish there were a way to batch delete mail messages, rather than having to select each one individually. It takes a significant period of time to clear out a day’s worth of messages.
~A SAVED box would be great, too.
~the worst thing, really, that it DOESN’T have is a camera — so you can’t Skype
~there are lots of apps in the App Store, but it’s hard to sift out the ones just for the iPad. More deceptively, there IS a filter for that, but it still gives you iPhone apps, which don’t look as cool or work quite as well on the Pad.
~I’m very very very glad that there is a Kindle app, because the bookstore is low on new releases, at least in mysteries and thrillers
~I still worry constantly about dropping it and eagerly await the arrival of the Apple case.
~The wireless problems I grumped about are now famous and no fix in sight.
Summary? still glad I have it.
Review by Chris A. Kantack for Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
Rating:
The iPad is my first Apple purchase. Prior to the iPad, I didn’t feel that Apple’s products were worth the money. With the iPad however, not only did Apple make a great product, but they priced it quite competitively. I’ll list below first what I love about the iPad, then where I feel the iPad falls a bit short.
Here’s what I really like about the iPad:
1. Instant on capability to the Internet.
With the iPad you don’t have to wait long for it to boot up. When the iPad is completely off, it takes
about 15 seconds to start the device. There is also a “standby off” which uses virtually no power and
allows “instant on” capability.
2. Superb web browsing experience.
The iPad comes with Safari, an excellent web browser. I’m especially impressed with the way I can zoom
in on a page at any size. (Text size is completely variably-sized, allowing you to fit web pages and text
perfectly with the screen.) Pages render very quickly (faster than on my many PCs) with no problems.
True, there is no support for Flash but I’ve found that to be a very minimal “hardship” as the iPad has
other free apps (like YouTube) that compensates for lack of Flash.
4. Bright, easily readable and navigable screen
Though not perfect: (I wish it were not glossy), the iPad screen is excellent. It’s 9.7″ size seems
just right and the multi-touch interface works flawlessly. The way I can intuitively scroll down on
a page makes web browsing and other document reading a real pleasure. Font support is not extensive but
what fonts are available render beautifully. The iPad can be read easily indoors or outdoors provided
you are not in direct sunlight.
5. Decent speaker sound and wonderful headphone sound.
The iPad can generate reasonably loud (if not high quality) sound from its built-in speakers. Of course
it sounds wonderfully if using headphones and/or you choose to feed its audio into a home stereo system.
In addition to the built-in iPod music player application, there are several “streaming radio” apps
available that allow you to use your iPad as an “internet radio”.
6. Huge library of new and existing applications.
There are already thousands of applications written specifically for the iPad. The iPad also does a
decent job of playing 95% of existing iTouch/iPhone applications. With over 150,000 programs available,
there are applications already available for just about anything you can think of many of which are free.
My application list includes, streaming internet radio, video players, card games, and news/weather
sites. I’ve also downloaded the iBooks application which is an excellent book reading program. Many
free books are available as well as a good selection of current titles.
Another great built-in app is “Maps”. “Maps” is incredible, not only in its ease-of-use but in its ability
to show your current location. True, the WiFi only iPad has no GPS but via WiFi signals the iPad can
often compute your approximate location.
7. Great battery life!
I get 10 hours+ per charge with my iPad. Far better than the max 3 hours I got from my Acer laptop (when
it was new). Even if you use it to play movies constantly or listen to non-stop internet radio, you’ll
get around 10 hours or more use per battery charge.
There are some ways the iPad could have been made better. Here are the not-so-good aspects about the iPad:
1. Glossy screen has its drawbacks.
My #1 concern before buying the iPad was, “Will I be able to put up with the glossy screen?”. Indeed, now
that I have had my iPad for 3+ weeks, my #1 complaint is the glossy screen. Under certain lighting
conditions (outside in the shade or watching dark movie scenes indoors or out), the reflections on the
iPad’s glass screen become a real annoyance. A matte like finish on the glass (like what you would find
on most high quality computer monitor screens) would be a huge plus.
2. Awkward to hold without a case.
When I bought my iPad, I also picked up Apple’s $40 iPad case. Glad I did as, without the case,
the iPad is not very comfortable to hold and can easily slip out of one’s hands. With the case, the
experience is entirely different. Apple’s rubberized case makes the iPad comfortable and very easy
to hold onto. It also provides the iPad with excellent protection and allows you to prop up your iPad
when at a table. If you buy an iPad, buy it with a case like Apple’s that allows you to use the unit
without having to remove it from its case. The $40 Apple case seems pricey but I wouldn’t take my iPad
anywhere without it.
3. Not a stellar “WiFi performer”.
I’ve had no difficulty using my iPad around the house or at work. But compared to my Acer laptop, the
iPad’s overall WiFi performance is weaker than I’d like it to be. The number of hotspots it can detect
at any given location is only a small fraction of what my laptop can detect. Also, occasionally I’ll go to
a restaurant (say McDonald’s) that has free WiFi and for some odd reason I cannot get my iPad to connect
even with a strong signal present. Overall though, I’ve found the iPad to have a very reliable (if not
very sensitive) WiFI capability.
4. On-screen keyboard a bit disappointing.
Though I feel there is plenty of room for it, the on-screen keyboard does not have the number keys on the
same display as the alphabet. One has to constantly toggle back and forth between keyboards when entering
alphanumeric data. I hope Apple fixes this in a future software update.
5. Kind of a heavy unit.
1.5 pounds may not seem like much. But prolonged use (several hours at a time) of the iPad can cause one
to have sore wrist/hands just from holding the unit. The longer I’ve had my iPad the less it’s weight has
bothered me. Perhaps one day, with newer screen technology, Apple can move away from using so much glass
and lower the weight of this unit to under 1 pound.
I’ve had my iPad for 3 weeks and have been using it extensively for web surfing, TV viewing, PDF reading, music listening, and game playing. The performance of this device is amazing. Almost every operation and function responds instantly to your command. This truly is a versatile device that I’ll be using for years to come.
I’ve been waiting many years for an affordable tablet PC that could do what the iPad does. My wait is over.