Apple iPad review

It’s been rumored about for years. It was speculated that it carried various names. The idea was even tried by the company many years ago and it failed. However,  known for revolutionizing the music and mobile phone industry, Apple set it sight on another market, aiming to achieve similar success. On January 27th, they revealed their latest creation, the Apple iPad. Initial reaction was very split, you either hated it or you couldn’t wait to get one. Many criticized the thing for it’s lack of an SD card slot, a USB port, a camera, and the obvious miss of leaving a camera off. Of course this wouldn’t be an Apple product if they gave us everything we ask for on a first gen device.

Fast forward a few months and the iPad has finally been released to the public and on the first day of launch, Apple managed to squeeze out 300,000 units. Wether the launch number can be viewed as a success or not, selling 300,000 units of anything is quite impressive, especially on the first day alone. Here at Tech Kritik, we got a 64GB model and have been testing this baby out day and night.

The Hardware

As with any product produced by Apple, the design is absolutely beautiful. It is clean, minimalistic, and feels great when held. On the front, the device is consumed by a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768, capacitive, multitouch display. Around the screen is a glossy black bezel, which we’ve found to be very helpful in preventing accidental touches on the screen. Remember, the bezel was very criticized and almost universally hated at the initial unveiling; however, we are glad Apple included it.  Present on the front is Apple’s signature home button and it stops there for any physical buttons.

On the back, the iPad is enclosed with a matte aluminum casing featuring the Apple logo. You’ll find the power/ sleep button and the headphone jack/ mic sitting on top of the device, while a screen position lock and the volume rocker on the upper right hand side of the device. On the bottom, Apple’s 30-pin dock connector along with a single speaker is present. If you are familiar with the iPhone or iPod touch, Apple has you feeling right at home.

Having a front made entirely from glass and an aluminum back means you have to take extra care of your iPad. Although the device is sturdy and is well built, it does feel fragile in some ways. You would hate yourself for dropping this device, which would make perfect sense to pick up a case for it.

Using the device was very comfortable.  It doesn’t feel bulky in the hand, but you do notice the weight of the device, 1.5lbs, after sometime. This bring us to Apple’s commercial. They show how the device can easily be laid on the lap and used normally and as far as we’re concerned, the move definitely works and feels normal.

Internals

Inside the device is what powers Apple’s “magical” device. For it’s processor, the iPad features an inhouse designed custom 1GHz Apple A4 chip. The advantages of using this chip are absolutely present, with incredible battery life and super fast, smooth scrolling and speed of the device.The product currently comes as a WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n only device and by the end of the month, Apple will ship a 3G model that will add UMTS/ HSDPA data along with an AGPS chip. Internals for both versions will come in capacities of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB and include Bluetooth 2.1, a digital compass, an accelerometer, microphone, and an ambient light sensor.

Battery Life

In the iPad, Apple has a 25-watt-hour battery, which according to them should be enough for 10 hours of use. During our tests, this has been up and down. During extreme use, with brightness and sound turned up to the max, the iPad lasted through 9 hours and 49 minutes of battery life. The test was very heavy with the playback of video, music, and whatever power intensive apps we could find. In the general use test, we found the iPad’s battery to be a delight. Through two days of testing, the battery lasted 11 hours and 17 minutes the first time and 10 hours and 37 minutes the second. Overall, the iPad has been packed with an excellent battery inside that should be plenty to last you the entire day, wether you listen to music, watch videos, check email, or browse the net.

Display

Being one of the most improtant components of the iPad, the screen must deliver and that is exactly what it does. The 9.7-inch multitouch display is LED-backlit and packs IPS technology, while boasting a resolution of 1024 x 768. With that said, the screen is gorgeous. The colors are vibrant and the blacks are true. With the IPS technology, you can view the display at virtually any angle.

Many wonder if reading on the iPad causes eye strain. However, after reading various books and news articles on the device, we can’t say we’ve noticed any more strain on the eyes than reading an actual book or newspaper. We don’t know if we’ll feel this way after months of usage, but so far we don’t see any problems in the future.

Remember, this screen is a multitouch, capacitive screen and the input on the iPad is far superior to any product out there. Similar to the iPhone, multitouch is done perfectly. The responsiveness of the screen has really blown us away. Capacitive screens aren’t new and we’ve messed around with various devices that use them from HTC, Samsung, etc. However, we’ve always noticed interaction with the iPhone or iPod touch was always the most responsive and the iPad only improves on that front.

Software

When the iPhone was released, it caught everyone off guard with it’s gorgeous OS and UI. Since then, Apple has tuned it’s software, while everyone is still playing catch up. The iPad’s OS is the same as the iPhone’s OS, but packs a few more elements that make sense for the bigger screen. For example, Apple has introduced pop-overs, split screens, and nearly a full-sized virtual keyboard. All of these add to the experience of using the device and are a welcomed addition to the OS.

One of the main selling points of the iPad is its media capabilities and this is by far the of the best media consumption devices. Safari is truly fast and renders perfectly. iTunes is just what you would expect it to be, offering nearly all the features you’d find in the desktop version. Mail, Contacts, and Calendar are similar to the iPhone in terms of functionality with a redesign taking advantage of the bigger screen. The Photos and YouTube apps on the iPad have been overhauled and are very enjoyable to use. The keyboard has also been redesigned and we found it very easy to type on in both landscape and portrait modes.

In the app store, there are over 3,000 apps developed specifically for the iPad. As Apple notes all iPhone apps will run on the device without a problem at their native resolution or a scaled up version to fit the entire screen. In our test, with the exception of a some games and apps, running iPhone apps on the iPad was a horrible experience. Overall, the iPhone apps ran just as they would at the native resolution, but when scaled to fit the iPad, they become pixelated and somewhat unusable. Just as was the case for the iPhone, the true power of third party apps will shine through in a few months and we can’t wait for what people come up with.

Issues

So far, you’ve read nothing but the good about the iPad, but it really has some problems with it. We’ll start off by complaining about the lack of a camera. Apple, you’ve created a gorgeous device, why would you leave something as simple as a camera off the unit? In the second-gen, Apple really needs to add not only one, but two cameras on the iPad. One on the back and one on the front for video conferencing, assuming the software is updated to enable such a feature. Next, the iPad is missing an SD card reader. In this current gen iPad, you can buy an add-on, but who really wanta to carry an SD card reader to plugin into the iPad? The card reader should have been in there since day one and we hope to see it in the next gen. One of the things I personally would like added is a dedicated back button (Apple would never do this). On the iPhone, it’s not a hassle to hit the on-screen back button. However, on the iPad, reaching up top everytime you want to go back is kind of annoying.

On the software side, Apple needs to address the issue of multitasking. This device is much more powerful than a phone and closer to a laptop, which means we should at least have the privilege of running Pandora or AIM in the background while browsing on Safari. There have been lots of talk that multitasking is coming in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 and if that’s true, then this clears any issue we have with multitasking. Flash is another frustration. Not too much of deal breaker for us, but if Apple is going to say this is the best browsing experience, then it should include Flash.

Overall

Overall, the iPad is a welcomed product in the tablet market. The beautifully design device has an excellent screen, great battery life, and arguably the best OS for such a device. With all products, there are pros and cons and with the iPad, there aren’t enough cons to keep us away from snatching one up. It won’t replace your notebook, but as time goes on and Apple updates and refines the the iPad, this might be the case. Right now, the iPad has been referred to as just a big iPod touch; however, we don’t see a problem with that. The potential of the iPad has yet to be unlocked and the future and success of this product will be special for us and important for Apple.