Apple iPad Review Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

The Apple iPad is an attempt to launch a new class of devices, more than a smartphone but less than a laptop. For some it's the product they've been looking for all their lives, for others it's no better than an iPod touch with a glandular problem.

Its strengths are its beautiful 9.7-inch touchscreen, 1.5 pound weight, and extremely long battery life. Its weakness include its weak support for multitasking, lack of Adobe Flash, and no memory card slot.

The iPad is available now starting at $500 and going up to $830, depending on configuration.

Read the full content of this Article: Apple iPad Review

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[heatlesssun]

This type of post seems a little dated. What HASN'T been said of the iPad at this point? Not trying to patronizing I genuinely find it a little strange is all.

[DRTigerlilly]

I honestly don't think the iPad is a new class of device. I think the iPad and all the other so called "tablets" that are popping up are just fulfilling Microsoft's dream of the UMPC.

What sets the iPad apart, is that w/ the exception of lack of Flash, it does it very well. Intuitive, and since we've all been trained on iPhone, even if we don't actually own one, easy to use, the potential of a great ecosystem and a great GUI.

Doing what Apple does best, User experience.

[Ed Hardy]

This type of post seems a little dated. What HASN'T been said of the iPad at this point? Not trying to patronizing I genuinely find it a little strange is all.

The version of the iPad with support for AT&T's 3G network hasn't even been released yet. It's a little early to be saying that this product is old news.

Also, too many of the reviews of this device were hastily written the weekend it came out. I don't believe that a day or two with a product gives the reviewer enough experience with it to be able to write authoritatively. That's why I wrote a "first impressions" review on the day the iPad was released, and now that I have spent a couple of weeks with it I have published my full review based on my in-depth experience.
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[Frank]

@heatlesssun:
I have to agree with Ed, most reviews where written shortly after the release and most of them contained no useful and real informations at all.

@Ed:
I appreciate your effort and thank you for this well written review. It covers almost all the important points. It's a bit short for a full review in my opinion, but at least it only contains important informations. However, you could have gone more in detail and write the whole review in a way so that a reader can easily scan and pick up the important informations but also, for the more interested reader, read a more in-depth review.
I also miss some better photos of the iPad. Like a photo of it from the side. If I hate one thing, then it's a photo like this:
Picture of Apple iPad
People think the iPad is super slim because of such photos, whereas it's in reality much fatter.
PS: How is it typing on the OSK while lying the iPad, with the convex back on a flat surface?

@DRTigerlilly:
I know what you mean but I think that smartphones, like Blackberries, but especially ones like the Nokia N900 or ones running Android, replace UMPCs.
The iPad however, is rather comparable with eReaders. I don't want to compare it with UMPCs, because UMPCs were productivity tools, which the iPad is not. On the one hand it's too large, on the other hand it lacks important functions because of the very restricted iPhone OS.
So UMPCs were designed for business, but because every modern smartphone has more features (phone, GPS, camera, ...) already, UMPCs became redundant.
The iPad is targeted for the normal user, surfing on the couch, watching a movie in the plane, reading newspapers at breakfast, ...
So yes, for me it's a new class of device. A class which will merge with eReaders, netbooks and probably tablet PCs too (MS Courier), however, because Apple and MS decided to stick with capacitive touchscreens it will take a few years until they will merge with tablet PCs, it's also possible that something totally different will happen then.

[Ed Hardy]

I also miss some better photos of the iPad. Like a photo of it from the side. If I hate one thing, then it's a photo like this:
Picture of Apple iPad
People think the iPad is super slim because of such photos, whereas it's in reality much fatter.

Frank, attached to the article is an Image Gallery with 19 photos of the iPad from just about every possible angle:
Apple iPad Review Image Gallery
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[Frank]

Frank, attached to the article is an Image Gallery with 19 photos of the iPad from just about every possible angle:
Apple iPad Review Image Gallery
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Oh
Thank you for the hint.

[heatlesssun]

The version of the iPad with support for AT&T's 3G network hasn't even been released yet. It's a little early to be saying that this product is old news.

Also, too many of the reviews of this device were hastily written the weekend it came out. I don't believe that a day or two with a product gives the reviewer enough experience with it to be able to write authoritatively. That's why I wrote a "first impressions" review on the day the iPad was released, and now that I have spent a couple of weeks with it I have published my full review based on my in-depth experience.
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Great point. The same could be ssid of most things however. But of course this is the iPad, it will get covered more than most things.

[Frank]

Great point. The same could be ssid of most things however. But of course this is the iPad, it will get covered more than most things.

But the iPad is not just another smartphone, another eReader, another laptop, ...

You may not like it, neither do I I think it's an overpriced hyped device, with barely useful features for me.
However, there aren't that many alternatives available yet, none if you want such a simple to use but working device as the iPad for your basic web surfing, mail checking and money spending . So for some people, who never ever used tablets this might still be interesting.
In the future there will be more, better alternatives, but at the moment, the iPad is the start of a whole new area of mobile slates.

Sure, many articles about the iPad are useless and just stupid, however, not this review.

[heatlesssun]

Actually I do like the iPad kind of. But it IS just another device. However this form factor is new to the consumer space at the price range.

What has bothered me about most of the reviews is that almost NONE of the reviewers has ever used a large touchscreen device. It's the blind leading the blind.