Editor's Note: This product has been removed from viewing as part of this site because it has been replaced by the Apple iPad 2. You can still read our original review below, but TopTenREVIEWS is no longer updating this product's information.
Apple has always tried to amaze people with “magical and revolutionary” devices that are “insanely great”. Magical is just intuitive programming but they have changed (“revolutionized”) product categories before. The iPhone and iPod touch are great examples. According to Steve Jobs the Apple iPad is another chapter in their magical revolutionary book. The Apple iPad is our TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award for its internet browsing, email, videos, music and eBooks. There was also a big emphasis on apps for productivity, games and others that are related to software for computers.
The question is, does the Apple iPad do all those things better? Well, let’s find out. There are advantages to the iPad as well as areas that are still lacking. We’ve carefully researched all the available information out there, and have tested the iPad for ourselves, and we’ve got a pretty good idea about the answers to that question and more. If the features that are missing on the iPad are a deal breaker for you then checkout the other tablets we've reviewed.
The Apple iPad is quite the controversial topic. Most iPad owners seem to enjoy it with little complaint, although recently there have been a few that we will address. Prior to the release, most of the complaining was done by “Apple haters” and they continue even now after the release.
As for us, we have no bias one way or the other. The Apple iPad isn’t really a better or worse version of anything; it’s really its own category. Although it isn’t anything like the older less successful “tablets”, most people refer to it as a tablet. Also, “tablets” will most likely be going in this direction anyway, so that’s what we’ll call it. The alternative would be something like a Multimedia-eBook-internet browser-email-gaming device, but calling it that would be ridiculous.
The operating system is the iPhone OS, which makes the interface very familiar to iPhone users. For those unfamiliar, there are icons for all the individual apps on the device. As you download more apps you get more and more pages through which you can flip, using a sweep gesture with your finger on the iPad’s face. Opening an app is easy with this gesture-based interface. Just touch to load an app, touch a dialog box to bring up the virtual keyboard and enter text, basically you touch everything to make it work – pretty easy. The simplicity of it allows for a fairly short learning curve, which is nice for those who don’t own an iPod touch or iPhone. Once iPhone OS 4 comes out, you’ll be able to organize your apps into folders, but for now you’ll just have to flick through them all. The release of iPhone OS 4 will bring a few other things that the iPad really needs, the most anticipated being the inclusion of multitasking.
Many people are disappointed with the iPad because it doesn’t run a full OS but those that have used tablets with full operating systems know that they are slow and unresponsive. The iPhone OS is designed for touch capability and is super condensed to allow for the small energy efficient processors in tablets to still run quickly. Full operating systems are meant for full sized computers. The iPhone OS may not be the best answer for tablets but it’s one that works well.
The life of the battery claimed by Apple is quite impressive -- up to 10 hours, though many users have reported more life, even with fairly strenuous use. With the 3G model that will be reduced by only an hour or so. The bad part about the battery is that it is not removable. If the battery is faulty, Apple has you covered, but if it slowly dies after your warranty is up, you’ll have to shell out another 100 bucks for a refurbished iPad replacement. Custom work on your Apple iPad will most likely be lost, but as long as you sync your iPad frequently in iTunes, your data will be safe.
Like the iPhone and iPod touch, the Apple iPad comes equipped with the popular accelerometer. That allows you to hold the iPad any way you want, and the screen adjusts automatically. So, when upright, it gives you a portrait view, and if you turn it sideways, it’ll rotate and give you a landscape view. Gaming apps use the accelerometer more precisely for smooth driving games, astronomy apps and other fun stuff. The accelerometer would have been a problem for people wanting to use the Apple iPad while lying on their side but thanks to the screen rotation lock switch that we mentioned you can lock it up and enjoy while lying.
The wireless connectivity comes in two packages. The current iPad has built-in 802.11n for all your wireless needs. Included in that setup is Bluetooth 2.1. Bluetooth allows you to connect wirelessly to accessories like the available Apple wireless keyboard and others. The 3G package is the second, and has yet to be released. It is the same as the current model, with added 3G capability. It’ll cost 130 dollars more than the current iPad for each capacity (16GB, 32GB and 64GB). You will obviously need a data plan and that is available through AT&T for 250MB ($14.99 a month) or unlimited ($29.99 a month). Unlike iPhone through AT&T, the iPad data plans are month to month, requiring no long term contract.
Before we move on, we want to inform everyone that some people have had issues with the Apple iPad overheating, particularly while using it in direct sunlight. This isn’t uncommon for compact tablets that lack appropriate cooling. If you experience this problem, you may be limited to indoors and air conditioning. For people that only plan on using it at home or at the office this shouldn’t be an issue. For those hoping to read a book at the park on a warm sunny day, you may not be so lucky. It has not been confirmed to be a problem for everyone across the board, but if it does, hopefully Apple will be quick to get that fixed.
The other issue is with the Wi-Fi and this has been acknowledged by Apple. Many people have had issues connecting to their Wi-Fi and/or are losing connection quality. Those same people run the rest of their Wi-Fi devices just fine, including other Apple products. Apple claims it to be an issue with people’s wireless routers and have posted a work-around process for those with that issue. It has yet to be a confirmed solution.
It’s easy on the eyes, but nothing special. A bowed aluminum back piece with the Apple logo houses the hardware. At the bottom of the bezel framing the screen is a home button to bring you to your overview of the apps. On the top edge there is the on/off button that is mostly used for sleep/wake. The top edge also has the microphone and 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack which may not be the best place for it. While sitting in a dock it could potentially hang in your way. If that’s an issue for you, your only solution is to have a long enough cord to comfortably drape it out of your way because Apple probably won’t ever change that. The right edge is home for the screen rotation lock (more on that later) and the volume control. The bottom edge has a speaker and the classic Apple 30 pin dock connector port.
Apple went with their A4 chip which was an excellent power choice. The A4 chip allows the Apple iPad to be fast and responsive. We didn’t run into any slow loading of apps or touch response, which was impressive. This is one big issue with the competing tablets on the market so far, and Apple has kicked this issue through the uprights for the win, if you will.
The final piece of the internal puzzle is connectivity. The 30 pin connector is your source for docking and charging. It’s also the port for all the extra accessories available. The Apple iPad is lacking a few ports we’d like to see, such as a USB port, but Apple has its reasons for not adding them. Two come to mind. By limiting what is loaded on to the Apple iPad they also limit viruses and other undesirable things that could potentially mess up the workings of the iPad. The flip side to that is that the “proprietary” 30 pin ports and the “proprietary” iTunes means money for Apple, almost exclusively. But for the most part, people who own Apple’s products like the iPhone, iPad, etc, are happy with the way it is. Those that aren’t happy will either jailbreak the products, or not use them at all.
For your viewing pleasure Apple gave us a glossy 9.7 inch LED-backlit multi-touch glass screen framed by a black bezel. The picture quality of the LED display is especially vivid and detailed. The only time we ran into lower quality was when we stretched non-iPad-native iPhone apps, but there is no way around that because they’re meant for a smaller display. The glossy screen provides a nice display but collects fingerprints horribly. You’ll want to get a dedicated cloth for cleaning those off but make sure you get one soft enough to not leave scratches. It is a scratch resistant screen but so are most cell phones and we have yet to see one that is scratch proof.
The apps are what really set the Apple iPad apart from other tablets. The iPhone already had thousands and thousands of apps available, so why not take advantage? Nearly all of those apps are compatible with the iPad. This is great for people that already have purchased tons of apps for their iPhone or iPod touch because you can sync your iPad to iTunes and load them without any headache whatsoever. You can use those apps in the normal 3.5 inch display version or zoom in and fill the screen with the integrated “2X” option. The problem with zooming is that the picture quality goes down since the app hasn’t been optimized for the iPad screen.
Apple has made several iPad-specific apps. Their big focus was on the three iWork productivity apps which are Keynote, Pages and Numbers. For Mac users those names will be familiar, but for Windows users they are the equivalent of PowerPoint, Word and Excel. Documents from both the iMac and Windows versions can be imported to the iPad but not always the other way around. They are great looking apps and work nicely for most of your basic customizing. We will point out here that they are apps and not fully fledged software programs, so they aren’t as extensive as what you have on your laptop or PC. Are they still functional? Absolutely. Also, the touch screen aspect brings some fun to Keynote and Numbers. For long word processing in Pages you may want the optional keyboard accessory unless you are comfortable tapping it out on the virtual keyboard (hint: landscape view helps with that).
Aside from Apple’s own apps, many other developers are releasing iPad specific apps all the time to take advantage of the larger screen. With creative minds like Marvel, EA Games and more developers jumping on board every day, you can expect lots of fun and useful apps soon enough. Despite the rivalry, Amazon’s Kindle group has even developed an app for the iPad to give eBook readers access to their Kindle-specific library. For those that are especially attached to certain iPhone apps, we wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the favorites get the iPad make over for further enjoyment.
There are some overall disadvantages too. The limited display space (no buying a bigger monitor for this), the touch screen, in some cases, doesn’t fit as well as a mouse would, the processor heating issues, limited video capability, and storage space. All of these could be major problems, or Apple may choose to address them as time goes on, we’ll have to see on that one. The lack of a webcam means no video chat at home or video conferencing at work. Apple also decided to stay away from Adobe’s Flash player, effectively limiting what sites you can open and what content can be viewed on the internet. They are trying to implement in their own HTML5 player but until the rest of the world jumps on board you will have limited internet content of that type.
So, incomplete internet browsing, limited email and limited video. Those are three of the things that Steve Jobs specifically said would be better. Maybe he should have gone with unique or different instead. He also mentioned music and eBook reading. Music isn’t necessarily better on the iPad than an iPod but that will vary from one opinion to another. The eBooks situation is also opinion, since there are those that swear by e-ink screens versus backlit screens. Frankly, we think the whole Kindle versus iPad reading application is taken too far. If you don’t mind reading on a backlit screen like your computer monitor or TV then you’ll be fine with the iPad. If it hurts your eyes then maybe try out the kindle or stick with good old fashioned paper.
The Apple iPad is truly an intuitive and enjoyable device. Is it everything that Steve Jobs said it would be? We’d say not quite but to what degree is opinion based. For some people the answer is yes, but for others, no. There are definitely some things that can be improved, which we expect to see in the future.
