As soon as we could, we got hold of an Apple iPad to give people a review into Apple's tablet device of the future! It wasn't easy, many orders got put back due to the massive demand for them, especially in the states where orders were put back as much as a month.
Although many critics were saying there wouldn't be the demand in this country due to the hefty price tag, the public have very much proved them wrong with massive sales here in the UK.
Prices start at £429 for the Wi-Fi 16GB version and work there way up to £599 for the Wi-Fi 64GB flavour. For this review we will be looking at the 32GB Wi-Fi model, for the 3G version you will have to chuch another £100 into the equation (which we haven't done).
First question...... why is the Apple iPad such a hot topic among tech-heads? Well basically it has completely changed the publics perception of the tablet computer. No more are people looking at them as the big clumsy devices that are meant to fill a niche but do so badly. Apple has filled the gaps by providing an easy to use operating system that was designed for a mobile tablet device such as the iPad or iPhone, rather than having to use a computer operating system designed to be powered by a processor that is at least 8 time as powerful. Its easy to use on screen keyboard and fantastic spell-check software makes typing an e-mail or just entering data a breeze.
The iPad does a lot of things better than previous tablets even when you look at hardware. Its portability is a massive pro, it looks like something straight from the future and features a very powerful processor in terms of portable technology. The battery life is also a huge selling point of the Apple iPad as it just goes on for ages with quick charging times.
Although it does just seem to be a really big iPhone it isn't. It sports so much more features and performs better at pretty much everything that tablet computers did before it.
So you want to know about the spec?
Well, the screen resolution is 1024x768 on a 9.7inch screen. This is much bigger than the iPhone which is 480 pixels by 320 on a 3.5inch screen.
All storage is solid state (SSD) which makes loading times a lot faster for the operating system and the software and also helps consume less energy. The iPad comes in 3 flavours when looking at storage, it starts at 16GB, moves on to a medium sized version of 32GB and last but not least a 64GB version to serve even the mightiest of MP3 collections, although when you start talking video you could fill that in a day with today's modern broadband speeds.
Processing power is also a hot topic with the Apple iPad, it contains a 1GHz Apple A4 processor that's based on ARM technology, which has been around for donkeys years and is constantly being updated and brought into the future. It can handle all the audio, 3D processing and other tasks the user throws at it.
When it comes to power and battery life the Apple iPad is a cut above the rest. Everything is all working to the same tune and all controlled via the processor to ensure that it is running at its optimal speed while balancing power usage. The battery, although not accessible and changable by the user is a cutting edge Lithium-Polymer which can outperform many of the traditional tablet computers while the operating system takes advantage of what power it has available and uses it efficiently. For a Wi-Fi iPad you can expect to get 10 hours of use time when you are surfing the web, playing videos or listening to music for example, but expect to get a lot less when your trying to max out the CPU as obviously the device will be less efficient. Compare this to the Apple Macbook and you see that you certainly get a lot more usage per charge if you are only doing less CPU intensive tasks, but worse on more demanding jobs.
So how much does it weigh? Weighing in at a meagre 680g you will barely notice that this device is in a pocket or in a bag. A lot less heavier than laptops but obviously more noticeable than a PDA or large mobile phone. You couldn't slip it into a pocket, you could try but I wouldn't advise it.
A massive shame is that it doesnt come with a built in camera, I'm sure it must have been thought of during design but obviously voted against. This would have really added a lot more functionality to the iPad, even a basic iPhone camera which is good for quick snap would have been suffice. This would have led to Skype video calls and other video programs being more useful and possibly incited software developers to move in other directions. The sound that comes from this device is pretty good even though the speaker seems to be the same as the iPhones, but it seems that Apple have made the best from it with software.
This is my basic review of the Apple iPad, I'm pretty happy with what it does and even though I didn't think I would find much use for it, I HAVE!
This is Alex Booth of chooky.co.uk, have a nice Christmas, hopefully someone who loves you may buy you a iPad if your lucky!
The cheapest price for the phone in this review is --> Apple iPad 3G
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