Apple iPad 2
Tablet two-point-oh
Review What can I say? Yes, the iPad 2 is better than the iPad one. Yes, it's superior to the current crop of competitors. Apple has ticked the empty boxes on the features list that, left unchecked, would have left its tablet in the lee of this year's other new models.
There, review done, move on to the next one...
Apple's iPad 2: user friendly
Except to reduce the comparison to a consideration of the specifications - particularly in comparison not only to what the iPad left out, but what rivals have pledged to put in - is to miss the point.
Apple is first and foremost about user experience, and it's on that basis that the iPad and its successors have to be judged and, since it defined the template that all the others, from the Samsung Galaxy Tab to the Motorola Xoom, have followed, so must they.
Getting the iPad 2 in your hands shows that while it may be a small step forward on paper, in your hands it's a leap ahead.
Two factors are central to this: the dual-core processor Apple calls the A5, and the new casing design. And, as painful as it is for a technology buff to admit it, it's not the chippery that makes the biggest difference.
Form-factor is all
Adding that second core improves the iPad's fluidity, but you have to look for it to notice. The A5 is clocked at the same 1GHz that the original iPad's A4 ran at, but that extra core gives it the ability to smooth the stutters occasionally experienced with the original.
Next page: Smooth with a capital 'Smooth'
COMMENTS
Cue "but...but...but!" speech from fandroids
...in 3..2...1....
No I don't have a tablet. Watching the two fanboi camps slinging mud at each other is amusement enough, and it's free!
Great Product
I agree with an earlier poster unless you have used one it is difficult to say what will I use it for. I love technology and took a punt and bought an ipad late last year and for me it has been a game changer. I have worked in IT as a Unix sys admin for 20 years now and at long last I am actually in the paperless office, the ipad comes to meetings with me, i display presentations, docs etc on it and write notes, both typing and with one of the pens you can buy in an app called noteshelf. I really didn't expect this to happen, but I have sold my old sony laptop which was a great piece of kit but to be honest was never truly mobile, it had all the connections I thought I would need, sd card. usb etc but never actually used and all my true mobile needs are met by the device and access to dropbox and other online storage
Would like to try an android device but lets all be honest with one another there isnt one out there worth buying yet (and I meet yet I am sure they will come)
@jim
And I'll get flamed for trying to answer the question. It's use cant really be explained, you just have to live with one for a while to really get it.
Just look at all the comments, people who don't have them hate them, people who do love them, it's all there between the lines.
the 3.5mm jack
Yes, the semi-exposed jack does look odd.
But the alternative you suggest (sinking it further in) would constrain the different types of jack that could plug in - the jack on my Sennheisers has a 1/4-inch adaptor, and the plastic boot at the back of the 3.5mm jack goes flush with that. Do Apple want a 1/4-inch cut-out in their shiny bevel?
Seems Good
Despite what many will probably say, I think this is a nice bit of kit. I've used the original iPad and it is very nice. For most people browsing, emails and looking at pictures is all they'll use it for, so it fits the bill nicely. So do others, but not as well as this :)
If I had the cash I'd buy one.
