Even though tablets have been around for many years, the iPad was the first to bring them down to the consumer level in both price, ease of use, and popularity. The first iPad was a huge success and with the iPad 2 Apple has repeated that success.

Features

• 1GHz dual-core A5 CPU
• 9.7 inch diagonal, Multi-Touch 1024×768 (VGA) resolution display
• Front and Rear facing cameras
• 10 hours of battery life with Wi-Fi enabled

The iPad 2 has several features that differentiate if from the first iPad. First off is that it features a faster 1GHz dual-core processor, front and rear facing cameras, and a slightly smaller, and thinner footprint.

Design

As mentioned above the iPad 2 has a smaller footprint when compared to the first iPad. The iPad 2 weighs 1.33 lbs and the first iPad weighed 1.5 lbs. The iPad 2 has dimensions of 9.5″ x 7.31″ x .34″ and the first iPad was 9.56″ x 7.47″ x 0.5″. While these changes are not huge, they do make a difference, especially if your holding the iPad all day.

The front of the iPad 2 features the screen, the front camera, and the Home button. The screen on the iPad 2 is identical in both size and resolution to the first iPad. I do have to say that I am very impressed with the screen brightness and viewing angles. This is by far the best screen I have ever seen on a tablet. It is super bright, and I didn’t have any trouble viewing it, even from extreme angles. In fact, the screen is so bright that when reading e-books with a white background I had to turn the brightness down to 25% or else it would hurt my eyes.

Front

Screens

However, the screen is far from perfect. Apple claims that the iPad 2 has a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating. However, I am not impressed. I have reviewed a few tablets, and the iPad 2 gets fingerprints just as easily as all the others. I think the fingerprint-resistant coating is just a bunch of marketing fluff and you should not believe it. The glossy screen also has a really nasty glare that makes it hard to use outside. I think the only real way to help reduce the glare and fingerprints is to use a non-glossy screen. Hopefully this will be fixed in the iPad 3.

Fingerprints

The front camera has a resolution of 480 x 640, and 72 dpi. As you can see below the image I got from the front camera is not very high quality.

Front Camera

On the right side of the iPad 2 is the volume up and down button, and a slider. The slider is customizable, by default it mutes the sound, but it can be changed to lock the screen rotation. While the buttons work as advertised I have a problem with the placement. Because of the angle of the buttons they are impossible to click when the iPad is laying flat or leaning against a wall. In order to press the buttons you have to lift up on the iPad so you have more room. This is an unfortunate side effect of the curved edges, and I hope Apple does not make the same mistake in the next version.

Volume

On the top is the on/off button, a small microphone, and the headphone jack. The headphone jack is also on a curved surface, but Apple was smart enough to make the jack fit straight in, this at least lets the tablet lay flat.

Top	Microphone

The back is made of a very slick metal. While this makes it look cool it also makes it hard to get a good grip and I found the iPad often slipping from my fingers if I wasn’t squeezing tightly. I really liked the rubbery back of the Motorola Xoom, there was never any trouble getting a good grip on it. Also the metal is very easy to scratch if you slide it around on a desk. I have a feeling that over time the metal back will look very worn and ugly if the iPad is not kept in a case that covers the back. What’s the point of a cool metal back if you have to keep it covered?

Back

The back also features a speaker at the bottom, and the rear camera at the top. I have to say, at first I was sceptical and thought that the single speaker on the iPad would be too weak, but I am happy to say I was wrong. This single speaker performs better than any other tablet I have tested, even those with two speakers. For example, while my daughter was watching a movie on the kitchen table, I could easily understand all the words from clear across the room, about 15 feet away, and it wasn’t a quiet room either, my other kids were talking and playing with each other. Other tablet makers could certainly learn something about audio from Apple.

Speaker

The rear camera has a paltry 0.92MP, and a resolution of 720 x 960, and 72 dpi. Again, you can see in the image below that the picture is grainy and not very clear.

Back Camera

On the bottom of the iPad is the docking connector. This connector provides for charging, transferring data, outputting video and just about any other connection you could want. One thing that got me confused was charging. The cable that comes with the iPad 2 has a docking connector on one end, and a USB plug on the other. However, you cannot plug this cable into your computer and have it charge, it is only for syncing. To charge the iPad you have to use an AC to USB adapter. Apple provides one, but it is also not very well designed. It is bulky and if you try and plug it into the same outlet as another bulky plug it will not fit. This could easily be fixed if Apple would make the prongs come out on the top, rather than in the middle of the adapter.

Bottom

Plug

The iPad also has a bunch of accessories, some of them are pretty cool, and other are not. For example, I really like the Smart Cover because it provides great protection for the screen, doubles as a iPad stand, and can be used to turn the iPad on and off. Using magnets the iPad will wake up and go to sleep when you open and close the cover. However, it only protects the front of the iPad and leaves the back fully exposed.

Some of the not so cool accessories are all the proprietary cables you have to purchase. For example, if you want to hook the iPad 2 to your TV you need to buy a $39 Digital AV Adapter. Want to connect your camera to the iPad? That will cost $29 for a Camera Connection Kit. Most Android tablets have Apple beat here because they almost always include a mini HDMI, and USB plug built-in. I really think that Apple does their customers a disservice by not building these connectors into the device. iPad customers now have to carry around a bunch of extra cables and connectors everywhere they go instead of just having it built-in.

Setup and Usability

I don’t usually do a setup section in my reviews, but because setting up the iPad 2 was so frustrating I just couldn’t help myself. Normally, Apple products are known for their ease of use, but for me, setting up the iPad 2 was one of the most frustrating things I have done in a long time.

Setting up the iPad 2 is not as easy as I would have liked. I am used to using Android tablets, they don’t require as much effort, and best of all they don’t require me to install any software on my computer. With the iPad it would not even turn on until I had registered it with iTunes. This took about 30 minutes because I had to download and install the software. On the first attempt I accidently downloaded the 32bit software and it would not install (btw 64bit Windows does support 32bit software, it was the iTunes installer that refused to work). So I had to go back to the iTunes website and search for the 64bit software, Apple does not make it easy to find. After some searching I finally found a tiny link at the bottom of the download page. How hard would it be for Apple to make this a bit more visible? maybe even make it a radio button at the top of the screen to choose 32bit or 64bit. Even better, why not skip iTunes and have the registration done on the iPad itself? What if I buy an iPad and I don’t have access to a computer with iTunes for a couple hours? This just seems lame to require a computer before you can even use the tablet.

Activate?

Download 32bit

Download 64bit

After installing iTunes the actual activation process required me to log into an iTunes account and fill in all my private information. Since I didn’t have an iTunes account I had to create one.

After the activation I tried to copy my music onto the device. Again Apple fails to make this an easy process. I first tried dragging mp3 files from Windows Explorer into iTunes and onto the iPad, but this failed. After playing around a bit I discovered that I had to add my music folder to iTunes, but because I have so much music it actually took a long time for iTunes to index the music and go through the album art, and get the music ready to play. After another 40 minutes I was finally able to try and put some songs onto the iPad. I say try because, at first, I was not successful. As you can see from the screen shots below iTunes shows that I have lots of space used up by music, but when I look at the music list it doesn’t show anything. Also the sync button is greyed out, so I assume that means the sync already completed. So I am confused, not very user friendly if you ask me.

Before Update

Music List

While looking for ways to fix the music problem I noticed that their was an update for the iPad. Since I was stuck not knowing how to upload music I decided to go ahead and install the update. After the update it looks like the iPad was nice enough to delete all my content. So now I have the pleasure of starting the whole process again.

After Update

This time I tried checking the box that says “Sync only checked songs and videos”. I also only checked a few songs and clicked the sync button. Finally it synced the songs. However, it still would not let me drag music onto the iPad. Things would be so much easier if I could just drag and drop music into place.

MP3 synced

Adding pictures was also very confusing. I kept looking for a place in iTunes to add my photos, so I could sync only the ones I wanted. Unfortunatly, that place does not exist. Instead you have to go to the iPad section of iTunes, and choose a folder to sync. It then bypasses iTunes and puts the photos directly on the iPad. Why can’t I just drag photos onto the iPad? it would be so much easier. Also what if I only want 1 or 2 photos from each folder and not the entire folder? These are options that are just not available in iTunes.

Sync Photos

So finally after an hour of frustration I am finally able to play music and view pictures. Now it’s time to try syncing movies, I had to cross my fingers and hope that it would not be difficult.

Fortunately, syncing movies was not hard to figure out. Like MP3s I first had to add the movies to iTunes, then sync them to the iPad, but what about playing movies? I actually have to say that I like the way the iPad displays the list of movies. As you may remember in my reivew of the Motorola Xoom, one of my complaints is that the name of the video does not display in the list of videos, and this makes it hard to know which movie you are clicking on. With the iPad the name is displayed and this is really nice. Also when you play a movie you will notice large black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. This is because the resolution of the iPad does not match the resolution of the movie. There isn’t anything you can do about this.

Movie List

Movie Resolution

Now on to buying apps. This is also not immune to setup frustrations. I chose to install the Angry Birds app because it’s free and I didn’t was to start paying money for iPad apps until I decided if I was going to keep it or not. So upon clicking on the app I wanted to purchase it first asked me to log into my Apple account. Umm, I already logged in when I activated the iPad, why is it asking me to log in again? Since their is no way around this I entered my information. At first I could not find a download button, but it didn’t take long for me to see the “free” button on the left side of the screen. After clicking the button it changed to an Install button and I had to click again. Once I clicked that button I was asked to confirm my purchase with a “are you sure” dialog box. After clicking ok, I was presented with another dialog that said the terms have been updated. After clicking ok, I was shown another dialog that actually showed the terms, these last two screens should have been combined. So I agree to the new terms, then I am asked again if I “still want to purchase the app?”, umm, do they think I changed my mind? Finally after clicking for the 6th time the app is finally downloaded. Why did I have to click 6 buttons to purchase one free app? Does that seem right to you? Fortunately, all other purchases after this only required me to click twice, but even that seems more than necessary.

One thing I noticed is that when the app is installed it is automatically added as an icon to one of the main screens. If you try and remove the icon then it also uninstalls the app. On my Android devices I have several utility apps that run automatically and only need to be setup once, so having an icon for them on the main screen is silly. For example, I have an alarm clock app that only needed the alarms to be setup once, then it runs in the backgroud. Why would I want an icon taking up space if I never need to open that program again?

Another feature that is lacking in the app install is that it only downloads one app at a time. If you have lots of apps to download or update you could be waiting a long time. With Android it downloads multiple at the same time. This is much more useful and makes better use of all the bandwidth I have at home and work.

Another thing that bugs me about installing apps is that it kicks you out of the App Store for each app. Because this is a new tablet and it doesn’t have anything on it, I want to install a lot of games and stuff to try them out. Each time I click install on a game it kicks me out of the App store and takes me to the new icon that it just installed. Now I have to flip back to the screen that has the App store icon, click it, and go back into the App store to install another app. After about the 20th time of doing this I am getting really frustrated. Why not leave me in the App store until I choose to leave? Choice is good, it makes me happy.

Also where are all the widgets? I want a weather widget on the main screen to give me a forecast. I want a fancy clock widget that shows me an analog clock for time. I want youtube, twitter, news, email, and facebook widgets showing me the latest content as soon as I turn on the tablet. It is a real pain to have to open each app, one at a time, to see if their is anything new. If the iPad is made for consuming content, it sure makes it hard to get to the content.

While playing around in the software I did find some funny things, For example, the software still calls the volume “ringer”. You can see this by muting and then unmuting the sound. I guess this is what happens when you put a phone OS on a tablet. Also the keyboard has touch-typing bumps on the F and J letters, the only problem is that they are completely useless because you cannot feel them.

Ringer

Keyboard

Last but not least is web browsing. Here is a screenshot of what my website looks like on the iPad 2. What’s up with the top of my webpage? It looks like the iPad 2 is not rendering the image behind my logo correctly. I tried refreshing it several times, but nothing helped.

Website

Performance

In this section of the review I like to run benchmarks, unfortunately there are not a lot of benchmarks for the iPad, so this will be a short section.

I found one test that is both on Android and iPad. The test is called Linpak and it tests the CPU by running different calculations. The score I got on the iPad 2 is an unbelievable 169 Mflops/s. I say unbelievable because Linpack on the Motorola Xoom only got a score of 34.5 Mflops/s. It is difficult to believe that the iPad 2 processor could smoke the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor by so much. The unfortunate thing is that both apps are made by different people so they cannot be trusted to be running the same tests. That’s too bad because I was hoping to have something to compare the two with.

Linpack

Next is the battery test. Like all the other tablets I have reviewed my battery test for the iPad is simple. I turn off WiFi, dim the screen to 50%, and play lots of movies until the battery dies. Apple claims that the iPad 2 will last 10 hours with WiFi turned on, so I should easily get more with WiFi turned off. I started the test at 10:30am and the iPad died at about 7:25pm. That is a really great 8 hours and 55 minutes, but it falls way short of the 10+ hours that Apple advertises.

Warranty and Support

Apple includes the standard 1 year warranty with the iPad. Nothing special, but as long as you take care of the device it will last much longer.

Support comes in many forms. If you are lucky enough to have an Apple store nearby you can take in the iPad and have them fix it one the spot. Otherwise you are left to email, phone, and shipping it back to Apple for repairs.

Conclusion

So what do we take away from this review? The iPad has a lot of positive features (screen brightness, viewing angles, audio quality, fast processor) but it also has a lot of flaws (low quality cameras, battery, software, button angles, slippery back, fingerprints, glare, and iTunes).

So my recommendation is, if you are already hooked into the Apple economy and iTunes then the iPad 2 will fit right in with the rest of your stuff. However, if you have been resisting the temptation to jump in, then you may want to wait a little longer. The Android platform is much more open and flexible, and with a pluthera of Android tablets on the horizon, prices will be dropping.

As for me I will hang onto this tablet for a while so I can compare it against some new Android tablets, but in the end I will sell it because it is not a fit for me.

JusTech'n editors' rating
Features Design Performance Warranty Support Price