Apple iPad review

'Apple' -- It is a name synonymous with a strong emotional response. Never has a company evoked such a dramatic reaction from the enthusiast userbase - you either love 'em or hate 'em, there is little room for middle ground. I have been an Apple fan since I started my career in the late 80's because they simply revolutionised the design industry. Equally so, I am not an Apple 'purist' - I love building my own PC's and modding things that in all honesty probably didn't need modded in the first place. Apple certainly don't always get it right, when they do however they certainly get this reviewer excited. As KitGuru has offices based in the UK it is not possible to buy an iPad here 'officially' yet … however if you order one from a reputable dealer in America they are willing to ship for a 'little' over the odds (or more than a little if you aren't careful). This is a route that many UK Apple fanatics are taking and I am quite positive that a substantial percentage of the publicly documented 1 million 'first month' sales have been sourced from the UK. A handful of critics have dismissed the product as merely 'an iPod touch on steroids' - a larger chassis with a little more potential. Before it was released, speculation was high as to the actual product name - some thought it would be called "Canvas" and others felt the "Apple Tablet" and "Slate" were possibilities. The iPad (as it became known) was released on January 27th to a rather lukewarm response - after all how much further could Apple push the 'tablet' design when quite a few were already on the market? The iPad is marketed as a sort of middle ground device between the ever popular iPhone and the expensive MacBook laptop range - Apple's emphasis has been on a viable, more attractive alternative to the Kindle reader while taking many positive aspects of a net book into the overall concept ... such as generalised multimedia support. Apple have touted the product as 'revolutionary' and amidst a powerful advertising campaign the sales are backing the claims - every technology lover seemingly needs to have one of these within his arsenal of high tech toys. KitGuru are certainly not the first to review this product, however as the last few months have seen us preparing for the launch of our publication we have certainly had plenty of time to get acquainted with all the strengths and idiosyncrasies of the iPad. As would be expected, the design is totally understated, yet stunningly attractive at the same time - an aspect of all Apple products that looks deceptively easy for other companies to emulate. The main portion of the front is taken up by the capacitive, 9.7 inch 1024x768 multitouch LED-backlit display which is surrounded by a glossy black bezel. I have read that some people say this is 'too wide', but to be fair it is necessary to stop accidental interaction when handled. As with the other Apple mobile devices, there is a simple HOME button while the rear of the device is a beautifully sculpted piece of aluminum. It is a substantial device weighing 1.5 pounds but it still proves comfortable to hold at all angles - granted I recommend you get some kind of carrying device for it, because not only would it mark reasonably easy but sometimes it has almost slipped out of my hands (causing a cold sweat). The internals are impressive for a tablet so the fact that Apple have managed to keep it to around half an inch thickness is certainly an achievement. In operation it is a showcase of how to build a product, because all your focus on is the screen, which is exactly what is needed with a multimedia tablet like this. Extraneous buttons really would ruin the looks and practicality of the device - I hate fumbling on a train to find a specific button within a convoluted row of fifty. It has a few other buttons worth mentioning but they are on the sides of the chassis out of the way. There is a volume rocker switch which is self explanatory and there is also a screen position lock button which forces the device to remain in either display or landscape mode. There is also a power/sleep button and a headphone jack on either side of the top edge and there is the obligatory 30 pin Apple dock connector at the bottom, right next to a speaker system. Anyone who has used an iPod or an iPhone will feel immediately at home, which I am sure was part of the final goal during the iPad initial design phase. Typing on the unit is very comfortable, however only when you use it on your lap - if you are moving while typing then one hand is needed to hold it which can becomes a laborious and slow experience. While this sounds like a rather obvious point to mention, something smaller like an iPhone can be held in both hands while typing so it does take a little bit of user adjustment to get the most out of it. Sadly there is no webcam which is a rather glaring omission in my opinion. It would be hard to have escaped the fact that the iPad is powered by the much lauded custom A4 processor which is a 'system on a chip' - a single Cortex A8 core paired up with a PowerVR SGX GPU. The units are sold in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. Onboard we also have 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, an accelerometer, microphone, digital compass and ambient light sensor. The 3G model is also now shipping in America for around $100-$120 extra than the basic wifi model. For a really detailed look at the insides, check out the ifixit article over here. In operation, the iPad is stonkingly quick and its noticeable if you are used to the iPhone or iPod Touch. The A4 is a blazing mobile processor and it handled everything I could throw at it. If you play an iPhone game, you get a 1x/2x scaling option to fill the screen although the graphics will be pixelated - HD versions of apps and games are already available on the store. While applications run and open very quickly there is no multitasking support which is a bit of a bummer. That said, Apples applications, such as Safari, iPod and Mail all support multitasking. The iPad would be a perfect tool for instant messaging for instance if it didn't kick you out once you try and do anything else at the same time. One of the systems strongest points (along with the excellent screen) is the battery - which is a 25 watt lithium polymer model - this battery, like the newer Macbooks is non removable (unless you have a tool kit handy). More on this later. The display is really beautiful and this is the primary talking point - the 9.7 LED backlit IPS display delivers on every level, from being painstakingly bright at top setting to able to deliver pin point precision on fine text. The colours are exceptionally well displayed and the blacks are very rich and have a depth that only the best panels can deliver. I did notice a little backlighting bleed on mine in a specific area however it really wasn't that noticeable. The capacitive multitouch screen is without a doubt the best in class right now and Apple really have the input technology nailed. Negatively I already mentioned the lack of webcam and I also feel they could have included a USB port and perhaps even an SD card reader to improve the overall connectivity. The speakers are decent considering the size, however good headphones would be recommended for serious long term use. The interface is basically identical to the iPhone or iPod before it which is a mobile, stripped down version of the formidable OSX. Navigation will be immediately recognisable to any semi experienced Apple user with the main menu system being grids of icons which you can press. There is a status bar showing battery life, WiFi status, Bluetooth, time and a dock for quick access to six of your favourite apps. Apple have fine tuned specific aspects of the software interface however and It is worth splitting them into sections to explain: Split Screens: Apple are using the larger screen to break up previously used multiple pages (such as on the iPhone). The mail application for instance allows you to look at the list of your emails while keeping an important message in view. Contextual menus: The iPad interface has been enhanced to allow for contextual specific options. This is a change in direction from the multiple screens we are used to seeing on the iPhone. Tabs (Cover Flow): Safari handles multiple pages and this same methodology is used across the iPad suite to navigate through files and many options. In Safari, as with other applications the content is shown as a grid and in other apps its a scrollable list. Larger Keyboards: With a larger screen obviously comes the benefits of being able to have larger virtual keyboards. The landscape keyboard for instance is extremely usable and while it would never replace a physical keyboard they are getting closer to the experience. For those interested, you are able to hook up a wireless bluetooth Apple keyboard to the iPad - we tried and were successful. This means that for Office use, the iPad is an extremely capable tool for an author or journalist. Pop Overs: These 'modals' are windows which pop and hover above content you are interacting with and is used to brilliant effect in the iPod application for instance to display track listings when you touch upon an album or even getting information from the iTunes store. The Itunes store has a plethora of amazing applications and games already available - and if you have imported one into the UK, fear not, because doing a simple find for "IPAD", or "IPAD HD" on the store search will throw up a massive selection of the applications already filed into the database. I could literally write a whole review on the best apps on the store, but make sure to check out AIR VIDEO - which allows you to stream almost any video content to the iPad from a MAC or PC regardless of the iPads limited codec support (the desktop or laptop machine does 'on the fly' encoding over the network). This certainly isn't a 'mobile' option and is useless for 3G users, but for home entertainment and perhaps sitting outdoors, it opens up a whole new window of multimedia support for home network users. The biggest weakness, which I already touched upon is the lack of multitasking support - there are so many amazing apps on the store for download, however if you want to check email while IM'ing or browsing the net and perhaps update your twitter or facebook page, its going to be a lot of clicking and logging in and out of applications. Power users may be quite frustrated by this simple methodology. Safari is exceptionally well coded on the iPad and the interface seems to be usable on most websites either in landscape or portrait mode - the text is razor sharp and a joy to read. Although the iPad doesn't support flash and more than likely never will (see separate story regarding Steve Jobs on KitGuru regarding this) - sites like youtube work fine as they use a H.264 fallback method. I personally loathe flash content now so I felt it was actually a bonus to be not forced into using some convoluted flash based system. Hopefully HTML5 will be the format of the future (well until some crazy 'over the top' designers try to ruin that as well). iBooks is a beautiful app, and even though its not yet available for users in the UK, there is a method for fooling the system into running it via the US iTunes store (just google it) - and even though we can't actually buy any books here yet with UK credit cards, we sampled some of the free options to get an idea of the experience. It is a great e-reader with enough options to please even the most demanding of critics. Its a clean, neat layout and you are given a button to flip to your library as well as an additional brightness button, font size and face options and a chapter and search drop down. With this book you can long press for copy and paste options and there is a dictionary which appears over your content for reference. Bookmarking is also catered for, which is useful for later backtracking if you wish. Apple have also programmed in a beautiful designed page turning system., which looks very realistic and adds a very appealing visual quality to the overall experience. The email client is capable, if not class leading and when compared to the OSX mail client is sadly lacking in a few areas - for a mobile solution however its more than adequate and I was able to open attached documents to read them, within the program. Threaded messages are not supported which can get messy with a lot of simultaneous conversations. Youtube is a great experience on the iPad and full 720p content is supported (with some restrictions) - the screen really does a great job of delivering high quality images throughout all the ranges. It would be hard to find fault with the quality of the panel to be honest - I tried hard for this review. This will be a critical point for many people and the iPad really does deliver astounding battery life. Quite often we snigger at the battery claims of many manufacturers however the iPad managed to give me over 10 hours use when performing a mixture of tasks, such as gaming, writing, checking email and surfing the net. I was very impressed that the machine didn't run out of power in 6 or so hours and at 5.50 mins it was showing 50% battery life available. This was with the screen at around half brightness, which is perfectly usable - you could easily get away with lower settings reading a book or using it indoors. While I am not an Apple purist I can appreciate their design ethics and their overall attention to detail when creating a product -it is clear that these guys know exactly what a discerning enthusiast wants when they are on the move. The screen is probably the best mobile panel I have seen at the size and the capacitive multitouch features work better than expected. it is true that while the virtual keyboards are bigger and usable - for anything long term, I would take one of the Apple battery power bluetooth keyboards with me - for writing in a hotel room for instance. The iPad is a powerful mobile device, very elegant and with battery life to last a full (long) working day on a single charge. While the software installed is capable, the unit can only reach its full potential after spending some time on the App store and loading up with third party programs. If you want third party office suites, media players, HD games, RSS readers, Social networking tools - they are ALL here. Negatively, the machine lacks true multitasking support and it isn't quite a 'computer replacement' as Apple have sometimes stated. It certainly would handle a quick business trip with minimum baggage, as you can surf, check email, update facebook and twitter pages, and instant message your colleagues. Heck, you can even use iWorks or third party alternatives to keep productive on the move. Its easier, faster, lighter and will assuredly last longer than your net book, and the panel is without question one of the finest on the market. A luxury toy it might be to many, but it could also be that sexy looking device that saves you hassle on luggage next time you fly abroad and need to stay in touch with the world. Presently it is in a very strong position, and the potential is almost limitless with future revisions. KitGuru says: Recommended? yes please, ill have one.

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Apple iPad review

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