It’s hard to remember that there were tablets available for purchase before the marketing maestro, Steve Jobs, came along with his all new iPad. The fact is though that many companies had already experimented with tablets well before the iPad came along but Apple basicly revolutionized and created a market for this sort of device and any other tablet that comes along afterwards will be compared with the phenomenal iPad.

For anyone that has tried the iPad and a competitor product the differences are clear to see. Despite being underpowered compared to most other tablets on the market, the iPad 2 uses the iOS 4 which is Apple’s proprietary OS and has been especially made to work with the iPad hardware and the infamous Apple styling, subtleties and intuitive UI’s give this device a far better user experience than any other tablet. The touch gestures are responsive, the transitions are superbly smooth, there are none of the annoying pauses where you do not know if the tablet registered your touch and everything works so seamlessly that when you try another device it just doesn’t feel right much in the same way that people who move to OSX vow they will never return to Windows.

The iPad 2 comes in two flavors: one with wifi and one with wifi and 3G. The 3G version is a tiny bit deceptive and more of a marketing ploy as it costs $130 more to add a 3G chip which probably costs $10 at the most it nearly forces people to choose just the wifi one. The storage space is pretty decent with the base model starting at 16GB and the top end model includes 64GB, but again the difference in storage can’t justify the big increase in retail price which makes us think that Apple truly wants you to buy the 16GB version and then use their new iCloud service to store all of your files.

As discussed earlier, the hardware and tech specs are a bit underwhelming in comparison to a similarly priced tablet like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The 1 GHz dual core processor and 512 GB RAM is comparable to what you would find on the Kindle Fire which is less than half the price but since the iOS is so good and well optimized you might think the iPad 2 has more than double the processing power of the Fire. There are built-in cameras in the back and front of the iPad 2, but the less said about them the better. Apple have been especially coy about the small print of this camera and for good reason as well, the rear camera is a paltry 0.7 mega pixels and the front camera is a pathetic 0.3 mega pixels - Apple truly held out on the cameras.

The iPad 2 is a true productivity device thanks to the wonderful iOS and large screensize. With in-built office apps you can simply prepare reports, charts, presentations, edit graphics and truly get creative thanks to Apple’s pre-installed apps. If you are attempting to find something to replace your laptop PC then the iPad 2 actually comes close as it allows you to do everything you would typically do on a personal computer.

Having said that, the iPad 2 also makes a superb media consumption device too thanks to its support of a massive array of video files and codecs, giant 9.7inch screen and access to the iTunes App Store where you can stream movies, download music and purchase literally millions of applications that will add use to your tablet. The battery will not disappoint you either with an all day charge of nearly 10 hours even when you are surfing the net.

The only true downside to the iPad 2 is the cost. The indisputable fact that it is an Apple means that you are paying up to 30% more for the Apple logo on the front. A device with the same technical specification would potentially cost 1/2 the amount, while it probably wouldn’t have the same refinement as the iOS. There’s also the lock in that Apple forces on you but this is becoming increasingly common nowadays with Barnes & Noble and Amazon taking a similar approach with their lower cost tablets.

About the author: James Perron loves to write technical articles and book reviews about Arduino.

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