Apple's iPad 2 Review: Tom's Goes Down The Tablet Rabbit Hole

[shompa]

For the price of Office, you can get an Ipad+Pages. Microsoft loves to print money with their Office monopoly.

 

[shompa]

The article missed the reason why A5 is faster then Xoom/Android.
If you look at the benchmarks in this article A5 if 3 times faster then Xoom. This is with the same ARM cortex 9 processor.

The A5 is a large chip. Almost 30% of the die area is graphic acceleration. Apple controls the graphic layer in the OS and than therefore accelerate it. Android does not control the graphic layer since every single manufacture can put on it's own GUI.

Not only are acceleration faster, but it also draws less battery since you can offload stuff from the main CPU.

Google should do the same thing and get the same performance increases. Until they do that, they will always be slower even if they have higher clocked CPUs.

Unfortunately people are uneducated and believe that a dual core 1.2ghz is always faster then a dual core 1gzh.

 

[MeanSquare]

I'm still amazed that the iPad sells as well as it does. (I can't attribute it all to Apple fan-boy-ness.) It seems to fit into this niche where it's
1)too big: You'll always find yourself setting it down somewhere because you can't just slip it in your pocket like your smartphone.
2)too small: Even with the increased screen real-estate, you'll find yourself constantly scrolling sideways and up/down. It's better than a smartphone for this, but see #1.
3)too limited: It won't run standard apps so you have to get very limited so-called compatible additional programs. Softmaker has a very nice suite that goes a long way toward mini-MS Office, bit it's beta and Android-only for now. If won't run Flash, so there are all kinds of web-sites, especially the ones with embedded video that just won't work. It doesn't have storage expansion, so you can't augment the relatively small internal memory. (I've got a 32GB micro SD on my smartphone right now.)
All in all, I think we'll see the market disappear as smartphones get even better and laptop/netbooks get even cheaper and longer (battery) lived.

 

[Retaliator]

Good review all in all, I still find tablets pointless....... I was thinkin of getten an ipad a while back, but will probly just endup buying a gaming laptop to take to work, can simply do more with a PC in my opinion.

 

[somelucky]

It is currently a toy for most people who want a computer. However there are many people who want the internet without a computer. Those people are who tablets like the iPad are designed for.

 

[nkarasch]

I bought an iPad 2 with 3g, and then sold it when I realized it was worthless. It is a beautiful piece of hardaware but iOS is way to limiting to really be enjoyable. My frustration with the iPad also pushed me into selling my iPhone for an Android phone. Everyone should boycott iOS until they open it up.

 

[Retaliator]

The "i" in apples tech stands for Incompatible..... Hehe

 

[Guest]

motrola xoom is in its comprasion

 

[Guest]

You know, I'm calling putting a 2 hour (!) maximum time limit on presentations a feature. No one should be talking from a powerpoint for 3 hours.

 

[ifeatu]

I think the iPad is a great "Cloud Device" I use Apps like "Jump" (RDP/VNC Client) to access my machine at home (iMac 27inch i5) on which I am constantly doing batched media jobs that need constant attention. I use final cut pro and other high performance tools over a tool called Splashtop for iPad that allows me to not only use remote desktop but get video and audio over the connection as well...I use "Prompt" (SSH Client) to access and monitor my server infrastructure (I'm a Unix Sys admin by day) and of coarse when im out and about I stream my entire video library at home (2.5 -3 Terrabytes worth) using Orb for the iPad. I don't need a laptop.

 

[brievolz84]

I feel that once the hardware meets up with current technology in laptops, tablets will remain a novelty. If I'm ever going to purchase a tablet, I want to be able do what I do on a laptop or desktop. If that means installing linux, running the latest Adobe app or playing Crysis 2; I want to be able to do this. That is my main gripe but the potential is there. I'm actually shopping around for a cheap Galaxy tab 10.1 so I can watch movies and read books on it.

 

[brievolz84]

I did enjoy this article very much, need more reviews on tablets and the like!!!

 

[Cumulonimbus incus]

[citation][nom]gidgiddonihah[/nom]Oops, sorry for the poor grammer . Posted without rereading...Here is an article that Apple fanboys would be glad to rip up.[/citation]Poor grammar appears to be just one of your linguistic problems.

 

[dauntekong]

Fetch an Asus TF700 with the keyboard dock. Makes a very good netbook. Keyboard dock is compatible with USB/WIFI mouse. Great for gaming too, such as Nova series, Modern Combat, Zombie Trigger, and so on. Sometimes I feel like its a laptop and not a tablet. Asus as done it again...