iPad 2 - Review
I just got an iPad 2. It looked pretty cool for a number of things, and while I love the Kindle for fiction books, it is pretty awful on PDFs (and also, highlighting, which I do an enormous amount of in some books). A decent browser would also avoid turning my computer on only to check minor things.
My first surprise was when I saw the box - it said iPad only, not iPad 2. Looking up the model number reassured me that in fact this is an iPad 2. I can't help but think that this is a very annoying idea. I hear that the idea is that they never sell older models, so whatever you buy is always the latest...
The box is pretty elegant, and reminds me a lot of the Kindle. The manual is even smaller...
About the device, it feels a bit heavy (I'm used to the Kindle) and the color screen is gorgeous. The only other touch screen device I've used was a Samsung Galaxy S. The touch screen seems similar in quality.
I really miss the return button - looks like it would be useful pretty much all the time. Still, most of the time usability is pretty reasonable.
PDFs in iBooks look great. Of course, the bigger screen really helps. I don't think I can highlight, however (and I'm not sure where my bookmarks go yet).
Reading for any serious amount of time isseriously somewhat (updated: reducing the brightness and getting used to the screen seemed to help a lot) tiring on my eyes (for reader reference, I'm 36). In this aspect it does not even comes close to the Kindle - it feels almost exactly like paper, and I can read for hours without getting tired.
Dropbox works fine for moving PDFs or ePub files, which does beat the Kindle option that requires connecting it to the computer and moving the files manually. It does fail to view files again and again, however.
I have a separate review on reading e-books on the iPad 2 on my Kindle vs iPad 2 Review.
The cameras are awful. The N95 I bought 4 years ago had a much better camera (and had a frontal VGA camera too). Of course, since I don't see the back camera as something I'll use, it is not a big problem.
I really liked the few magazines I looked at - Popular Science, Wired and Autoesportes. All had movies, special ads and relevant links added, and they look great on the iPad 2 screen. Prices for some - such as Popular Science - are very cheap.
The speaker sounds is acceptable. Watching videos on landscape mode, it is a little annoying that the sound comes obviously from the left (there is only one speaker, at the bottom of the unit).
Battery life, so far, is pretty impressive - after 6 days of use, I'm still at over 30%.
I'll update this post over time.
My first surprise was when I saw the box - it said iPad only, not iPad 2. Looking up the model number reassured me that in fact this is an iPad 2. I can't help but think that this is a very annoying idea. I hear that the idea is that they never sell older models, so whatever you buy is always the latest...
The box is pretty elegant, and reminds me a lot of the Kindle. The manual is even smaller...
About the device, it feels a bit heavy (I'm used to the Kindle) and the color screen is gorgeous. The only other touch screen device I've used was a Samsung Galaxy S. The touch screen seems similar in quality.
I really miss the return button - looks like it would be useful pretty much all the time. Still, most of the time usability is pretty reasonable.
PDFs in iBooks look great. Of course, the bigger screen really helps. I don't think I can highlight, however (and I'm not sure where my bookmarks go yet).
Reading for any serious amount of time is
Dropbox works fine for moving PDFs or ePub files, which does beat the Kindle option that requires connecting it to the computer and moving the files manually. It does fail to view files again and again, however.
I have a separate review on reading e-books on the iPad 2 on my Kindle vs iPad 2 Review.
The cameras are awful. The N95 I bought 4 years ago had a much better camera (and had a frontal VGA camera too). Of course, since I don't see the back camera as something I'll use, it is not a big problem.
I really liked the few magazines I looked at - Popular Science, Wired and Autoesportes. All had movies, special ads and relevant links added, and they look great on the iPad 2 screen. Prices for some - such as Popular Science - are very cheap.
The speaker sounds is acceptable. Watching videos on landscape mode, it is a little annoying that the sound comes obviously from the left (there is only one speaker, at the bottom of the unit).
Battery life, so far, is pretty impressive - after 6 days of use, I'm still at over 30%.
I'll update this post over time.
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