Apple iPad Review

As much as we are a fan of Apple technology, devices and services, it is fair to say we don't really get the iPad. The most accurate one-line summary we've seen is "a big iPod Touch that won't fit in your pocket". We are not even going to mention the rubbish name and resulting trending topics on Twitter that arose because of it (sorry!).

First things first, check out that form factor. For an innovative product, it is remarkably old-school. HP have had tablets out like this for years but, very few people bought them. The first question it begs, is how the hell do you hold it and use it? If I'm sitting in bed using a 135g iPhone, my arm will get tired after a while. You hold it up in one hand and drive it with the other. Just how long can the average person hold up an iPad? (It weighs 680g to 730g depending on the model). And then how exactly do you hold a something nearly A4 paper sized in one hand securely? For the record, the iPad is 9.56/242.8mm high × 7.47/189.7mm wide. If you have to hold it like a tray with your left thumb securing it against your hand, that is going to ache very quickly and obscure part of the screen. The iPhone has a very high rate of screen damage due to people dropping them and the iPad is going to be a lot higher. Make sure you have insurance against accidental damage.

In all the hype and discussion there is one feature of the iPad that kept a very low profile and that is the fact that with the iPad, Apple launched its own 1GHz A4 CPU. This A4 processor runs at a 1GHz frequency, which is high by mobile CPU standards. By comparison, Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon powers Google's Nexus One phone. The A4 processor can play back HD video for 10 hours before requiring a full battery charge, which is a pretty impressive feat.

The provided storage memory on the iPad is simply too low for a media playing device. To add insult to injury, the increased capacity models suffer from Apple's outrageous pricing policy on memory capacity. The price differential between the 16Gb model and the 32Gb model is $100! Who pays $100 for 16Gb of memory? In the UK this equates to £100. I can buy a 16Gb SD-card for less than £20 but, Apple refuse to add memory card support to any of their products and why bother, when such a license to print money exists. I can't see this policy changing any time soon. The top-end model comes with 64Gb of memory, not enough in my view but, more than most can afford at Apple's prices.

Media Playback

Even after you have got past the relatively closed Apple eco-system, there is a lot of pain required to get content onto the iPad. The lack of SD-card slot or any mechanism of getting media off of other devices and on to it makes it a poor choice for this function. I'd like to be able to just pull the SD card out of my DSLR cameram and view photos or even the SD card from my Contour HD video camera but it's not possible. Playbackl of content from devices like this involves the tortuous process of re-encoding to an Apple supported format and then synchronisation via iTunes.

Apps like VLC make this slightly less cumbersome but, this app has now been removed from the apps store :-(

The iPad screen is also remarkable for by being so poorly specified. For media playing the 1024 × 768 pixel resolution screen (at 132 pixels per inch) is very low and is the wrong aspect ratio for modern media players. To put this into perspective, the Nexus One phone has a screen resolution of 800 × 480 pixels. At the very least I would want a 16:9 screen capable of playing 720p, which equates to 1280 × 720 pixels.

The iPad screen is 196mm wide by 150mm high in landscape mode. When playing 16:9 content, it is 'letterboxed' to use only 111mm (74% of the screen) in the vertical direction. With a cinema aspect ratio, this falls to 84mm (56% of the screen) being used. In comparison a typical 7" screen provides a usable screen of 152mm wide by 83mm high. It's this waste of screen estate that is a big issue for us.

Web Browser

We can just about excuse the lack of Flash player in my iPhone. Truth be told it can be frustrating when you follow links on Twitter, to videos and web sites that simply can't be rendered. The lack of Flash support is going to be a royal pain on a device like this though. Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of the video on the web. Admittedly this is slowly changing as the web moves to more open standards for video and other content but, we have a long way to go yet.

Photo Frame

The iPad won't even work as a decent (if not slightly expensive) digital photo frame. The dock connector holds the device in portrait mode only, so unless you want to display all your photos in portrait mode, it's not going to meet this purpose very well.

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity and hardware features, the iPad offers yet more disappointment:

Dock connector
3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
Built-in speakers
Microphone
SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

With its built in microphone and speaker, Apple obviously intended this to be used more in the home. The dock connector is a standard Apple one and allows audio to be taken out to an external amplifier and speakers (in stereo only).

Wireless Connectivity

If you've got an iPhone on a 3G voice and data contract, are you seriously going to fork out for another 3G data contract of an iPad? The 3G iPad will be contract free and unlocked but, don't think your iPhone SIM will work in the iPad. Apple have been very clever this and the iPad uses the micro SIM format.

Communications

The iPad can only be used for voice communications if you use a VOIP service. It does have a built-in microphone. No indication as to whether the standard Apple iPhone-style headset+mic will work though, the spec implies this not to be the case though, mentioning a '3.5-mm stereo headphone jack' only. This is a huge drop-off in terms of using the iPad for personal communications.

No camera on the front of the device rules it out as a device for video calling, which is another mistake in our view. Did Apple not learn from the mistakes made with the iPhone and camera/video support?

Book Reader

Apple have put a large focus on eBooks and are launching a new 'iBookstore' store but, unlike many other eBook readers using the ePub file format, iPad users will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. Whilst the screen works well indoors, it is useless in bright daylight and sunlight. The Amazon Kindle is a far better prospect for serious eBook readers.

Can it be used as a shared family device?
Perhaps the biggest let down of this device is the lack of profiles or accounts. I could have just about justified having an iPad in my kitchen, if we could all use it occasionally to do stuff on the Internet, like checking mail. But how can you use it as a shared, family device if all your useful apps and accounts can be accessed by other family members. Would you configure the email app if anyone in your household could use it and only one person in the household could use it to do their email?

Accessories

In order to keep the headline price down, Apple have done the usual trick and made a lot of the required essentials available as expensive accessories. It doesn't even come with a pair of headphones.

The base level dock is included in this list and is pretty much essential if you want to have the device stored in a useful orientation and not flat on a table. The keyboard dock is another one if you want to do any serious typing or text entry.

Summary

The iPad is ergonmically flawed, being too heavy and awkward in shape to hold for any length of time. It's a device that has to be used sitting down and is thus not a mobile device at all. It's more portable than a laptop though.
It's flawed as a book reader, unless you only read books indoors. The screen is too shiny and reflective. An Amazon Kindle eInk screen is just so much better.
After using an iPhone 4, the iPad feels distinctly clunky and low-res. It needs more processing power and a decent resolution screen. Both of these will come when the iPad 2 is released in 2011.
It doesn't have the right screen aspect ratio to be a good media playing device and the inability to get your own content onto it easily rules it out of contention too.

We really wanted to like the iPad. I view my iPhone 4 as an indispensible device now and couldn't imagine life without it. We wanted the iPad to fill a void in our life like the iPhone did but, it is simply flawed in too many areas to fill any kind of niche for us. If we were to buy a tablet, it would most likely be for work use or as a personal media player. A 7" device with a screen closer to 16:9 aspect ratio would be a much better proposition. Our current favourite is the Blackberry Playbook.

Updates

Jan 2011

There are lots of rumours about the iPad 2 starting to circulate on the Internet.