My Little iPad Review

I am typing this post on my new iPad2. I suppose this would be my official review.

Overall, I am amazed. This is simply an incredible piece of technology. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve most likely read multiple reviews by others and have heard all the neat features available on the iPad. Therefore, I will not spend time telling you what it does. I will focus on my experience. I will start with a grade of 100 (because this thing is stinking amazing) and go from there.

First off… the keyboard. I remember reading a review by Andy Ihnatko when the iPad first came out 9 months ago. His words of encouragement were to “trust the keyboard.” Now that I have one, I understand what he means. I am able to type quite fast and the OS is able to correct most of what I do incorrectly. The only real gripe I have is that my lazy right pinkie keeps hitting the return key. But that is more my problem than the keyboard’s. Still, deduct 1 point. 99.

Next, the camera. There are two cameras, one facing forward for FaceTime chats, and one facing out for pictures and video. Using the front facing cam in landscape mode doesn’t really work. To hold the iPad where you can see the chat well, you end up being off to the side pretty badly. Out of frame. In portrait mode, it works quite well. The quality is low, but good enough for video chats.

The back camera is of shockingly poor quality. I’m not sure why they didn’t include the camera chip that was used in the iPhone 4, but it leaves much to be desired. To be fair, I have not tried it in the sunlight yet, so it may be better than I suspect. This is not a major deal for me, as I intend to use this more for work than anything else. I’m not sure when I would use the camera. If I need to shoot something, I’ll pull out my iPhone. But for the poor quality of 2 cameras, I deduct 8 points. 91.

Everything else about the iPad 2 is simply amazing, so I’ll not deduct any more points. That leaves me at a 91 for the final grade.

I also bought the new iPad cover from Apple. It’s pretty cool, to say the least. The only trouble is that it does nothing for the back of the iPad. And if I drop it, well, oops. I may end up ditching the cool cover in favor of an Otterbox at some point.

Not much of a review. If you want to know more about it, there are at least 5 or so other reviews online. EVERY 3 SECONDS.

It really is a better piece of gear than my highly scientific grade of 91 leads you to believe. I would highly recommend it to almost anyone. I mean, this is what I’ve been waiting for since I attempted to write a book on my Newton in 1994.