Home > iPad Review – Pros And Cons Of 1St Gen iPads Reviewed
iPad Review – Pros And Cons Of 1St Gen iPads Reviewed
iPad is basically a device that fills the space between iPod touch and laptops. Following is a brief pros and cons of iPad review:
Pros of Apple iPads
Great Starting Price - For a power packed iPad, $ 499 is a decent promotional price to start with. Quite a dealmaker. Everyone expected it to start from $ 599 and above.
Sleek weight and Size - iPad being 1.5 pounds in weight and 0.5 inches is awesome. The sleekness quotient of Apple lineage of products took off with this one. It couldn’t be handier.
iPad Applications - The iPod applications and iTunes store, now on the bigger screen looks even more beautiful. 140,000 apps are already in the offing from the App Store with a dedicated section for apps designed specifically for iPads.
iBooks - Once you have downloaded the application, it’s a breeze to buy iBooks. And they automatically gets arranged on your virtual bookshelf. And in a typical Apple style, you can tap on the desired book to open up for you.
Bigger, Better Photo viewing - What’s more amazing is that you can do everything with photos like in an iPhone touch. Simply tap, pinch, zoom in and out, flip and more. You would love the sharp, crisp screen which is so very apple. The Camera Connection Kit also lets import photos from a SD memory card or a camera. And you can upload your favorite photos to your iPad with iPad photo transfer.
The iWork apps work on Mac too - iWork apps for only $9.99 are superb add ons too. Package deal options could make it more desirable.
Traditional Keyboard accessory - There always have been school of people resenting the virtual keyboard usage. Now Apple has thoughtfully provided a traditional keyboard along with it, in case you are more comfortable using it. This may make it a little less portable but is a big deal for many. And otherwise, the virtual keyboard is as big as the real one as well.
No cellular contract - Yes! no cellular contract is required for the two options for 3G. 250 mb is available for $ 14.99 and for the unlimited data its just $ 29.99.
Cons of 1st Gen iPads
Adobe Flash Player – Flash files do make things slow and limiting. This was understandable with iphones but not with iPads. The blue question mark for no flash players is a frustrating thing to see. No one can have a great Web surfing experience without Flash. Apple needs to sort this out with Adobe in whichever way possible or find an alternative with iPad 2.0 soon.
Multitasking - The first edition of iPad needs to improve its multitasking abilities. iPads have raised our expectations through the roof. With such a powerful processor, apple should have been able to incorporate multitasking on iPads easily. Like for example, you can’t listen to WunderRadio while reading a book unless of course the station is streaming on Safari. We can put up with the battery life getting shorter, but definitely not without multitasking.
HDMI Out – Currently there isn’t any wireless or an HDTV connection to a TV. Apple TV could get easily replaced if there was an HDTV out. It’s a little surprising why they haven’t thought of connecting the two most important appliances. And I am pretty sure it will be added in 2nd generation iPads.
Camera Option - A front facing camera for video iChat would be an amazing feature for iPads, adding more utility. This can make it hugely popular with every generation.
Widescreen Option - You can tap on a movie to see it in either fullscreen or widescreen. It is not as wide as most widescreen formats are but it doesn’t make a big difference watching movies on it either.
AT&T only for 3G - It is great to have no cellular contracts for 3G but the current AT&T’s service has been less than great for iPhone users. This will furthermore clog the network with more devices trying to connect through it. I believe, Verizon could be a more apt alternative for US users.
