With the first major overhaul due in November, we thought it was high time that we put the iPad through its paces. Here is the JOE review.
By Leo Stiles
The iPad has been out in Ireland for the last two months and has been given praise and scorn in equal measure, with some loving it dearly and others writing it off as on oversized iPod.
With the first major update hitting the tablet in November and with its competitors readying rival hardware, we thought it was high time that we took the iPad and put it through its paces. Welcome to the JOE iPad review.
The Hardware
iPhone 4 antennae issues aside, the one thing you can rely on Apple to deliver is superlative hardware design and sure enough, the iPad is a sexy piece of tech. Minimalism is the keyword here, because with the exception of the home button, a volume rocker and a very handy screen orientation lock switch, the iPad has no distractions to take away your attention from its key asset: the 9.7 inch screen.
Viewing web pages on the iPad is a real pleasure, with the screen reproducing every website with a high degree of fidelity. Colours are rich and vibrant and photography in particular is stunning, with no oversaturation present; something that can be an issue on some high definition displays.
The touch functionality of the screen works just as well on the iPad as it does on the iPhone and makes navigating menus a doddle. Web page navigation is also great and tapping and swiping your way through your favourite sites makes surfing a more immersive and enjoyable experience.
The speakers built into the iPad are surprisingly good and while they won’t be troubling your neighbours, they have a nice punchy sound, along with decent bass and are miles away from the tinny sound of some mobile devices. The headphone jack is also solid and the sound quality is much like your standard iPod and could be improved by a quality pair of headphones.
Lastly, the battery life should be mentioned as the average usage we got out of the iPad was around 8 hours per charge which is especially welcome and is far in excess of even the most power efficient laptop. Apple claim that the iPad should deliver 10 hours per charge but we were using the tablet pretty heavily and this included watching movies, so it’s hard to complain.
Software
The same operating system that drives all of Apple’s mobile devices is at the heart of the iPad, meaning that if you have used an iPod Touch or iPhone, you will have no trouble getting stuck in and should be proficient with the tablet in minutes. Apple newcomers will not be too far behind as they discover an interface that is the very definition of user friendly.
This similarity has made way for some criticisms that the iPad is nothing more than an oversized iPod but after a few days using the iPad we can safely say that this is not the case. The biggest argument against this is also the iPad’s defining feature; its screen, which allows for more complex methods of navigation as well as making iPad-specific apps perform far better than their phone-based counterparts
For example, the mail app, which is great in the iPhone for just checking in on your messages, has been tweaked here to become a fully-fledged email application, with the inbox accessed independently from the mail displayed, while mails can be composed with ease thanks to the large virtual keyboard .
That virtual keyboard, as impressive as it is, still takes some getting used to and one or two quirks such as the tapping of a button to bring up numbers can really impact on your speed. We doubt there is a better implementation of a virtual keyboard but it still can’t measure up to a physical one. Luckily Apple have realised this too and have built-in support for Bluetooth keyboards which should make typing far less of a chore.
Safari
The standard issue web browser makes another appearance here and we would be lying if we weren’t a little disappointed because it’s the same stripped down version that comes with the iPhone. The bare bones approach to the web browser on the iPhone is understandable given the size of the screen but on the iPad it just feels underpowered, with no extra functionality from its Mac-based cousin, such as extensions, RSS feeds and tabs making an appearance.
This wouldn’t be too bad, but once again Apple has stubbornly refused to implement Adobe’s Flash player into the browser, something that results in those now horribly familiar gaps in web pages where video should be. This is a real deficiency as far as we are concerned and Steve Jobs can bang on about HTML5 video embeds all he likes but the fact of the matter is that for now, the web remains dominated by Flash video. The decision not to implement Flash in a device that’s main function is the viewing of web pages is ignoring what users really want in a very arrogant way and is a huge chink in the iPad’s armour. When HTML5 takes over, we’re sure that it will be great but for now all we see is web pages with holes in them.
These issues are bitter pills to swallow especially as in every other regard, surfing the web on the iPad is excellent and it can be hard to go back to regular laptops after you have been tabbing your way around the internet on the iPad. On more than one occasion since getting our hands dirty with the device, we caught ourselves tapping the screens of our PC’s looking for that touch screen magic.
Video
Watching movies on the iPad is to see the tablet in its best light and after seeing a HD movie on the tablet we have no desire to ever watch one on a laptop again. As far as content goes, Apple offer standard and high definition film rentals and with the help of the excellent VLC Player app, just about any video can be played back on the iPad, giving you a huge amount of choice.
E-Books
This is another area in which the iPad excels, with Apple’s own iBooks app and Amazon’s Kindle application both delivering robust experiences that are easy on the eye and mark the iPad as a serious contender in the world of e-book readers. Magazines are now making their way onto the iPad via dedicated apps and are a mixed bag but Wired magazine is an outstanding example of what is possible, with each full issue augmented by interactive photographs and videos that play in the pages.
Apps
Just like the iPhone, the iPad is nothing without its apps and while the tablet can take advantage of the thousands of iPhone apps that are already available; in a lot of cases you might not really want to. Why? Well the reason is that the apps will run in an iPhone sized window on the iPad and if you choose to run them full screen, the apps become a pixelated mess, as we found out when we fired up the Facebook app. This is quite off-putting but is thankfully being addressed by developers who are updating a lot of apps to run on both devises without this particular problem. These types of apps can be identified in the App Store though a + symbol on their App Store listing.
iPad apps are a different story and range from mere iPhone ports to iPad-specific apps that really show off the power of the machine, with the screen providing options and functionality that you just can’t get from the iPhone or iPod. App prices range from acceptable to absurd and this is one area that the iPad app store could do with a little more consistency. It’s true that the average iPad owner is going to have more disposable income than the average iPod Touch user but this doesn’t excuse price disparity such as that on the Angry Birds game which costs €0.79 for the iPod and €3.99 for the iPad version, which only offers a resolution boost for the extra cash.
Overall app quality is fantastic and you can find our recommendations for the best free apps here and the best paid apps here.
The Future
Just like all of the iOS devices, the iPad is evolving through software updates and in November, the tablet will be upgraded to iOS version 4.2. This update will iron out a lot of the kinks that are holding the tablet back for now and having used these upcoming features on the iPhone for the past few months, we can safely say that they will make the iPad a better machine. The best of the improvements will be:
- Multitasking – finally making the navigation between apps seamless and allowing services to run in the background.
- Unified Email Inbox -this will feed all mail from each of your accounts into one inbox and allowing for email to be grouped by contact or topic will save you from jumping in and out of each account to access your email.
- Air Play – the ability to stream your iPad content such as photos, videos and music to your Mac/PC or Apple’s new Apple TV. This feature should also be able to stream Keynote presentations for the business user.
- Air Printing – This feature will allow the iPad to use any printer connected to the same network.
- Folders – essential for grouping together your apps and cleaning up the crazy amount of app pages you will no doubt have
The update will also bring the Game Centre and Ping social network features to the iPad as well as a host of minor improvements and bug fixes.
If this update was not on the horizon we would be going a little harder on Apple and our review of the iPad but because we have already gotten a taste of these features (bar Air Play and Air Print) we can forgive many of the iPad’s original shortcomings.
The Verdict
The screen, the interface, the apps and the impressive battery life all make for a dazzling piece of technology. Unfortunately,, there is no way we can give the tablet a pass for its inability to be independent from another computer and the lack of Flash. This dependence on syncing limits the usefulness of the devise and along with the lack of a USB port, inability to save documents and PDF’s locally and Apple’s steadfast refusal to implement Flash in the web browser, makes the iPad a great piece of tech that could so easily have been perfect. There are workarounds for most of these issues but there is no escaping the feeling that we shouldn’t have to resort to these sorts of measures.
Leaving aside these disappointments aside, we have to say that the iPad is the best attempt at a tablet computer that any company has ever produced with its power and portability ensuring its rivals really do have their work cut out for them if they are to match it, let alone beat it.
Overall, the iPad is an excellent first attempt at a tablet computer from Apple and one that will delight users far more than it will frustrate and while it’s not the laptop replacement you hoped it would be, it’s impossible to dislike.
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