Say what you like about the original iPad, you’d have to be deluded not to admit that Apple's equally lauded and derided tablet has changed a market more dramatically than we've seen in a long time. Apple may not be the only company making a good tablet any more, but it was certainly the first and it definitely takes credit for opening up the minds of the general public to the idea that, yes, a tablet just might have a place in their lives.
Think about it, and you realise that's an incredible feat. The iPad was in many ways a revolution, but it was also incredibly lacking in many ways. It lacked not just a front-facing camera for FaceTime, but any camera at all, couldn't handle multitasking and for all that its display offered a great portal to the Internet and a plethora of apps, the iPad was actually a somewhat unwieldy device to sit in bed or on the sofa with. And you definitely couldn't call it cheap.
Think about it, and you realise that's an incredible feat. The iPad was in many ways a revolution, but it was also incredibly lacking in many ways. It lacked not just a front-facing camera for FaceTime, but any camera at all, couldn't handle multitasking and for all that its display offered a great portal to the Internet and a plethora of apps, the iPad was actually a somewhat unwieldy device to sit in bed or on the sofa with. And you definitely couldn't call it cheap.
Despite the shortcomings, the iPad was a runaway success - millions of customers wouldn't be pleased to have you describe them as wrong. Perhaps fortunately for Apple, it's taken the competition close to a year to catch up, after a couple of false starts including, most notably, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Unlike the Tab, in their own ways the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom offer a genuine alternative to the iPad; they have well-designed and well-made chassis, slick operating systems, and are fairly price-competitive.
The problem for these iPad-rivals is that Apple wasn't sitting idle during the year-long head start it had over the competition. And so while the likes of the Xoom and PlayBook have been designed to best the iPad (and looked set to easily do so had they arrived earlier), now Apple has changed the goalposts again by launching it's own take on making an iPad-bester: the iPad 2. In a similar vein to the iPhone 3G, it's not entirely unfair to call the iPad 2 the iPad Apple should have launched in the first place, and it's hardly a break from the tradition of Apple upgrades; thinner, lighter and more powerful? Check, check and check. Nonetheless, like it or not, right or wrong, the iPad 2 is going to become the de facto standard against which all other tablets launched this year are measured, and it's to that standard we'll be holding it - game on, Apple.
The hardware changes are small bit significant. On stage Steve Jobs declared the iPad 2 as 'an all new design' but any fool can see that such a claim is taking liberties with the definition of 'all' and 'new' However, it is fair to say that the changes to the design of the iPad 2 over the iPad make it feel like a more up to date - and better - device. It's just enough of an improvement that owners of a first generation device will be jealously eyeing up second generation iPads when spotted.
Front-on the iPad 2 looks almost identical to its predecessor, but close inspection reveals a front-facing VGA camera above the screen. That the iPad 2 features the same 9.7in, 1,024 x 768 pixel panel as the first iPad will be a disappointment to those expecting a Retina Display in the style of the iPhone 4, but not unexpected. While we're not surprised to see quite such a sharp and high resolution display on the iPad 2, it would've been nice if Apple bumped it a little bit - we know of several people that want to wait a further year or so (before buying any form of iPad or tablet) for such a move to hopefully be made on the iPad 3.
Despite not seeing a boost in resolution, the iPad 2's display is still the best we've seen on a tablet with bright and vivid colours, impressive black levels (making videos look that much better), and of course all important superb viewing angles. Other tablets we've had brief looks at also have great displays but the iPad 2 is leading the pack so far. The resolution is low enough, though, that text on websites looks pretty pixelated at times, making it harder to read than we'd like - our eyes have been spoiled by too many super-sharp displays on all the great smartphones now available.
It's around the back that the changes to the physical form of the iPad 2 make themselves known. For a start, the aluminium now curves around to meet the bezel, losing the flat ridge of the iPad's edge. The overall thickness has also dropped to a mere 8.8mm thick - down from the 13mm of the iPad. Pedants might like to know that the width and height are down from 243mm and 190mm to 240mm and 186mm respectively, as a result of a slight reduction of the amount of aluminium at the edges of the iPad 2, but these differences are much less noticeable - the black bezel and display are still the same size.
Despite not seeing a boost in resolution, the iPad 2's display is still the best we've seen on a tablet with bright and vivid colours, impressive black levels (making videos look that much better), and of course all important superb viewing angles. Other tablets we've had brief looks at also have great displays but the iPad 2 is leading the pack so far. The resolution is low enough, though, that text on websites looks pretty pixelated at times, making it harder to read than we'd like - our eyes have been spoiled by too many super-sharp displays on all the great smartphones now available.
It's around the back that the changes to the physical form of the iPad 2 make themselves known. For a start, the aluminium now curves around to meet the bezel, losing the flat ridge of the iPad's edge. The overall thickness has also dropped to a mere 8.8mm thick - down from the 13mm of the iPad. Pedants might like to know that the width and height are down from 243mm and 190mm to 240mm and 186mm respectively, as a result of a slight reduction of the amount of aluminium at the edges of the iPad 2, but these differences are much less noticeable - the black bezel and display are still the same size.
The curved edges also mean that the dock connector doesn't feel quite as secure on the iPad 2 as on the iPad, and that the volume rocker and lock (or mute) switch is hidden from view when holding the iPad 2 face-on. There's also a large-ish speaker at the rear of the iPad 2, but frankly there might as well not be; the audio is okay for watching the odd YouTube video, but not much more - it is at least a small improvement over the original. More practically, the back of the iPad 2 is completely flat so, unlike the first iPad, when placed on a desk it won't rock about - this makes typing on the screen much easier. The rear holds another camera, this time with a 720p resolution.
Not visible, but perhaps the most important 'upgrade' to the iPad 2 is the loss of 80g of weight on the W-Fi model, and an even more noticeable 130g on the 3G model. It may not sound like much, but the weight saving of around 15 per cent really does make a difference in long-term use of the iPad 2. Even just moving it about or leaning it up against a leg when sitting down is easier, but it’s one-handed operation that really benefits - we found our wrists aching a lot less frequently with the iPad 2 than our first generation iPad. That said, it's still a rather large and heavy device that isn't exactly what we'd call comfortable to hold with one hand. What's more, compared to a laptop, where the screen is held at a comfortable angle 'hands-free', it can sometimes be a bit of a pain to use when you just want to sit back and watch a video or read an article.
Not visible, but perhaps the most important 'upgrade' to the iPad 2 is the loss of 80g of weight on the W-Fi model, and an even more noticeable 130g on the 3G model. It may not sound like much, but the weight saving of around 15 per cent really does make a difference in long-term use of the iPad 2. Even just moving it about or leaning it up against a leg when sitting down is easier, but it’s one-handed operation that really benefits - we found our wrists aching a lot less frequently with the iPad 2 than our first generation iPad. That said, it's still a rather large and heavy device that isn't exactly what we'd call comfortable to hold with one hand. What's more, compared to a laptop, where the screen is held at a comfortable angle 'hands-free', it can sometimes be a bit of a pain to use when you just want to sit back and watch a video or read an article.
The internal hardware of the iPad 2 is likely to have a more lasting impact than the changes to the chassis. Like its recent rivals, the iPad 2 features a dual-core processor, in this case codenamed the A5 and running at 1GHz - this is backed by 512MB of RAM, the same as the iPhone 4.
Despite having less RAM than many of its rivals - most of which boast at tidy gigabyte of memory - the iPad 2 never feels slow - Apple claims that the iPad 2 is "up to 2x faster" than the previous model. Although we can't say we noticed many apps running twice as fast, everything from Safari to GarageBand definitely ran faster on the newer model. This proves more of an advantage in the home than out and about; bearing in mind how many apps are effectively just pretty, stand-alone web pages, over 3G the connection tends to be the limiting factor in how fast apps run.
Despite having less RAM than many of its rivals - most of which boast at tidy gigabyte of memory - the iPad 2 never feels slow - Apple claims that the iPad 2 is "up to 2x faster" than the previous model. Although we can't say we noticed many apps running twice as fast, everything from Safari to GarageBand definitely ran faster on the newer model. This proves more of an advantage in the home than out and about; bearing in mind how many apps are effectively just pretty, stand-alone web pages, over 3G the connection tends to be the limiting factor in how fast apps run.
The graphics in the iPad 2 are also much improved over the previous model. The "9x faster" than the iPad claim may seem bold but it seems to hold water, with the PowerVR SGX 543MP2 chip embedded in the A5 making mincemeat of any game or app currently available. Epic Games' Infinity Blade is far and away the best-looking game on any currently available tablet, and on the iPad 2 it has a massive boost in fidelity over the iPad, offering much improved rendering fidelity in addition to a higher framerate. We've seen less good-looking PS3 and Xbox 360 games.
That said, its prowess only matches that of most of the other dual-core tablets that will soon be available (Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, Optimus Pad, HP TouchPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1) so it's not a technical tour do force. However, the sheer ubiquity of the iOS platform means that iPhones and iPads to tend to lead the way when it comes to the latest games so if that's your priority you may be better of sticking with Apple. The wide range of possible hardware configurations for Android really hurts it here - the Apple iOS ecosystem has its faults, but fragmentation isn't one of them.
Apple has managed to gain these performance improvements, and pack this faster iPad 2 into a smaller space, without impacting on battery life. The original iPad impressed on this front, and the iPad 2 runs with that. It's perfectly possible to get a few days of casual use without having to charge the system, and over 10 hours of continuous use - an improvement over the iPad, which was already the class leader, and more than we're expecting to see from the best of the new comers (though obviously we'll have to confirm this when they do finally arrive).
