It’s no secret that Apple revived the almost-dead tablet market. The iPad changed the whole perception of how manufacturers were developing the tablet and how consumers looked at it. Needless to say, iPad was a huge success and although it came about a year-late in the Indian market, Apple amended it by launching the second iteration within months of the predecessor’s official launch. We used it for a considerable amount of time and this is what we think.
Design:
So how do you differentiate the iPad 2 from the original? Well, design is one department. The iPad 2’s design is more or less similar to the original iPad but takes the cake when it comes to thinness and weight. Compared to the original iPad, the iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner (8.8mm only) and up to 15 percent lighter (~600g). Other differences are the cameras at the back and front and a mesh grill for the speakers at the bottom of the back. Frankly, I was apprehensive about mesh grill being somewhat “anti-Apple” in design but doesn’t look as bad in person as I had expected.
Display:
On the front sports a 9.7-inch IPS-based touchscreen display supporting resolution of 1024×768 pixels. The screen looks amazing with crisp text, vibrant colours and excellent viewing angle. However, the screen could’ve been better had Apple integrated a higher resolution display to go head-to-head with the current breed of Android-based tablets.
Performance:
Another change from the original iPad is the inclusion of a faster processor and RAM. The iPad 2 comes with a dual-core A5 chip clocked at 1GHz frequency and 512MB RAM. More cores and RAM means iPad 2 can do the same task faster and more efficiently compared to the original iPad. Of course, the improvement is not measureable when you do basic tasks like playing music or viewing photos but it is evident when you play a resource-intensive game or an app. The Daily app for instance, that used to lag on the iPad worked flawlessly on the iPad 2. Although the iPad 2’s screen won’t be able to do justice to an HD video, the processor handles a 1080p video quite effortlessly.
iOS and Apps:
As much as hardware is important for any device, software is needed to exploit it and I think no one knows it better than Apple. The iOS experience found in the smaller-sized iPhone and iPod touch is on the iPad as well. And with the new iOS 5 set to be unveiled today at WWDC, things are expected to be better than before.
Apps is another reason why iPad is so popular. In addition to thousands of dedicated iPad apps, an iPad user also has the freedom to run iPhone apps, which makes it open to close to half a million apps. Couple of apps which I liked are the iMovie that allows movie editing right on the iPad and Garageband that allows to play as well as learn different music instruments. While you need some practice to play the musical instruments (that will sooth to everyone’s ears), using the iMovie app is as easy as 123. I managed to edit a 2-minute in under 15 minutes.
Camera:
iPad 2 boasts two cameras – one at the front and another at the back. Now there are few possible reasons why Apple markets them as cameras for FaceTime more than cameras to click pictures. First, you look absurd holding a 10-inch device trying to click an image and second – which is more important – the images are not worth boasting about. Sure, the back camera is capable of recording video in 720p HD but the recorded video shares a similar fate to the image quality. On a positive note though, the cameras are a boon while video chatting on FaceTime. Strangely, the video quality seemed much better on FaceTime then it did on Skype.
Accessories:
There is a wide choice of accessories available for the iPad 2 but we’ll talk specifically about the Smart Cover and Digital AV adapter. Smart Cover was introduced along with the iPad 2 and its uniqueness is the ability to double up as a screen protector and a kickstand. It magnetically aligns with the screen and smartly shuts off the screen when the cover is on and wakes when it is off. Kind of nifty but the cover leaves the back side exposed, which might be a negative for many.
The Digital TV Adapter, on the other hand allows users to mirror the iPad 2 content onto the HDTV. Making it work is really easy as the HDMI cable connects to the cable, which in turn goes into the iPad’s port.
Battery Life:
The iPad 2 despite having some serious power beneath it, manages a good battery life. With Wi-Fi activated all the time and moderate gaming, surfing and watching movies, the iPad 2 gave about 1-1.5 days of runtime on a single charge.
Conclusion:
How does the new iPad 2 rack up against the current competitors? On top of the table, I would say. Although iPad 2 has some shortcomings, it strikes a chord with the consumers when it comes to its easy-to-use interface and variety of apps and games. Another factor is the price, which makes it really competitive. The iPad 2 pricing starts from just under Rs.30,000.
Rating: 
Pros: Faster, Thinner, wide choice of apps and games
Cons: Camera quality
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