iPad 2 review roundup
The iPad 2 reviews are in. And guess what? The critics are besotted.
iPad 2 is a home run, at least according to the first round of reviews. Here, two iPad 2 units are shown at an event in San Francisco earlier this month.
Newscom
The iPad 2 – the successor to the fantastically popular iPad tablet computer – hits stores tomorrow, and as is usually the case with the launch of an Apple device, the critics are salivating. In fact, it's pretty much a drool fest out there, so before we dive into the iPad 2 review roundup, you'd better grab an umbrella. Off we go....
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The body: "Apple shaved 0.17 pounds off the Wi-Fi version and 0.26 to 0.27 pounds off the 3G version," writes Jason Snell of PC World. "The iPad 2 is also 0.16 inches narrower, 0.06 inches shorter, and 0.16 inches thinner than the original iPad. A matter of small degrees, to be sure, until you consider the percentage change: The iPad 2 is roughly two-thirds the thickness of the original iPad, and 88 percent of its weight (83 percent when comparing 3G models). Pick up an iPad 2 after handling an original iPad, and you'll notice the difference right away. This is a lighter, thinner device."
The design: "Overall, the device has a much more fluid design," writes MG Siegler of TechCrunch. "Apple notes that the body now consists of two parts instead of the three that made up the iPad 1. This makes it feel even more solid, and even more like a natural object instead of a machine. The tapered edges of the iPad 2 feel better in your hands. And those edges also make the buttons on the side and top more pronounced (and a bit easier to use). Of course, the tapered bottom also makes the dock connector a bit harder to use, but that’s a minor nit."
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The speed: "When we first handled the device, it seemed noticeably faster to us, and even after a week with the tablet, it's still zippier than the previous model by a longshot," notes Engadget's Joshua Topolsky. "The CPU and graphics performance of this tablet felt extremely impressive to us -- the iPad 2 performed excellently no matter what we threw at it, games and graphically taxing apps seemed to have higher frame rates, and even when dealing with CPU intensive programs like GarageBand, it rarely (if ever) seemed to be struggling."
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