Apple iPad 2 – Review

No one had the guts to do what Apple did to the tablet market. The launch of the Apple iPad revolutionized the tablet vision and opened doors for other manufacturers to enter the market. The Apple iPad is now old though, as the guys from Cupertino unveiled the second-generation of the famous iPad, dubbed Apple iPad 2. While it seems quite identical to the original iPad when it comes to software, it comes with some great hardware and all the required changes every user was crying for. Finally, the question ‘Should I upgrade to the iPad 2?’ is answered below.

Design

The Apple iPad 2 ostensibly follows Apple’s tradition of minimal, sleek and beautiful designs. It is light and thin, just like Apple wants all their products to be. The iPad 2 is about 15 percent lighter than the original iPad, while it gets thinner by 33 percent at 8.8mm. As my friend Annkur at OnlyGizmos would say, “It is good enough to slice a cake.”  It comes with a 9.7-inch display and 1024 x 768 pixel resolution. The shape, however, remains quite similar to its predecessor.

Packed inside is some nifty hardware but more on that later. As mentioned before, Apple has heard your annoying cry for cameras and the Apple iPad 2 includes a rear camera enabling you to capture decent images and HD video at 720p, while another secondary front facing camera allows you to make video calls using FaceTime or click pictures for Facebook or Twitter. On the back, you have the mesh grill for speakers, the Apple logo, the iPad branding and some other information about your product. The front is exactly the same as the original iPad with the home button below the screen. However this time, it comes in either a black or white bezel – to a smart person it would be very obvious that we reviewed the black one. On the bottom you have the connector, on the top you have the screen lock, the left has the volume rocker and orientation lock (can be configured as mute/un mute), and a tiny slit on the right where you can add the Micro SIM card.

Software

Software-wise, it does not look much different. However, it has much improved performance and a few new nerdgasmic applications. While the new version of iOS which the guys revealed at WWDC 2011 has a bunch of new features, currently it feels just like the old Apple iPad.

The iPad already has quite a lot of applications and now, Apple has introduced some of its famous applications to their tablet devices. We are of course referring to iMovie, Photo Booth, FaceTime (obviously because it now has a camera) and the super entertainer – Garage Band. While iMovie is a great application to do some quick video edits, it gives a good result, but my favorite new application from Apple was Garage Band. The guys have made it extremely simple to use and it lets you some interesting tracks with ease. FaceTime and Photo Booth were the other new applications. The former is quite useful for video calling but it is only limited to iOS devices with a front facing camera and the latter, though interesting, did not appeal me lot because it simply makes everything around me extremely confusing.

The software and the available applications is what makes the iPad 2 (or even the iPad) stand out from the competition, and there is no doubt that it will ever disappoint you.

Camera and Multimedia

The music experience on the iPad is traditionally Apple, although the iPad 2 has a pretty impressive and clear loudspeaker. The earphone/headphone quality is not as different as compared to the iPod Nano we reviewed earlier. Video playback is also not much different from the original iPad.

I was not very impressed with the image quality of the rear camera, it seemed to have a high amount of noise, the video quality of the same was pretty impressive and when you edit these in iMovie, they magically get better. The front-facing camera is quite impressive – video calls using FaceTime seemed flawless and the idea of making the right expression so you get a perfect photo for Facebook is great, although even the iPad 2 can’t help you if you have an ugly face!

Performance

Now this where the iPad 2 really rocks! The new 1GHz dual-core A5 processor bundled with the new (whatever they used) 9 times faster graphics and the 512MB of RAM adds smooth performance to the Apple iPad 2. Switching between tasks is better as the transition is quite effortless, even though you are switching between two applications, games or simply checking your mail while in the middle of a race. It smoothly runs 1080p HD videos.

We briefly experienced the performance difference between the old iPad and the new iPad 2 while playing Asphalt 6 multiplayer over Bluetooth. My friend, who won’t be named, used the iPad to play the game and got a slight delay every time we started the race, regardless of who is hosting the game. Another great example of the performance increase is the real-time (close to) rendering in iMovie and the effortless usability of Garage Band.

Despite the new sleeker design, improved graphics and a dual-core processor, the Apple iPad 2 manages to stay operational for rough 1 day for a heavy user, after a single charge.

Smart Cover and HDMI Adapter

Sadly, we were not lucky enough to make it to the officially live announcement of where Steve Jobs revealed the new iPad 2. I was personally referring to the Engadget’s live stream at that time and for quite some time, I felt that Apple has simply added all the things that were missing on the old Apple iPad. This made me go – ‘Where the f’ is the f’ing innovation?’

Well, I soon got my answer and it was the amazing Smart Cover!

Yes indeed, it is a great new accessory that Apple has introduced for the iPad and we were quite please with it. The Smart Cover can be used to clean your screen, it can be used as a portrait stand, a landscape stand and to protect the back of the iPad 2. However, the Smart Cover is so fringing cool that you just need to get it close to the left side of your iPad 2 and it magically (scientifically, by the use of magnets) clings on to it and you can then use it to cover your screen or do all the other things mentioned above. Moreover, when you cover the entire screen it magically (again scientifically, by the use of magnets) puts the device is sleep mode.

Another accessory which Apple introduced for the Apple iPad 2 was the HDMI adapter which can help you mirror your iPad 2 display to a larger screen and at the same time charge the tablet. It was quite entertaining to play few iPad games on the larger screen; however you would require a long HDMI cable to enjoy it to the fullest.

Conclusion

So, should you buy an Apple iPad 2? Well, sure go ahead, it is now officially available in India at quite affordable pricing and it’s a great tablet device which, I still believe is yet to find a true competitor. But if your question is “should I upgrade to the new Apple iPad 2?”, then it is kind of a yes and no. While the tablet has some great additions, you can still do the basic things on the old iPad, though not with the same performance. We would recommend you to upgrade to the Apple iPad 2 if you have the money and can produce the same amount of money once the iPad 3, or the latest generation is revealed. To be honest that is the Apple tablet I am most excited about right now.