IPad Home screen. SCREENSHOT by Andy Phipps
No doubt that by now you have seen multiple reviews of Apple’s iPad, but we at The Current didn’t want to jump the gun. We wanted to highlight as many of the features that students would use on the device in the review- so we gave the iPad a proper test, passed it around the office, did our homework on it and even took it on the road.
The result? While there are pros and cons, we think that the iPad and forthcoming tablet computers from other manufacturers may be the ultimate portable computer for students. Here is why:
The device:
What the iPad looks like is no mystery to anybody at this point. It is a 1.5 pound, 9.5 inch by 7.4 inch tablet, but these measurements say nothing about the experience of holding and using the device. It has a nice weight to it, heavy enough to let you know that it is there, but not too heavy to be a burden. It is comfortable to hold for an extended period of time, and when placed in a portfolio case, carrying around the iPad feels as natural as carrying around a notebook or textbook.
The 9.7 inch screen is brilliant—its colors are bright and crisp and the bezel that surrounds it is not as obtrusive as it would appear. When using the iPad, one’s eyes are drawn to the screen, not the bezel. As a result, when using it, this seems to fade away. Your eyes focus in on what you are paying attention to on the screen. However, fingerprint smudges are a problem, and can be a minor annoyance while reading or watching video on it.
Another feature worth mentioning is the battery. Apple had claimed that the device would have a 10-hour battery life on a single charge and would have nearly a month of standby time. This really is no joke or marketing ploy—the battery life is exactly as advertised. The iPad being reviewed was shipped here from China. When it arrived, the battery showed a 73 percent charge. It was then used for web surfing, watching video, gaming and reading from 3 p.m. until after midnight, and the charge only depleted to 32 percent.
It is all about the Apps:
When the iPad was announced, many bloggers rallied around the criticism that Apple’s tablet computer was nothing more than a large iPod Touch. They were right to a certain degree, but the part of that criticism nobody thought of was this: Apple has sold over 20 million iPod Touches to date because they are freakin’ awesome. What made the iPod touch incredible was the ability to run apps on it—anything from games to e-book readers—but the usability was strangled by the screen size and the processing capability.
With the iPad, Apple has provided a great deal more screen real estate and more processing power. Developers are already taking advantage of it and the result can be seen in any app that is available for it. Everything from video, photos, audio and text is only a tap or finger swipe away. Even standalone applications for internet mainstays, like Wikipedia, Craigslist and YouTube are more pleasurable to use than their website is. You can do anything from take notes, draw and even watch streaming TV shows and movies on the device. And yes, gaming on it is incredible. The graphics are clean and crisp; granted, they don’t beat out a PS3 or Xbox, but the experience of using the accelerometer to drive a car or playing Scrabble with your friends while using your iPhone as a letter tray is truly a unique experience.
Doing actual academic work on the iPad is also a breeze. As a test, I read Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” for an English class on it and then wrote a five page paper about it using its word processor app, Pages. The result was a time saver. Reading books on the iPad is great, the screen is easy on the eyes and even holds up in bright sunlight. As an English student, many texts that I have to read, like the Conrad novella, are in the public domain, so they can be downloaded for free and read—which sure beats shilling out for overpriced anthologies at the bookstore. As for typing on it, the on-screen keyboard is easy to get used to and using it can be done comfortably. The real kicker came when it was time to integrate quotes from the book into the paper. To do so, I merely went to the e-text, selected the passage I wanted to quote with my fingers and copied it into the document. Overall, I would say that this helped a great deal towards letting me write this paper in about half of the time it normally would, and as an added bonus, it did not quite feel as though it was such a chore. This review was also written on an iPad and it was a breeze to write it. Browsing the web, checking e-mail, composing music, reading books and magazines and even checking the weather is a seamless process on the iPad- however, they can be a very singular experience. Although the form factor of the device allows the user the ability to hand it off to a friend, doing just about anything on it tends to suck you in, making the experience of watching a movie or playing a game a very lonely one.
The final verdict:
Although the iPad is great, it is only the harbinger of things to come. Already Dell, HP and other manufacturers are planning to release their own tablet computers to compete with it, which will primarily run Google’s Android operating system. This competition will be healthy for the market and for students, for whom such devices make perfect sense. The reason for this is what the iPad and devices like it are not. They are not a laptop or a netbook, but they are smaller and more versatile. This generally provides for more freedom in use while providing many of the same essential features as a laptop would. Also, aside from not carrying the physical weight of a laptop, they also do not carry the financial weight of one either. The cheapest iPad is $499 and although it is pricy for many students, competitors will price their similar devices to compete with it. Still, the advantage of the iPad lies in its stellar industrial design and healthy app marketplace (over 100,000 apps in iTunes versus about 50,000 available Google Android apps).
Finally, the iPad will continue to remain ahead of the curve in terms of technological advance thanks to Apple’s innovative research and development. I have had the privilege to test out a beta version of Apple’s forthcoming iPhone OS 4 for the past two weeks and I can say that the advancements it will bring to Apple’s mobile platforms, like multitasking, folders and social network integration, will be truly useful on the iPad and make it more of a laptop/netbook replacement than it already is.
