Ok, maybe not just any regular dude, but a dude you know and love; yours truly, Mike Wehner. That’s right, the same guy who tweeted such comments as “iConsidered the 10″ iPad for a bit, but iThink I’m going to stick with my 3.5″ version for the time being.” and “I’m happy with my iPad Nano, AKA iPhone!” ended up with a brand spanking new iPad in his hands within the first 12 hours of release. Am I here to make excuses? No, I’m here to tell you if it was all worth it.
If today, the 4th of April, the iPad is at its full potential — no, it’s not worth it. However, you don’t buy a device like this on the first day of release based solely on its current set of features and abilities. You buy it based on potential, and on that front the iPad is still very much in the race.
In the first 24 hours of owning the device it has made both its promise and its flaws mighty apparent. Let’s get the nit picks out of the way first:
Weight: The iPad weighs about what you would expect a large iPod to weigh. Still, that doesn’t make it the most comfortable thing to hold while trying to steer your Crash Bandicoot kart around the track. It feels solid, and well-made, but that also equates to just a bit heavier than I’d prefer, especially whilst gaming.
New Apps: The iPad-specific apps (which at the moment are largely HD versions of current games and apps) aren’t the most stable chunks of code in the world. They crash, they freeze, and they will require some updates before they perform like they should.
Speakers: The speakers seem to be the same weaklings found in my iPhone 3G S. Sure, on the tiny iPhone they are more than adequate, perhaps even impressive, but stuck on a device that is gunning for the netbook market? I’d like to at least be able to listen to Pandora over the sound of my shower while blasting at full volume. Sadly, that is not the case.
Now on to the good stuff:
Screen: Oh my lord, the screen. It will hit you with the same “Hot-damn that looks good” reaction that you experience the first time you played with the iPhone in person. It’s sharp; it’s sexy; it is eye candy in its purest form.
Customization: I know people who have jail-broken their iPhone just so they could change the black default background to a picture of their choosing. Thankfully Apple has taken it upon themselves to let us have some fun with the background designs this time around.
iPhone Apps: When I first saw Apple’s solution for using iPhone apps on the much larger real estate of the iPad I was less than thrilled. Stretching the image for both regular apps and games didn’t strike me as very elegant, but to my surprise it works extremely well. Being able to play my already-purchased games such as Chinatown Wars and Call of Duty Zombies for free on my new device was very cool, and they look better than I could have ever expected. Sure, you can buy HD versions of these same games, but if you already own the originals there is honestly no need.
Battery Life: When someone trying to sell you something says “10 hours of use,” it is only natural to expect a figure more in the five to six hour range — that was not the case this time around. I unplugged my fully-charged pad this morning at around 8AM. I played with it off and on all day, watched Justin.tv on it for over an hour, and even played roughly two hours of both Chinatown Wars and Angry Birds. Then, I took it to my family’s Easter gathering where my 10 year-old cousin played on SketchBook Pro (which, by the way, is amazing — check out the SideQuesting Otter I drew this morning) for the entire time I was there. I’m now sitting at my apartment, 12 hours later, and I still have over 40% of the battery left. This, for me, is by far the biggest surprise of the iPad.
So, to reiterate, was it worth the $500+, as well as driving an hour to my nearest Apple store to pick up one of these shiny new devices? After 24 hours, no, it hasn’t paid for itself in usability yet. That said, I expect it to reach that mark faster than almost any device I’ve ever early-adopted.
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