Santa Claus brought me an iPad 2 for Christmas a few weeks ago. I must have been really good this past year for him to leave me something so cool (or he left it at the wrong house).
This is the first Apple product that I’ve owned and I have to say that I’m very impressed with it. The delivery of the product is spectacular. There’s a layer of protective film over the screen with a tab on the bottom of it. Here’s what it looks like when you open the box:
Once you remove the actual iPad, you’ll find the power adapter and a small box containing the documentation:
Here’s the small documentation box along with the items that it contains:
I honestly didn’t even know how to turn it on. Luckily the documentation is minimal and super easy to find out where the power button is located. It’s in the top right corner. The iPad 2 is actually a little bit smaller than what I expected. I expected it to be more of a notebook size (8.5×11 inches), but it just the right size. Here are the detailed specs.
I’ve been working with computers professionally since 1994 when I took a job with IBM and I can tell you from experience that you can’t compare the iPad 2 or its hardware specs to a PC. Even though according to the reviews I’ve read, it only has 512Mb of RAM, it has awesome graphics performance and all the power you’ll need. I’ve played Real Racing 2 HD for hours on end without needing to recharge the battery. All of this for less than $500 for the 16GB WiFi model. There’s no way you could buy a portable PC for that amount of money with that kind of performance and battery life.
I haven’t played games much in years since I can find a lot of better things to do with my money than upgrading my computer every six months and spending $50 or more for games. I’ve actually paid as much for a single computer component (Video Card) as the entire iPad 2 costs just to play the latest games. In my opinion, the iPad 2 is the new ultimate gaming device. It’s even better and probably cheaper than the Nintendo 3DS by the time you factor in the cost of games. I bought tons of games over the Holidays on sale for one to two dollars each. Many games (and apps) are free and a lot of them that do cost money are a dollar each without being on sale. The iPad 2 itself reminds me of a Wii controller. I’m not really a fan of racing games except for maybe Mario Kart Wii, but on the iPad 2 you turn the iPad like you would the Wii controller (the iPad is the steering wheel). One of my daughters was sitting with me watching me play the iPad holding her 3DS and said “Daddy, you know you can play my DS any time you want”. I think what she was getting at is that she wanted my iPad. I’ve finally given them a change to play on it some.
I read several reviews and decided to go for the cheaper 16GB model since most of the reviews said it would have plenty of space unless you planned to store music and videos on it. That’s not really true. If you start buying games that are 1 GB+ each, you’ll fill that amount of space up in no time. I’ve started just keeping the games I’m actively playing on it so space is less of an issue.
I don’t see the iPad 2 as being a replacement for my desktop PC or laptop computer, but something that compliments them. I do see it as a replacement for my netbook which is dog slow compared to the iPad 2 and the netbook has 2GB of RAM along with a 120GB SSD hard drive. If I had to define the iPad 2 in a few words, it would be “An Awesome Personal Entertainment Device”.
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