iPad Review: In the iPad vs. Netbooks War, the iPad takes the Edge

by Brad Kevelin

I got an iPad to try it out, knowing I could return it in 14 days with a 10% restocking fee. After using it a few days, I was missing many features from my laptop, so I started comparing it to netbooks that are currently available. After a week with the iPad, here are my thoughts.

Pros

1. True laptop – this device is meant to be held, and go with you anywhere.
2. Vivid display. Color and resolution are excellent.
3. Photos look great. And the slide scrolling is fast and smooth. This is the way I like to look at slide shows. Flickr loves this thing. There are many Flickr apps, but “Photo Frame for Flickr Lite” is a free one that lets you see the most interesting photos in full screen glory. The paid version ($1.99) lets you login and see your own photos and your contacts.
4. Fingerprints not a problem on white backgrounds, better than iPhone 3G. You can have many fingerprints and still read fine, without them being annoying. Black backgrounds are more troublesome.
5. Much roomier than iPhone, for email and browsing and games. This is the main reason I got one, and it delivers. The iPhone feels very cramped for these uses.
6. Fast. Wow, blazing fast. A joy to use. They say most of the netbooks are underpowered for streaming video and HD video. Not the iPad, everything feels fast.
7. Rotation lock. This is a welcome addition over the iPhone. Since you can take this anywhere, you might end up with unusual angles, so with the lock, you can hold it however you want.
8. 1024x768. I was surprised that nearly all the netbooks use a 1024x600 ratio. The short height just feels cramped for browsing and reading and just about everything.
9. Double click to zoom a text column while browsing. Like the iPhone, this makes browsing a pleasure.
10. Feels like matrix, you're in control. Scrolling up and down and side to side with your finger almost makes it feel like it’s an extension of you. It make a mouse and scroll bars feel darn clunky. Like this is the way computers were always meant to be.
11. News apps. The ones designed specifically for the iPad are jaw-droppingly good. The NY Times one (Editor’s Choice) is good, but the USA Today one is even better: you scroll down to read the rest of the article and you scroll right to read the next article. Feels natural, feels good. Downright warm and fuzzy. Even the ads are better… bigger and less intrusive, like magazine ads that you can skim over.
12. Photojournalism. The free Eyewitness app by the Guardian newspaper shows photojournalism at its full-screen best. You can even toggle captions and photography tips from the pros.
13. Browser toolbar. Safari adds a “Bookmarks Bar” that pops up when you click on the URL box, for your favorite/frequent sites. In settings you can choose to have it on all the time.
14. Emailing photos. The iPad sends them in full resolution rather than downsizing them like the iPhone.
15. Camera kit. One of my main uses for my laptop is for offloading and uploading photos while on vacation. The camera kit will let me replace my laptop with the iPad.
16. Handwriting. The bigger screen makes handwriting and drawing easier, for the apps that use it. Adobe Ideas is a free sketch app that has this cool way of snap smoothing your lines and polygons.

Cons

1. Awkward angle – neck pain. After only an hour of using it in a recliner, my neck and upper back were hurting. I suppose this happens with any handheld device. But I found myself wanting a stand with variable angles to get just the right angle, hands-free. There are many book stands that may work, maybe even Kindle stands.
2. Google reader sucks – no keyboard, bad scrolling. This is almost a deal breaker for me. I use Google Reader for about 60% of my browsing. I like to use the keyboard shortcuts (especially M for keep unread) and you can’t use those on the iPad. Even worse is scrolling. Technically you can use two-finger scrolling for frames but it only works sporadically, and not at all on some content. A better option is using Reader in mobile mode (www.google.com/reader/i )with the portrait orientation.
3. Wifi problems. I’m one of those having consistent wifi problems. It always prompts for the wifi password after waking up. The workaround is to use my router in “G only” mode, but that means I can't use my older laptop which doesn’t support the G band. I expect Apple will fix this.
4. Flash video. This is a big hole, mainly for news video. But I hear many sites are scrambling to support HTML5 video, so this problem should get better over time.
5. Glossy screen reflections. This is another big deal for me. If you are in bright light, even indoors with windows, you end up seeing your face over and over again instead of what you’re trying to read or watch. This is less of a problem for browsing with white backgrounds, but a big problem for movie with black backgrounds and letterboxing. I was surprised that about 90% of netbooks and notebooks also have this glossy screen problem.
6. No tabbed browsing. Another big deal for me. I don’t like having to click the multiple window button, the squint and hunt for the page I want. Even worse, the caption under each thumbnail is the base URL, rather than the web site title. So are those Google thumbnails for Google news, Gmail, Reader, Play, shopping, etc? Too confusing. (See photo.) Add tabs already. 
7. Power button on bottom when charging on the top. If you want to use the iPad in portrait mode while it’s charging, it means the cable is on top and the power button is on the bottom, which means it will be constantly going to sleep every time it accidently presses to power button. The dock photos show the cable at the bottom, but that won't work with most stands.
8. Charging is wacky. It won’t charge on most USB ports, the current load is too heavy, and the upper right part of the screen says “Not Charging”. I hear it will trickle charge if it’s turned off but that is probably very slow. You need to use the supplied charger. Mine took about four hours for a full charge.
9. YouTube thumbnails. I found most YouTube links worked, but many videos start playing in a tiny thumbnail window. Who wants to watch that? I suspect it thinks you are on an iPhone size screen. When you click the double arrow to go full screen, the resolution and smoothness are impressive. I expect this to get better as sites get smarter about screen size.
10. Scrolling – no page down.  This is one thing I missed on the iPhone and still seems glaring to me. When I’m reading a long page of text, I want a page down key. Even cursor keys would help.
11. Small links. Like the iPhone, links are often small and you end up fat fingering the wrong link.
12. Home button is hard to see in the dark. Should be a different color, or be backlit.
13. Home screen – no weather, calendar. Again, like the iPhone, a home screen full of icons is not much use to me. I would rather see upcoming appointments and weather and such.
14. Multitasking, app switching. This has been written about by many others. I sure with Apple would add a MRU (most recently used) list, like the Windows Start menu. App folders will help.
15. Browser auto-refresh – annoying with Reader Play. Like the iPhone, when you reopen an existing tab, it auto-refreshes. This means that site like Reader Play, you lose your place and it starts over with a new page one. Wish there was an option to turn that off.
16. Edit/upload photos on vacation. So far, I haven’t seen an easy way to batch upload photos, only one at a time. Maybe an app will support that. Picasa is perfect for this on a notebook.
17. Single home button. Another gripe that carries over from the iPhone. With even more room on be bezel, this thing is begging for more buttons, like Back, Task Manager, Page Down, etc. They could solve many of the software hassles with a few more buttons.

The bottom line. All told, I think the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s just a pleasure to use. For several days, I was careful not to call it my iPad, because I might be returning it. Forget the 14-day return policy, I’m keeping my iPad.