If you are still deciding whether to buy an iPad, bookmark this page here at the Where to Buy iPad Online website, as we will continue to update this page with any important iPad reviews that we discover.
In reverse order...
iPad Apple GigaOM 1-year review by Darrell Etherington January 27, 2011:
Jan. 27 marks one year since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad at a special event ... At the event, Jobs repeatedly referred to the device as both magical and revolutionary. It seemed hyperbolic at the time, but does it still, after a year of living with the iPad?
For me, the answer is no. The iPad has changed every aspect of my life, from how I do my job to how I communicate with others, and it accomplished all of that in a way that was so natural it left me virtually unaware it was even happening.
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The following summaries posted here on Where to Buy iPad Online were external reviews written about the iPad Apple released on April 1, 2010.
iPad Apple Boing Boing review by Xeni Jardin April 1, 2010:
It strikes you when you first touch an iPad. The form just feels good, not too lightweight or heavy, nor too thin or thick. It's sensual. It's tactile. And that moment is a good way to spot a first-timer, too, as I observed with a few test subjects. The dead giveaway for an iPad n00b is a pause, a few breaths before hitting the "on" switch, just letting it rest against the skin.
Flick the switch and the novelty hits. Just as the iPhone, Palm Pré and Android phones scratched an itch we didn't know we had—somewhere between cellphone and notebook—the iPad hits a completely new pleasure spot. The display is large enough to make the experience of apps and games on smaller screens stale. Typography is crisp, images gem-like, and the speed brisk thanks to Apple's A4 chip and solid state storage. As I browse early release iPad apps, web pages, and flip through the iBook store and books, the thought hits that this is a greater leap into a new user experience than the sum of its parts suggests.
Tapping and swirling my way through iBooks (the store includes free, public domain titles in addition to the $9.99-$12.99 bestsellers), and iPad native apps provided at launch such as the spectacular, game-changing Marvel Comics app (crisp, lucid art, the ability to navigate frame-by-frame, rendering spoilers down the page obsolete), the Epicurious recipe browser, and the news browsing app by Reuters (free app in which video is, again, a seamless delight), the idea hits. This is what we wanted e-books to be all along," Jardin reports. "Rich, nimble, and dense with image and sound and navigability, right there inside the flow of the story. And this is what we wanted the web to feel like all along. We just want it to work, and we don't want to be aware of the delivery method while we're enjoying what's delivered.
Manic, nonstop use revealed a number of things: battery life is better than I anticipated. I got a full day of constant internet-connected use (it did not leave my hands) on one charge. More than 12 hours, with heavy video and gaming, and screen cranked up to full brightness... No, there's no camera, but it doesn't seem like as much of a big deal as when I heard that news back at the January unveiling. iPad is more about experiencing media, and light sharing, than heavy-duty media production.
iPad Apple The Chicago Sun-Times review by Andy Ihnatko April 1, 2010:
Apple's iPad is a computer that many people have been wanting for years: a slim, ten-hour computer that can hold every document, book, movie, CD, email, picture, or other scrap of data they’re ever likely to want to have at hand; with a huge library of apps that will ultimately allow it to fulfill nearly any function; and which nonetheless covers the dull compulsories of computing (Mail, the web, and Microsoft Office-style apps) so well that there will be many situations in which this 1.5-pound slate can handily take the place of a laptop bag filled with hardware and accessories.
In fact, after a week with the iPad, I’m suddenly wondering if any other company is as committed to invention as Apple. Has any other company ever demonstrated a restlessness to stray from the safe and proven, and actually invent things?
It might occur to you that we’ve seen tablets before and that we’ll see many more of them in 2010... Well, I’m here to tell you that in fact, we haven’t seen tablets before. And maybe the iPad is the only true tablet we’ll get in 2010. The hardware we’ve seen in years past, (and what we’re likely to see in [promised] Android devices) are laptop computers with the keyboard section broken off. They’re not fundamentally touch-based computers, they’re the products of old thinking. When Apple looks at a fingertip, they see a warm, living thing that can feel. They don’t see a poor substitute for a mouse.
The iPad user experience is instantly compelling and elegant. It’s not every computer and every function. It’s a computer that’s designed for speed, mobility, and tactile interaction above all other considerations. The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you’re completely focused on the task at hand ... whether it’s reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It’s not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.
iPad Apple USA Today review by Edward C. Baig April 1, 2010:
The first iPad is a winner. It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival for Amazon's Kindle. It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money.
An often-asked question after Jobs unveiled the tablet at the end of January was: What is iPad's purpose for being? I answered that question by surfing the Web, watching the movies Up and Michael Jackson's This Is It, reading the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's True Compass, playing Scrabble and an accelerometer-driven game called RealRacing HD, and boning up on the periodic table of elements
The iPad is not so much about what you can do — browse, do e-mail, play games, read e-books and more — but how you can do it. That's where Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch. All programs arrive directly through Apple's App Store. Apple's tablet is fun, simple, stunning to look at and blazingly fast.
What does a successful iPad launch mean for traditional netbooks? They'll have to adapt or disappear. Apple is taking solid aim at the burgeoning electronic-reader market dominated by the Kindle. Judged solely from a sizzle standpoint: There's no contest... Newspaper and magazine layouts look vastly superior on the iPad compared with Kindle. The iPad is backlit, so you can read in the dark. You have to supply a reading light with Kindle.
iPad Apple The Wall Street Journal review by Walter S. Mossberg April 1, 2010:
For the past week or so, I have been testing a sleek, light, silver-and-black tablet computer called an iPad. After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.
iPad Apple The New York Times review by David Pogue April 1, 2010:
Apple asserts that the iPad runs 10 hours on a charge of its nonremovable battery — but we all know you can’t trust the manufacturer. And sure enough, in my own test, the iPad played movies continuously from 7:30 a.m. to 7:53 p.m. — more than 12 hours. That’s four times as long as a typical laptop or portable DVD player.
The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they’re absolutely right.
And the techies are right about another thing: the iPad is not a laptop. It’s not nearly as good for creating stuff. On the other hand, it’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it — books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience — and a deeply satisfying one.
iPad Apple TheRoot.com review by Omar Wasow April 1, 2010:
Anyone who thinks that the iPad lacks a 'wow factor,' will change his or her tune after playing with dazzling apps like "The Elements," a new kind-of interactive book that presents the periodic table with eye-popping photography and video. The iPad's comfortable size, exceedingly sharp display and fast processor will be a powerful platform for reinventing traditional media like the book and interactive media like the Web in numerous and unimaginable ways. And the 'wow factor' will only increase as innovators develop new apps to take full advantage of the iPad's unique strengths.
Second, saying the iPad is just a big iPod Touch is like saying HD video is just TV with a bigger picture. While such a statement may be technically true, it misses the deeper fact that higher resolution experiences are often radically better than their lower-resolution cousins... As with the iPhone, Apple pulled off a remarkable balancing act in that it has designed the iPad in such a way that in can simultaneously appeal to both newbies and nerds. For low-tech users looking for an affordable entry-level PC, the iPad is a computer without all the distractions... For the tech-savvy with $500 to drop on a gadget, the iPad offers a convenient way to consume and enjoy digital media without being tethered to a computer all day.
Apple's success with the iPad is only good news for us all as it genuinely advances Jobs' vision of building computers 'for the rest of us.' The iPad is a remarkable device today and this is just the beginning.
iPad Apple The Houston Chronicle review by Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus April 1, 2010:
After putting an Apple iPad through its paces for a week, the device isn't as much a laptop replacement as I thought (though it could easily be used as one). Instead, it's an entirely new category of mobile device. For example, now when I want to surf the Web from the couch or back deck, the iPad is the device I choose. Starbucks? Same thing. Think of the iPad as a new arrow in your technology quiver, an arrow that will often be the best tool for a given task.
It feels great in the hand. At 9.56 x 7.47 x 1.5-inches and around 1.5 pounds, it's small and light enough to be held comfortably in one hand (though I prefer to hold it with two). It's easy to use on a couch or sitting in bed and it rests comfortably on your knee or thigh. And unlike many laptops, it doesn't get hot and burn your leg when you use it this way. The 9.7-inch LED-backlit display is stunning - bright, vivid and surprisingly clear even when viewed at an angle. I think this is the first screen I've seen with IPS (in-plane switching) technology, which provides viewing angles up to 178 degrees.
This is the first device to use Apple's custom-designed A4 processor and it rocks. Apps launch faster than on an iPhone; in-app animations run smoothly; Web pages load quickly; and touch-screen gestures respond almost immediately. When you rotate the device, the screen rotates smoothly to the proper orientation. Reading a book on the iPad screen was a pleasant surprise for me. I wouldn't want to read an entire book on my iPhone or MacBook Pro screen, but I wouldn't mind reading one on my iPad.
The on-screen keyboard was eminently usable, even in portrait mode. But it was even better in landscape mode - I could almost touch type... Even the iPad's built-in speaker sounded better than I had expected. Movies, photos, and iBooks are all delightful on the iPad.
Prior to our iPad's arrival [my wife] said she didn't understand why anyone would want or need an iPad. Now she just keeps saying, 'No, you can't have it back.'
iPad Apple Computerworld opinion piece by Mike Elgan March 30, 2010:
I think [the iPad is] the most important cultural phenomenon of this generation. It's bigger than technology.
I'm no fanboy. I've tried to envision some conceivable series of events that might leave the iPad as only moderately successful, but I can't come up with any. All circumstances, facts and events in technology, media and elsewhere seem to point to the same inexorable outcome: The iPad will be huge.
My view is that the iPad is utterly unique... I believe the iPad will become such a cultural phenomenon that it will become a symbol or an icon of the coming decade. Future generations might refer to this decade as the iPad Era.
The following summaries posted here on Where to Buy iPad Online were initial hands-on reviews written about the iPad Apple announced in January, 2010.
iPad Apple Gizmodo initial hands-on preview by Mark Wilson January 27, 2010:
It's substantial but surprisingly light. Easy to grip. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands. And it's fasssstttt.or pinch on a stack of photos to check them out. Same goes for every other application Apple has built for the phone that I had a chance to try, whether it's a book reader or a web browser.
Apple didn't really sell this point, but it's the single biggest benefit of the iPad: speed. It feels at least a generation faster than the iPhone 3GS. Lags and waits are gone, and the OS and apps respond just as quickly as you'd hope. Rotating between portrait and landscape modes, especially, is where this new horsepower manifests in the OS.or pinch on a stack of photos to check them out. Same goes for every other application Apple has built for the phone that I had a chance to try, whether it's a book reader or a web browser.
It's an optical illusion, but just seeing the depth of pages makes the iBook app feel more like a book than a Kindle ever did for me. The text is sharp, and while the screen is bright, it doesn't seem to strains the eyes—but time will tell on that.
iPad Apple Forbes initial hands-on preview by Brian Caulfield January 29, 2010:
Touch the home button and it turns on. Immediately. Select an application and it starts. Instantly. If the 9.7-inch screen is what sets this apart from an iPod, less waiting is what sets the iPad apart from a netbook or a laptop. Less is more.
The software Apple has created for the iPad builds on these two qualities: speed and screen size. Open up the phone's iPad's photo application and you can instantly fill the screen with an image, swipe to the next picture, or pinch on a stack of photos to check them out. Same goes for every other application Apple has built for the phone that I had a chance to try, whether it's a book reader or a web browser.
Playing with this machine is like eating Doritos. It's hard to stop.
iPad Apple The New Adventures of Stephen Fry initial hands-on preview by Stephen Fry January 29, 2010:
There are many issues you could have with the iPad. ... no Flash. No camera, no GPS. They all fall away the minute you use it. I cannot emphasise enough this point: Hold your judgment until you’ve spent five minutes with it. No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address, no list of features can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects.
The moment you experience it in your hands you know this is class. This is a different order of experience. The speed, the responsiveness, the smooth glide of it, the richness and detail of the display, the heft in your hand, the rightness of the actions and gestures that you employ, untutored and instinctively, it’s not just a scaled up iPhone or a scaled-down multitouch enhanced laptop – it is a whole new kind of device. And it will change so much. Newspapers, magazines, literature, academic text books, brochures, fliers and pamphlets are going to be transformed (poor Kindle). Specific dedicated apps and enhancements will amaze us.
iPad Apple The New York Times initial hands-on preview by Nick Bilton January 29, 2010:
If we can put the advance hype aside for a moment, did Apple release a game-changing device in terms of hardware? No, not really — they released a big iPod touch... [but] if we take a step back and look at the software, Apple has released a game-changing device.
iPad Apple InfoWorld initial hands-on preview by Galen Gruman January 29, 2010:
Apple has just fired a death shot at the netbook. The new iPad could easily displace the netbook category, and I believe it will. Cheap laptops are at risk of extinction as well.
WIth an iPad, you get all the media goodness of an iPhone with the tools you need to do your day-to-day work in a box. Now it makes terrific sense why Apple has avoided netbooks and cheap laptops ... Apple was already planning to render them obsolete.
iPad means Google's planned Internet appliance based on the Chrome OS is already irrelevant. The Chrome OS vision is that you need a disk-less netbook to run apps via a browser in the cloud. The iPad vision is that you run apps locally and in the cloud; in addition, you can do all sorts of other cool things.
Google has shown little understanding of human needs outside of search algorithms... A stripped-down, Internet-required netbook is Google's vision -- that's taking "boring" and "compromised" to another level. The first indications of the iPad point to a device that's anything but boring.
iPad Apple PC Magazine initial hands-on preview by Tim Gideon January 29, 2010:
What this thing can do is mind-boggling. Running an OS similar to the current iPhone operating system and powered by a custom-designed Apple 1-GHz processor, the A4, the iPad is lightning-fast. The 1,024-by-768, 9.7-inch LED touch screen is as beautiful as you would imagine a sprawling iPhone display would be. New apps and games developed specifically for the iPad do amazing things with the additional screen real estate, but if you think it's just a toy, you're wrong.
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