Early iPad reviews reveal new facts

Apple's frequently preferred journalists provided their first early reviews of the iPad tonight and provided an almost uniformly positive outlook on the tablet, including some minor revelations about the device. Ed Baig of USA Today in his review called the iPad a "winner" and said that Apple had "pretty much nailed it" on the first try at the device. He also confirmed that most bestselling books will cost $13 at the iBookstore, although some will cost $10.

He noted that the 1.5-pound slate wasn't as comfortable to use for bedtime reading as the Kindle and revealed that Apple will have just a fraction of the books of Amazon's store on launch, at about 60,000 titles versus 450,000-plus at the older Kindle store. E-books do look "vastly superior" on the color LCD, however, and the iPad "spoils you" for games due to the size.

The New York Times' David Pogue summarized the iPad as "basically a gigantic iPod touch," but that this would have very different connotations depending on whether you were very technically experienced or a normal person. Very knowledgeable users will like the speed of the A4 chip, but will probably prefer a notebook they can get for "much less money;" regular users, however, should get a strong, unique experience that's unlike any computer.

"Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young," Pogue wrote. "They’re absolutely right."

He added that the iPad-specific section of the App Store should have about 1,000 titles on launch, and that battery life was surprisingly higher than Apple originally promised. The review unit mustered more than 12 hours of battery life with continuous video, the columnist wrote.

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg shared many of the same experiences, describing the processor as "wicked fast" and getting about 11.5 hours of video playback with active Wi-Fi and e-mail. He however compared it more directly to notebooks and found himself using his MacBook and ThinkPad about a fifth of the time he normally would, depending on them only for long writing assignments. The on-screen keyboard is more comfortable than a netbook's, according to Mossberg, but the official iPad case can help as it props up the iPad at a more natural angle for typing.

Surprising some who prefer e-paper, he noted that e-book reading didn't produce the expected eye strain, but that there's no way to add notes to books as on the Kindle. The upcoming WSJ iPad app also helps and is said to incorporate some of the print newspaper's feel while remaining "highly functional."

Mossberg was the most likely to provide app-specific criticism and warned that the iWork apps won't necessarily be ideal for cross-platform sharing. A Pages document exported to Word lost some formatting, and a PDF became unreadable. E-mail also had its limits, as there was still no way to create local folders, to make preset rules for sorting e-mail, or to send mail out to established groups. He added that the non-3G version's lack of assisted GPS might be a factor for some.

Still, of the three, Mossberg was the most confident in the direction of the iPad and even expected it to seriously alter expectations for computing.

"[The iPad] has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop," he said. "It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades."

By Electronista Staff