The Apple iPad: A Review of the Features that Really Matter

April 5, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke

Last week, we published an article examining whether it was better to preorder the Apple iPad, prior to its April 3, 2010 release, or simply camp out in line with fellow technophiles and hope that your local Apple Store or Best Buy would have enough on-hand to satisfy the collective hunger of Apple fanatics. Well, in our case, Geek Shui Living was lucky to have an intrepid reporter, who braved the line of a local Best Buy store. We’ll just call him Hans in order to protect his anonymity. He’s uber-geeky but a bit of a recluse. What are his qualifications? Hans is the kind of guy who buys a new Apple product, without fail, on the day of its release. To put it in perspective, he changes iPhones, iMacs and Macbooks, more often than most people change the oil in their car.

In Hans’ case, there was a line of about 30 people, but, in his words, “It was nowhere near as dramatic an event as I had expected.” This time around, he only showed up about an hour before the store opened. Luckily for us, though, Hans was successful in grabbing the 64 GB model and was in and out in a matter of minutes. Being the insatiable gadget addict that he is, he rushed back to his basement lair and ripped it open for some hardcore benchmarking. What is his initial verdict on the iPad? How does he rate its features, and, most importantly, did it live up to the hype?

A screenshot of Hans' iPad proudly displaying the Geek Shui Living homepage.

Out of the Box Usability

Hans’ first order of business was to restore the iPad to its factory settings and reinstall the OS. He likes to start things from scratch. Traditionally, this applies to any computer or mobile computing device. Wipe it and reformat it. Things just seem to run more smoothly, from the start. Once he had restored it, he synced it to his iMac. The initial backup and sync were quick and free of errors. His first impression using it was that it ran quickly and smoothly. No blips, no hiccups, no bumps in the road.

The iPad Keyboard vs. iPhone Keyboard

Since he is a veteran iPhone user, Hans is used to the pros and cons of touch-swipe technology and the thumb-dominant keyboard. In using the iPad, one of the first things he noticed was how much easier to use the keyboard was. More importantly, he said that he was far less prone to typing “vreak” instead of “break”. He also was able to easily hit the space bar, instead of inserting an “N” between his words, as often happens on the iphone, for landscape, dual-thumb typists. For other veteran iPhone users, these are valuable improvements that may allay any fears they may have had regarding ease of use.

Battery Life

In Hans’ case, he punished the battery after first forcing it to drain completely and giving it a full charge. (Yes, you should always do that.) Initial testing, based on his browsing (He visits Gizmodo and related tech junkie sites around 25 times a day.), emailing (He relentlessly spams me with iPhone App suggestions and Twilight propaganda.), and other general habits (He wastes a lot of time.) yielded 12+ hours of usage. Adding the actual usage in, with standby time in between, and he estimated around 18 total hours. Now, we must clarify that he doesn’t use Twitter or any of the associated Twitter clients. Those who regularly do may not get quite the same performance.

The iBooks App

Hans knows how to read, so the iBooks thing was of interest to him. The first thing he appreciated was the ease and speed with which the books downloaded. He also appreciated the fact that there is a “Try Before You Buy” type option, which allows you to preview a book before actually forking over the cash. The other pros he found echo those you’ve already heard from numerous other reviews: good design, nice layout, easy to use, and just plain cool.

Netflix and Other Streaming Video Apps

To be honest Hans was undeterred upfront, by the lack of Adobe Flash support. Though he is an avid Hulu viewer on the iMac and Macbook Pro, he has adapted well to life without it on the iPhone and, now, on the iPad. His primary streaming vice is Netflix. Hans reported that Netflix, ABC and several other streaming video-related Apps that he tested ran smoothly and without any glitches that could be attributed to the iPad, its OS, or the underlying hardware. (Note: Hans would like his ISP to know, though, that he thinks very little of their bandwidth distribution.) Ultimately, Hans said he could easily see himself trading the WiFi model for the 3G iPad, in order to satisfy his video needs (no, not those kind) during his daily, hour-long commute.

The Final Verdict on the iPad

Hans’ comments included phrases like “fun to use,” “way faster OS than my iPhone 3GS,” and “way too cool.” In his estimation, there is just too much potential for the iPad’s use, as the number of available iPad-specific Apps continues to grow. In his words, as spoken directly at me, “Everyone, including penny pinchers like you, can easily find a use for the iPad that justifies the cost.”

He did admit that, despite being more than satisfied with the product and directing a low blow at my frugal spending habits, the price was a little steep. Regardless, Hans made it clear that he would gladly hand over his credit card again, just for a few more moments with his precious iPad.