18 replies to this topic

[neilm]

Shame about Dropbox in China- I find it one of my most essential apps and it saves so much file duplication. iWorks Apps are nice but unless you use MobileMe and a Mac desktop they are very limited!

Let us know how the iPad 2 turns out! I did go to an Apple Store and look at one but decided it was not worth upgrading at present.

[Michael_Mcr]

Interesting post !

My wife bought an ipad last year - she is not techy at all, just wanted something to be able to web-surf in front of the telly and around the house. In that respect , the ipad is absolutely superb - instant on and quick access to the web via our wi-fi.

I have had a variety of laptops and currently have a Samsung Netbook, which is a great little all-rounder, but seems terribly complex alongside the ipad and i find myself increasing saying "where's your ipad - i need to look something up ?"
as laptops (and particularly netbooks) take so long to boot by comparison. Interestingly, the ipad has changed my view of mobile computing and my next purchase will be one extreme or the other - either an ipad and live with the ommisions OR go for a really, really expensive laptop with SSD for fast boot and blu-ray drive for watching films when travelling or cooped in a hotel. such a device would be so versatile that i could live with the increased boot time and increased bulk. I do like the new Sony Vaios - but they are £2000+ ....

I have had my HD2 for nearly 18months now, it replaced an Orbit 2 which in turn replaced my first smartphone - an XDA Orbit 1. I find the big screen is great for phone , texting and showing pictures off, but find the whole mobile web experience a bit tedious on smartphones of any size or speed. I use the web only when i really, really have to on the HD2 and all my bookmarked favourites are mobile freindly reference sites for footy scores, news, lottery etc.  I still use the sat-nav quite a bit on it and find the big screen usefull for google maps when i am lost.

I have to say that i am also considering whether i need such a big phone next time round - the Desire HD is the likely candidate if so, but i am going to check out phones with smaller screens too.

[The Guru]

Are you not considering the Sensation over the HD Mike?

[Michael_Mcr]

The Guru, on 16 April 2011 - 05:57 AM, said:

Are you not considering the Sensation over the HD Mike?

Yes - it is fabulous - but If the price is Maaaaad at upgrade time (end of May ) - then the Desire HD will fit the bill.

[novahob]

how ironic michael you've had the same phones as i have, orbit, orbit2 and currently HD2 i can upgrade in the middle of may and I iPhone too expensive, and wp7 doesn't have some things i need like sat nav, also i don't like being, it just doesn't feel right. like you I'm considering android now, after playing quiet a bit on the wifes desire. the sensation looks awesome, and hoping to hear good reviews. in terms of size the sensation is about the same size as HD2 so that suits me well, as i think the desire or desire S, is a little to small especially for browsing. just my view on things.

[The Guru]

Well no guarantees but I'm hoping that a Sensation review may well be on the cards.

[novahob]

can't wait

[marttin]

Yes, iWorks are quite useless without entire Apple "infrastructure" - my main system is Linux, and using Win7 only for OS upgrades of mobile devices through iTunes or Desktop Manager for Blackberries.
I use Pages mostly, and really enjoy it, for preparing short documents and exporting them into PDF. They really look nice.

We don't consider iPad 2 as an upgrade over original iPad but as a second tablet in the family. It was obvious we need one more, especially because kiddo and better half weekdays are down town - kiddo school too far from home.

Yesterday had the chance to play with both devices head-to-head (wife and kid went to Shanghai for Sun F1 competition   ). The original iPad we have is 16G WIFI+3G - more than enough for me, as I do not have any media files on it, only documents, and at most few large games for kiddo. Half of the 16Gs are unused.
iPad 2 is 32G WIFI+3G, and will be mostly used by kiddo and mom, which means lot of games, music and movies on it eventually.

The screen of iPad 2 looks much brighter and clearer - this feeling might be due to using different screen protectors. It feels lighter as well, but I do not find this as anything critical, at least to me. Head-to-head the new one with rounded edges looks nicer, but I found it very inconvenient to use. Really hard to find the buttons (sleep, volume and lock-orientation) and every time I need to press one of them found myself looking at the position (left or right side) of home button to know where should be the rest, and reach them. Never had such experience with original device.
Plugging the usb/charging cord to iPad 2 is pain. Due to the design every time must look at the port, and even then often the plug slides to the back few times before I get it right.

iPad 2 is much faster and snappy, handles much more applications in the background, and haven't noticed slowdowns. With the original one, especially when on iOS 4.3.1, opening few applications the device slows down, and even freezes sometime. On iOS 4.2.1 never had freezes, but have experienced slight slowdowns. With iPad 2 the only time I "get it" lot of applications are running in the background is when using browser with few tabs open - moving from one tab to another they start reloading every time, indicator memory needs cleaning.

Comparing browsers on both "machines" clearly iPad 2 wins - loads pages much faster. Our habit is to watch streaming movies via Safari browser, and with iPad 2 the experience is better. I guess due to upgraded RAM it is buffering more data and haven't had browser "holding" in the middle of the movie for downloading, which happens, not that often in fact, with original iPad.

At the moment can't say anything about differences with battery life. Both going through the day with heavy usage.

Personally I don't see any need to upgrade form iPad to iPad 2, and in our case it come not as such, but need of having second one in the family. This is from the point of much focused on trying to use the tablet more as a tool than multimedia device. Safari on iPad 2 loads pages faster, but do not feel this is critical for overall experience. The new "baby" will be used mostly by kiddo and wife (gaming, browsing, media), and will go through the iOS upgrades, at least for some time. With the original iPad planning to degrade to 4.2.1, and keep it there - it worked "as it should" on this version of the OS, and do have all the functionality I need.

[neilm]

Thanks for such a comprehensive side by side evaluation!

It's the first time I've seen a 'real world' user with both models do an objective comparison

I agree that in my very short experience with the ipad2 in the Apple Store I thought the edges were too thin, and the overall balance when being held was not as good.

Keep us posted about how you and your family get on with both in the longer term!