Apple's iPad - The AnandTech Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Vivek Gowri on April 7, 2010 9:39 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mac
- Apple
- iPad
- Mobile
Video Playback: Almost Perfect
The iPad supports hardware acceleration and playback of up to 720p H.264 Main Profile (L3.1) video content with AAC audio. It's pretty much guaranteed that you'll have to transcode anything you have to an iPad friendly format. With a fast enough desktop, this isn't an issue. Expect to dedicate anywhere from half an hour to a few hours to do it right on a fast machine depending on core and thread counts. While I never understood the appeal of watching movies on an iPhone, with the iPad I want all of my video content on there. The screen is big enough and looks great. Not to mention that battery life is way better than anything you'd get out of a netbook or notebook.
The problem is that the iPad's video playback support isn't universal. You do have to take that extra transcode step, which means you can't just copy your videos from your desktop or file server. This is one area where the incoming wave of Tegra 2 tablets and Microsoft Slate computers will undoubtedly hold an advantage. It's also an area that Apple will never improve in thanks to its close relationship to content providers.
Transcoding isn't the only way to get content onto the iPad. Websites or apps that use HTML5 video are also well supported. The ABC Player app is the perfect example of what could be done with the iPad. You have a standalone app that streams all of the shows you want to watch. There are obvious drawbacks (e.g. Limited episode selection) but the experience is great.
Castle via the ABC Player app
If you ever find yourself watching more TV on your desktop or laptop, then you'll love the iPad's potential here. I'm not a fan of selling things on the promise of a better future (e.g. PhysX), so keep in mind that today you can't do things like watch Hulu on the iPad. The only type of streaming video support is HTML5, not Flash. While a Hulu app is apparently in the works, it's not there now.
Will the iPad change the way you watch TV and movies today? No. Could it? Sure, but so could a TV that made me pancakes. Neither is ready yet or guaranteed.
A Giant iPod
There are very few things Apple makes that can't be used as an iPod, and they are mostly cables. The iPad has a great looking version of the iPod app from the iPhone. The larger interface actually works well if you've got a lot of music and cover art.
Playing music works as expected with some updated widgets on the interface (e.g. Volume control). It's a clean UI which is really a running theme on the iPad.
You can create genius playlists if you're horribly indecisive about music like me. The iPod app will look at your music and generate its own playlist based on as little as selecting one song you like. It's like a Pandora of your own music.
There's a headphone jack up top (but no Apple supplied ear buds) or you can rely on the iPad's two internal speakers. They don't sound terrible given their size, just don't go in with high expectations. They are enough for listening to music you work or surf.
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zodiacfml - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Another quality review, useful as trying the device myself.I'm not buying Apple products but you touched on features that it should have.
One is the ability to stand on its own to function as a picture frame, movie screen, and reader while someone is eating or something else.
Support for mouse device and keyboard when it can already stand on its own.
Support for uploading media such as video and photos from either flash cards or directly from cameras. it is such a good device to use with cameras.
one more thing, they could get the intel atom cpu once it gets to a smaller process to improve size and energy efficiency.
Spivonious - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Anand, I love your writing and have read the site since the GeoCities days, but please learn the difference between "lay" and "lie".crimson117 - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
My biggest pet peeve with the iPhone UI is the lack of an indicator for when an app is visible but busy processing something and not currently accessible.The default Notepad app on the iPhone 3G is a great example - as soon as you tap the icon, the yellow Notepad interface pops right up. However, it actually takes several seconds to finish loading until you can tap to edit a note or tap the (+) sign to start a new note. There's no indicator at all of when the loading is complete - you have to keep tapping periodically until it finally works.
The same is true for resizing a web page using multitouch - there's no indicator that your input has been received but it's going to take a few moments to make it happen.
In Windows 7 when an app is "thinking" and thus you can't interact with it, your mouse pointer becomes a a little circle (aka an hourglass). If an app is ever extremely busy thinking, the app may even gray out to indicate that even Windows can't get it to respond at that time.
The iPhone's lack of this feature just smells of Apple trying to make the device appear on the surface to be more responsive than it really is. Perhaps you'll question whether you tapped correctly, and won't realize that the device is just slower than you expect it to be.
archcommus - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
This article, like your others, despite being 22 (!) pages long, is a quick, refreshing read. It feels more like you're talking about your experiences and less like you're writing an article as a journalist (which can make some other long reviews a little boring). Also seemed pretty unbiased and highlighted the good and bad. Another solid article, thanks.Mumrik - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Hehe, this isn't a big deal - it's just amusing:"Although there's no mute button, holding the volume down rocker for 2 seconds mutes the device instantly."
Nope. Sounds to me like it takes about two seconds to mute the device :)
AstroGuardian - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Good one. My thought exactly...leospagnol - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
I'm planning to buy one of them when I travel to US next month. THe Eee 1001P is $ 280.00, and the iPad $499.00 at least. I usually read more than I write during classes and I have wifi available during class. I'll probably buy the Eee, but wich do you think suits this task best?Mumrik - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Imagine the iPad lying flat on your desk and then imagine the position you would have to sit in all lecture long if you wanted to be able to write.Then imagine how much of the time you'd have to look down at what you were writing because you didn't have the physical response of a keyboard to make touch typing easy.
Now imagine not being able to multitask.
It would not be a difficult choice for me - Anand said it himself - the iPad is generally not a laptop substitute.
videogames101 - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
I love the M3, great episode there.Good to know I can watch it on the iPad, lol.
AstroGuardian - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
As far as i remember, this was not mentioned in the review (the overheating problem):http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18075
Personally i don't think it's worth commenting. It's not just the iPad but all other electronic devices will overheat when put out on the sun. And i wouldn't call it overheating but more like misuse.