The Apple iPad 2 Review
by Brian Klug, Anand Lal Shimpi & Vivek Gowri on March 19, 2011 8:01 PM ESTHDMI Mirroring
With the iPad we complained that the A4 didn't seem to include any form of digital video output, only analog outputs were supported. The A5 and the iPad 2 both rectify that as Apple now offers a $39 Apple Digital AV adapter that gives you HDMI out directly from the iPad 2.
The Digital AV adapter is a bit clunky and I believe the future of this is clearly in some form of wireless transmission, but for now it plugs directly into the dock connector. Apple had the foresight to build in a second dock connector into the dongle so you can keep your iPad 2 charged while you're mirroring it's display.
With the adapter connected HDMI mirroring just works as you'd expect it to. There's no setting you have to enable, just plug it in to your display and you're good to go. The iPad desktop is upscaled to either fit your display or it'll appear as a box in the center of your panel.
I tried the AV adapter with three different displays: a 720p Pioneer plasma, a 1080p Samung LCD and a 1920 x 1200 Dell PC monitor. With the 720p and 1080p displays I got an upscaled box in the center of the screen
On the 1920 x 1200 Dell panel I got an upscaled image that took up the total height of the screen:
In all cases Apple maintains aspect ratio.
What about functionality? Everything you see on your iPad you see via the HDMI output. If the keyboard appears on your iPad it'll appear on your HDMI display. Personally, I would like to be able to have the iOS keyboard visible on the iPad 2 but not on the image sent over HDMI. Currently it's a pure clone setup...mostly.
If you try to play video while connected to an HDMI you won't get a mirror instead you'll see the video full screen on the external display. This is true for Apple's own video player app as well as 3rd party apps like Netflix. Note that while playing a video you will only see it on the external display, not both.
Audio is passed exclusively via HDMI as well, the internal speaker is shut off.
Battery life takes a significant hit with the HDMI output enabled. While you'll see that our typical usage tests can easily hit 10 hours, over HDMI you can expect battery life closer to 8 hours. It's still not bad but definitely a larger impact than I expected.
HDMI mirroring on the LG Optimus 2X
HDMI mirroring isn't exclusive to Apple, we first saw it appear on LG's Optimus 2X and later on other Tegra 2 devices. While HDMI mirroring turns your iPad into a portable Netflix machine, it also turns it into a semi-dockable PC. The limitations I mentioned earlier still exist. There's no mouse support and multitasking is a pain compared to a full blown PC, but this is just the first step. If all you've got a light usage model and just want a more ergonomic setup at your desk, there's no reason you can't connect to a standard HDMI display and use the iPad 2 as a glorified keyboard/pointing device.
What I would like to see going forward is support for some sort of a pointing cursor within iOS while connected via HDMI - only on the external screen. The same white circle that's used in Apple's demos would work just fine here.
The question I have to ask is whether tablets based on smartphone hardware and OSes are going to become powerful enough to double as portable PCs or are desktop OSes going to become lightweight and efficient enough to run on smartphone class tablet hardware? The latter seems to be Microsoft's strategy with Windows 8. Unify the software and allow it to run on all platforms, while the former is where Apple is presently headed with the iPad. It's clear to me that convergence between desktop and ultra mobile OSes will happen at some point, I'm just unsure which side will lead the merger.
Charging
The iPad 2 uses the same 10W USB wall charger in combination with a 30-pin dock-to-USB cable as the original iPad. The benefit here is any iPad/iPod/iPhone 30-pin dock cable will charge the device (assuming your USB port properly implements the battery charging spec). On the flip side, even with the 10W wall charger you're looking at ~ 4.5 hours to get a full charge on the device. Charging via the PC is even slower - it'll progress at roughly half the rate as you can get via the wall charger. Note that like the original iPad you'll need a USB port that implements the battery charging specification in order to charge from your PC/Mac. All of the new Mac notebooks seem to implement this spec (2010 MacBook Pro, 2011 MacBook Pro, 2010 MacBook Air) and had no problems charging the iPad 2.
The Xoom by comparison avoids this problem. The USB port on the Xoom is only used for syncing, there's a separate dedicated port for the wall charger. As a result you'll get a full charge on the Xoom in 3 hours.
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Mike1111 - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
Well, Anandtech is a site for geeks, but shouldn't you have at least mentioned how you think the iPad 2 could fit into the average person's life? People who don't "work" with PCs in their free time and who don't have a dedicated PC workflow?Some thoughts regarding the review:
- I thought the glass was supposed to be from Asahi Glass (Dragontrail)?
- Okay, the Xoom can't play videos with b-frames without problems. But what h.264 videos can the iPad 2 play? Same as iPad? More? High-profile? Blu-ray class h.264 videos?
- I wish you could have gone more in-depth regarding the A5. Why is it so big compared to the Tegra2? How efficient does it work? What kind of video decoder/encoder are used? etc.
Zebo - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
Nothin like the real things baby.....I have used a x201 tablet since April of 10 and it's the best investment I ever made. True outdoor viewable with upgraded outdoor IPS screen and 500 nits. true keyboard, true duel core processor, true work machine. I have ATT card to get internet and take it everywhere I go. I bet I travel more than Anand and it's the only way to fly.tcool93 - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
I don't even own the Ipad. Yet I do know for a fact there are at least two other browsers you can use with it besides Safari. The Atomic browser, and the Skyfire browser... both supporting tabs and supposedly are much better than Safari. Skyfire even has partial flash support, and viewing social network sites built in (twitter, facebook, etc). Both of those browsers have very good reviews also.secretmanofagent - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
I'm starting to play with iCab, but I don't have an iPad.dagamer34 - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
3rd party browsers unfortunately don't get the Javascript speedup built into iOS 4.3tipoo - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
The javascript engine is built into the browser. Of course they don't get the faster Safari engine, they aren't Safari. They use their own engines.name99 - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
Yes and no.The current iOS will no allow third party apps to create code on the fly, so those browsers will not be able to use JIT'ing, even if they wanted to write a sophisticated javascript engine.
On the other hand, Apple is well aware of the limitations of their current browser tech and are actively working on ways to run different parts of the browsing code in different processes (for both performance --- multi-threading, non-blocked UI --- and security reasons), on both OSX and iOS.
When this effort comes to fruition, who knows how much of the underlying tech (in particular, in this case the ability to create code on the fly, perhaps in some sandboxed fashion) will be made available to devs?
Zebo - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
You'll never even think about a slate tablet after that.10 hrs battery
all windows apps
plays games
IPS screen (with upgrade)
can use as HTPC when on road
can publish this site effortlessly
I doubt you'll use a another device besides your iphone
VivekGowri - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
And I could buy three iPads for the same price. It simply isn't a valid comparison for the same reason the MB Air, Asus Slate, and other $1000+ devices aren't; not in the same category, not even in the same price range. It's like saying that after driving a Mercedes S-class, you'll never think about driving a Lotus Elise or Porsche Boxster ever again - it's not really a useful or valid comparison to make.I don't doubt that the X220t is going to be an excellent, excellent device - fixes every problem I had with the X200/201t, goes back to the IPS display, and it's going to be pretty fast too. It looks pretty awesome, IMO. If I was in the market for a tablet PC (as opposed to a smartphone-based tablet), this and the ASUS Slate would be the only two I'd really look at - the ASUS is kind of like a cheaper version of the X220 except without the built-in keyboard.
snouter - Sunday, March 20, 2011 - link
But I left it on a plane. What did I replace it with? An 11" MacBook Air. Honestly, it's no comparison. The Air can do so many things that the iPad could not. Tablets will stick around and find niche applications in lots of places, but I'd keep my eye on the the super thin super light notebooks. BTW, the Air has a ULV Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz and will get Sandy Bridge in the next update. The processing power is far superior to the tablets and the netbooks. It's everything I wanted to do with my iPad, and it's a notebook when I need it to be. Main main work Laptop is still a 17" MacBook Pro, but none of these tablets, netbooks or ULV laptops are in competition with it. When the next Air comes out with a backlit keyboard and ULV Sandy Bridge, I'll be there.